Vol. I. No. 19 
BEVERLY, MASS., SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1904 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED-TO-THE: BEST: INTERESTS:OF- THENORTH SHORE 
EF iLshrvova, 
Three Cents 
POETRY. 
BY D. F. LAMSON. 
To define Poetry scientifically is as 
difficult as to define sweetness or light. 
But the following may serve as a 
definition in want of a better: Poetry 
is the use of language in an emotional 
and rhythmical form. The word poet, 
first used by Herodotus of a writer of 
verse, means ‘“‘ maker,’’ and some have 
held that the distinctive mark of poetry 
isinvention ; but this would leave little 
distinction between poetry and imag- 
inative writing in general. There is 
in poetry, as we use the term, a certain 
elevation of style, an emotion which 
kindles the sou] so that it seeks ex- 
pression in harmonious numbers. We 
recognize the poetic spirit in Chaucer, 
Shakespeare, Milton and Tennyson, 
as something different from the stately 
and poetic prose of writers like Hooker, 
Bacon, Jeremy Taylor and Macaulay. 
The poet sees by a “vision and faculty 
divine’ deeper truths than other men, 
and speaks them in a loftier language 
—a language born of high emotion 
and expressed in noblest forms of art. 
Poetry may be said to differ from 
prose in having a regular number of 
accented syllables, following each 
other in a certain order. This is 
called metre; the long and short sy]l- 
lables are arranged according to cer- 
tain laws of prosody. In addition to 
metrical arrangement, poetry employs 
unusual words and terms of expres- 
sion. Coleridge says that “‘ prose is 
words in their best order, poetry the 
best words in the best order.” 
Poetry abounds in figures of speech, 
in pictorial form, in imaginative adorn- 
ment. More than this, there is in all 
true poetry some undefinable essence, 
something that we can no more anal- 
yze than the fragrance of a rose or the 
beauty of asunset. It is something 
which appeals to the poetic sense. 
Without this there may be a faultless 
choice of words, an artful balancing 
of sentences, there may be brilliant 
antithesis, but there is not poetry. 
The soul is wanting. Lowell, after 
expressing his admiration for the con- 
summate art of Pope’s artificiality, 
raises the question whether there is 
not ‘a real, vital distinction between 
the language of prose raised to a high 
degree of metrical efficiency, and the 
language of poetry.”’ 
The process of poetic composition 
seems to be something like this: The 
imagination first becomes excited and 
then creative. Both parts of this 
process have been put in immortal 
verse by Shakespeare : 
“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 forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen 
Turns them to shape, and gives to airy 
nothing 
A local habitation and a name.” 
Poetry is often divided into Epic, 
Dramatic and Lyric. Wordsworth’s 
classification is much more elaborate, 
and includes in addition Narrative, 
Idyllic, Didactic and Philosophical. If, 
however, the great aim of poetry, as 
has been said, is to please by its art 
of versification, its surprises of thought, 
its rhythmic and harmonious measure, 
the two last-named classes, Didactic 
and Philosophical, in which Words- 
worth himself excelled, seem to be 
ruled out. 
Epic poetry has been variously de- 
fined. Blair defines an Epic poem as 
“a recital of some illustrious enter- 
prise in a poetic form.” 
THE WILLOW ROAD, MAGNOLIA. 
One of the most picturesque roadways on t 
Shaded by huge trees that give to it its name, i 1 ba 
beautiful view of the harbor, the bathing beach, Kettle island and a splendid bit of shore line. 
TL N/ 
he North Shore is the famous Willow road at Magnolia. 
t winds about the beautiful bay, giving to the tourist a 
Webster: ‘‘An heroic poem 
in which real or fictitious 
events, usually the achieve- 
ments of some hero, are 
narrated in an_ elevated 
style.’ Dryden, following 
Aristotle, lays down the 
rule that an Epic is a poem 
in which the action is ‘“al- 
ways one, entire and great.” 
In like manner, Addison, 
in his famous Criticisms on 
Milton, says that the action 
of an heroic poem ‘ should. 
have three qualifications in 
it: first, it should be but 
one action; secondly, it 
should be an entire action ; 
and thirdly, it should be a 
great action.’’ In other 
words, an Epic should have 
unity, completeness, great- 
ness. Three poems, with- 
out any question, meet this 
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