262 



POETRY 



or sentimental attributes can be adequate to dis- 

 tinguish an art which consists of tin- making of 

 a certain definite thing in a certain definite form. 



In short, and in spite of the extreme unwilling- 

 ness of the metaphysician to acknowledge it, we 

 must insist that the idea of poetry cannot be 

 divorced from the incident of ' making,' whether 

 we call it with Wordsworth 'impMrioBMd expres- 

 sion ' or employ the broader and simpler word 

 'execution.' Until the passion and the truth are 

 fused into actual speech, and until that speech 

 takes a rhythmical form, those elements may be 

 as ' poetical ' as you please, but they do not form 

 poetry. None of the wild words of Mr Kuskin 

 deserve an immortality of repudiation more 

 thoroughly than the following pnrase, which is 

 always on the lips of those who write laxly and 

 nebulously about the poetic art. ' No weight nor 

 mass nor beauty of execution can outweigh one 

 grain or fragment of thought,' says Mr Hiiskin. 

 If this were true, half of the noblest poetry in the 

 world would cease to possess any value. Thought 

 may and often does accompany the expression of 

 the poetic art, but it is not essential to it in the 

 sense in which .Mr Kuskin uses the word, as an 

 original act of the intellectual faculty. The few 

 poets, indeed, who have aimed at producing ' chains 

 of valuable thoughts' have rarely succeeded in 

 doing more than giving tuneful expression to 

 thought reflected from other and more ratiocinative 

 minds. Even when a poet, such as Coleridge, has 

 been eminently deductive and argumentative in his 

 prose, he has generally been sensuous and simple 

 in his verse. In the peculiar sense in which Sir 

 Rnskin uses the word ' execution,' as directly dis- 

 tinguished from 'thought,' the work of the great 

 poets has seldom possessed the latter quality in 

 any notable degree. 



It is desirable to define what is meant by ' execu- 

 tion,' for on this depends our whole conception of 

 the practice of poetry as an art. It is not confined 

 to an observance of the technical laws of this form 

 of composition, to a correct and beautiful use of 

 rhythm, of stanzaic form, of rime, and of that 

 'variety in unity' in which the charm of verse 

 consists. All this is part of poetical execution, 

 and an extremely important part. In most cases 

 it may be said to be an indis|iensable part. But 

 it is not all. Execution in |K>etry, as in the other 

 fine arts, is the mechanical performance by which 

 the effect desired is produced in the most perfect 

 and most characteristic manner, so as in the 

 happiest combination to illustrate the nature of 

 the art itself and the individuality of the artist. 

 A the medium in which the poet works is lan- 

 guage, execution in his case is the arrangement of 

 the best words in the best order, the best order 

 being, in all but a few anomalous cases, a rhythmi- 

 cal one. The technical laws of verse, however, 

 deal only with 'the best order.' There remain, as 

 a part of execution, 'the best words. ' This section 

 of the definition covers all the intellectual pro- 

 priety, the moral passion, the verbal felicity, the 

 myriad charms and graces, of which 'the best 

 order' is but the vehicle. It is part of a poet's 

 technical work, part of his business as a 'maker,' 

 to produce this manifold perfection of regulated 

 language, and all these beauties of expression 

 ana feeling cannot be rudely divided from that 

 ' execution of which they are an inherent feature. 

 The bad poet may have the intellect of Locke 

 or of Spinoza; he will learn by the total neglect 

 <>f his verses that in poetry no weight nor mam 

 of thought can outweigh one grain of executive 

 skill. 



It would, nevertheless, Iw a grave error to insist 

 so emphatically on the importance of the outward 

 form of poetry as to encourage neglect of its inward 



character. In a definition of poetry it has been 

 deemed needful to dwell here on the fact that it is 

 primarily an art and subjected to definite law-. 

