FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151  
152   153   154   155   156   157   >>  
do with perceptible things; perceptible things must be objects of sense, and the mind which dwells on objects of sense must _ipso facto_ be a mind of the sensuous order. But the mind which is mainly sensuous by direct action may also work by reflex action, and pass from sensuousness into sentiment. It cannot fairly be denied that Keats's mind continually did this; it had direct action potently, and reflex action amply. He saw so far and so keenly into the sensuous as to be penetrated with the sentiment which, to a healthy and large nature, is its inseparable outcome. We might say that, if the sensuous was his atmosphere, the breathing apparatus with which he respired it was sentiment. In his best work--for instance, in all the great odes--the two things are so intimately combined that the reader can only savour the sensuous nucleus through the sentiment, its medium or vehicle. One of the most compendious and elegant phrases in which the genius of Keats has been defined is that of Leigh Hunt: "He never beheld an oak tree without seeing the Dryad." In immediate meaning Hunt glances here at the mythical sympathy or personifying imagination of the poet; but, if we accept the phrase as applying to the sensuous object-painting, along with its ideal aroma or suggestion in his finest work, we shall still find it full of right significance. We need not dwell upon other less mature performances in which the two things are less closely interfused. Certainly some of his work is merely, and some even crudely, sensuous: but this is work in which the poet was trying his materials and his powers, and rising towards mastery of his real faculty and ultimate function. While discriminating between what was excellent in Keats, and what was not excellent, or was merely tentative in the direction of final excellence, we must not confuse endowments, or the homage which is due to endowments, of a radically different order. Many readers, and there have been among them several men highly qualified to pronounce, have set Keats beside his great contemporary Shelley, and indeed above him. I cannot do this. To me it seems that the primary gift of Shelley, the spirit in which he exercised it, the objects upon which he exercised it, the detail and the sum of his achievement, the actual produce in appraisable work done, the influence and energy of the work in the future, were all superior to those of Keats, and even superior beyond any reasonable term
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151  
152   153   154   155   156   157   >>  



Top keywords:
sensuous
 

sentiment

 

action

 
things
 

objects

 

perceptible

 

excellent

 

Shelley

 

endowments

 

reflex


direct

 
superior
 

exercised

 
direction
 
tentative
 

discriminating

 

confuse

 

excellence

 

rising

 

Certainly


crudely

 

interfused

 

closely

 

mature

 

performances

 
materials
 

powers

 

faculty

 

ultimate

 

mastery


significance

 

function

 
highly
 

achievement

 

actual

 

produce

 

detail

 

spirit

 

primary

 

appraisable


reasonable
 
influence
 

energy

 

future

 

readers

 
radically
 

qualified

 
contemporary
 
pronounce
 

homage