And lyric being pure
poetry, and most commonly found in isolation in the short poems which are
called lyrics, these will make the widest appeal of all the forms in which
poetry is found. For while sympathy with the poetic energy is almost
universal, sympathy with most other great energies is relatively rare.
The reason, for example, why twenty people will enjoy Wordsworth's
_Reaper_ for one who will enjoy _Paradise Lost_, is not because
_Paradise Lost_ is longer, but because it demands for its full
appreciation not only, in common with _The Reaper_, a sympathy with
the poetic energy, which it would obtain readily enough, but also a
sympathy with that other energy of intellectual control which has been
discussed. This energy being, though profoundly significant, yet far less
so than the poetic energy, the response to it is far less general, and many
readers of _Paradise Lost_ will find in it not only poetry, which they
desire but faintly, while in _The Reaper_ they will find poetry as
nearly isolated from all other energies as it can be.
CONCLUSION
To summarise our argument, we find that poetry is the result of the
intensest emotional activity attainable by man focusing itself upon some
manifestation of life, and experiencing that manifestation completely; that
the emotion of poetry expresses itself in rhythm and that the significance
of the subject-matter is realised by the intellectual choice of the perfect
word.
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