the interest it imparts to objects remotely connected with it, and of themselves trivial; as relics, keepsakes, souvenirs, local associations, and the like. (5) Power to submerge opposing states. The love of Jacob for Rachel was evinced by his submitting to fourteen years' service on her account. (6) Comparisons. As in Gray Sweet is the breath of vernal shower, The bee's collected treasures sweet, Sweet music's melting fall, but sweeter yet The still small voice of gratitude. Hamlet, at his lowest depths, exclaims: 'Man delights not me; no, nor woman neither'. By a common hyperbole, in representing the love passion, Tennyson, in Maud,' makes the lover speak thus: I have led her home, my love, my only friend, There is none like her, none. So, in In Memoriam '— Dear as the mother to the son, More than my brothers are to me. In the catastrophe of 'The Rape of the Lock,' Pope portrays the heroine's intensity of emotion by a series of comparisons : Not youthful kings in battle seized alive, Not scornful virgins who their charms survive, Not Cynthia when her manteau's pinned awry, All this is mock hyperbole. The kind of comparison here intended is real and not figurative, and is so much the more effective. It is remarked by Mr. Theodore Watts (Poetry,' Encyclopædia Britannica) that a certain heat of passion defies and transcends words; this fact constituting the infirmity of poetry as compared with sculpture and painting. In the acted drama, the blanks are filled up with silent gesture. In verbal composition, the poet's chief resource is the bold figures Exclamation, Apostrophe, Interrogation. Com POETICAL DICTION. 15 pression and Suggestiveness, at their utmost pitch, become significant. 3. The topic of Suggestiveness has numerous bearings, as regards power of representation. One important circumstance is restraint, or reserve of emotion. There ought to be no more expression used than is sufficient for the effect. A surplus is not only needless, but hurtful. Something should be left to the hearers to expand in their own minds. When Richard exclaims-' the king's name is a tower of strength,' he can do no more. The hearer readily supplies the comparison with the enemy, which Richard superfluously tacks on. So, in Milton Such a numerous host Fled not in silence through the frightful deep. 4. Connected with the Vocabulary of artistic emotion is the existence of a select Poetical Diction. The language habitually employed by poets has become an essential of poetry. It has these characteristics. (1) In the first place, when Strength is aimed at, there is a certain degree of dignity or elevation, which, if not absolutely necessary to the quality, is a valuable adjunct. This is seen in such words as 'vale,' ' vesture' or 'attire,’ ́ azure,' ‘chanticleer,' for the more prosaic terms 'valley,'' clothes' or garments,' 'sky,' 'cock'. This means that purely colloquial terms, slang words, and the like, are excluded from poetry; as well as words and phrases that have grown thoroughly hackneyed. On the other hand, it means that distinct preference is given to words that are rarely employed in vulgar speech: such as--wot,' 'ween,' 'wane,'' sheen,' 'trow'.) (2) In the second place, as regards the quality of Feeling, the effect may be described as warmth or glow. These two characteristics may be readily exemplified from any of the greater poets. Take, first, the opening lines of Pope's 'Messiah': Ye nymphs of Solyma! begin the song: To heavenly themes sublimer strains belong. Here at once the words 'nymph,' and 'Solyma' attract our attention; and, on examination, we find that they derive their peculiar virtue solely from the fact that they are the highly poetic form of what, in common prose, would be expressed by 'virgins' or 'daughters' and 'Jerusalem'. Next comes themes' and 'strains,' which are also poetic, and in full keeping with the elevated subject whereof the poem treats; while a distinct and separate effect is traceable to the inversion of the order of the words. A similar inversion would add to the poetic force of the next two lines, beginning 'No more the mossy fountains,' and ending with 'delight': but the diction in 'sylvan shades' is highly felicitous. Lastly comes the invocation, which is finely worded, with the rhythm and the simple dignity of phraseology in perfect harmony. Next, take a stanza from Tennyson's 'In Memoriam': I held it truth, with him who sings The opening phrase, 'I held it truth,' is the real essence of poetry, being unmistakably marked off from all prose expression of the same thought, however good: as 'I firmly believed, 'I was of opinion'. The allusion to him who sings' (viz., Goethe) is also in form poetic; and the very rendering him who sings' for 'poet' makes us feel at once that we are in an entirely different world from that of every-day utterance. Then the