hatic manner.[B] Poetry is not simply a fashion of
expression: it is the form of expression absolutely required by a
certain class of ideas. Poetry, indeed, may be distinguished from Prose
by the single circumstance, that it is the utterance of whatever in man
cannot be perfectly uttered in any other than a rhythmical form: it is
useless to say that the naked meaning is independent of the form: on the
contrary, the form contributes essentially to the fullness of the
meaning. In Poetry which endures through its own inherent vitality,
there is no forced union of these two elements. They are as intimately
blended, and with the same mysterious beauty, as the sexes in the
ancient Hermaphroditus. To attempt to represent Poetry in Prose, is very
much like attempting to translate music into speech.[C]

[A] "'There are two maxims of translation,' says he: 'the one requires
that the author, of a foreign nation, be brought to us in such a manner
that we may regard him as our own; the other, on the contrary, demands
of us that we transport ourselves over to him, and adopt his situation,
his mode of speaking, and his peculiarities. The advantages of both are
sufficiently known to all instructed persons, from masterly examples.'"
Is it necessary, however, that there should always be this alternative?
Where the languages are kindred, and equally capable of all varieties of
metrical expression, may not both these "maxims" be observed in the same
translation? Goethe, it is true, was of the opinion that _Faust_ ought
to be given, in French, in the manner of Clement Marot; but this was
undoubtedly because he felt the inadequacy of modern French to express
the naive, simple realism of many passages. The same objection does not
apply to English. There are a few archaic expressions in _Faust_, but no
more than are still allowed--nay, frequently encouraged--in the English
of our day.

[B] "You are right," said Goethe; "there are great and mysterious
agencies included in the various forms of Poetry. If the substance of my
'Roman Elegies' were to be expressed in the tone and measure of Byron's
'Don Juan,' it would really have an atrocious effect."--_Eckermann_.

"The rhythm," said Goethe, "is an unconscious result of the poetic mood.
If one should stop to consider it mechanically, when about to write a
poem, one would become bewildered and accomplish nothing of real
poetical value."--_Ibid_.

"_All that is poetic in character should be rythm