text,updated_at,metaphor,created_at,context,theme,reviewed_on,dictionary,comments,provenance,id,work_id
"We observed likewise, that an EXEMPTION from the RULES and RESTRAINTS of Criticism, contributed greatly to the more remarkable display of original Poetic Genius in the first ages of society. Every species of original Genius delights to range at liberty, and especially original Poetic Genius, which abhors the fetters of Criticism, claims the privilege of the freeborn sons of Nature, and never relinquishes it without the utmost regret. This noble talent knows no law, and acknowledges none in the uncultivated ages of the world, excepting its own spontaneous impulse, which it obeys without control, and without any dread of the censure of Critics. The truth is, Criticism was never formed into a system, till Aristotle, that penetrating, and (to use an expression by which Voltaire characterises Mr Locke ) ""methodical Genius"" arose, who deduced his Poetics, not from his own imagination, but from his accurate observations on the Works of Homer, Sophocles, Æschylus, and Euripides. Let us observe the probable and natural effects which a strict adherence to the rules of Criticism will have on original Genius in Poetry. One obvious effect of it is, that it confines the attention to artificial rules, and ties the mind down to the observance of them, perhaps at the very time that the imagination is upon the stretch, and grasping at some idea astonishingly great, which however it is obliged, though with the utmost reluctance, to quit, being intimidated by the apprehention of incurring censure. By this means, the irregular but noble boldness of Fancy is checked, the divine and impetuous ardor of Genius is, we do not say extinguished, but in a great measure suppressed, and many shining excellencies sacrificed to justness of design, and regular uniformity of execution.
(pp. 282-4)",2013-07-01 18:38:27 UTC,"""One obvious effect of it is, that it confines the attention to artificial rules, and ties the mind down to the observance of them, perhaps at the very time that the imagination is upon the stretch, and grasping at some idea astonishingly great, which however it is obliged, though with the utmost reluctance, to quit, being intimidated by the apprehention of incurring censure.""",2013-07-01 18:38:11 UTC,"","",,Fetters,"",C-H Lion,21397,7498
"All cold the hand, that soothed Woe's weary head!
And quench'd the eye, the pitying tear that shed!
And mute the voice, whose pleasing accents stole,
Infusing balm, into the rankled soul!
O Death, why arm with cruelty thy power,
And spare the idle weed, yet lop the flower!
Why fly thy shafts in lawless error driven!
Is Virtue then no more the care of Heaven!---
But peace, bold thought! be still my bursting heart!
We, not Eliza, felt the fatal dart.
Scaped the dark dungeon does the slave complain,
Nor bless the hand that broke the galling chain?
Say, pines not Virtue for the lingering morn,
On this dark wild condemn'd to roam forlorn?
Where Reason's meteor-rays, with sickly glow,
O'er the dun gloom a dreadful glimmering throw?
Disclosing dubious to th' affrighted eye
O'erwhelming mountains tottering from on high,
Black billowy seas in storm perpetual toss'd,
And weary ways in wildering labyrinths lost.
O happy stroke, that bursts the bonds of clay,
Darts through the rending gloom the blaze of day,
And wings the soul with boundless flight to soar,
Where dangers threat, and fears alarm no more.
(p. 51, ll. 63-85)",2014-03-10 22:02:26 UTC,"""O happy stroke, that bursts the bonds of clay, / Darts through the rending gloom the blaze of day, / And wings the soul with boundless flight to soar, / Where dangers threat, and fears alarm no more.""",2013-07-02 15:59:15 UTC,"","",,"","",C-H Lion (Poetry); confirmed in ECCO.,21418,7501