D. 348, in Spain.--ED.]
* * * * *
How very pretty are those lines of Hermesianax in Athenaeus about the poets
and poetesses of Greece![1]
[Footnote 1:
See the fragment from the Leontium:--
[Greek: HOi_en men philos huios an_egagen Oiagrhoio
Agrhiop_en, THr_essan steilamenos kithar_en
Aidothen k. t. l.] _Athen_. xiii. s. 71--ED]
September 4. 1833.
DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM.--EPIC POEM.--GERMAN
AND ENGLISH.--MODERN TRAVELS.--PARADISE
LOST.
I have already told you that in my opinion the destruction of Jerusalem is
the only subject now left for an epic poem of the highest kind. Yet, with
all its great capabilities, it has this one grand defect--that, whereas a
poem, to be epic, must have a personal interest,--in the destruction of
Jerusalem no genius or skill could possibly preserve the interest for the
hero from being merged in the interest for the event. The fact is, the
event itself is too sublime and overwhelming.
* * * * *
In my judgment, an epic poem must either be national or mundane. As to
Arthur, you could not by any means make a poem on him national to
Englishmen. What have _we_ to do with him? Milton saw this, and with a
judgment at least equal to his genius, took a mundane theme--one common to
all mankind.
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