Let me change the topic a little. We’ve here a perfect passage from Pope essentially in the iambic pentametrical scheme, with occasional variation in the feet, very carefully and professionally correct in its composition, symmetric in its construction. The poetry moves smoothly with a well-wrought expatiation and development, more emphasizing the thought than bringing out the sheer joy of the vibrant soul of creativity. Take the sixth line for instance:

In fearless youth we tempt the heights of Arts,

where we have the perfect iambic beat, short-long if I’ve to use the classical notation, that is unaccented and accented syllables following each other, X /, so the line scans as follows:

In fear| less youth| we tempt| the heights| of Arts|, —

X/ | X/ | X/ | X/ | X/ | or with ˘ ´ as the superscripts:

In˘ fear´| less˘ youth´| we˘ tempt´| the˘ heights´| of˘ Arts´|.

But, in spite of variations in the feet, the movement tends to become monotonous, with a ti-tum ti-tum ti-tum ti-tum ti-tum repetitiveness. The deeper echoes that are possible in poetry are not felt. It is, what Sri Aurobindo would call, “a careful housewife… meticulously and methodically careful to arrange everything in a perfect order.” Contrast this from any passage from Savitri, for instance the following: (p. 638)

For now at last I know beyond all doubt The great stars burn with my unceasing fire And life and death are both its fuel made. Life only was my blind attempt to love: Earth saw my struggle, heaven my victory; All shall be seized, transcended; there shall kiss Casting their veils before the marriage fire The eternal bridegroom and eternal bride. The heavens accept our broken flights at last. On our life's prow that breaks the waves of Time No signal light of hope has gleamed in vain.

If the first and the third lines here are perfectly iambic, with their short-long, short-long… there’s no monotony of rhythm in them, which is further removed by the variations in the second line, with the second and third feet as spondee and pyrrhic, and so on. In it the depth and gravity of thought, rather the fullness of the occult contents, is fully matched with the rhythm carrying it to its consummation. Both go hand in hand in the sublimity of the subject itself, and it is that which makes a profound and meaningful impact on us as against the quick titillation of an idea alone elsewhere. And yet people call Sri Aurobindo a Victorian! ~ RYD