[Jane Waldie], Sketches Descriptive of Italy in the Years 1816 and 1817

Waldie suggests that poetic improvisation as practised in Italian Academies has less to do with poetry than with rhyme. She contrasts Italian sensibilities with English ones.

Performer Name:
 
Performance Venue:
Rome
Performance Date:
 
Author:
[Waldie, Jane]
Date Written:
 
Language:
English
Publication Title:
Sketches Descriptive of Italy in the Years 1816 and 1817
Article Title:
 
Page Numbers:
3:281-2
Additional Info:
4 vols.
Publisher:
Murray
Place of Publication:
London
Date Published:
1820

Text:

[281] The talent of Improvisè-ing, I conceive to have very little connexion with poetry, though a great deal with rhyme; and, if the verses composed by the members of the Poetical Academies may be taken as a fair sample of the taste and the talents now in existence, no country can be at a lower ebb. […] the sensibility of the Italians does not appear to me to lead them to poetry.

[…]

[282] [in contrast to England:] […] where cultivation of mind is joined to domestic virtue, and the best and sweetest impulses of nature are guarded by the high tone of public morals, and the devotedness of private affections.

Notes:

 

Collected by:
AE