Coventry Patmore used the octosyllabic stanza perfectly, inasmuch as he
never left it either heavily or thinly packed. Moreover those first
poems had a composure which was the prelude to the peace of the Odes. And
even in his slightest work he proves himself the master--that is, the
owner--of words that, owned by him, are unprofaned, are as though they
had never been profaned; the capturer of an art so quick and close that
it is the voice less of a poet than of the very Muse.
INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE
I shall not ask the commentators whether Blake used these two words in
union or in antithesis. They assuredly have an inseverable union in the
art of literature. The songs of Innocence and Experience are for each
poet the songs of his own separate heart and life; but to take the
cumulative experiences of other men, and to use these in place of the
virginal fruit of thought--whereas one would hardly consent to take them
for ordering even the most habitual of daily affairs--is to forego
Innocence and Experience at once and together. Obviously, Experience can
be nothing except personal and separate; and Innocence of a singularly
solitary quality is his who does not dip his hands into other men's
histories, and does not give to his own word the common sanction of other
men's summaries and conclusions.
Pages:
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88