And look on death itself ! up, up, and see

The great doom's image !—Malcolm ! Banquo!
As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites
To countenance this horror! Ring the bell.

Macb.: Had I but died an hour before this chance
I had lived a blessed time; for from this instant
There 's nothing serious in mortality ;

All is but toys; renown and grace is dead;
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
Is left this vault to brag of.

-Macbeth, ii., I: Shakespear.

The same abundant use of metaphorical language will be found in most of Shakespear's scenes representing quarrelling and love, like those, for instance, in Romeo and Juliet. This form, too, as we know, is that adopted in impassioned love lyrics.

From the meadow your walks have left so sweet

That whenever a March-wind sighs

He sets the jewel-print of your feet

In violets blue as your eyes,

To the woody hollows in which we meet
And the valleys of Paradise.

Queen rose of the rosebud, garden of girls,
Come hither, the dances are done,
In gloss of satin and glimmer of pearls,
Queen lily and rose in one;

Shine out, little head, sunning over with curls,
To the flowers, and be their sun.

She is coming, my own, my sweet ;
Were it ever so airy a tread,
My heart would hear her and beat,
Were it earth in an earthy bed;
My dust would hear her and beat,
Had I lain for a century dead;

Would start and tremble under her feet,

And blossom in purple and red.

-Maud: Tennyson.

Illustrative, like direct, representation may be used, of

course, for wit and humor.

When Loveless married Lady Jenny,
Whose beauty was the ready penny;
"I chose her," says he, "like old plate,
Not for the fashion but the weight."

-Elegant Extracts.

You beat your pate, and fancy wit will come ;
Knock as you please, there's nobody at home.

-Epigram: Pope.

CHAPTER XXII.

PURE REPRESENTATION IN THE POETRY OF HOMER.

How the Phenomena of Nature should be used in Representation-Homer as a Model-His Descriptions are Mental, Fragmentary, Specific, Typical-The Descriptions of Lytton, Goethe, Morris, Southey, etcHomer's Descriptions also Progressive—Examples-Dramatic Poems should show the same Traits-Homer's Illustrative Representation.

HAVING found now how poetry through pure rep

resentation, whether direct or illustrative, is able to give definite expression to thoughts and feelings, let us take up the second question proposed in Chapter Twentieth, and try to find how an artist desirous of representing his own thoughts and feelings must use the phenomena of nature in order to do this in the most effective way. In answering this question, it is essential that we start with a proper standard. Fortunately, we can get one universally acknowledged to be sufficient for our purpose, in the works of Homer, and this too-to say much less than is deserved-in a sufficiently accurate English translation. So far at least as concerns the passages to be quoted in this discussion, all have been verified by comparing them with the original text. These poems of Homer have stood the tests of centuries, and there are reasons why they have survived them. The consideration which should interest us most in the present connection, is the fact that the poems were produced by a man who spoke directly from the first promptings of nature; a man

upon whom the methods of representation in other arts, and of presentation as used in science and philosophy, had had the least possible influence. In his works, therefore, better than in any others with which, in our day, we can become acquainted, we can study the tendencies of poetry in its most spontaneous and unadulterated form. Let us begin here, therefore, by examining some of the poetry of Homer, and trying to find out how he dealt with the phenomena of nature.

As we pursue our inquiry, one feature with reference to his methods should impress us immediately, and it may as well be mentioned before we take up any particular passages, because it is apparent in all of them. It may be indicated by saying that the Homeric representations are all mental. They fulfil in this respect the requirement already mentioned many times in this work-that the products of art should represent both man and nature. By saying that the Homeric descriptions are mental, it is meant that they show that there is a mind between the phenomena of nature and the account of them that we get in the poetry-a mind addressing our minds. Not that this mind distorts the objects which it has perceived and describes; the fact is just the opposite. Homer's representations are pure in the highest sense; yet they are not like those of a guide-book or map. He suggests his picture by telling us about those features of it that have had an effect upon him as a thinking being, or,—what is the same thing-that he expects will have an effect upon us. What he tells us is true to nature, but not, by any means, all the truth concerning it. Certain parts of the scenes presumably witnessed have arrested his attention, and suggested certain inferences to him. These parts, consciously or unconsciously, he selects and arranges in

ways that arrest our attention as they have arrested his. In this sense it is that his descriptions are mental. Let us look now at some of them. Here is one of his accounts of a man, and another of a homestead, both very simple, but for this very reason admirably adapted to our present purpose.

And first, Æneas, with defiant mien

And nodding casque, stood forth. He held his shield
Before him, which he wielded right and left.

And shook his brazen spear.

-Iliad, Book 20: Bryant's Trans.

He wedded there

A daughter of Adrastus, and he dwelt

Within a mansion filled with wealth; broad fields
Fertile in corn were his, and many rows

Of trees and vines around him; large his flocks,
And great his fame as one expert to wield,
Beyond all other Greeks, the spear in war.

-Iliad, 14: Bryant's Trans.

Notice now, in the second place, that these descriptions are fragmentary, the items mentioned in them being few. They present us with just such incomplete glimpses as one would obtain or remember amid circumstances in which the persons or objects observed would form parts of larger objects of consideration, while at the same time all of them, or, perhaps, he himself might be in motion.

Notice, in the third place, that the descriptions are specific. Of the few items that are mentioned, we have a very definite account in the "defiant mien," the "nodding casque," the shaking "shield" and "spear," the "mansion filled with wealth," the "broad fields fertile in corn," the "rows of trees," the "vines," the "large flocks," and the 'expert" in wielding "the spear." There is no uncertainty of outline here, and therefore there is no doubt in

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