ABSTRACT
The faults of the Fantastic Poets are many and glaring, but they have a peculiar interest of their own. The object of most of John Milton’s prose is controversial, but his arguments are confused with passion, just as the passions of the Fantastic Poets are confused with their arguments. His prose is half poetry, impeded by its medium of expression, because he tried to write prose in an age which was unable to argue without passion, and which mistook passion for argument. More than any of our Fantastic Poets he was infected with the conceits of the Fantastic Poets of Italy, especially Marino, one book of whose Strage degli Innocenti he translated into verse alternately splendid and absurd. The Fantastic Poetry has an almost pathetic charm, as of a wanderer come back from ranging over the world, whose delight in his own house and fireside is quickened and enriched by memories of all the wonders and terrors he has seen.
