“The objections which have been made to the style of
Madoc are ill-founded. It
has no other peculiarity than that of being pure English, which, unhappily, in
these times renders it peculiar. My rule of writing, whether for prose or
verse, is the same, and may very shortly be stated. It is, to express myself,
1st, as perspicuously as possible; 2nd, as concisely as possible; 3rd, as
impressively as possible. This is the way to be understood, and felt, and
remembered. But there is an obtuseness of heart and understanding, which it is
impossible to reach; and if you have seen the reviewals of Madoc, after having read the poem, you will perceive that almost in
every part or passage which they have selected for censure, they have missed
the meaning. For instance, the
| 276 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 36. |
“Now, as for the speech itself. If —— had not good feeling enough in his nature to feel its dramatic truth and fitness in that place, it is his misfortune; but that particular expression would, to any person who reflected upon its meaning with a moment’s due attention, give it peculiar force; for in that state of society, most of the king’s children were by different mothers. Of course, when Madoc addressed his sister as his mother’s child, more affecting remembrances and more love were implied in that single expression, than a whole speech could convey with equal expressiveness. The Eclectic ridicules ‘Wilt thou come hither, prince, and let me feel thy face?’† I am utterly ignorant of the nature and essence of poetry, if that be not one of the finest scenes that I have ever been able to produce.
“The metre has been criticised with equal incapacity on the port of the critics. Milton and Shakspeare are the standards of blank verse: in these writers every variety of it is to be found, and by this standard I desire to be measured. The redundant verses (when the redundant syllable is anywhere but “
† Madoc, Part I. Section 3. This passage is too long for extraction here. |
| Ætat. 36. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 277 |
“You appreciate the story with true judgment, and have laid your finger upon the faulty parts. This it is to have the inborn feeling of a poet. Of the language you are not so good a judge, because you have not mastered the art, and are not well read in the poets of Shakspeare’s age. You cannot read Shakspeare, Spenser, Milton, and the Elizabethan dramatists too much. There is no danger of catching their faults.
