to classify poets on any satisfactory principle.
Every good poet is a class by himself. But if the attempt must be made,
one may say that the author of "London Lyrics" belongs to that school of
which the other chief representatives, in English or American literature,
have been Praed, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Mr Austin Dobson. It has
always been the fashion to class him with the first named of the trio as
a writer of "occasional verse" or "vers de societe." These titles, like
other parts of the nomenclature of the poetic art, are not satisfying.
Why "smoothly written verse, where a boudoir decorum is or ought always
to be preserved: where sentiment never surges into passion, and where
humour never overflows into boisterous merriment" should be
conventionally called "society verse," or "occasional verse," is not very
clear. To write "society verse" is to be the laureate of the cultured,
leisured, pleasure-loving upper classes; but some poets satisfy the above
requirements--Locker himself included--yet certainly do not write
exclusively of or for "Society." Then again, what is "occasional"?
Many serious poems are inspired by the transient occasion. But we are
not, presumably, to class "Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints" among
occasional pieces, nor is Wordsworth's sonnet on London at dawn to be
called occasional; yet the source of it, the fact that the poet happened
to be upon Westminster Bridge in the early morning, was transient, not
(apparently) inherent in the nature of things. However, these names must
be accepted as we find them. Here is Locker's own law: "Occasional
verse," he says, "should be short, graceful, refined, and fanciful, not
seldom distinguished by chastened sentiment, and often playful. The tone
should not be pitched high: it should be terse and idiomatic, and rather
in the conversational key; the rhythm should be crisp and sparkling, and
the rhyme frequent and never forced, while the entire poem should be
marked by tasteful moderation, high finish, and completeness: for,
however trivial the subject-matter may be, indeed, rather in proportion
to its triviality, subordination to the rules of composition, and
perfection of execution, are of the utmost importance." Among the
enviable versifiers who can satisfy these requirements Praed and Locker
both hold a high place. Praed, indeed, is the chief among writers of
"vers de societe," for not only does his manner conform to the laws laid
down