But he enriched it only by the natural expansion and
exhilaration of which it was conscious, in yielding to the mastery of a
genius that could turn and wind it like a fiery Pegasus, making it feel
its life in every limb. He enriched it through that exquisite sense of
music, (never approached but by Marlowe,) to which it seemed eagerly
obedient, as if every word said to him,
"_Bid me_ discourse, I will enchant thine ear,"--
as if every latent harmony revealed itself to him as the gold to Brahma,
when he walked over the earth where it was hidden, crying, "Here am I,
Lord! do with me what thou wilt!" That he used language with that
intimate possession of its meaning possible only to the most vivid
thought is doubtless true; but that he wantonly strained it from its
ordinary sense, that he found it too poor for his necessities, and
accordingly coined new phrases, or that, from haste or carelessness, he
violated any of its received proprieties, I do not believe. I have said
that it was fortunate for him that he came upon an age when our language
was at its best; but it was fortunate also for us, because our costliest
poetic phrase is put beyond reach of decay in the gleaming precipitate in
which it united itself with his thought.
Pages:
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245