as, say:

Oft. In the stilly night,
Ere slumber's chain has bound me,
Fond memory brings the light
Of other days around me,

may be so elusive as to deceive many people that it does not exist, but it
is the difference between the rarest of all energies and a common enough
sensibility.



LYRIC FORMS


While, therefore, the term "lyric poetry" would in itself seem to be
tautological, and so to speak of lyric forms is, strictly, to speak of
all poetic forms, there are nevertheless certain more or less defined
characteristics of form that we usually connect in our mind with what we
call "a lyric" (or, even less exactly, "lyric poetry") which may be said to
be a poem where the pure poetic energy is not notably associated with other
energies--with a partial exception to which reference will be made. In
examining these characteristics nothing will be attempted in the way of a
history or an inclusive consideration of particular forms which are known
as lyric, but only, as far as may be, an analysis of their governing
principles.

To say that a lyric (using the word henceforward in its particular sense)
is generally short is but to say that poetic tension can only be sustained