【正文】 imagination will be appreciated by all but by none so thoroughly as by him who has himself arisen from sweet dreams of one beloved to bathe in the aromatic air of a southern midsummer night. One of the finest poems by Willis the very best, in my opinion, which he has ever written has, no doubt, through this same defect of undue brevity, been kept back from its proper position, not less in the critical than in the popular view. The shadows lay along Broadway ?Twas near the twilighttide And slowly there a lady fair Was walking in her pride. Alone walk?d she。 while they breathe an earnestness an evident sincerity of sentiment for which we look in vain throughout all the other works of this author. While the epic mania while the idea that, to merit in poetry, prolixity is indispensable has, for some years past, been gradually dying out of the public mind, by mere dint if its own absurdity we find it succeeded by a heresy too palpably false to be long tolerated, but one which, in the brief period if has already endued, may be said to have acplished more in the corruption of our Poetical Literature than all its other enemies bined. I allude to the heresy of The Didactic. It has been assumed, tacitly and avowedly, directly and indirectly, that the ultimate object of all Poetry is Truth. Even poem, it is said, should inculcate a moral。在我們看來，一首真正的詩，不可避免的會遵循舊的模式，在這種情況中，我們不必忍受預(yù)先的評論壓力去贊美一部作品。太短的詩就會在遣詞造句方面過度斟酌，會導(dǎo)致警句過多的出現(xiàn)。 幾年后，史詩的熱潮逐漸淡去，史詩的時代已經(jīng)是過去式了 主張連篇累牘是詩歌必不可少的特點 這次文學(xué)熱潮的消失卻是一種很荒謬的方式 一種異端邪說取得了勝利，盡管它錯誤百出到令人無法長期忍受，但是有一點很清楚的是，我們已經(jīng)隱忍了一段時間。根據(jù)一點細(xì)微的差別，亞里士多德好不猶豫地將鑒賞力的某些方面歸于美德本身。真理需要的是嚴(yán)肅，莊重，她不會對香桃木有惻隱之心，在音樂中，一切都是不可或缺的，準(zhǔn)確的說，這一切就是音樂無論做什么都是徒勞，有的只是在珠寶和鮮花的簇?fù)硐?，對此夸夸其談? The shadows lay along Broadway ?Twas near the twilighttide And slowly there a lady fair Was walking in her pride. Alone walk?d she。同樣如此，我們不會用立方英尺來衡量偉大的詩人拉馬丁，也不會用英鎊來衡量偉大的詩人波羅克。我們可以看到，半個小時過去后，這種刺激就會消失無影，隨之而來的卻是對冗長的詩歌產(chǎn)生的反感。 but, in general, they have been too imponderous to stamp themselves deeply into aloft only to be whistled down the wind. A remarkable instance of the effect of undue brevity in depressing a poem in keeping it out of the popular view is afforded by the following exquisite little Serenade: I arise from dreams of thee In the first sweet of night When the winds are breathing low And the stars are shining bright I arise from dreams of thee And a spirit in my feet Hath led mewho knows how To thy chamberwindow sweet! The wandering airs, they faint On the dark, the silent stream The champak odors fail Like sweet thoughts in a dream。 and by this moral is the poetical merit if the work to be adjudged. We American especially have patronized this happy idea。但是一旦我們 完成了一部創(chuàng)作，當(dāng)我們再次讀它時，會直接讀修訂版而不是原稿，在讀的過程中我們會驚訝地發(fā)現(xiàn)：以前推崇備至的內(nèi)容如今卻讓人嗤之以鼻；反過來，以前令人嗤之以鼻的內(nèi)容而今卻備受推崇，這是經(jīng)過不斷地總結(jié)得出來的，而那種具有重要，全面，絕對影響，堪稱是世上最好的史詩，它是不存在的 這就是毫無爭議的事實。在我們看來，一首短詩充滿哲理智慧或生動形象，但絕不會令人刻骨銘心或經(jīng)久不衰，如同蠟燭上粘得牢牢的郵票。據(jù)說，在詩歌文學(xué)衰落時期，這種異端邪說所創(chuàng)作出的作品遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)多于與其對立派所創(chuàng)作的所有作品。雖然如此，我們知道三重奏的位置是有明顯的差別的，這 正如智慧的本身與真理有關(guān)，鑒賞力讓我們善于發(fā)現(xiàn)美，而道德觀就被看成是一種責(zé)任。我不會通過分離的方式而使其有所衰弱。毫無疑問，這首詩也因過度追求簡短而失去了它本該享有的文學(xué)地位，不僅僅是評論界還有大眾的評價?？梢哉f，人們會因為山峰的高聳而產(chǎn)生敬畏之情，但決沒有人會因為《哥倫比亞德》這部愛國詩的冗長的篇幅而感動，季 刊也不會引導(dǎo)我們?yōu)檫@種情況而感動。詩的價值是通過不斷提升的激勵作用來體現(xiàn)的，但從心理需求來看，這種刺激是短暫的，并不是說通過冗長的詩就能使這種刺激可以一直持續(xù)下去。 but, granting the epic intention, I can say only that the work