ABSTRACT
The theme implicit in a poem's style may contradict the overt dramatic or narrative theme it is supposed to be expressing; the notorious case is that of Spenser, who it will be remembered was Milton's 'Original'. There are undeniable poets like Akenside, Campbell, Swinburne and Dylan Thomas, in whom the only significance seems to be one of style. Paradise Regained is no doubt more than a virtuoso performance, but its virtuosity in the best passages a supreme virtuosity is the first point an Oxford critic will wish to make. The passage spans a whole range of English poetic style from Sidney to Keats. To a Cambridge critic it is a matter of little or so it seems whether the literary artifact is poetic or prosaic provided that the stuff and weight of human experience are somehow communicated. But to the strict Oxford sect though Mr. Robson teaches at Oxford his Cambridge sympathies are no secret the prose-poetry antithesis is absolute.
