The loud, apt epithet, applying sure;
The dim-drawn image, artfully obscure;
The perfect stanza, framed of words as choice
And round as pearls, yet liquid to the voice;
A pith of phrase, and musical array
Of numbers;-these are the prime charms of Gray.
The naked majesty and open wonder
Of true sublimity heaped in lines of thunder;
That artless grace wherewith the olden time
Dandled the happy infancy of Rhyme;
That negligent melody which shames the trick
Of wire-drawn verse, and verse-drawn rhetoric:
These in our rich old Bards abound; but these
To Gray were literary heresies.
(Charles Harpur)
More Poetry from Charles Harpur:
Charles Harpur Poems based on Topics: Happiness, Perfection, Rhetoric- A Hunter's Indian Dove (Charles Harpur Poems)
- A Love Fancy (Charles Harpur Poems)
- Fragments from 'Genius Lost' (Charles Harpur Poems)
- The Creek of the Four Graves [Late Version] (Charles Harpur Poems)
- The Creek of the Four Graves [Early Version] (Charles Harpur Poems)
- Ned Connor (Charles Harpur Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Happiness Poems, Perfection Poems, Rhetoric PoemsBased on Keywords: sublimity, heresies, literary, dandled, epithet, negligent, artfully, applying