Verve

Use in the book

The explicit two-quality distinction is followed by a ranking: after enthusiasm, verve is best for inspiration. The author comparisons do not assign one total score to each writer; a poet may exceed another in verve and fall below him in enthusiasm. A separate remark makes verve one of the impulsive powers that art can teach a person to do without, alongside genius, instinct and inspiration. This is not the claim that verve has no value, but that acquired art and native impulse can produce different routes to an effect.

Places to read

1. II, p. 610, entry 1, ¶1Verve stirs, distinct from enthusiasm’s emotional movement.
2. II, p. 610, entry 1, ¶2Verve is ranked as a source of inspiration.
3. II, p. 610, entry 1, ¶4The comparisons of poets maintain independent scales of verve and enthusiasm.
4. II, p. 775, entry 5, ¶1Art can compensate for powers such as verve.
5. I, p. 84, entry 4, ¶2Untamed verve becomes inspiration in the draft discussion of Tasso.

Translation in this edition

The English translation usually retains verve in these distinctions but uses inspiration for the earlier untamed verve in the Tasso discussion. J. B. Rousseau in the comparisons is not J.-J. Rousseau. The gap in [inspiration] on II.775 remains qualified.