In whatever good novel you read, be as careful to notice the artistic merits of the work, the beauties and graces of its style, as the construction of its story.
If you prefer to study the poetry of this century, you should strive first to gain a knowledge of that which was written in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. You should remark the great changes produced in the minds of writers by the French Revolution, and note the growing love for freedom of opinion and freedom in government; also the increasing love for the natural world. Then you are ready to begin with a programme like this:—
1. A General Survey of Poetry in this Century.
2. The Study of Nature and Man.
3. Wordsworth and his Poetry.
4. The Imaginative,—Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner."
5. The third Lake Poet,—Southey.
6. The History of the Ballad.
7. Campbell.
8. The Narrative,—Scott's Poems.