Pope's awe and ardour are authentic, and
they prevail; the succeeding couplet--inimitably modulated, and of
tragic dignity--proves, without delay, the quality of the poem.
The poverty and coldness of the passage (towards the end), in which
the roses and the angels are somewhat trivially sung, cannot mar so
veritable an utterance. The four final couplets are the very glory
of the English couplet.
LINE ON RECEIVING HIS MOTHER'S PICTURE
Cowper, again, by the very directness of human feeling makes his
narrowing English a means of absolutely direct communication. Of
all his works (and this is my own mere and unshared opinion) this
single one deserves immortality.
LIFE
This fragment (the only fragment, properly so called, in the
present collection) so pleased Wordsworth that he wished he had
written the lines. They are very gently touched.
THE LAND OF DREAMS
When Blake writes of sleep and dreams he writes under the very
influence of the hours of sleep--with a waking consciousness of the
wilder emotion of the dream. Corot painted so, when at summer dawn
he went out and saw landscape in the hours of sleep.
SURPRISED BY JOY
It is not necessary to write notes on Wordsworth's sonnets--the
greatest sonnets in our literature; but it would be well to warn
editors how they print this one sonnet; "I wished to share the
transport" is by no means an uncommon reading.
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