The country is a lyric; the town is dramatic when mingled, they make the most perfect musical drama

Essay topic: "The country is a lyric; the town is dramatic when mingled, they make the most perfect musical drama" -- Longfellow. Comment on the statement.

Longfellow deliberately distinguishes between the countryside and the town and wants a wedding between the two so that the result may be enjoyable. Let us see how far this is possible and whether Longfellow can be approved of for the statement.

A lyric is a musical poem. Then one is tempted to ask what is music. It is the art of expressing or stirring emotion by melodious and harmonious combination of sounds. Let us see then how the countryside has music in it. Perhaps the country which Longfellow had in his mind was a thing of the past but still one can visualize it.

The brook, the fields, the church or the temple, the workmen, women and children of the village the herds of cattle and sheep, the hound, and everything about the village stirs our emotions and there is harmony in the life of the village and hence it is lyrical.