PAGE
Vrchlický enriched the Czech language and widened its metrical resources, while he influenced the progress of the literature to an extent which it is difficult to estimate. In his original work Vrchlický was most effective as a lyric poet. He wrote in this medium with a freshness, a fervour and a melodious charm which, in his best poems, can be compared with the lyrical style of Swinburne or d'Annunzio. The facility with which he composed, led him at times into rather shallow improvisations, and some of his critics are apt to lay stress upon these weaker aspects of his productions, although such lapses are comparatively rare. In the same way, Vrchlický has been reproached for the close attention he paid to foreign literatures, while other Czech poets were more exclusively national. But the critics who urged this against him did not realize that before Czech literature could become truly national, it must first be made international. By Vrchlický's efforts, it was raised to this higher plane, and before the close of the 19th century, it had acquired the status of a European literature. Both as an original poet and as
