Sunday 19 January 2014

Richard Payne Knight, "The Landscape", 1794; Uvedale Price, An Essay on the Picturesque (1794)



Read the poem here (pdf) (Second Edition, 1795)

"Whether the scene extends o'er wide domains,
Or lurks, confined, in low sequester'd plains,
Whether it decks the baron's gorgeous seat,
Or humbly cheers the rustic's snug retreat...
'Tis still one principle through all extends,
And leads through different ways to different ends.
What'er its essence, or what'er its name,
What'er its modes, 'tis still, in all, the same:
'Tis just congruity of parts combined
To please the sense and satisfy the mind....
Curse on the pedant jargon, that defines
Beauty's unbounded forms to given lines!
With scorn eternal mark the cautious fool,
Who dares not judge till he consults his rule!"

See also, Uvedale Price, "An Essay on the Picturesque, As Compared with the Sublime and the Beautiful, and in the Hope of Studying Pictures for the Purpose of Improving Landscape"

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