ABSTRACT
Among these we find what is, perhaps, the most popular view that has ever been held, the view namely, III, that art is essentially Imitation, and that a picture or a poem is beautiful in pro portion as what it successfully imitates or describes is beautiful. The artist wrought this loved Guitar, And taught it justly to reply, To all who question skilfully, In language gentle as its own, Whispering in enamoured tone Sweet oracles of woods and dells, And summer winds in sylvan cells; For it had learnt all harmonies Of the plains and of the skies, Of the forests and the mountains, And the many voiced fountains; The clearest echoes of the hills, The softest notes of falling rills, The melodies of birds and bees, The murmuring of summer seas, And pattering rain and breathing dew, And airs of evening; and it knew That seldom-heard mysterious sound, Which, driven in its diurnal round, As it floats through boundless day, Our world enkindles on its way.