second line gives poetic expression to the unity of Goethe's teaching, in the midst of all its variety; employing the archaic terms divers' and 'harp' with much effect. The next two lines are noted mainly for their ima gery. Of the whole, it is to be observed that the effect is obtained more by the diction than by any poetic inversion of words, and that the march of the metre keeps pace with the sublimity of the thought. Our last example is from Browning's 'Jochanan Hakkadosh': O'er Schiphaz city, bringing joy and mirth, In such black sort that, to each faithful eye, The phraseology here is a study of diction. The terms 'morn,' 'deemed,' 'black sort,' are usually reserved for poetry. The names beautiful,' 'blue,' 'joy,''mirth,' are freely used in prose, without being disqualified for poetry, when connected with suit OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE COMPARED. 6 17 able subjects. Eximious is an objectionable word, from not being in sufficient use to be generally understood. Notwithstanding the existence of a copious poetic diction, the larger part of the composition must still be made up of terms adapted to prose and used in familiar style. The poetical character is imparted by means of unprosaic arrangements, and of conjunctions with words of the select poetic class.* CONCRETENESS AND OBJECTIVITY. 1. For effects of Emotion, a prime requisite is Concreteness. Our strongest feelings attach to what is concrete and individual. With a particular city, a mountain or a river, we can associate warm emotions; while in a mathematical plan, in gravity, solidity or fluidity, we have a species of interest quite different and not included among poetic or artistic effects. The superiority of Concrete phraseology for intellect as well as for emotion has been shown under FIGURES OF SPEECH, SIMPLICITY and PICTURESQUENESS. Further exemplification will occur naturally in the detail of the Qualities. 2. It is important, in view of all the qualities, to note the superiority of Objective thought and phraseology. The contrast of Subjective and Objective has already been illustrated with reference to the emotional vocabulary (p. 11). There is greater mental exhilaration in directing our view upon outward things than in dwelling on states of the inner consciousness. Hence when, as is so often necessary, attention is directed to the feelings, the preference is given to names suggestive of outward aspects and indications. In speaking of humanity, it is better to say men are affected in a certain way, than the mind is affected. The *Wordsworth, in reaction against the School of Pope, maintained that there is no distinct' poetic diction,' and that the best language for the poet is the best language of common life. It has often been pointed out that his own finest poems are sufficient condemnation of his theory. As Dean Church says, "he mistook the fripperies of poetic diction for poetic diction itself". "He was right in protesting against the doctrine that a thing is not poetical because it is not expressed in a conventional mintage: he was wrong in denying that there is a mintage of words fit for poetry and unsuitable for ordinary prose."-(Ward's English Poets, Vol. IV. p. 15.) best poetic composition is sparing in the extreme subjective Vocabulary. Compare these two stanzas, from Mr. Arnold's poem A Southern Night': That comely face, that cluster'd brow, And what but gentleness untired, In the first stanza, the language is objective, with associated feelings; in the second, it is almost purely subjective. Among Figures of Contiguity were ranked the putting of the outward sign of a passion for the passion itself. The advantage consists in giving a fictitious objectivity to the mental fact. 3. Both Concreteness and Objectivity may be promoted by the manner of treatment. In dealing with an abstract principle even, we may proceed by selecting an example in the concrete, and handling it so as to typify the principle. This method is frequent with all the poets; see, for example, the sonnet of Wordsworth 'To Toussaint l'Ouverture'. Dryden's two 'Songs for St. Cecilia's day' may be quoted. Both are in illustration of the power of Music. In one we have the general principle announced, and then illustrated by a number of examples showing how music stirs up a great variety of emotions. In the other ('Alexander's Feast'), an individual example is fully described, to show the varied power of music in this single case, the general principle being indicated only at the close. The advantage of the latter plan is obvious. Dryden's eulogy of Milton Three poets, in three distant ages born may be contrasted with Milton's own 'Epitaph on Shakespeare'. Dryden proceeds by the method of analyzing and comparing Homer, Virgil and Milton-a method both abstract and subjective; while Milton simply fixes attention |