FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE 247 will not always hold; but in general it is true that literary comparisons are suggestive, and scientific ones definitive. Poetic thought often initiates a comparison which is then taken up by scientific thought and reduced to a critical restatement. It is proper to think of literary, and especially poetic thought as being the warm emotional beginning of knowledge and fact. It is full of halfdivined suggestions. "Passion itself," Goldsmith says, "is very figurative." Critical thought is the reduction of tropes to facts, and the process involves amplifying some, cutting down others and perhaps throwing away still others. Buck has stated the matter as follows: "It is impossible to see why language in its infancy must be metaphorical, and why, as it develops, these early metaphors must 'die,' that is, become plain statement, except under the hypothesis that figures represent a necessary intermediate stage in every completed process of thought." 1 "Figures of Rhetoric: A Psychological Study." Contributions to Rhetorical Theory. Ed. Scott. CHAPTER XV POETRY 1 Definition. One definition of poetry (Watts) 1 says: "Absolute poetry is the concrete and artistic expression of the human mind in emotional and rhythmical language." We may accept it without question that poetry is generally more emotional and regularly rhythmical than prose. But it seems fair to go rather moderately on the subject of the concrete. Much of the poetry which expresses philosophic and moral conviction, as in Wordsworth, Tennyson, Arnold, Browning and George Meredith, would be no poetry at all if this criterion were rigidly applied. I think one may be justified in contending that an abstraction may be as vivid and emotional as a concrete thing. If, indeed, art is typical and not merely specific, a certain degree of generalization should be essential to a poetic theme. 2 Another definition (Mackail) is as follows: "In general, the essence of poetry as an art is not so much that it is rhythmical (which all elevated language is), or that it is metrical (which not all poetry is, except by a considerable extension of the meaning of the word), as that it is patterned language. This is its specific quality as a 'fine art.' The essence of 'pattern' (in its technical use, as applied to the arts), as distinct from "Poetry." Art. in Cyc. Britannica. 'Murray's English Dictionary. DEFINITION OF POETRY 249 composition' generally, is that it is composition which has what is technically called a 'repeat'; and it is the 'repeat' which technically differentiates poetry from non-poetry, both being (as arts) 'composition.' The 'repeat' may be obvious, as in the case of rhymed lines of equal length, or it may be more implicit, to any degree of subtlety; but if it does not exist, there is technically no poetry. The artistic power of the pattern-designer is shown in the way he deals with the problem of 'repeat,' and this is true of poetry likewise, and is probably the key (so far as one exists) to any technical definition or discussion of the art." In adopting the conception of a 'repeat' and making it, rather than rhythm, the test of poetry, Mackail does justice to such important elements as rhyme, assonance, the refrain, and the repetition of phrases, and also to the poetry of certain compositions which have no rhyme and no strictly measured rhythm. Such a composition is the Litany of the English Book of Common Prayer. For example: "Remember not, Lord, our offences, nor the offences of our forefathers; | neither take thou vengeance of our sins: | spare us, good Lord, | spare thy people, whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood, and be not angry with us for ever. | Spare us, good Lord,” etc. This is written for prose, but it may well be taken for six lines of poetry. Though there is no rhyme and no meter, there is an obvious pattern, and indeed the whole of the litany is an uncommonly good illustration of the use of a 'repeat.' Mackail's statement is made in terms of the formal side of poetry, but it contains the key to the other side as well. If we are asked what ideas or themes or states of mind are poetical, i.e., what properly lends itself to patterned language, we may answer that strong emotional states are things which stimulate the repetition of words and phrases. It is often said that emotion is naturally expressed in rhythmical language, but it is probably better to say that emotion naturally expresses itself in repeating language, which then becomes rhythmical. Emotion is intense and insistent, and the person who feels it sometimes harps upon a question or exclamation which has occurred to him until the form of words becomes a "burden." At this point rhythm is likely to appear; that is, emotional exclamations tend to become rhythmical because of being oft repeated. Another characteristic of poetry is suggested in Gummere's statement that "Poetry uses tropes consciously, boldly, and systematically; restores, as far as it can, color and freshness to language, and vividness to expression." Poetry expresses thought in that earlier and more imaginative stage of which we have spoken. The Ballad. The early communal ballad was a song sung by a crowd as an accompaniment to its dancing. The matter of the song was some narrative which had a popular interest. It was a direct and simple account of primitive objective happenings -births and deaths and battles for the most part. One person would sing the narrative parts of the poem, the crowd taking up at regular intervals some chorus or refrain. The authorship of the poem was unknown. The ballad usually goes 1 "A Handbook of Poetics." briskly; deeds are crowded close, and the singer "up and tells" them out with the greatest directness. The form of the ballad is suited to its sense; the rhythm and the diction are strong and simple, and often crude. In the following stanzas the story "gets off" quickly, and is simply and objectively told: The Percy out of Northumberlande, There lived a wife at Usher's Well, And a wealthy wife was she; She had three stout and stalwart sons, The modern reader is captivated by the directness and simplicity with which the old ballad begins, but it sometimes happens that the modern reader becomes wearied as the ballad proceeds and he perceives that it has no other resource of manner. We require more variety of form, partly, no doubt, because we omit the diversion of dancing to the words. The modern ballad, which is the work of one author, is modeled in substance and form after such early songs as the above, but it often admits more of the subjective and personal element, and is frequently more finished in rhythm and diction. It is properly classed, therefore, as a kind of lyric. The Lyric. It is common to say of lyric poetry that, in distinction from epic and dramatic poetry, it is more |