Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/1074



APPENDIX IV.

TO PART FOURTH, OR PROSODY.

OF POETIC DICTION.

Poetry, as defined by Dr. Blair, "is the language of passion, or of enlivened imagination, formed, most commonly, into regular numbers."--Rhet., p. 377. The style of poetry differs, in many respects, from that which is commonly adopted in prose. Poetic diction abounds in bold figures of speech, and unusual collocations of words. A great part of the figures, which have been treated of in one of the chapters of Prosody, are purely poetical. The primary aim of a poet, is, to please and to move; and, therefore, it is to the imagination, and the passions, that he speaks. He may also, and he should, have it in his view, to instruct and to reform; but it is indirectly, and by pleasing and moving, that such a writer accomplishes this end. The exterior and most obvious distinction of poetry, is versification: yet there are some forms of verse so loose and familiar, as to be hardly distinguishable from prose; and there is also a species of prose, so measured in its cadences, and so much raised in its tone, as to approach very nearly to poetic numbers.

This double approximation of some poetry to prose, and of some prose to poetry, not only makes it a matter of acknowledged difficulty to distinguish, by satisfactory definitions, the two species of composition, but, in many instances, embarrasses with like difficulty the attempt to show, by statements and examples, what usages or licenses, found in English works, are proper to be regarded as peculiarities of poetic diction. It is purposed here, to enumerate sundry deviations from the common style of prose; and perhaps all of them, or nearly all, may be justly considered as pertaining only to poetry.

POETICAL PECULIARITIES.

The following are among the chief peculiarities in which the poets indulge, and are indulged:--

I. They not unfrequently omit the ARTICLES, for the sake of brevity or metre; as,

"What dreadful pleasure! there to stand sublime,   Like shipwreck'd mariner on desert coast!" --Beattie's Minstrel, p. 12.

"Sky lour'd, and, muttering thunder, some sad drops   Wept at completing of the mortal sin." --Milton, P. L., B. ix, l. 1002.

II. They sometimes abbreviate common NOUNS, after a manner of their own: as, amaze, for amazement; acclaim, for acclamation; consult, for consultation; corse, for corpse; eve or even, for evening; fount, for fountain; helm, for helmet; lament, for lamentation; morn, for morning; plaint, for complaint; targe, for target; weal, for wealth.

III. By enallage, they use verbal forms substantively, or put verbs for nouns; perhaps for brevity, as above: thus,

1. "Instant, without disturb, they took alarm." --''P. Lost: Joh. Dict., w. Aware.''

2. "The gracious Judge, without revile reply'd." --P. Lost, B. x, l. 118.

3. "If they were known, as the suspect is great." --Shakspeare.

4. "Mark, and perform it: seest thou? for the fail      Of any point in't shall be death." --Shakspeare.

IV. They employ several nouns that are not used in prose, or are used but rarely; as, benison, boon, emprise, fane, guerdon, guise, ire, ken, lore, meed, sire, steed, welkin, yore.

V. They introduce the noun self after an other noun of the possessive case; as,

1. "Affliction's semblance bends not o'er thy tomb,      Affliction's self deplores thy youthful doom."--Byron.

2. "Thoughtless of beauty, she was beauty's self."--Thomson.

VI. They place before the verb nouns, or other words, that usually come after it; and, after it, those that usually come before it: as,

1. "No jealousy their dawn of love o'ercast,   Nor blasted were their wedded days with strife." --Beattie.

2. "No hive hast thou of hoarded sweets." --W. Allen's Gram.

3. "Thy chain a wretched weight shall prove." --Langhorne.