Illustrations that are not always necessarily Representative, 293- Their Development gradually traced in Descriptions of Natural Scenery, 295-Practical Bearing of this on the Composition of Orations, 299-Why Common People hear Some gladly and Others not at all, 299-Obscure Styles not Brilliant, 302-Examples of Obscure Historical and Mythological References in Poetry, 303- -Alloyed Representation Short-Lived, 304-How without any such a Mixture of Main and Illustrating Thought as to destroy Representation, References to possibly Unknown Things are made Poetic Development of the Far-Fetched Simile in the Illustrating of Illustrations, 308-Examples of this from Several Modern Writers, 309-Whose Representation or Illustration fails to repre- sent or illustrate, 312-Poetic Development of the Mixed Meta- phor, 312-Examples from Modern Poets, 313-In what will this result? 314-More Examples, 315; How the Tendency leads the Poet from his Main Thought to pursue Suggestions made even by Sounds, Representing thus a Lack of Sanity or of Discipline, REPRESENTATION IN POEMS Considered aS WHOLES, 319-341 Form in Words and Sentences, 319-How Visible Appearances give an Impression of Form, 320-How Movable Appearances do the Same, 320-Consistency and Continuity in a Sentence Neces- sary to give it an Effect of Form, 321-A Poem a Series of Repre- sentations and of Sentences, 321-Must have Manifest Consist- ency and Continuity giving it Manifest Unity and Progress, as also Definiteness and Completeness, 322-Examples of Poems with a Manifest Form modelled on Direct Representation, 323—How Figures can be carried out with Manifest Consistency and Conti- Poems with Forms modelled on the Methods of Illustrative Repre- sentation, 328-How Excellence of Form in all Poems of whatever Length should be determined, 336-Certain Poems not representing Unity and Progress, 337-Great Poets see Pictures when conceiving their Poems; Inferior Poets think of Arguments, 338-Same Prin- ciples applied to Smaller Poems, 338-The Moral in Poetry should be represented not presented, 339-Poetic Excellence determined not by the Thought but by the Form of the Thought, which must These are all developed from Possibilities and Methods of Expres- sion underlying equally the Formation of Poetic and of all Lan- guage, 342-Poetry forced to recognize that Nature symbolizes Processes of Thought, 343-Influence of this Recognition upon Con- ceptions of Truth, Human and Divine, Scientific and Theologic, 344-And its Effects upon Feeling and Action; Conclusion, 345. POETRY AS A REPRESENTATIVE ART. CHAPTER I. POETRY AND PRIMITIVE LANGUAGE. Introduction-All Art Representative-Poetry an Artistic Development of Language-Language Representative of Mental Processes through Material Sounds or Symbols-Primitive Words are developed according to Principles of Association and Comparison, partly Instinctive, through Ejaculations; partly Reflective, through Imitative Sounds-This Theory need not be carried too far-How Language is a Gift from GodAgreement with Reference to Ejaculatory and Imitative Sounds would form a Primitive Language-This Book to show how Language, and hence, how Poetic Language, can represent Thought, by pointing out, first, how SOUNDS represent Thought in Primitive and then in Poetic Words and Intonations; and, second, how Sounds accepted as Words are used in Different SENSES, and how these Represent Thought in Conventional and then in Poetic Words and Phrases-Sounds represent Thought both in Single Words and in Consecutive Intonations-Elocution, the Interpreter of Sounds used Consecutively-Representing that Blending and Balancing of Instinctive and Reflective Tendencies, which express the Emotive Nature. WORDSWORTH, in one of his finest passages, says of the results of his studies in poetry: I have learned To look on nature, not as in the hour Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes And I have felt A presence that disturbs me with the joy Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime A motion and a spirit, that impels All thinking things, all objects of all thought, And rolls through all things. -Lines Composed a few Miles above Tintern Abbey. How many are there who have learned for themselves this lesson - undoubtedly a valuable one-of which Wordsworth speaks? How many are there who can apprehend clearly his meaning in what he says of it? How many are there who can discover in themselves any important addition to their mental or moral development that has been due to poetry, or who can appreciate fully its best thought, if at all subtle in its nature, even though presented in the best possible form? That in our day there are very few of these, is only too apparent to any competent judge of the subject who questions the leaders in our literary circles, who reads the verses in our magazines, who examines the criticisms in our reviews, or who listens to the accounts of what students of poetry are taught in our schools. Yet in his "Defence of Poesy" Sir Philip Sidney tells us that this art "is of all other learnings the most ancient,-that from whence all other learnings have taken their beginnings,—and so universal that no learned nation doth despise it; nor no barbarous nation is without it." Bailey says that: Poetry is itself a thing of God. He made his prophets poets, and the more Like God in love and power. -Festus. |