Poetry

as commonly used, the expression in rhythmical and metrical form of ideal and imaginative thought touched by emotion. The giving of an accurate and satisfactory definition of the word poetry involves the consideration, not only of the subject matter in its relation to both poet and reader, but also of what constitutes artistic expression as regards choice of words and figures and metrical form. Macaulay in his Essay on Milton defines poetry as the "art of doing by means of words what the painter does by means of colors." According to this definition, metrical form is not necessary to true poetry; and, when we regard its effect upon us, such prose as the Book of Ruth, the Song of Solomon, Pilgrim's Progress, certain passages in Longfellow's Kavanaugh and in the writings of Ruskin, of Emerson, of Dickens, of Hawthorne, are, in fact, poetry. In the common use of the term, however, poetry possesses both meter and rhythm. Ruskin defines it as "the suggestion by the imagination, in musical words, of noble grounds for noble emotions,--love, veneration, admiration, and joy, with their opposites."

It is an interesting fact that among all peoples poetry has been the earliest form of literature. It is the natural and spontaneous expression of exalted emotion. Prose is the expression of calmer thought. It is from the intellect. Poetry comes from the heart. As regards the nature of the feeling and thought expressed, poetry may be classed as lyric, epic and dramatic. Lyric poetry is distinctively the poetry of emotion, of song; epic, the poetry of narration; and dramatic, the poetry of action, the poetry of the stage. The following classification may prove convenient:

Where needful, these subdivisions are treated under separate heads, as HYMN; ELEGY; SONNET; ODE; EPIC; BALLAD; IDYLL; PASTORAL; TRAGEDY; COMEDY; DRAMA.

Didactic and satirical poetry are lower forms involving little imagination or emotion. They are addressed to the intellect or reason, rather than to the feelings. Didactic poetry aims to give instruction, as Pope's Essay on Man. Satirical poetry aims to expose evils and to work reforms, political or social. Butler's Hudibras and Lowell's Biglow Papers belong to this class.

Two or more forms of poetry are united frequently in some one production. Spenser's Faerie Queene, though epic in character, is also didactic. Many epics and dramas contain lyrical passages. There are, moreover, many poems which cannot be placed under any one of the subdivisions, since they lack the specific features necessary to make them assignable to any particular class. Hood's Song of a Shirt and Burns' To a Mountain Daisy are examples of lyrics which can not be classed readily.

Versification or prosody is concerned with the form or structure of poetry, the meter and rhythm. Rhythm is the recurrence of accented and unaccented syllables. Theoretically all spoken language has rhythm. Practically prose is said to possess rhythm if the arrangement of accented syllables is such as to be noticeable and to fall pleasingly upon the ear. For instance, in the following passage from Dickens, we find rhythm.

Then up rose Mrs. Cratchit, Cratchit's wife, dressed out but poorly in a twice-turned gown, but brave in ribbons, which are cheap, and make a goodly show for sixpence.

Should we change it to read:

Cratchit's wife, Mrs. Cratchit, poorly dressed in a gown which she had turned twice, but with ribbons on it, which are cheap and make a good show for a sixpence, rose up.

the rhythmical effect is largely lost. In the following description of a snowstorm from Longfellow's Kavanaugh, the rhythm is very evident.

The first snow came. How beautiful it was falling so silently, all day long, all night long, on the mountains, on the meadows, on the roofs of the living, on the graves of the dead! All white save the river that marked its course by a winding black line across the landscape, and the leafless trees that against the leaden sky now revealed more clearly the wonderful beauty and intricacy of their branches!

What silence, too, came with the snow and what seclusion! Every sound was muffled, every noise changed to something soft and musical. No more trampling hoofs, no more rattling wheels! Only the chiming sleighbells beating as swift and merrily as the hearts of children.

In poetry the accent or stress recurs at regular intervals. Meter means measure, and a metrical production is one in which the rhythm is measured off; that is, the syllables are grouped, each group containing one accented syllable, and one or more unaccented syllables. Such a group is called a foot. A line, or speaking properly, a verse, contains from one to eight feet. The verses are grouped usually into stanzas.

In English verse the meter is determined by the number of feet, from one to eight, in a line. The varieties of meter are designated by the names of the Greek numerals. Monometer has one foot to a line; dimeter, two; trimeter, three; tetrameter, four; pentameter, five; hexameter, six; heptameter, seven; octometer, eight. The rhythm is determined by the kind of foot. A foot consists usually of either two or three syllables. Of two syllables or dissyllabic feet, the most important are the iamb or iambus and the trochee. The iambus consists of an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable. It is the most common foot in English poetry.

Mine eyes'| have seen'| the glo'| ry of'| the com'| ing of'| the Lord'.

The rhythm of this line is iambic. As there are seven feet, the meter is heptameter, or, as usually expressed, the meter is iambic heptameter.

An hon'| est ma'n's| the no'| blest wo'rk| of Go'd. is iambic pentameter. This meter is used by Shakespeare and many of the Elizabethan poets. Nearly all of Pope's poems are in this meter. It is called often the heroic measure. A verse of six iambic feet, also a much used measure, is called the Alexandrine measure.

While sad'| Night o'| ver him'| her man'| tle black'| doth spread'.

The trochee is a dissyllabic foot in which the first syllable receives the accent.

is trochaic tetrameter. A three syllabled or trisyllabic foot, consisting of an accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables, is called a dactyll.

This' is the | for'est pri | me'val: the | mur'muring | pines' and the | hem'locks

is a verse in dactyllic hexameter. Virgil's Aeneid is in this measure. A trisyllabic foot, consisting of two unaccented syllables followed by one accented syllable, is an anapest.

Here we have in the first line anapestic tetrameter and in the second anapestic trimeter. Often a verse contains more than one kind of foot, in which case it is named from the prevailing foot. An unaccented syllable is sometimes omitted, leaving a foot incomplete, a pause taking the place of the missing syllable. This occurs more often at the end of a verse. Pauses occur in poetry as they do in prose, the sense suggesting the pause. The most important pause coming in the body of a line is called the caesura. The caesura is not essential, but is common, especially in long lines.

Rhyme, while of common occurrence in poetry, is not essential. In lyric poetry, it is almost universal. Rhyme consists of a correspondence in the sound of words. The rhyming words are usually the terminals of lines, although rhyme may occur within a line. In Shelley's The Cloud, we have both forms of rhyme, as

The indention of lines of poetry is of importance. In unrhymed poetry the lines all stand on the same margin. When rhymes occur, the lines which rhyme stand in the same margin provided they are of the same length.

In the foregoing stanza of Moore's well known song we notice that the first and third lines stand on the same margin, the second and fourth, the fifth and sixth. In the remaining four lines also, the first and fourth, and the second and third, are similarly indented. In stanzas of irregular meter the length of line is considered in arrangement. In regular stanzas the rhyme decides the indention.

No two critics would agree probably in making a list of the greatest English poems. Young people desiring to form a taste for poetry, however, can not go amiss in the following list: