Choosing words; still do it lightly, Do it too with some contempt; Dearest is the song that’s tipsy, Clearness, dimness not exempt. Music always, now and ever Be thy verse the thing that flies From a soul that’s gone, escaping, Gone to other loves and skies. Gone to other loves and regions, Following fortunes that allure, Mint and thyme and morning crispness ... All the rest’s mere literature. Footnote 69: I think there should be nothing but allusions. The contemplation of objects, the flying image of reveries evoked by them, are the song. The Parnassiens state the thing completely, and show it, and thereby lack mystery; they deprive the mind of that delicious joy of imagining that it creates. To _name an object is to take three-quarters from the enjoyment of the poem, which consists in the happiness of guessing little by little: to suggest, that is the dream_. It is the perfect use of this mystery that constitutes the symbol: little by little, to evoke an object in order to show a state of the soul; or inversely, to choose an object, and from it to disengage a state of the soul by a series of decipherings. ... If a being of mediocre intelligence and insufficient literary preparation chance to open a book made in this way and pretends to enjoy it, there is a misunderstanding—things must be returned to their places. _There should always be an enigma in poetry_, and the aim of literature—it has no other—is to evoke objects. Footnote 70: It were time also to have done with this famous “theory of obscurity,” which the new school have practically raised to the height of a dogma. Footnote 71: For translation, see Appendix IV. Footnote 72: For translation, see Appendix IV. Footnote 73: For translation, see Appendix IV. Footnote 74: For translation, see Appendix IV. Footnote 75: For translation, see Appendix IV. Footnote 76: For translation, see Appendix IV. Footnote 77: I do not wish to think any more, except about my mother Mary, Seat of wisdom and source of pardon, Also Mother of France, _from whom we Steadfastly expect the honour of our country_. Footnote 78: This sonnet seems too unintelligible for translation.—Trans. Footnote 79: For translation, see Appendix IV. Footnote 80: The quicker it goes the longer it lasts. Footnote 81: All styles are good except the wearisome style. Footnote 82: All styles are good except that which is not understood, _or_ which fails to produce its effect. CHAPTER XI