“The most generous of critics, if he is to be discriminating and just, cannot, let me say again, allow that any verse which is profoundly obscure or utterly unmusical, no matter how intellectual in substance, deserves the appellation of poetry. But on a very thin thread of meaning poetry, or a very fair imitation of it, may be hung by the aid of musical sound.”
Source: The Bridling of Pegasus (1910), "The Essentials of Great Poetry", p. 7.
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Alfred Austin 56
British writer and poet 1835–1913Related quotes
The Dyer's Hand (1955), in the BBC weekly The Listener (30 June 1955)
"The Autobiography of Sir William Topaz McGonagall", published in the Weekly News
McGonagall's "knighthood" was an honorary one conferred on him by King Theebaw of the Andaman Islands: "Knight of the White Elephant of Burmah".
Other works
Recreation (1919)
Context: There is much poetry for which most of us do not care, but with a little trouble when we are young we may find one or two poets whose poetry, if we get to know it well, will mean very much to us and become part of ourselves... The love for such poetry which comes to us when we are young will not disappear as we get older; it will remain in us, becoming an intimate part of our own being, and will be an assured source of strength, consolation, and delight.
The Art of Poetry - interview 1995 with Downing & Kunitz
“Sound poetry is a fusion of music and literature.”
The Origin of Happenings (1976)
Variant: Concrete poetry is a fusion of visual art and poetry.
1810s, Letter to Robert J. Evans (1819)
Henry Purcell, Edward Taylor (1843) in "Introduction" to, King Arthur: an opera in 5 acts, written by John Dryden. p. 3; Introduction; Cited in: James Anthony Froude, John Tulloch (1852), Fraser's Magazine, Vol. 45, p. 198
John MacQueen, in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography vol. 26, s. n. Henryson, Robert.
Criticism