is "relative" to the Poet's actual circum-
stances. Yet in a "dramatic lyric" like
Byron's "Isles of Greece" or Tennyson's
"Sir Galahad" it is clear that the Poet's
vision is not occupied primarily with himself,
but with another person. In a dramatic mon-
ologue like Tennyson's "Simeon Stylites"
or Browning's "The Bishop orders his Tomb
in St. Praxed's Church" it is not Tennyson
and Browning themselves who are talking, but
imaginary persons viewed objectively, as far
as Tennyson and Browning were capable of
such objectivity. The next step would be
the Drama, preoccupied with characters in
action -- the "world of men," in short, and
not the personal subjective world of the
highly sensitized lyric Poet.

Let us now move away from that pure lyric
centre in another direction. In a traditional
ballad like "Sir Patrick Spens," a modern
ballad like Tennyson's "The Revenge," or
Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner," is not the
Poet's vision becoming objectified, directed
upon events or things outside of the circle of
his own subjective emotion? In modern
epic verse, like Tennyson's "Morte d'Arthur,"
Arnold's "Sohrab and Rustum," Morris's

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