The Elizabethan lyric has some well-defined characteristics of it own:

(a) In the best of them there is a fine “blending of the genius of the people and the artistic sense awakened by humanism.

(b) While the best lyrics have a perfection which is never re-captured, in lesser hands art degenerates into mere artifice and pedantry.

(c) Moreover, many compose Lyrics merely because it is the fashion to do so, and not be­cause they have any genuine inspiration.

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(d) The Elizabethan lyric differs from the romantic lyric in as much as it is not the outpouring of the poet’s soul, it lacks intensity and passion.

(e) A vein of moralizing runs through the lyric.

(f) The Elizabethan lyric is very musical. Alliteration and other verbal devices are frequently used to make the lyric musical.

(g) The lyric lacks originality.