ABSTRACT
I have but an indifferent opinion of the prose-style of poets: not that it is not sometimes good, nay, excellent; but it is never the better, and generally the worse from the habit of writing verse. Poets are winged animals, and can cleave the air, like birds, with ease to themselves and delight to the beholders; but like those 'feathered, two-legged things,'2 when they light upon the ground of prose and matter-of-fact, they seem not to have the same use of their feet.
