Nature of Poetry. the author of Clarissa, is the most moral of all our novel writers; but he possesses the unfortunate talent of spinning out pieces of amusement into an immeasurable length. The trivial performances which daily appear under the title of lives, adventures, and histories, by anonymous authors, are most insipid, and, it must be confessed, often tend to deprave the morals, and to encourage dissipation and idleness. NATURE OF POETRY....ITS ORIGIN AND PROGRESS.... VERSIFICATION. WHAT, it may be asked, is poetry? and how does it differ from prose? Many disputes have been maintained among critics upon these questions. The essence of poetry is supposed by Aristotle, Plato, and others, to consist in fiction. But this is too limited a description Many think the characteristic of poetry lies in imitation. But imitation of manners and characters may be carried on in prose as well as in poetry. Perhaps the best definition is this, "poetry is the language of passion, or of enlivened imagination formed most commonly into regular numbers." As the primary object of a poet is to please and to move, it is to the imagination and the passions that he addresses himself. It is by pleasing and moving, that he aims to instruct and reform. Poetry is older than prose. In the beginning of society there were occasions upon which men met together for feasts and sacrifices, when mu Nature of Poetry. sic, dancing, and song were the chief entertainment. The meetings of American tribes are distinguished by music and songs. In songs they celebrate their religious rites and martial achievments; and in such songs we trace the beginning of poetic composition. Man is by nature both a poet and musician. The same impulse which produced a poetic style, prompted a certain melody or modulation of sound, suited to the emotions of joy or grief, love or anger. Music and poetry are united in song, and mutually assist and exalt each other. The first poets sung their own verses. Hence the origin of versification, or the arrangement of words to tune or melody. Poets and songs are the first objects that make their appearance in all nations. Apollo, Orpheus, and Amphion were the first tamers of mankind among the Greeks. The Gothic nations had their scalders, or poets. The Celtic tribes had their bards. Poems and songs are among the antiquities of all countries; and, as the occasions of their being composed are nearly the same, so they remarkably resemble each other in style. They comprise the celebration of gods, and heroes, and victories. They abound in fire and enthusiasm; they are wild, irregular, and glowing. During the infancy of poetry, all its different kinds were mingled in the same composition; but in the progress of society, poems assumed their different regular forms. Time separated into classes the several kinds of poetic composition. The ode and the elegy, the epic poem and English Versification. the drama, are all reduced to rule, and exercise the acuteness of criticism. ENGLISH VERSIFICATION. NATIONS, whose language and pronunciation were musical, rested their versification chiefly on the quantities of their syllables; but mere quantity has very little effect in English verse. For the difference, made between long and short syllables in our manner of pronouncing them, is very inconsiderable. The only perceptible difference among our sylJables arises from that strong percussion of voice which is termed accent. This accent, however, does not always make the syllable longer, but only gives it more force of sound; and it is rather upon a certain order and succession of accented and unaccented syllables, than upon their quantity, that the melody of our verse depends. This In the constitution of our verse there is another essential circumstance. This is the cæsural pause, which falls near the middle of each line. pause may fall after the fourth, fifth, sixth, or seventh syllable; and by this mean uncommon variety and richness are added to English versification. Our English verse is of Iambic structure, composed of a nearly alternate succession of unaccented and accented syllables. When the pause falls earliest, that is, after the fourth syllable, the briskest melody is thereby formed. Of this, English Versification. the following lines from Pope, are a happy illustration: On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore, When the pause falls after the fifth syllable,'dividing the line into two equal portions, the melody is sensibly altered. The verse, losing the brisk air of the former pause, becomes more smooth and flowing. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, Each prayer accepted, and each wish resign'd. When the pause follows the sixth syllable, the melody becomes grave. The movement of the verse is more solemn and measured. The wrath of Peleus' son, the direful spring The grave cadence becomes still more sensible when the pause follows the seventh syllable. This kind of verse, however, seldom occurs; and its ef"feet is to diversify the melody. And in the smooth, descriptive | murmur still, Our blank verse is a noble, bold and disencumbered mode of versification. It is free from the full close, which rhyme forces upon the ear at the end of every couplet. Hence it is peculiarly suit Pastoral Poetry. ed to subjects of dignity and force. It is more favorable than rhyme to the sublime and highly pathetic. It is the most proper for an epic poem and for tragedy. Rhyme finds its proper place in the middle regions of poetry; and blank verse in the highest. The present form of our English heroic rhyme in couplets is modern. The measure used in the days of Elizabeth, James, and Charles I. was the stanza of eight lines. Waller was the first who introduced couplets; and Dryden established the usage. Waller smoothed our verse, and Dryden perfected it. The versification of Pope is peculiar. It is flowing, smooth, and correct in the highest degree. He has totally thrown aside the triplets so common in Dryden. In ease and variety, Dryden excels Pope. He frequently makes his couplets run into one another with somewhat of the freedom of blank verse. PASTORAL POETRY. It was not before men had begun to assemble in great cities, and the bustle of courts and large societies was known, that pastoral poetry assumed its present form. From the tumult of a city life, men looked back with complacency to the innocence of rural retirement. In the court of Ptolemy, Theocritus wrote the first pastorals with which we are acquainted; and in the court of Augustus, Virgil imitated him. |
