the thread of
argument, we find octet and ten-line stanzas. Section 2, which breaks
off from the argument to give a picture of temptation, changes to sextet
stanzas. Sections 5 and 6, the monologue of Wisdom, are cast in
quatrains, but as the monologue crescendoes to its climax the quatrains
'augment' to 5, 6, 7 lines. There is further the artistic device of
'interruption': the regular flow of stanzas is broken at critical points
by single couplets (like musical rhythm interrupted by recitative);
again in section 2 the actual speech of the temptress is an irregular
mass of lines outside the stanza structure, and this break in the flow
of lines has a fine effect.

The thought of the poem is in the highest degree grand and bold.
Scriptural philosophy loves to celebrate under the name 'Wisdom' the
union of all things, whether of the external universe or of the
spiritual life, in one Divine harmony. In this poem this Wisdom is to be
personified, and to proclaim her attractions. But the poet prepares the
way by contrast with the spirit of temptation, also personified in
female form practising her allurements. This is displayed in a boldly
drawn picture; and then the poet, with the words _Doth not Wisdom cry?_
suddenly turns round and presents 'Wisdom' as the temptress to good.

LYRICS

/i-ii./ These two selections are from the Book of Job. This consists of
matter mainly philosophic worked up into an elaborate poem in which all
literary forms--epic, lyric, drama, rhetoric, etc.--are blended in a way
unparalleled in modern literature. Hence the form of these two pieces is
intermediate between wisdom sonnets and the lyrical poems that follow.

/i. An Elegy of a Broken Heart./ In the Book of Job this intervenes
between the Story Prologue, which is prose, and the main body of the
poem, which takes a dramatic form. Job breaks the silence to dilate,
with lyrical elaboration, upon the situation of utter ruin which is to
be the starting-point of the dramatic discussion. Hence the title of the
section in the whole poem of Job is 'Job's Curse': but it admits of
being separated from the action of the drama as an independent poem,
with some such title as I have given it.--In metrical scheme it falls
into two sections. Section 1 is an example of 'interruption' (compare
note to vii of the sonnets). It will be seen that the last two lines
continue the sentence begun by the first two lines, making with them a
quatrain: between come mas