Thus we have rhythm expressing the poetic emotion, or intensity of
perception, and words expressing the thing that is intensely perceived; so,
as the creed of the mystics shows us beauty born of the exact fusion of
thought with feeling, of perfect correspondence of the strictly chosen
words to the rhythmic movement is born the complete form of poetry.
And when this perfect correspondence occurs unaccompanied by any other
energy--save, perhaps, the co-ordinating energy of which I have spoken--we
have pure poetry and what is commonly in our minds when we think of lyric.
If it be objected that some of my illustrations, that speech of Caliban's
for example, are taken from "dramatic poetry" and not from "lyric poetry,"
my answer is that it is impossible to discover any essential difference
between those lines and any authentic poem that is known as "a lyric." The
kind of difference that there is can be found also between any two
lyrics; it is accidental, resulting from difference of personality and
subject-matter, and the essential poetic intensity, which is the thing that
concerns us, is of the same nature in both cases.
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