ABSTRACT
Take for instance the following passage from one of his latest poems:— [Quotes ‘Sohrab and Rustum’, ll. 116-25, ‘As when some grey November morn’, etc.] This is a direct and very successful imitation of Milton’s manner; not only the general air has been cleverly caught, but the very phrases and words are Miltonic. We have no objection to the passage in itself, but we feel that the thing has been done, and better done, before. Equally close and equally successful is the imitation of a different model in the passage we subjoin from an earlier poem on the striking story of Mycerinus, as given in Herodotus:— [Quotes ‘Mycerinus’, ll. 31-48; 67-78, ‘Seems it so light a thing’, etc.] Who does not recognise in this passage an imitation of the majestic music of Wordsworth’s ‘Laodamia’ by one who has felt the beauty of that poem and has aimed at repeating its effects?
