*6* Lanier's `The Crystal', ll. 90-93.
*7* Browning's `Asolando': Epilogue, ll. 11-15.
--

Perhaps I may append here a paragraph upon Lanier's criticisms
of other writers, for they seem to me acute in the extreme.
Despite the elaborate essays in defence of Whitman's poetry
by Dowden,*1* Symonds,*2* and Whitman himself, I believe Lanier is right
in declaring that "Whitman is poetry's butcher. Huge raw collops
slashed from the rump of poetry and never mind gristle --
is what Whitman feeds our souls with. As near as I can make it out,
Whitman's argument seems to be, that, because a prairie is wide,
therefore debauchery is admirable, and because the Mississippi is long,
therefore every American is God."*3* Notice, again, how well
the defect of `Paradise Lost' is pointed out:

"And I forgive
Thee, Milton, those thy comic-dreadful wars
Where, armed with gross and inconclusive steel,
Immortals smite immortals mortalwise
And fill all heaven with folly."*4*

Few better things have been said of Langland than this, --

"That with but a touch
Of art hadst sung Piers Plowman to the top
Of English songs, whereof 'tis dearest, now
And most adorable;"*5*

or of Emerson than this, --