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Show IAWSI-D'SABLE QUALITIES OF LYMCALroErnr. Wliat are the qualities which go to male the wicctss of lyrical jocm-that jocm-that lnd of Micros Hlitth Is mcaiurnl, not ly the cold bj-proval bj-proval of a feir cultured au'l critical nai.'era, but ly tlie answering fym paUiyandtmotion of tlie heart of .mankind gcnerall.? Trobably wc MiouUcoulIuJc that Uicflrtt mdbs-peusaLle mdbs-peusaLle quality la tliat of musical rhvthm and beauty of versification. Not, of course, that this in tliu supreme su-preme attainment or llio main end of lyrical ltrj ; but it is that without with-out which all other qualities !nuch poetry are thrown away, and which is absolutely iudispcnsable to any competition which would la-c ran-s ran-s lyrical ixx-try which, without being set to muic, In itself implies and suggests musical cadence. Tills liistcondit'on granted, that the form be perfect, we require that this form tliould contain a thought or a narrative of Intrinsic significance signifi-cance or Interest; a tliought, if the C)em bs a lyrical poem of the rellec-vo rellec-vo or subjective order; or a narrative, nar-rative, if it be of that class of objective ob-jective lyrical poems vi hlcli are by common consent defined under the name '-taHad." If it be said tliat this Is 1-ttIng the greater after the less, It may be replied that, In Browning's phra.e, e are made so-' tliat a lytic which hss beauty and entrain of versification to recommend re-commend It to tho car will, for a tiniest least, trive nlcasure to thous and", even where tho thought Is of the Uiincsl; while the thought will not make its way, even for the moment, mo-ment, to popular sympathy, if rloced by half h or halting versification. versifi-cation. i ue third ludUpcn'able quality of lyric pot-try Is coDcentrntion; that .-estrve ..f expression w hlch springs rom tlie perception, only to be found among themost perfect artUts in lwtry, that all passages which do uoi disil-ctiy uiu in giving force to the caprcsslon of tlie thought or the narrative all which are not necessary, neces-sary, in fact, to 1U full development, .ire" not merely negatively but posl-li(ly posl-li(ly injurious to the poeni as a drhole. Few, indeed, are the long lyrical poems which have met with any general acceptance from the orlJ. Tlie ballaJ, of course, will ear, aud even demand, greater length of detelorment than the sub-jtctive sub-jtctive lyric; Lut even here the multiplication of detail aud tho ad-ulfsiuu ad-ulfsiuu of supeifluous vexws tell nevitably against the unity and orce of the jocm, as we oliened hen speaking, tome lime since, of Rosselti's remarkable ballad, "The rCing'a Tragedy," a poem which nly uiUed rfcctlon, in its type, h rough a fatal redundancy entirely out of keeping with tlie proper proportions pro-portions of a ballad narrative. Among lyric poems of the sul ject-ivcordrr ject-ivcordrr oue of the finest that could be named in regard to form.thought, aud concentration is Wordsworth's little px-m written "when the death jf ilr. Fox was hourly txpected;"a (ocm embodying a tliought cf profound pro-found 9lemnity,framed amid grand imagery, and expressed In a lew concentrated verses of perfect rhythm and without .superfluous word. This is Indeed, ono of the most grave and weighty utterances of English lyrical loetr; suggestive of an onran cadence shall wc say? rather than of the wilder music cf ill lyre; ami. so fir, not In every sencca typical lyric ioem. l'he sut jectlve element in it is so dominant as Iiaidly to leave scope for musical pUy of verse; the vcr-e adequately expresses the thought, ind Is unblemished in its grave rhUhrn, but It has not that ghurc jf light and glow of color which play around the lyrical ver-c of dhelley, with whom, more completely complete-ly remain than with any other lyrical poet, we find the subjective .end the lyrical clement so balauced mil blended that they seem e sentially inseparable. The tliought with blielley is always a simple, often a single one; sometimes, as iu tliu pathetic lines commencing "When the lamp Is shattered," the tliought is dual; but it Is never complex. It is the mli-ion of lyric poetry of the suljeetlve order to adorn aud render musical a simple Idea, not to elaborate a complex one, iu whiih the sul Jectlve element mt neces-airily neces-airily tyrannize over the lyrical ex-i predion. For the most pnrt Shelley' Shel-ley' Ij rie's are far from being mere raphsodles of vefee, bow brilliant soever; there is, Iu nearly all the ' liest of them, a thought of more or j less substance :nd significance a jody that fills out the wile gar-1 meut with the contour of warmth i arising from a substantial lif with-1 in. And not only so, but the Imag-1 ery which forms the visible garment I of tlie thought, tiiedecorativtidesign af the poem. Is ilelf instinct with lefintte tliought, the quality which distinguishes genuine uetic imagery imag-ery and metaphor from mere simile-hatching. simile-hatching. To sit and play with similes Is the beau ido.il of oe-tic relaxation; but when the poet comes to work his similes iuto the permanent form of a poem, it is not permitted to him to play with them too loosely. A it it I been said of ornament in architecture and decorative design, tliat Its value is In direct projor-ti'jn projor-ti'jn to the thought that i in It, so it is of noetic ori imeut; it must be a lesser thought in itself, intensifying intensify-ing tlie expression of the central thought, not merely playing around it. True, that it is not often that the complete inlerpene-(ration inlerpene-(ration of thought and imaginary, such as we see is In the instance of Shelley's couplet, quoted Just now, is achieved; but It is in proportion pro-portion as we come nearer to this tliat the funa of expression becomes more truly and nobly jpoetlc, more inevitable and lcrs arbitrary, for tliat Is the essential distlction between be-tween the poetic and the non-poetic use of imagery. The HUnoxtrtjh Jfetiac fur .ipril. |