ENGLISH EPIC AND HEROIC POETRY.
English Epic and Heroic Poetry. By W. Macneile Dixon (J. M. Dent. 5s. net.)—From Beowulf to Matthew Arnold, Professor Dixon treats of our epic and narrative poems with judgment and knowledge. We are grieved but scarcely surprised to learn that Pope achieved perfect expression "through choice of subject, and adequate handling of the subject, not through inherent poetic power." We venture to ask whether Professor Dixon has read this line:— "From happy convents bosomed deep in vines."
Is its author really "not a poet, if poetry be the language of the spirit," but simply " a man of extreme intelligence employing verse with consummate dexterity upon social subjects "? We notice that Professor Dixon has no mention of Erasmus Darwin's " Loves of the Plants," or of its far more remarkable parody by Hookham Frere, " The Loves of the Triangles."
Previous page
