Excerpt from A Discourse of English Poetrie, 1586Although Poetry is the moft ethereal part of Thought and Expreflion; though Poets mufl be born and cannot be made: yet is there an art of Poefy; fet forth long ago by Home but varying with differ ing languages and countries, and even with different ages in the life Of the fame country. In our tongue Milton only excepted - there is nothing approaching, either in the average merit of the Journeymen or the fuperlative excellence of the few mafler-crafifmen, the Poefy of the Elizabethan age. Hence the value of thefe early Poetical Criticifms. Their difcuffion of principles as mofl helpful to all readers tn the difcern ment of the fubtlc beauties Of the numberlefs poems Of that era: while for thol'e who can, and who will they will be found fingularly fuggefiive in the training of their own Power of Song, for the inflruetion and delight of this and future generations.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.