And now, lastly, will be the time to read with them those organic arts, which inable men to discourse and write perspicuously, elegantly, and according to the fitted stile of lofty, mean, or lowly. Logic, therefore, so much as is useful, is to be referr'd to this due place with all her well-coucht Heads and Topics, untill it be time to open her contracted palm into a graceful and ornate Rhetoric taught out of the rule of Plato, Aristotle, Phalereus, Cicero, Hermogenes, Longinus. To which Poetry would be made subsequent, or indeed rather precedent, as being less suttle and fine, but more simple, sensuous, and passionate. I mean not here the prosody of a verse, which they could not but have hit on before among the rudiments of Grammar; but that sublime Art which in Aristotles Poetics, in Horace, and the Italian Commentaries of Castelvetro, Tasso, Mazzoni, and others, teaches what the laws are of a true Epic Poem, what of a Dramatic, what of a Lyric, what Decorum is, which is the grand masterpiece to observe. This would make them soon perceive what despicable creatures our common Rimers and Play-writers be: and shew them what religious, what glorious and magnificent use might be made of Poetry, both in divine and humane things. From hence, and not till now, will be the right season of forming them to be able Writers and Composers in every excellent matter, when they shall be thus fraught with an universal insight into things. DRYDEN Two Passages The "Apology" served as preface to Dryden's impossible opera (adapted from Milton's "Paradise Lost," "The State of Innocence and Fall of Man," first published in 1674. The work was dedicated to the then Duchess of York, Mary of Modena, potential Queen of James 11. IMAGING is, in itself, the very height and life of poetry. It is, as Longinus describes it, a discourse, which by a kind of enthusiasm, or extraordinary emotion of the soul, makes it seem to us, that we behold those things which the poet paints, so as to be pleased with them, and to admire them. If poetry be imitation, that part of it must needs be best, which describes most lively our actions and passions;/ our virtues and our vices; our follies and our humours: For neither is comedy without its part of imaging; and they who do it best are certainly the most excellent in their kind. ... I PROMISED to say somewhat of Poetic Licence, but have in part anticipated my discourse already. Poetic Licence, I take to be the liberty which poets have assumed to themselves, in all ages, of speaking things in verse, which are beyond the severity of prose. It is that particular character, which distinguishes and sets the bounds betwixt oratio soluta and poetry. This, as to what regards the thought, or imagination of a poet, consists in fiction: but then those thoughts must be expressed; and here arise two other branches of it; for if this licence be included in a single word, it admits of tropes; if in a sentence or proposition, of figures; both which are of a much larger extent, and more forcibly to be used in verse than prose. This is that birthright which is derived to us from our great forefathers, even from Homer down to Ben; and they, who would deny it to us, have, in plain terms, the fox's quarrel to the grapes--they cannot reach it. Passage on POPE From the Preface to Homer's Iliad, 1715. "WE acknowledge him the father of poetical diction, the first who taught that language of the Gods to men. His expression is like the colouring of some great masters, which discovers itself to be laid on boldly, and executed with rapidity. It is indeed the strongest and most glowing imaginable, and touched with the greatest spirit. Aristotle had reason to say, He was the only poet who had found out living words; there are in him more daring figures and metaphors than in any good author whatever. An arrow is impatient to be on the wing, a weapon thirsts to drink the blood of an enemy, and the like. Yet his expression is never too big for the sense, but justly great in proportion to it." A Style of -www From a Letter to Walsh. Oct. 22, 1706. "It is not enough that nothing offends the ear, but a good poet will adapt the very sounds, as well as words, to the things he treats of. So that there is (if one may express it so) a style of sound." Lines on GOLDSMITH (1728-1774) Poetry from "The AND ND thou, sweet poetry, thou loveliest maid, Still first to fly where sensual joys invade! Unfit in these degenerate times of shame, To catch the heart or strike for honest fame : Dear charming nymph, neglected and decried, My shame in crowds, my solitary pride; Thou source of all my bliss and all my woe, Thou found'st me poor at first and keep'st me so. Thou guide by which the nobler arts excel, Thou nurse of every virtue, fare thee well! |