Conversations On Some of the Old Poets

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THIRD CONVERSATION. THE OLD DRAMATISTS. JOHN. I Believe it was Dr. Johnson (surely, it was no poet) who first said that all good poetry could be translated into as good prose. It is plain that he saw no distinction between the two, except in the metre and rhyme. I should judge so, at least, from his own verses. PHILIP. He meant that all poetry must be translatable into " common sense," that popular altar upon whose horns dulness and prejudice are so ready to cling. But how is Pegasus better than a dray-horse, with this market- cart trundling behind him? Doubtless, some of the truest poetry has been written without either rhyme or metre; but it has lacked one of its highest adornments, and one which the most poetical thoughts demand. Metre and rhyme are wings to the artist, and crutches to the artificer; th