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On A Passage From John Milton's Essay, *Of Education*
". . . that sublime art which in Aristotle’s Poetics, in Horace, and the Italian commentaries of Castelvetro, Tasso, Mazzoni, and others, teaches what the laws are of a true epic poem, what of a dramatic, what of a lyric, what decorum is, which is the grand masterpiece to observe. This would make them soon perceive what despicable creatures our common rimers and playwriters be . . ."
---John Milton, Of Education
John Milton knew, with sturdy certainty,
that elegant, artistic Poetry
must be (as Psalms declared) made skillfully,
a measured flow and not a storm-blown blurt,
refined like courtship, not a passing flirt---
despite what wishful poseurs might assert . . .
Starward
