Page:Monsieur Bossu's Treatise of the epick poem - Le Bossu (1695).djvu/54

10 The Repetition, which the Poets make use of, seems still the same in the way of Writing: for, when one Verse is finish'd, they come back again to the beginning of another Line to write the next Verse. And this coming back again, is that which gives it the Name of Verse; and this Name in Latin is common to Verses, and several other things that are rang'd, as they are, in different Lines; as Trees, for instance, which are set in Rows.

The Latins call Verses likewise by the Name of Carmina; but this is an Equivocal Term: for besides its signifying Verses, or Poems, it may be used to express other things. 'Tis a Term that is given to the Singing of Birds, to the Charms of Magick, to certain Forms of Law, to Inscriptions or Devices, to Epitaphs, and other such like things.

For the making of Verses, 'tis not enough to take care of the Measure and Quantity of the Syllables, and to place six Feet just after one another in the same Line; there must be likewise some grateful Cadences, of which there are several Rules laid down in treating about Cæsura's, Synalepha's, the Length of Words, and the like. Besides this, there must be some Tenses of Verbs, some Moods, some Regiments, some Constructions, and some Words proper only to Verse, and which Prose knows nothing of.

But above all, there must be in Verse the Turn, and some ways of speaking that are elevated, bold, and metaphorical; which are so proper to this kind of Writing, that without them the most exact placing of long and short Syllables is not so much Verse as Prose in Metre: And, on the contrary, these bold Expressions, so proper to Verse, when used in a Discourse that has not Feet nor Poetical Numbers, do give it such an Air of Verse, that it is not so properly Prose, as a kind of Poesie without Numbers, and as Horace says, Disjecti Membra Poetæ.

As Nature does not inspire into us the Rules of Poetry and Verse; so neither does Art and Study help us to that Air, that Force, and that Elevation, in which Horace discovers something that is Divine, and which only makes a Man deserve the Name of Poet. This is an Accomplishment a Man should be born with, owing either to the