Excerpt from Nineveh: And Other PoemsThe question arises: Is there any positive test of literary achievement? Matthew Arnold's definitions, set forth in his introduction to Ward's English Poets, are suggestive, if un satisfactory. In every poet's work we discover single poems, which, by common consent, out shine their companions without necessarily ex celling in earnestness of purpose or verbal beauty, rhythmic splendour or originality of con ception. They throb with a mysterious vitality which, while it may elude definition, is numis takably felt. Arnold's touch-stones of poetry fall under this category, likewise Leigh Hunt's Jenny Kissed Me, Rossetti's Blessed Damo zel, Markham's Man with the Hoe, Poe's Raven, and Oscar Wilde's Ballad of Read ing Gaol. I have purposely chosen dissimilar examples. The pieces have, however, one qual ity in common, which, for lack of a better name, I should like to term finality of expression. That is, they solve without a remainder the equation between thought and utterance. They express.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.