Well, I certainly am not qualified to place the poem on the exact rung it should occupy in world literature, but I have to say I rather like a good sermon sometimes (as long as it's not too full of religion). I like to be taken to task -- when the author earns his authority by taking himself to task at the same time.
This sonnet and the one on Crabbe are both meditations on our (or Robinson's) reaction to a literary figure. Part of what I admire about both is a sense of meditation - a moral intelligence threading its way through ambiguity by means of delicate distinctions. I like it that grabs us with paradox, but gives us the impression that if we work hard enough at the sonnet, all the paradox will be resolved by the insight we gain. It gives us a thought to chew on and gives me, at least, the appetite to chew on it.
In this respect, I admire "Zola" and "George Crabbe" more than say "Amyrillis", which, after all, sets forth a very simple (though striking) thought.
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