...poems is of an artistic failure, and in this Johnson echoes his observation on "Lycidas" that: "In this poem there is no nature, for there is no truth; there is no art, for there is nothing new."4:1 But Johnson also comments on an experiential problem he sees in the metaphysicals, who "wrote...

...opinion on this theme, Samuel Johnson's more famous critique of Milton's poem is perhaps exemplary : In this poem there is no nature for there is no truth;...art for there is nothing new. Its form is that of a pastoral, easy, vulgar, and therefore disgusting : whatever images it can supply are long ago exhausted,...

...rough satyrs and fauns with cloven heel. Where there is leisure for fiction there is little grief. In this poem there is no nature, for there is no truth;...art, for there is nothing new. Its form is that of a pastoral, easy, vulgar, and therefore disgusting: whatever images it can supply, are long ago exhausted...