POETRY. 
Employed to pruHe the luxuriant shoots of 
fancy. 
It is the grand source of the excellence 
of poetic imitation, that this imitation is 
effected by words. Aristotle has defined 
words as “ sounds significant they are 
significant of ideas. Men that adopt the 
same language, by a tacit compact, agree 
that certain sounds shall be the representa- 
tives of certain ideas. But ideas represent 
their archetypes. When, therefore, we use 
words, we revive in the minds of those who 
understand our language the pictures of the 
objects of which we speak. The poetic 
imitation then being carried on by means 
of words, evidently embraces all objects of 
which mankind have ever formed ideas. Its 
energies are not crippled. It expatiates in 
the universe, and even passes 
— “ the flaming bounds of space and time.” 
This circumstance is justly noted by the 
ingenious Mr. Harris, as bestowing upon 
poetry a decisive superiority over the art of 
painting. Tiie energies of painting are 
confined to those objects that can be repre- 
sented by colour and figure. Poetry can 
also express these objects, though it must 
be confessed, with a far inferior degree of 
exquisiteness ; but this deficiency is amply 
compensated by the extensive range of 
the poet’s excursions. He dives into the 
human heart, deyelopes the windings of the 
heart, poui trays in all their circumstances 
the workings of the passions, gives form 
and body to the most abstract ideas, and 
by the language which he puts into the 
mouths of his characters he unlocks the 
secrets of their mind. There is another 
grand advantage which the poet possesses 
over tite painter, namely, that the latter is 
confined to the transactions that happen in 
a moment of time; while the former pre- 
sents to orrr view a long series of consecu- 
tive events. An interesting picture might 
no doubt be drawn of the pious agony witli 
which jEneas witnessed the obstinacy of his 
father in refusing to save himself from the 
sword of the Greeks by quitting Iris ancient 
and long loved abode. But what a varied 
pleasure do we experience in reading of tire 
circumstances that preceded and that fol- 
lowed this event, in tracing the steps of the 
duteous son from the palace of Priam to his 
father’s mansion, and in beholding him at 
length bearing his parent beyond the reach 
of the foe. Aristotle’s doctrine, that a 
finished composition should have a begin- 
ning, a middle, and an end, is founded oi? 
reason ; and the miud feels a superior de- 
gree of satisfaction, when the rise, the cir- 
cumstances, and the consequences of events 
are displayed before rt in artful order. 
But the poetic imitation or representa- 
tion is effected, not merely by words, but 
by words metrically, or at least melodiously, 
arranged. 
Melody is naturally pleasing to the human 
ear; and it is not surprizing, that the culti- 
vators of an art, whose province it is to de- 
light, should be careful in bringing as nearly 
as possible to perfection the melody of 
their numbers. It is astonishing with what 
accuracy the Greeks and Romans attended 
to this particular; how minutely they 
weighed the value of almost every syllable ; 
how strictly their bards were obliged to 
conform to the established standard. In 
modern times, and in our own language, 
greater latitude is allowed ; yet almost 
every reader of poetry is aware of the 
charms of melodious composition. What a 
sensible difference do we perceive between 
the careless couplets of Churchill and the 
polished numbers of Pope. How much 
more pleasing to tlie ear are the measured 
sentences of M'Pherson, than a host of 
lines which we sometimes find printed in 
the form of verses. 
But though meiodious and metrical ar- 
rangement of words be one of the charac- 
teristics, and, as Dr. Blair denominates it, 
“ the exterior distinction” of poetry, it is 
necessary to observe, that too many wi iters 
seem to assign to this characteristic a place 
of eminence to which it is by no means en- 
titled. In consequence of this error, vast 
multitudes of compo.sitions are obtruded up- 
on the world under the name of poems, 
which possess no other merit than that of 
regulaiity of versification and smoothness 
of numbers. Against these wearisome pro- 
ductions Horace has long ago protested in 
his memorable declaration, that the quality 
of mediocrity is denied to poets, and that 
poetry includes something mere in its defini- 
tion than the measuring of syllables and the 
tagging of a verse. If the heart does not 
glow with the flame of genius, the mechanism 
of art will be of no avail. No one can excite 
strong feelings in others who is not himself 
strongly excited ; no one can raise vivid 
images in the mind of his reader who is not 
himself illumined by the sportive light of 
fancy. Verses strictly and legitimately 
measured out, with due attention to pause 
