meteoroepeia

Updated: May 8, 2025

Before it was admired, it was to be raised above nature into the region of "the picturesque," or whatnot; and the poet was the man who gave it this factitious and superinduced beauty, by a certain "kompsologia" and "meteoroepeia," called "poetic diction," now happily becoming extinct, mainly, we believe, under the influence of Burns, although he himself thought it his duty to bedizen his verses therewith, and though it was destined to flourish for many a year more in the temple of the father of lies, like a jar of paper flowers on a Popish altar.

Charles Kingsley - Literary and General Lectures and Essays