Crabbe had as yet no wide insight into books and authors, and he was forced to deal largely in generalities.

But he showed that he had already some idea of style; and if, when he had so little to say, he could say it with so much semblance of power, it was certain that when he had observed and thought for himself he would go further and make a deeper mark.

The heroic couplet controlled him to the end of his life, and there is no doubt that it was not merely timidity that made him confine himself to the old beaten track.

Crabbe's thoughts ran very much in antithesis, and the couplet suited this tendency.

But it had its serious limitations.