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CHAPTER VI.

DESCRIPTIVE POETRY.

590. DESCRIPTIVE poetry is addressed chiefly to the imagination, though it attempts also to convey many useful impressions to the understanding and the heart.

Obs. The design of it is to exhibit beautiful pictures of nature or art, so as to communicate all the information and pleasure which the reader could receive from an actual survey of the objects. It sometimes presents large collections of objects, as those which occur in one period of the year, or those which readily present themselves when the mind is in a particular frame, lively and gay, or disconsolate and dejected.

Illus. 1. Of the former kind are the Seasons of Thomson; of the latter kind are the Allegro and Pensoroso of Milton. But the greater part of descriptive poetry is intermixed with other kinds of poetical composition; and there is no kind, whether epic, dramatic, didactic, pastoral, or lyric, that does not occasionally demand its assistance>

2. Though all poets attempt to describe, and all men are endowed more or less with the power of forming pictures of what they have seen or imagined, yet the faculty which produces good description is extremely rare; it requires an uncommon portion of vivacity and vigour of imagination, and a large share of judgment. The former suggests the circumstances which the picture demands, and the latter selects those which are best calculated for making the deepest impression.

591. In description, the great art seems to be, not to specify every minute particular, but to select the most striking and picturesque circumstances, which would naturally make the deepest impression on the mind of the beholder.

Example. The following quotation will best illustrate this rule. It is a picture, by Thomson, of an infectious distemper, which happened to the fleet in the memorable expedition against Carthagena. 66 -You, gallant Vernon, saw

The miserable scene. You pitying saw
To infant weakness sunk the warrior's arm:
Saw the deep-racking pang, the ghastly form,
The pale lip quivering, and the beamless eye
No more with ardour bright! You heard the groans
Of agonising ships from shore to shore!

DD

Heard nightly plung'd amid the sullen wave
The frequent corse; while on each other fix'd
In said presage, the blank assistants seem'd

Silent, to ask whom fate would next demand!

Analysis. It is unnecessary to offer any comment on this beautiful description; every reader must feel its force. The frequent plunging of the corse in the sullen wave during the night, is partic ularly striking, and marks strongly the havock of the infection.

Obs. 1. Almost the whole merit of Thomson's genius consisted in description. He possessed little influence over the stronger passions, though some episodes in the Seasons, and scenes in his plays, discover a capacity for managing a tender and moderate passion. His plays are elegant and correct compositions; they contain many noble and virtuous sentiments, but they are sparing of incidents, and they abound with declamation.

2. Had Milton studied nature with as much attention as Thomson, he would probably have excelled all poets in the liveliness and beauty of his descriptions. All his works shine with the richness of his imagination. He is uncommonly happy in the selection of the most pertinent circumstances, and in the use of the most significant figures, particularly metaphors, which demonstrate the exquisite sensibility of his fancy.

3. He seems, however, to have taken a general survey of nature, rather than to have attended minutely to her particular operations, He never dwells long on a topic in description, and be rather glances at it than delineates it. But no author surpasses him in selecting the most prominent and picturesque ingredients of a figure which make the deepest impression. He is never general or diffuse, qualities which are found to be very hostile to the success of this species of writing.

Example 1. He thus describes the scenes of morning in the Allegro.

"To hear the lark begin his flight,
And singing, startle the dull night,
From his watch-tower in the skies,
Till the dappled dawn doth rise:
While the cock, with lively din,
Scatters the rear of darkness thin,
And to the stack or the barn-door,
Stately struts his dames before:
Oft listening how the hounds and horn
Cheerly rouse the slumbering morn;
While the ploughman near at hand
Whistles o'er the furrow'd land,
And the milk-maid singing blythe,
And the mower whets his scythe;
And every shepherd tells his tale,
Under the hawthorn in the dale."

Example 2. The Pensoroso presents the following account of the objects of the evening.

"Oft on a plat of rising ground,

I hear the far-off curfew sound
Over some wide-watered shore,
Swinging slow with sullen roar.
Or, if the air will not permit,
Some still removed place will fit,
Where glowing embers through the room
Teach light to counterfeit a gloom,
Far from all resort of mirth,
Save the cricket on the hearth,
Or the bellman's drowsy charm,
To bless the doors from nightly harm;
Or let my lamp and midnight hour,
Be seen in some high lonely tow'r.
Sometimes let gorgeous tragedy,
In scepter'd pall, come sweeping by,
Presenting Thebes' or Pelop's line,
Or the tale of Troy divine."

