Note 49 — THOUGHTS ON TASTE
Reading edition
Why is the word portion here used, as if it were a portion of Scripture?
‘Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide,
He wales a portion with judicious care.’
Cottar’s Saturday Night.
Now, Mr. Wordsworth’s poems, though not profane, yet neither are they sacred, to deserve this solemn style, though some of his admirers have gone so far as to compare them for primitive, patriarchal simplicity, to the historical parts of the Bible. Much has been said of the merits and defects of this large poem, which is ‘portion of a larger;’—perhaps Horace’s rule has been a double bar to its success—Non satis est pulchra poemata esse, dulcia sunto. The features of this author’s muse want sweetness of expression as well as regularity of outline.