When we think to grasp it, we already hear it
singing just beyond us. It is the imagination which enables the poet to
give away his own consciousness in dramatic poetry to his characters, in
narrative to his language, so that they react upon us with the same
original force as if they had life in themselves.
II. STYLE AND MANNER
Where Milton's style is fine it is _very_ fine, but it is always liable
to the danger of degenerating into mannerism. Nay, where the imagination
is absent and the artifice remains, as in some of the theological
discussions in "Paradise Lost," it becomes mannerism of the most
wearisome kind. Accordingly, he is easily parodied and easily imitated.
Philips, in his "Splendid Shilling," has caught the trick exactly:
Not blacker tube nor of a shorter size
Smokes Cambrobriton (versed in pedigree,
Sprung from Cadwallader and Arthur, kings
Full famous in romantic tale) when he,
O'er many a craggy hill and barren cliff,
Upon a cargo of famed Cestrian cheese
High overshadowing rides, with a design
To vend his wares or at the Arvonian mart.
Or Maridunum, or the ancient town
Yclept Brechinia, or where Vaga's stream
Encircles Ariconium, fruitful soil.
Philips has caught, I say, Milton's trick; his real secret he could
never divine, for where Milton is best, he is incomparable.
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