Obs. 4. The elegant genius of Parnell has produced some beautiful examples of descriptive poetry; and it is much to be regretted he had not indulged the world with more specimens. He possessed a fine imagination, a most correct taste, and great knowledge of human nature. His versification is not inferior to that of Pope in melody and conciseness, and is superior in simplicity and perspicuity. It teems with instruction, with the genuine language of the heart; and there is no poetry, perhaps, which the reader can peFuse so often with pleasure.

Example 1. The Hermit is an extremely beautiful, moral, descriptive poem, fraught with important instruction, communicated in a simple and dignified manner, and recommended by the most delicate appeals to the imagination.

2. All the great epic poets exhibit eminent specimens of descriptive poetry Homer, Virgil, and Ossian, excel in it. The following picture of desolation, by Ossian, is conceived with much vigour of imagination.

"I have seen the walls of Balclutha, but they were desolate. The flames had resounded in the halls, and the voice of the people is heard no more. The stream of Clutha was removed from its course by the fall of the walls. The thistle shook there its lonely head; the moss whistled in the wind. The fox looked out from the window, and the rank grass of the wall waved round his head. Desolate is the dwelling of Morna; silence is in the house of her fathers!"

592. The chief errors committed in descriptions,

are the admission of unmeaning or supernumerary epithets and phrases, the introduction of general terms, and the intermixture of trivial or insignificant circumstances clothed in pompous and splendid language. The best poets are sometimes faulty in all these articles.

Illus. 1. All general terms are improper in descriptions, because they suggest either no idea at all, or none that is fixed; while the essence of picturesque description consists in prompting conceptions which are palpable, and of which the mind, of course, takes firm hold. These can result only from objects particular and distinct.

Example. Shakspeare, to expose the absurdity of attempting a thing impracticable, says, with great energy, in Henry the Fifth : "You may as well go about to turn the sun into ice, by fanning in his face with a peacock's feather."

Analysis. Had the poet made the expression general, by leaving out the "peacock's feather," he would have mutilated the picture, and debilitated the impression. How feeble would have been the following phraseology? "You may as well go about to turn the sun into ice by fanning in his face." Had he retained the "feather," but dropt the peacock," the expression would have been more picturesque: "You may as well go about to turn the sun into ice, by fanning in his face with a feather." Even this picture, however, is much inferior in beauty and vivacity to the particular language the post hath thought proper to adopt." You may as well go al about to turn the sun into ice, by fanning in his face with a peacock's feather." The mind grasps the image at once, and is struck with its sprightliness and propriety.

593. Forced elevation of the expression above the tone of the thought, is another error not uncommon in description.

Illus. Homer relates that Achilles commanded his domestics to prepare a vessel to heat water for washing the dead body of Fatroclus, which they accordingly performed. Nothing can be more simple than the language of the poet. Things are called by their proper names, and very few epithets are added. Pope must improve this simple phraseology, and he has communicated to it an air of ridicule, by the pompous and figurative expression of his translation. Iliad, xviii. 405.

"A massy chaldron of stupendous frame

They brought, and plac'd it o'er the rising flame;
Then heap the lighted wood; the flame divides
Beneath the vase, and climbs around its sides.
In its wide womb they pour the rushing stream,
The boiling water bubbles to the brim."

594. It often happens, that a description presents objects which would be extremely disagreeable to the sight, while the description itself is not only not disagreeable, but conveys high pleasure. This is a curious phænomenon, and merits some attention. Two causes seem to concur in producing this effect.

Illus. A poetical description resembles an historical painting, the merit of which consists in communicating to the different figures the same positions and appearance that they hold in nature. And although the figures be disagreeable, yet the picture may yield much pleasure, because the merit of it lies in the accuracy of the imitation. The mind surveys with delight the excellence of an art which can imitate nature so completely. The purpose of the description, as well as of the picture, is to impart exact ideas of the objects, though it operates by words instead of colours. The imitation in both cases, is the chief source of the pleasure. The pleasure of the imitation, much more than counterbalances the disgust arising from the inspection of the object. This seems to be the first cause. Words, again, have a beauty in their sound and arrangement, independent of their signification; the merit of the execution in the picture, and of the composition in the description, affords delight. This seems to be the second cause. Both causes concur to counteract the disgust excited by the object.

Scholium. These remarks point out the greatest beauty of description, which takes place when the object, the imitation, and the expression, all concur to augment the pleasure of the reader. In all other cases, these partially oppose the effects of one another.

If, however, an object, prompt horror, no excellence of imitation or language can recommend its description. The picture of Sin, in Paradise Lost, though drawn with the brightest colours, is of this class. It excites horror, and all Milton's eloquence cannot render it tolerable.

CHAPTER VII.

EPIC POETRY.

595. EPIC and dramatic poetry are universally allowed to be the most dignified, and, at the same time, the most difficult species of poetic composition. To contrive a story which shall please and interest all readers, by being at once entertaining, im

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