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Book, page 172 / 276 Poetry.] Such a view has not, of course, been confined to the nineteenth century. A characteristic renaissance attitude toward life and art was caught by Browning in a passage of _Sordello_. The hero, in a momentary reaction from idealism, longs for the keener sensations arising from vice and exclaims, Leave untried Virtue, the creaming honey-wine; quick squeeze Vice, like a biting serpent, from the lees Of life! Together let wrath, hatred, lust, All tyrannies in every shape be thrust Upon this now. Naturally Browning does not allow this thirst for evil to be more than a passing impulse in Sordello's life. The weakness of this recipe for poetic achievement stands revealed in the cynicism with which expositions of the frankly immoral poet end. If the quest of wickedness is a powerful stimulus to the emotions, it is a very short-lived one. The blase note is so dominant in Byron's autobiographical poetry,--the lyrics, _Childe Harold_ and _Don Juan_--as to render quotation tiresome. It sounds no less inevitably in the decadent verse at the other end of the century. Ernest Dowson's _Villanelle of the Poet's Road_ is a typical expression of the mood. Dowson's biography leaves no doubt of the sincerity of his lines, Wine and women and song, Three things garnish our way: Yet is day overlong. Three things render us strong, Vine-leaves, kisses and bay. Yet is day overlong. Since the decadents themselves must admit that delight in sin kills, rather than nurtures, sensibility, a popular defense of their practices is to the effect that sin, far from being sought consciously, is an inescapable result of the artist's abandonment to his feelings. Moreover it is useful, they assert, in stirring up remorse, a very poetic feeling, because it heightens one's sense of the beauty of holiness. This view attained to considerable popularity during the Victorian period, when sentimental piety and worship of Byron were sorely put to
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