lengthy works of Shelley, Byron and Browning would have been better had they been written in prose, and they would have lost none of their poetic qualities. The greatness of the Ring and the Book, Don Juan and the Revolt of Islam remains when these works are translated into the prose of another language.

The French have perfected the art of poetical prose, or prose poetry, probably more than any other nation. The reason may be that they have not been prolific of good poetry in verse, and have instead reserved their poetry for prose, a more natural medium than Alexandrine lines.

Fénelon was one of the first moderns who attacked verse. In two critical works, Dialogues on Eloquence and Letters to the French Academy (there is an English translation of both, out of print), he emphasized the insignificant part played by versification in poetry. He held that there was no true eloquence without a due mixture of poetry, that poetry was the very soul of eloquence. He said that there were many poets who were poetical without making verses, and he considered versification distinct from poetry. In his definition of poetry he excluded a consideration of versification. He thought the perfection of French verse impossible, that versification loses more than it gains by rhyme, and that French poets were cramped by versification. He wanted superfluous ornaments removed and the necessary parts turned into natural ornaments. Still he did not insist on a complete abandonment of rhyme, but wanted greater freedom. His biographer, St. Cyr, says that Fénelon wanted to abolish verse altogether in French poetry. Fénelon also wrote a novel in prose poetry in 1699, Télémaque. But prose poetry existed in France before him, in old romances like the story of Aucassin and Nicolette and in Bossuet's funeral orations. His example was followed by Sainte Pierre, in Paul and Virginia, by Prévost in Manon Lescaut, by Rousseau and especially by Chateaubriand in Atala, The Genius of Christianity and The Martyrs. Unfortunately, Fénelon insisted in introducing the clichés of verse into prose; artificial and unnatural language hence ruined some of his work and assisted in bringing the term prose poetry into contempt.The French have always regarded the poet in a broader sense than have the English. The article on poetry in the French Encyclopedia deals with prose poems as well as with verse poems. Victor Hugo in his _Shakespeare_, when he calls the lists of poets, mentions prose writers like Diderot, Rousseau, Balzac, Chateaubriand, George Sand, Le Sage and Cervantes. He who was himself a great poet knew that poetry did not depend on meter. Eugene Véron, the great French critic, author of a 

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