Let burlesque try to go beyond him.
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e has the trick of joining the turgid and familiar: to buy the allianceof Britain, “Climes were paid down.” Antithesis is his favourite, “Theyfor kindness hate:” and “because she’s right, she’s ever in the wrong.”His versification is his own; neither his blank nor his rhyming lineshave any resemblance to those of former writers; he picks up nohemistichs, he copies no favourite expressions; he seems to have laid upno stores of thought or diction, but to owe all to the fortuitoussuggestions of the present moment. Yet I have reason to believe that,when once he had formed a new design, he then laboured it with verypatient industry; and that he composed with great labour and frequentrevisions. His verses are formed by no certain model; he is no more likehimself in his different productions than he is like others. He seemsnever to have studied prosody, nor to have had any direction but from hisown ear. But with all his defects, he was a man of genius and a poet.
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