for "scarcely," "altern" for "alternately," "vale" for "valley," "list" for "listen," " marge" for "6 'margin" (often used by Tennyson for "horizon"), "drear" for "dreary." Some of these forms are archaic also, as "ere" for "before," "doff'd” for "taken off," "pollute" for "polluted," "whist" for "become silent." Hence the constant use of the adjective for the adverb, as in

The sower stalks

With measur'd step, and liberal throws the grain.

THOMSON'S Seasons.

For the same reason poetry dispenses with auxiliaries :

Gives not the hawthorn bush as sweet a shade?

Long die thy happy days before thy death!

for "Does not the hawthorn bush give," and " May thy happy days die."

43 c. Euphony is a consideration as well as brevity. Hence we not only find Erin for Ireland, and Edina for Edinburgh, where brevity is in favor of the substitution, but also Caledonia for Scotland. Often these euphonious names have archaic associations beside euphony in their favor, as in the case of Albion. The omission of the possessive inflections is to be thus explained:

Betwixt Astræa and the Scorpion sign.

MILTON.

This is still more common in Shakspeare, where we have "the Cyprus wars," " Verona walls," "Philippi fields," proper names being regularly used as adjectives. Poetry often uses

the simile where prose prefers metaphor. This is not an exception to the rule of poetic brevity. Poetry, aiming at pleasure, lingers over what gives pleasure as much as it hurries over what does not. But in proportion as poetry approximates to prose, metaphor is substituted for simile. Hence in dramatic poetry the simile is comparatively rare.

The

44. Exaggerations of Poetic Characteristics. qualities of poetry enumerated above are sometimes found in exaggerated forms. The archaic becomes pedantic and affected, the picturesque florid, brevity obscurity, and euphony sound without sense. Thus (1) when Chapman uses woodness for madness, telling us that the "compos'd rage" of poetry is by many persons "held the simplest woodness," he uses a word which had become quite antique, and which, being only fit for a joke,1 was unfit for serious poetry.

Again (2) the accumulation of epithets (one or two of which might be picturesque) joined with an ill-chosen metre produces an almost comical effect in

Dreadful gleams,
Dismal screams,
Fires that glow,

Scenes of woe,

Sullen moans,

Hollow groans,

And cries of tortured ghosts.

POPE'S Ode on St. Cecilia's Day.

1 See Midsummer-Night's Dream, ii. 1. 192: "Wood within this wood," wood or wode being an archaic word for "mad."

(3) Obscurity is a common result of the poetic attempt at brevity. Thus,

Vouchsafe (to receive) good morrow from a feeble tongue.

Julius Caesar, ii. 1. 313.

Instances might be multiplied from modern authors. (4) The sacrifice of sense to sound is not uncommon where rhyme is used, or where excessive alliteration is aimed at. Many amusing parodies of this fault have been written : —

'Tis sweet to roam when morning's light

Resounds across the deep,

And the crystal song of the woodbine bright
Hushes the rocks to sleep;

And the blood-red moon in the blaze of noon
Is bathed in a crumbling dew,

And the wolf rings out with a glittering shout,
To-whit, to-whit, to-whoo!

Anonymous.

Where is Cupid's crimson motion?
Billowy ecstasy of woe,

Bear me straight, meandering ocean,
Where the stagnant torrents flow.

Rejected Addresses.

45. Different styles of Poetry. - Hitherto we have been describing the characteristics of the diction of poetry in general. We now come to the consideration of the different styles in poetry. The poetry of Milton's "Paradise Lost," or of Gray's "Bard," will naturally adopt a higher style than would be fit for Waller's "Rose" or Herrick's "Daffodils." Again, the graceful style that might be suitable for a lovesong or a pastoral poem would be inappropriate in the drama,

where force and lifelike vigor are primary requisites. Lastly, in quiet poems of simple narrative, where there are no speakers. or scenery to set off the words, the forcible style of the drama might interfere with the unity of the poem, by attracting to the words the interest that should be concentrated on the narrative; and here a simple style may be desirable. Thus poetic style may be roughly divided into (1) the elevated, (2) the graceful, (3) the forcible, (4) the simple.

One instance of each will be given, illustrating the style, not the subject.

(1) Elevated, avoiding every thing that is colloquial and suggestive of littleness.

The description of a wound might easily be made forcible, and the description of the healing might easily become colloquial and commonplace; but both are elevated in —

Then Satan first knew pain,

And writhed him to and fro convolved; so sore

The griding sword with discontinuous wound
Pass'd through him: but the ethereal substance closed,
Not long divisible; and from the gash

A stream of nectareous humor flow'd

Sanguine, such as celestial spirits may bleed,

And all his armor stain'd, erewhile so bright.

Paradise Lost, vi.

(2) Graceful, avoiding nothing that is familiar, so long as it is not unpleasing. The following might easily become unpleasingly forcible :

(a)

A rogue in grain

Veneered with sanctimonious theory.

TENNYSON, The Princess.

(b) Eight daughters of the plough, stronger than men,
Huge women blowsed with health, and wind, and rain,
And labor;

where blowsy would have been ungraceful.

(3) Forcible, avoiding nothing but what is tame.

This painted child of dirt, that stinks and sings.

Ib.

POPE.

(4) The Simple is very commonly used in Wordsworth and Tennyson to express intense pathos :

They two

Were brother shepherds on their native hills.
They were the last of all their race and now,
When Leonard had approached his home, his heart
Failed in him; and, not venturing to inquire
Tidings of one so long and dearly loved,
He to the solitary churchyard turned;
That, as he knew in what particular spot
His family were laid, he there might learn
If still his brother lived, or to the file

Another grave was added. He had found
Another grave,
near which a full half-hour
He had remained; but, as he gazed, there grew
Such a confusion in his memory

That he began to doubt; and even to hope
That he had seen this heap of turf before, -
That it was not another grave, but one
He had forgotten.

WORDSWORTH, The Brothers.

46. The Elevated Style of Poetry is well exemplified by Milton's "Paradise Lost." It differs from the graceful style (1) in that it admits painful and even disgusting images; and it differs from the forcible (2) in that it rejects many common expressions which, though they represent the meaning, represent it in a familiar manner.