BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOL. II.

CHAP. I. Occasion of the Lyrical Ballads, and the objects

originally proposed-Preface to the second edition
-The ensuing controversy, its causes and acrimony
- Philosophic definitions of a Poem and Poetry with
scholia

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15

Chap. 11. The specific symptoms of poetic power eluci-

dated in a critical analysis of Shakespeare's Venus

and Adonis, and Rupe of Lucrece .

Chap. III. Striking points of difference between the

Poets of the present age and those of the fifteenth

and sixteenth centuries-Wish expressed for the

union of the characteristic merits of both

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.

41

.

Chap. IV. Examination of the tenets peculiar to Mr.

Wordsworth-Rustic life (above all, low and rustic

life) especially unfavourable to the formation of a.,

human diction- The best parts of language the pro-

duct of philosophers, not of clowns or shepherds---

Poetry essentially ideal and generic--The language

of Milton as much the language of real life, yea, in-

comparably more so than that of the cottager .

Chap. V. Language of metrical composition, why and

wherein essentially different from that of prose-

Origin and elements of metre--Its necessary conse-

quences, and the conditions thereby imposed on the

metrical writer in the choice of his diction

Chap. VI. Continuation-Concerning the real object

which, it is probable, Mr. Wordsworth had before

him in his critical preface--Elucidation and applica-

tion of this .

Chap. VII. The former subject continued—The neutral

a