ABSTRACT
This chapter defines dogma as a passionate belief that is neither founded on manifest error, nor wholly indisputable in its terms. In modern criticism, especially, there has been a frequent insistence on the integrity of poetry in itself, of what is sometimes called pure poetry. Paradise Lost was more difficult to write, because to the prime difficulty there were many other and important difficulties added; but the prime difficulty in each case was the same, and in each case as unlikely of conquest. As for Shakespeare, philosophic and moral assertion are stamped upon his work at large with magnificent authority. The nature of pure poetry may disregard moral purposes, but the poets have been pertinacious moralists. Philosophic and moral dogmatism has constantly been employed by them as material, and vitally absorbed into the tissue of their work. Critical theory that denies to poetry this dogmatic franchise is opposed by the practice of the poets, and should be discarded.
