"To make a good poem, the subject must be interesting,
and treated in an attractive manner; genius must shine throughout the whole,
and be supported by a graceful, brilliant, and sublime style. The poet
ought to traverse, with a rapid flight, the lofty regions of philosophy,
without deviating from the narrow way of truth. . . .
Good taste will only pardon such digressions as bring him towards his end,
and show it from a more striking point of view.

"Disappointment must attend him, if he speaks without speaking to the purpose,
or without describing things with that fire, with that force,
and with that energy which present them to the mind as a painting does
to the eyes. Bold thought, untiring imagination, softness and harmony,
make a true poem.

"One must begin with grandeur, paint everything expressed,
soften the shades of those which are of least importance,
collect all into one point of view, and carry the reader thither
with a rapid flight."

Yet when due respect has been paid to this critic of old time,
the fact still remains that concentration and suggestion
are the two essentials of Chinese poetry. There is neither Iliad nor Odyssey
to be found in the libraries of the Chinese; indeed, a favourite feature
of their verse is the "stop short", a poem containing only four lines,
concerning which another critic has explained that only the words stop,
while the sense goes on. But what a world of meaning is to be found
between four short lines! Often a door is opened, a curtain drawn aside,
in the halls of romance, where the reader may roam at will.
With this nation of artists in emotion, the taste of the tea