"Unless there is a concurrence between the contemporary idi-
oms and rhythms of a period, with the individual idiom of the
lyrist, half the expressional force of his ideas will be lost."

ERNEST RHYS, Foreword to Lyric Poetry

WE have been considering the typical quali-
ties and forms of lyric poetry. Let us now
attempt a rapid survey of some of the condi-
tions which have given the lyric, in certain
races and periods and in the hands of certain
individuals, its peculiar power.

A whole generation of so-called "scientific"
criticism has come and gone since Taine's
brilliant experiments with his formula of
"race, period and environment" as applied
to literature. Taine English Literature re-
mains a monument to the suggestiveness and
to the dangers of his method. Some of his
countrymen, notably Brunetière in the Evolu-
tion de la Poésie Lyrique en France au XIX
Siècle, and Legouis in the Défense de la Poésie
Française, have discussed more cautiously and

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