Lovell, Thomas Beddoes - Lytton Strachey (essay date 1907)
Lytton Strachey (essay date 1907)
SOURCE: “The Last Elizabethan,” in Literary Essays, Harcourt, Brace & World, 1907, pp. 171-94.
[In the following essay, Strachey evaluates Beddoes's place in English literature and offers a stylistic analysis of his work.]
The shrine of Poetry is a secret one; and it is fortunate that this should be the case; for it gives a sense of security. The cult is too mysterious and intimate to figure upon census papers; there are no turnstiles at the temple gates; and so, as all inquiries must be fruitless, the obvious plan is to take for granted a good attendance of worshippers, and to pass on. Yet, if Apollo were to come down (after the manner of deities) and put questions—must we suppose to the Laureate?—as to the number of the elect, would we be quite sure of escaping wrath and destruction? Let us hope for the best; and perhaps, if we were bent upon finding out the truth, the simplest way would be to...
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