POETRY. 



produces it. To go about to describe it 

 would be like attempting to define inspi- 

 ration, or that glow of fancy, or effusion 

 of soul, which a poet feels while in his fit ; 

 a sensation so strong, thai they exptess it 

 only by adjurings, exclamations, and rap- 

 ture." To the same purpose, but in less 

 inflated language, Dr. Blair has observed, 

 thai it is not so easy as might at first be 

 imagined, to ascertain, with minute pre- 

 cisio'i, wherein poetry differs from prose. 

 In point of fact, every reflecting reader 

 must be sensible, that as it is difficult to 

 determine the precise line where different 

 shades of colour terminate, or even the 

 boundaries of animal and vegetable na- 

 ture, so it is a matter of no small nicety 

 to fix the point where composition rises 

 from the scale of prose to that of poetry. 



By a small addition to the ideas of 

 Aristotle, poetry may, however, be de- 

 fined an imitative and creative art, whose 

 energies are exerted by means of words 

 metrically arranged, the end and design 

 of which" art is to amuse the fancy, and 

 powerfully to excite the feelings. 



It is the favourite expression of Aristo- 

 tle, that poety is a mimetic or imitative 

 art ; and in most particulars it may be 

 justly so defined. The subjects of the 

 poet's imitation are the scenes of nature, 

 and the transactions of human life. This 

 we shall find to be the case, if we parti- 

 cularly examine the productions of those 

 to whom the concurrent voice of ages 

 has given the title of poet. When we 

 open the Iliad of Homer, we behold a 

 lively representation of the actions and 

 speeches of heroes and chiefs. The 

 dramas of JEschylus, of Sophocles, of 

 Aristophanes, and of their numerous 

 tribes of successors, are nothing more 

 than imitations of human manners. And 

 when the lover displays his passion in 

 song, what does he but exhibit to view 

 the tablet of his heart, where we may 

 trace his feelings, and view him agitated 

 by doubt or exulting in hope. The chief 

 interest of didactic poetry consists in the 

 vivid and picturesque descriptions, the 

 imitations or representations of nature, 

 which relieve the insipidity of unorna- 

 mented precept. This is manifest, when 

 it is recollected, that the pleasure excited 

 by the Georgic of Virgil is not occasion- 

 ed by his agricultural instructions, but by 

 his descriptions of the various pheno- 

 mena, which in the course of rural occu- 

 pation v arrest the attention of the lover 

 of nature. 



The word poet, in its original import, 

 signifies creator. And as names are not 



unfrequently significant of the nature of 

 the ideas which they represent, the name 

 itself of poetry will direct us to one of its 

 most distinguishing characteristics. It is 

 indeed one of the noblest qualities of 

 poetry, that it opens to the mind a new 

 creation. 



"The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy 



rolling, 

 Doth glance from heaven to earth, 



from earth to heaven ; 

 And as imagination bodies forth 

 The form of things unknown, the poet's 



pen 

 Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy 



nothing 

 A local habitation and a name." ' 



The poet enjoys/the privilege of ranging 

 through the boundless field of possibili- 

 ties, and of selecting his objects accord- 

 ing to the impulse of his fancy, as con- 

 trouled and corrected by the discretion 

 of his judgment. What is striking and in- 

 teresting he may make prominent in his 

 picture ; what is offensive, deformed, or 

 gross, he is at liberty to conceal or to 

 soften. In the realities of life a thousand 

 circumstances intervene to check the en- 

 thusiastic interest which our hearts are 

 disposed to take in any specific occur- 

 rence. These circumstances the poet 

 has a prescriptive right to exclude from 

 his representations. As all ideas of men 

 are primitively derived from objects of 

 sense, he cannot go beyond the materials 

 which the station and the powers of man 

 supply. But he can, by an endless com- 

 bination of these materials, produce ideal 

 beings and fancied situations, which in- 

 terest us the more, the better the powers 

 of fiction to which they owe their birth are 

 concealed from us. Like the favoured 

 statuary of Greece, he is surrounded by 

 naked beauties, from each of which he 

 selects its peculiar excellency, and pro- 

 duces a whole, which, though strictly na- 

 tural, surpasses the realities of nature. 



The mathematician, in his investiga- 

 tion of truth, is confined to the narrow 

 path of reason. The same may be said of 

 the philosopher. The slightest deviation 

 into the fields of imagination frustrates 

 their pursuit, and disappoints their hopes 

 of fame. The historian must found his 

 reputation upon a patient investigation of 

 facts, and beware of giving the loosened 

 rein to his inventive talents. The orator, 

 indeed, calls fancy to the aid of reason ; 

 but she ought to be strictly an auxiliary. 

 If his edifice be not founded on the solid 



