but he must also have a power of instrumentation; the poet must feel the
truth, or he is no poet, but he must also have power to express what he
feels in such forms as will create a similar feeling in his readers, or
he is still no poet. Multitudes of women send to the newspapers poetical
effusions which, are not poems. The feeling of the writer is excellent,
but the expression is bad. The writer has seen, but she cannot tell what
she has seen; she has felt, but she cannot express her experience so as
to enkindle a like experience in others. These poetical utterances of
inarticulate poets are sometimes whimsical but oftener pathetic;
sometimes they are like the prattle of little children who exercise
their vocal organs before they have anything to say; but oftener they
seem to me like the beseeching eyes of a dumb animal, full of affection
and entreaty for which he has no vocal expression. It is just as
essential that poetical feeling should have poetical expression in order
to constitute poetry as it is that musical feeling should have musical
expression in order to constitute music. And, on the other hand, as
splashes of color without artistic feeling which they interpret are not
art, as musical, sounds without musical feeling which they interpret are
not music, so poetical forms without poetical feeling are not poetry.
Poetical feeling in unpoetical forms may be poetical prose, but it is
still prose. And on the other hand, rhymes, however musical they may be
to the ear, are only rhymes, not poetry, unless they express a true
poetical life.

But these two elements are separable only in thought, not in reality.
Poetry is not common thought expressed in an uncommon manner; it is not
an artificial phrasing of even the higher emotions. The higher emotions
have a phrasing of their own; they fall naturally--whether as the result
of instinct or of habit need not here be considered--into fitting forms.
The form may be rhyme; it may be blank verse; it may be the old Hebrew