No More Learning

The Mermaid was the club-house of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and other
choice spirits of that age.


Poem 230.

_Maisie_: Mary. Scott has given us nothing more complete and lovely than
this little song, which unites simplicity and dramatic power to a
wild-wood music of the rarest quality. No moral is drawn, far less any
conscious analysis of feeling attempted:--the pathetic meaning is left
to be suggested by the mere presentiment of the situation. Inexperienced
critics have often named this, which may be called the Homeric manner,
superficial, from its apparent simple facility: but first-rate
excellence in it (as shown here, in 196, 156, and 129) is in truth one
of the least common triumphs of Poetry. --This style should be compared
with what is not less perfect in its way, the searching out of inner
feeling, the expression of hidden meanings, the revelation of the heart
of Nature and of the Soul within the Soul,--the analytical method, in
short,--most completely represented by Wordsworth and by Shelley.


Poem 234.

_correi_: covert on a hillside; _Cumber_: trouble.


Poem 235.

Two intermediate stanzas have been here omitted. They are very
ingenious, but, of all poetical qualities, ingenuity is least in
accordance with pathos.


Poem 243.

This poem has an exaltation and a glory, joined with an exquisiteness of
expression, which place it in the highest rank amongst the many
masterpieces of its illustrious Author.


Poem 252.
_interlunar swoon_: interval of the Moon's invisibility.


Poem 256.

_Calpe_: Gibraltar; _Lofoden_: the Maelstrom whirlpool off the N. -W.
coast of Norway.


Poem 257.

This lovely poem refers here and there to a ballad by Hamilton on the
subject better treated in 127 and 128.


Poem 268.

_Arcturi_: seemingly used for _northern stars_.

_And wild roses_, etc. Our language has no line modulated with more
subtle sweetness. A good poet _might_ have written _And roses
wild_:--yet this slight change would disenchant the verse of its peculiar
beauty.


Poem 270.

_Ceres' daughter_: Proserpine; _God of Torment_: Pluto.


Poem 271.

This impassioned address expresses Shelley's most rapt imaginations, and
is the direct modern representative of the feeling which led the Greeks
to the worship of Nature.