e, of Milton, is after all,
only a succession of melodious notes, and in endeavouring to catch the
harmonic intent of strophe, antistrophe and epode in the Greek chorus
and in the true ode (that of Pindar), we can only succeed by pressing
memory into our service." But I, for one, should not seek counterpoint
in these any more than in the recurrent themes of a sonata. I should
seek it rather in the running line which he pronounces (mistakenly, as I
think) to be "after all, only a succession of melodious notes." C sharp,
B, A, A, A, E, A are a succession of melodious notes and spell the
opening phrase of "The Death of Nelson": as the vowels E, O, U, U, O, O,
E, E, U are a succession of melodious notes, and, if notes alone
counted, would spell a phrase of Milton's great Invocation to Light. But
when we consider the consonantal value, the interplay and the exquisite
repetition of--

_Seasons return; but not to me returns
Day,..._

or note the vowel-peals throughout the passage, now shut and anon opened
by the scheme of consonants; now continuous, anon modulated by delicate
pauses; always chiming obediently to the strain of thought; then I hold
that if we have not actual counterpoint here, we have something
remarkably like it,--as we certainly have harmony--

_thoughts that move
Harmonious numbers,_

or I know not what harmony is. In truth, if counterpoint be (as the
dictionary defines it), "a blending of related but independent
melodies," then Poetry achieves it by mating a process of sound to a
process of thought: and Mr. Watts-Dunton disposes of his own first
contention for music when he goes on to say (very rightly), "But if
Poetry falls behind Music in rhythmic scope, it is capable of rendering
emotion after emotion has become disintegrated into thoughts." Yet I
should still object to the word "disintegrated" as applied to thought,
unless it be allowed that emotion undergoes the same process at the same
time and both meet in one solution. To speak more plainly, Music is
inferior to Poetry because, of any two melodies in its counterpoint,
both may be (and in practice are) emotional and vague: while of any two
melodies in the counterpoint of Poetry one must convey thought and
therefore be intelligible. And, to speak summarily, Poetry surpasses
Music because it carries its explanation, whereas the meaning of a
_concerto_ has to be interpreted into dull words on a programme.

We have arrived at this, then; t