...'Lycidas,' wherein he says, " The diction is harsh, the rhymes uncertain, and the numbers unpleasing In this poem there is no nature, for there is no truth...improbability always forces dissatisfaction on the mind. Surely no man could have fancied that he read ' Lycidas ' with pleasure had he not known the author."...

...Where there is leisure " for fiction, there is little grief. ... In this poem there is no " nature, for there is nothing new. Its form is that of a pastoral,...improbability always forces " dissatisfaction on the mind. . . . We know that they never drove " a-field, and that they had no flocks to batten ; and, though...

...not known the author : "The diction is harsh, the rhymes uncertain, and the numbers unpleasing. . . . Its form is that of a pastoral, easy, vulgar, and...improbability always forces dissatisfaction on the mind." Pope wrote, — Milton's strong pinion now not heaven can bound, Now. serpent-like, in prose be sweeps...

...he not known the author : " The diction is harsh, the rhymes uncertain, and the numbers unpleasing. Its form is that of a pastoral, easy, vulgar, and...improbability always forces dissatisfaction on the mind." Pope wrote,— Now, serpent-like, in prose he sweeps the ground; Milton's strong pinion now not heaven...

...tells of rough satyrs and fauns with cloven heel. Where there is leisure for fiction 30 there is little grief. In this poem there is no nature, for there is no truth ; tbere is no art, for there is nothing new. Its form is that of a pastoral, easy, vulgar, and therefore...

...(compare i. 448.) is leisure for fiction there is little grief. . . . Its form is that of a pastoral .... whatever images it can supply are long ago exhausted,...improbability always forces dissatisfaction on the mind." Tet, we ask, by what fatality does the critic come to utter in reference to " Lycidas " those truths...

...its diction is harsh, its rhymes uncertain, its numbers unpleasing, that ' in this poem ll^^flMjfe nature for there is no truth, there is no art for there is nothing new,' that it is ' easy, vulgar, and therefore disgusting,' — after which he goes through the different...

...upon Aret fauns with there is lit In ihTs poem there is jio_na|irrjj_ for there is no truth ; there '^ no art, for there is nothing new. Its form is that of rvpastotal, easy, vulgar, and therefore_disguating ; whatever images it can supply, are long ago exhausted...

...to write. Johnson's criticism is more to the point when he says that the pastoral form of poetry is "easy, vulgar, and therefore disgusting ; whatever...improbability always forces dissatisfaction on the mind." This is strong criticism, but perfectly fair. Johnson was thinking more particularly of elegiac pastoral...

...to write. Johnson's criticism is more to the point when he says that the pastoral form of poetry is "easy, vulgar, and therefore disgusting ; whatever...improbability always forces dissatisfaction on the mind." This is strong criticism, but perfectly fair. Johnson was thinking more particularly of elegiac pastoral...