The Fleshly School of Poetry and Other Phenomena of the Day

The Fleshly School of Poetry and Other Phenomena of the Day (1872)
by Robert Williams Buchanan

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The core of this work originally appeared as 'The Fleshly School Of Poetry: Mr. D. G. Rossetti', a review of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s 'Poems', published in The Contemporary Review, October 1871, under the pseudonym Thomas Maitland. Rossetti responded to Buchanan's criticism in an article entitled 'The Stealthy School Of Criticism', which appeared in The Athenæum, December 1871. Buchanan then published this work, which provoked a response from Algernon Charles Swinburne, in the form of a pamphlet titled Under the Microscope (1872).

3871338The Fleshly School of Poetry and Other Phenomena of the Day1872Robert Williams Buchanan

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THE FLESHLY SCHOOL
OF POETRY

AND OTHER PHENOMENA OF THE DAY

BY ROBERT BUCHANAN

⁠Phœbe.—What pretty flowers are these?
I prithee let me smell!
⁠Clown.⁠Smell, an thou wilt!
These be not flowers for maids. This snow-white thing,
Wood-garlic, doth infect the sylvan air,
And sicken the sweet milk of browsing kine;
The other, purple houndstongue, worse than mice
For smelling cleanly chambers; here, again,
A flower less comely, stinking goosefoot, grows,—
An odour dear to dogs!
⁠Phœbe.⁠Faugh! O how foul!
How name ye this, the tallest and most fair?
⁠Clown. Death-nettle, lady. Touch it not!
⁠Phœbe.⁠I am sick—
I swoon—its foetid breathing fills the air,
Like the most rank corruption of a corse.
⁠A Whip for White Wantons, 1651.

STRAHAN & CO., 56, LUDGATE HILL, LONDON.

THE FLESHLY SCHOOL
OF POETRY

AND OTHER PHENOMENA OF THE DAY

By ROBERT BUCHANAN

"For shame!—write cleanly, Labeo, or write none."

Hall's Satires, Book II. x.

"Belial came last, than whom a spirit more lewd
Fell not from heaven, or more gross to love
Vice for itself."

Paradise Lost.

STRAHAN & CO.
56, LUDGATE HILL, LONDON
1872

LONDON:
PRINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO.,
CITY ROAD.

CONTENTS

PAGE
PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		v
THE FLESHLY SCHOOL OF POETRY:
⁠I.	SOCIAL PHENOMENA OF THE HOUR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	1
II.	A LITERARY RETROSPECT: THE ITALIAN FALSETTO SINGERS AND THEIR IMITATORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	8
III.	CHARLES BAUDELAIRE AND A. C. SWINBURNE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	16
IV.	MR. DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	33
V.	THE “HOUSE OF LIFE,” &C., RE-EXAMINED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	56
VI.	PEARLS FROM THE AMATORY POETS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	69
VII.	PROSPECTS OF THE FINAL DEGRADATION OF VERSE, AS A MEANS OF INTELLIGENT EXPRESSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	82
NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		92

This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.

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