Mr. Wordsworth has vindicated the capacity of the sonnet to be
a casket of the richest gems of fame. We have no doubt that the
song may give evidence of a genius which shall deserve to be ranked
with the constructor of an epic. "Scorn not the SONG." We would
go so far, indeed, as to say that success in the song imports,
necessarily, a more inborn and genuine gift of poetic conception,
than the same proportion of success in other less simple modes of
art. There are some sorts of composition which may be wrought out
of eager feeling and the foam of excited passions; and which are
therefore to a large extent within the reach of earnest sensibilities
and an ambitious will; others are the spontaneous outflow of the
heart, to whose perfection, turbulence and effort are fatal. Of
the latter kind is the song. While the ode allows of exertion
and strain, what is done in it must be accomplished by native and
inherent strength.

Speaking with that confidence which may not improperly be assumed
by one who, having looked with some care at the foundations of the
opinion which he expresses, supposes himself able, if called upon
by denial, to furnish such demonstration of its truth as the nature
of the matter allows of, we say that, in our judgment, there is
no professed writer of songs, in this day, who has conceived the
true character of this delicate and peculiar creation of art, with
greater precision and justness than Mr. Morris, or been more felicitous
than he in dealing with the subtle and multiform difficulties that
beset its execution. It is well understood by those whose thoughts
are used to be conversant with the suggestions of a deeper analysis
than belongs to popular criticism, that the forms of literary art
are not indefinite in number, variable in their characteristics,
or determined by the casual taste or arbitrary will of authors: