POETRY OETRY is an art. Like music, painting and sculpture, it is a divine art. The poetic principle burns within those who are gifted by nature with the true and the ideal. It is a part of their existence, a part of their being. There are those who love music, and spend their best days in its study and composition. It is their joy and their sorrow. The world drinks in that which their souls pour out. Music, to the master mind, is his heart's gratification. He lives and breathes in its atmosphere. To him it is a greater solace than the pleasures of fashion, pomp or power. He who is master of the art of painting enjoys satisfaction in consummating that art. He gives his life daily to the task of bringing it into perfection. His art is his love, and throughout life he admires her charms. The sculptor spends days and years in modeling and chiseling the rough marble into the perfect image. He, too, finds true enjoyment in giving his days in bringing his art to the highest degree of excellence. The true poet finds delight in the rhythmical creation of beauty. His word-pictures are paintings, his ideals are modeled with the care of a sculptor. He sees beauty in the tinting of the flowers, the waving of the grain, the cluster of the trees, the babbling of the brooks, the ripple of the rivers, the rifting of the clouds, the twinkling of the stars. The birds sing for him, and the winds sigh unto him. The calm, still ocean furnishes a picture of desolation, while its deep surf and mighty waves thunder back its power and destruction as they swell and surge the sands upon the shore. The moss upon the rock, the violet and the rose, the hum of the bee, the heather and the hyacinth, all have for him some charm. He can picture the beauty of woman as well as he who paints her upon the canvas. He can sing to her in song as well as he who trills before the harp. He finds the gems and true graces of womanhood. He idolizes the luster of her eye, the soft melody of her voice-the sigh, the laughter, the tear. He worships at the shrine of her faith, in the strength of her purity, in the sweetness of her love. All that is true and beautiful he sees with the eye of the sculptor, feels with the touch of the painter, and hears with the ear of the musician. The mysteries of nature are unfolded unto him, and he finds a pleasure in singing, in painting and in picturing her charms and her grandeurs. It is only those who possess the inherent power and a perfect art that can do this. Nature presents to us strength in the rough stone. brings to us beauty in the polished diamond. True ease in writing comes from art, not chance. Art This verse is from Pope, a master of the art of versification. Born an invalid and possessed of a frail constitution throughout life, he devoted his time to his art. Educated and refined, with a vigor of mind possessed by few, he found time to eclipse Dryden, his chosen master and model. Mr. Walsh, who was regarded by Dryden as the best critic in all London, encouraged Pope to become the critical writer he afterwards became. "For," said Mr. Walsh, "there is one way of excelling. Although we have several great poets, we have never had any one great poet that was How well Pope succeeded, Cowper tells us : correct." But he (his musical finesse was such), So nice his ear, so delicate his touch, Made poetry a mere mechanic art ; And every warbler has his tune by heart. The act, art or practice of composing poetic verse is versification. The word "" verse, "in our language, means a A piece of poetry is often incorrectly line of poetry. termed a verse. This verse be thine. Pope. Virtue was taught in verse. Prior. A verse may be defined as a succession of articulate sounds, consisting of words arranged in measured lines, constituting an order of accented and unaccented syllables, disposed of according to the rules of the species of poetry which the author intends to compose. Verse is merely the dress which poetry assumes. All verse is not poetry, nor is all poetry verse, as one can see by an examination of Ossian's poems, and "Leaves of Grass" by Walt Whitman. A large portion of the Holy Scriptures is poetical. Many parts are called songs, and the elevation of style clearly indicates the poetical construction of others. We |