A

HANDBOOK OF
OF POETRY.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

OETRY is the art of expressing our ideas in verse, or musical cadences. It is formed by dividing the language employed into lengths, called measures or rhythm, which lengths (except in blank verse) are terminated by a word having the same sound as the word which concludes its corresponding line. This is called Rhyme.

Nothing is easier than to rhyme correctly; yet in nothing has this first principle of the art of poetry been so frequently departed from, and this even by many of our standard poets. To a great extent this is no doubt to be accounted for by an auscultatory defect on the part of the rhymer; the same individual who could not detect when he, or another, was singing out of tune, would not detect a false rhyme if he made or read it; and this remark will apply with equal force to rhythm. It is not always necessary that a line and its corresponding line

B

should contain precisely the same number of words or syllables; but it is necessary that there should be the same accent in both, the same rise and fall, the same musical flow, so to speak; and this is determined by what is called "scanning."

I shall not in this treatise, which is intended for the purely uninitiated, adopt many of the old technical terms in accordance with which our fathers built up their poems and formed their versification: most of these have long since been exploded. Poetry is no longer confined to any arbitrary form of verse; she may take a hundred varied shapes, as in Southey, or the poet may invent new measures if he can; but there are first principles from which he can never depart. Like the musician, he must know how and when to resolve his discords, for in both cases perfect harmony must pervade the whole.

That there are exceptions to the rules for making verse, I am not prepared to deny; but if I am asked why these exceptions are not pointed out, I must reply that the strictest rules that can be obtained are the best by which to study any art. The exceptions will present themselves as difficulties occur: to point out an easy means of getting over them would be to make the student careless, and cause him to avail himself of them habitually, rather than to face and overcome them.

No one, not even an inspired poet, a born one, can commence without some knowledge of what rhythm is capable of, of what others have done before him. Burns,

who sought for his inspirations in natural objects, could not have written if he had not previously heard the peasant songs of his native land. To one less inspired than he, a long course of study, and that of the best writers, would be necessary to inform him what rhymed and measured language is capable of achieving; hence, to those who would draw music from the mystic lyre, I would say, read the best poetry you can procure, and read every style, before you attempt to form one for yourself. When you think you can do so, write directly from your own feelings; work after the best models if you will, but let the material be your own.

By these means, and by avoiding those solecisms upon which others have blundered, and which I shall endeavour to point out, you will be able to write correctly. In choosing your subject, avoid, if possible, those that have been treated of by others: life is so full of variety, and natural objects are so abundant, that there can never be a dearth of subjects for poetry. Of course there are subjects upon which all poets have exercised their talents, and which are common property; with such it is not so much the object, as the method of treating it, that constitutes the poem. The thought it inspires, the association it awakes, must be your own; and the language in which you clothe it must spring from within, and not be, as is too frequently the case, a mere paraphrase of what others have thought and written upon the same subject.

The various kinds of poetry have their distinct appellations, but they are sometimes run into and blended with each other, so as to render their classification difficult. They may be said, generally, to be :

DRAMATIC POETRY. That which is capable of being represented on the stage, and divided into acts and scenes; and also poetry written in the dramatic form, but not intended for representation. Blank verse is the medium usually employed in forming the language of the persons represented.

THE EPIC, or long narrative poem, generally heroic in its nature, but sometimes purely imaginary. Incident, scenery, action, and the reflections of the author, form the whole, which may be in blank verse, couplets, or irregular rhythm.

LYRIC POETRY, which includes the ode, the song, the ballad, and the sonnet, as well as those trifles in verse in which the author gives expression to his thoughts and feelings.

DIDACTIC POETRY is that upon which the perceptive powers of the poet are brought to bear, and in which a moral precept is inculcated.

PASTORALS, peculiar to the older writers, were idyls, or short poems, devoted to pastoral objects, sometimes called Eclogues.

NARRATIVE POEMS, imaginary tales, and historical ballads, differ from each other only as their designation implies.