By A.--Fellowes,
Ludgate-street.--1849.
If any one quality may be considered common to all living poets, it
is that which we have heard aptly described as _self-consciousness_.
In this many appear to see the only permanent trace of the now old
usurping deluge of Byronism; but it is truly a fact of the
time,--less a characteristic than a portion of it. Every species of
composition--the dramatic, the narrative, the lyric, the didactic,
the descriptive--is imbued with this spirit; and the reader may
calculate with almost equal certainty on becoming acquainted with the
belief of a poet as of a theologian or a moralist. Of the evils
resulting from the practice, the most annoying and the worst is that
some of the lesser poets, and all mere pretenders, in their desire to
emulate the really great, feel themselves under a kind of obligation
to assume opinions, vague, incongruous, or exaggerated, often not
only not their own, but the direct reverse of their own,--a kind of
meanness that has replaced, and goes far to compensate for, the
flatteries of our literary ancestors. On the other hand, this quality
has created a new tie of interest between the author and his public,
enhances the significance of great works, and confers value on even
the slightest productions of a true poet.
That the systematic infusion of this spirit into the drama and epic
compositions is incompatible with strict notions of art will scarcely
be disputed: but such a general objection does not apply in the case
of lyric poetry, where even the character of the subject is optional.
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