 Hut, as Joubert has said, ' the lyre is a winged 

 instrument,' and the closest attention to its con 

 stnictive mechanism will not give it the j>ower of 

 (light if inspiration l>e lacking. The vivid pleasure 

 produced by the best poetry is due in large measure 

 to the merits of ita execution its music, the splen- 

 dour of its images, the harmony and felicity of it> 

 arrangement of language. But there is something 

 beyond and above this ' complex feeling of delight ; 

 there is a spiritual emotion which is the spon- 

 taneous result of close attention to great poetry, 

 and which is created in the soul only by verse that 

 is of the highest value. This emotion is founded 

 on the Aristotelian qualities of ' the higher truth ' 

 and 'the higher seriousness,' and is inseparable 

 from, though not to be confounded with, the mere 

 physical delight in lovely sounds and marshalled 

 groups of images. In this exquisite passion of 

 poetry there is something supernatural, which 

 evades analysis. It combines the experience of 

 life with the hope of immortality, and fuses what 

 has been felt and witnessed into what has only 

 been, and can only be, imagined. The literature 

 of all countries ami of all ages has proved that this 

 subtle and divine emotion is produced in its most 

 direct form by the art of language rhythmically 

 arranged, and to this art is given the name of 

 Poetry. 



The prose fragment called the Poctiei of Aristotle is 

 the earliest and most important treatise on the art of 

 poetry which has come down to ui from antiquity. 

 What is commonly known as Horace's ' Art of Poetry ' 

 gives us the views of an admirable Latin writer on 

 verse and on the poet. In 1527 Vida published his Latin 

 poem, An Poctiea, which exercised a great authority, 

 and was by many students preferred to Horace. Of 

 more modern interest is Scaligef's treatise, Poctiea 

 Libri Septem (1561). The first manual of modern 

 Italian prosody was Girolamo Muzio's A rie Poctiea (1561). 

 In the England of Elizabeth we have three important 

 treatises on the art, An Apology for Poetry (1595), by 

 Sir 1'hilip Kidney ; A Ltiteourte of Knjliih, Poetry (1586), 

 l,y \\~. Webbe; and The Art of Bngliih Potty (1589), by 

 George Puttenham. In France the first important 

 treatise on the subject was the Art P<ti'/u< /-rnn^aa 

 (1604), by Vauquelin de la Fresnaye. Nicolas Boileau, 

 'the Lawgiver of Parnassus,' wrote an Art Poctiqve. 

 Among French works of the 18th century the most 

 important are TraiU de la Protodie Franeaite (1736), 

 by Olivet, and Reflexion* ntr la Point (1752), by Louis 

 Racine. Dryden's Kuay on Dramatic Poetry belongs to 

 1669. Among modern works must be cited that portion 

 of Hegel's ,Ktthetik. Guest's Hittory ofKnglith JUiythu 

 (1838 ; new ed. 1882) remains the best authority on British 

 prosody, while the Petit TraiU de Poetie franfauc is 

 greatly to be recommended. 



See also in this work ENGLISH LITERATURE, the 

 sections on literature in the articles on the several 

 countries, and the articles HAI.I.AH. ISI.ANK VKKSK, 

 DIDACTIC POKTRT, DRAMA, Krxa. Kn< I'OKTRT, EPI- 

 GRAM, GNOME, HYMN, LYRIC, METRE, out. |'\-THRAL 

 POETRY, RHYME, SATIRE, SONNET. There are separate arti- 

 cle* on all the best-known poets, including the following : 



GREEK. 



Homer (about 000). 



Aitoni raooi 



Nupptm ('130-570 B.C.). 

 Aschjrlus (525-461 B.C.). 

 Pindar (524-422 B.C.). 

 Sophocles (495-405 B.C.V 

 Euripides (480-401) B.C.). 

 Arltophan<w (448-888 E.C.). 

 Menander (342-291 B.C.). 



LATIN. 



Plautus (254-184 B.C.). 

 185-159 B.C.). 

 I.ucn>tiu(W?-5S.c.). 

 Catullus (87-64 B.C.). 



M.C.). 

 Horace (05-8 B.C.). 



LATIN. 



Titiulliw (54-18 B.C.). 

 Promrtlus (50- 1C B.C.). 

 Ovld(43.c. -18 A.D.). 

 Lucan (89-65 A.D.). 

 Martial (41-104 A.D.). 

 Juvenal (55-130? A.D.X 



ITALIAN. 



Dante (1265-1321). 

 Petrarch (1304-74). 

 Hoimnlo (1434-94). 

 ArlcMtu 1 1474-1533). 

 Taiwo (1493-1669). 

 Ooldonl (1707-93). 

 Alfteri (1749-18031. 

 MaiizoM < ITS.',- 1873). 

 Leopard! (1798-1887). 



