There is enough good criticism in the Shakespeare lectures and in
the "English Novel", in the prefaces of the boy's books and in his letters,
to make a volume of interest and importance. Suppose we cease
to think of the first two as formal treatises on the subjects they discuss,
and rather select from them such passages as the discussion of personality,
the relation of music, science, and the novel, the criticism of Whitman's
theory of art, the discussion of the relation of morals to art,
the best passages on Anglo-Saxon poetry and the Elizabethan sonneteers,
and the finer passages on Shakespeare's growth as a man and as a dramatist.
Such a volume would, I believe, confirm one in the opinion
that Lanier belongs by right among the best American critics.
Certainly, the "Science of English Verse" entitles him to that distinction.
About 1875 Lanier became interested in the formal side of poetry
and projected a work on a scientific basis. It was natural
that one who had so much reverence for science and who had studied
the "physics of music", should apply the scientific method
to the study of poetry. He knew that the science of versification
was not the most important phase of poetry: in the preface,
as in the epilogue, to the "Science of English Verse",
he makes clear that "for the artist in verse there is no law:
the perception and love of beauty constitute the whole outfit."
In many other passages in his writings may be seen his view
of the moral significance of poetry.
Pages:
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312