2 Prosscr Hall Fryc 



is, the thought or the sentiment must be just and the language 

 suitable — clear, discursive, without grammatical violence, ellipses, 

 inversions, and the like. He was not the first, as a matter of 

 fact, to make wit and poetry synonymous ; but he was the first to 

 give that definition the support of a systematic criticism and the 

 authority of a powerful example. "Wit," he says, is "a propriety 

 of thoughts and words."^ And again, "a thing well said is wit in 

 any language." If poetry, therefore, is nothing else than wit, 

 poetry must obviously consist in a propriety of thoughts and 

 words or in saying a thing well. And as this was virtually the 

 idea of poetry that was to obtain for nearly a century and a half 

 in English literature under the general canon of correctness, it 

 would be as well to scrutinize it rather closely. 



After all, it can not be denied that there is poetic quality in 

 mere neatness of expression. The saying of a thing simply, 

 clearly, and pointedly is poetic in itself. The French have al- 

 ways recognized such a character in aptness of expression ; in- 

 deed, rhyme aside, much of their poetry differs from prose only 

 in being more nicely expressed. And the French are right as 

 usual in these matters ; for such a style is essentially organic. It 

 fills the mind with perfectly clear ideas and images, and dispels 

 the vague, the obscure, and the nebulous. It is this property of 

 exquisite aptitude, of saying a thing plainly and yet fitly, which 

 contributes to make Keats' Grecian Urn what it is — classic poetry 

 in the noblest sense. 



"What little town 1iy river or sea shore 

 Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel. 



Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?" 



Or to take an example from Dryden himself : 



"But Shakespeare's magic could not copied he, 

 Within that circle none durst walk but he." 



Though there is, to be sure, imagination, or at least fancy, in the 

 figure; it is the propriety of the expression as a whole which is 

 mainlv responsible for the charm — a propriety which would not 

 be amiss in prose but w^ould be in its degree poetic anywhere. 



'Dryden. The .liitlior's ApoloL'iy for Heroic Poetry and Poetic License. 



