Quote:
'The Fair Recluse... is a 'gothic' poem which derives from Pope's 'Unfortunate Lady' and perhaps from Clarissa, and most of it might have been written by any poet of the period: but there is one quatrain which is peculiarly Smart's own—
Say, must these tears for ever flow,
Can I from patience learn content,
While solitude still nurses woe,
And leaves me leisure to repent?
The tone of these not very striking lines is of some importance in understanding Smart's poetry. It looks back to the earlier ['Eagle Confin'd in a College Court'] and forward to the Psalms. From his early Cambridge days Smart undoubtedly suffered from a feeling—later all too unhappily actualized—that he was being persecuted, and it is this sense of a personal situation which gives his verse a cryptic emphasis whenever the subject affords an opportunity. Another instance is to be found in 'Reason and Imagination'. By accepted canons of criticism this sort of thing should not happen: poetry is supposed to be a release from emotion, and I am not concerned to justify Smart's habit of identifying himself with a 'persecution situation' whenever he can.
... 