--Could these
exquisitely pondered buildings have been indeed works of the
nineteenth century? Were they not the subtlest creations of the age
in which Gothic art was spontaneous? In truth, we have had instances
of workmen, who, through long, large, [108] devoted study of the
handiwork of the past, have done the thing better, with a more fully
enlightened consciousness, with full intelligence of what those early
workmen only guessed at. And something like this is true of some of
our best secondary poetry. It is the least that is true--the least
that can fairly be said in praise of the poetic work of Mr. Edmund
Gosse.
Of course there can be no exact parallel between arts so different as
architecture and poetic composition: But certainly in the poetry of
our day also, though it has been in some instances powerfully
initiative and original, there is great scholarship, a large
comparative acquaintance with the poetic methods of earlier workmen,
and a very subtle intelligence of their charm. Of that fine
scholarship in this matter there is no truer example than Mr. Gosse.
It is manifested especially in the even finish of his varied work, in
the equality of his level--a high level--in species of composition so
varied as the three specimens which follow.
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