SOURCE: Korshin, Paul J. “The Evolution of Neoclassical Poetics: Cleveland, Denham, and Waller as Poetic Theorists.” Eighteenth Century Studies 2, No. 2 (December 1968): 102-37.

In the following excerpt, Korshin considers Denham's theory of poetry, which, he contends, foreshadows the neoclassical views of the Restoration period.

Denham's place in the formation of neoclassical poetics has always been more or less well established, but whether he entirely deserves to be regarded principally as one of the fathers of eighteenth-century prosody is a matter open to serious discussion. It may seem curious that so many contemporary references to Denham tend to classify his achievement in terms of his versification, but we must remember that critical traditions and prevailing habits of the Restoration theorists often dictated an exaggeratedly great concern with matters of surface poetic technique. Certainly Dryden habitually regards Denham in this light, as when he reports that Sir George Mackenzie “asked me...