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Certainly he made verse-music, and certainly he’s open to the charge that there’s sometimes more sound than sense in his lines. But at least there is sound! And when these accusations are made, where are the critics who defend modern obscurity by telling us that we’re misguided when we look for literal meaning? “A poem should net mean, but be.” Why isn’t that a justification for Swinburne, too, in passages where he seems to be “sound-driven”?
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An excellent point, Henry!
And you make another good point with the idea of the hexameter of his "Hymn to Proserpine" being a product of two tri-lines, and the "Garden of Proserpine" staying with tri, when it might have been hex.
I have heard this point made on a number of times on this board - I recall Tim saying something similar. But I wanted to make a small point here that it doesn't automatically follow that all hex lines can be split into two tri-lines. The "Hymn" certainly feels like most lines can be split, with a definite mid-line caesura. But I prefer to write my hex without this caesura.
If a hex can be split in two, I believe that it should be split in two, and be what it is - two lines of tri posing as something else.
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