Note 54 — Chapter II · RHYTHM AS THE ESSENTIAL FACT OF POETRY
Reading edition
Reflexions, ed. ¹ 1770, I. 508 ff. A poem in prose is like an engraving; all is here save colour, all is there save verse. The Princesse de Cleves and Télémaque are poems. Does not colour make the painting, though? Verse the poem? In the next section he prudently asserts, “qu’il est inutile de disputer si la partie du dessein et de l’expression est préferable à celle du coloris.” It is a matter of taste; trahit sua quemque voluptas. Both in poetry and painting “genius” is the main thing,—so he had decided in earlier sections.