The Goldsmith s scale of poetic works quality

Oliver Goldsmith, a notable Irish and British poet from the XVIII th century, was one of the most prolific and sophisiticated authors of his time. Despite his uneven creative path and a fate quite unpredictable, he used to work  hard to enrich the Englih literary language. With an optimistic, creative, risky and outgoing nature, for the most of his life he had been doing his best to take both epic prose and children's fairytales to the highest possible quality level.

He was brilliant at conveying emotion and meaning through his works, as well as at giving his characters a vivid and realistic image. His approach to literary Classicism was quite innovative by nature. Not only did he combine several complicated versification schemes, but also he used to try out various definitions of emotions. The overall attitude of his towards the society was ironic and critical, and as an illustrious wordsmith and a masterful epic narrativist, he eventually turned into one of the best wordsmiths of his time, a legend for numerous generations ahead.

This author was a keen theorist as well.

Not only was he able to depict the complexity and diversity of the Irish, British and foreign society, but he was the author of a legendary 'Poetic scale' - his own framework for defining quality poetry.

That approach was quite novel for that time.
People who study or teach creative writing know about the famous 'Poetic' by Aristotle. It is part of the classical literary criticism continuum.

These authors knew a lot about the form of poetry, however their methods of literary criticism would differ greatly - vast descriptions and theoretic theses in the case of Aristotle and a laconic table in the case of O.Goldsmith.

Is it still applicable in the XXI century?  Why is this scale still applicable?

In numerous respects, this approach brings clarity to persistent and active attempts of literary critics all over the world to evaluate poetry.

The Goldsmith's criteria are highly abstract and still quite easy for an experienced critic to follow. This table is another step closer to perfect objectivity of criticism.

The best point about these notions, the one which makes them so attractive, is their potential of impersonality and usability in the wider context, by which postmodern and metamodern experiments are meant.

These four notions - Genius, Judgement, Learning and Versification -
were designated by him presumably in order to simplify his work in literary criticism and make it more predictable.

The best evaluation (20 points) was given to no one among the 29 English poets available on the list in 1758, several famous authors of the past, such as John Donne, were not included into the list, since their honourable mention was then not blessed by the adamant approach of the theorist.

The theory and all its possible outcomes may be reactualized soon, as lyric poetry continues to evolve.

The undertakings of the XXI century critics in their attempts to gain clarity, objectivity, depth and  retain reverence within the scope of fiction literature criticism.

The essay was created in 2012 and is first published now, abridged and corrected.

Sources/credits list:

1. Among several sources of information about the heritage of O.Goldsmith I would like to mention his biography by James Prior. The monograph is part of a long list of high quality writings that reveal the perfection of early Modern English.

Encyclopaedia Britannica