COPYRIGHT, 1924 BY THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY Second Printing PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 893 P PN81 PREFACE LITERATURE, like life, is not to be defined. We may study it, note its forms and signs, feel its rhythmic throb; but we can never say exactly in what it consists. As soon as we think that we have found a satisfactory definition, there comes an awkward but undeniable exception to put us to confusion. Literature defies the foot-rule, and any attempt to treat it as if it were an exact science is bound to fail. It is, however, equally mistaken and pernicious to suppose that because we cannot acquire the ability to tell a good book from a bad one by some process akin to that by which we analyze a salt or extract the roots of a quadratic equation, the task must therefore be given up as altogether hopeless. The average reader sadly needs guidance, and the failure of some of the older methods does not justify the assumption that it is impossible to meet this need. It is, indeed, a most dangerous heresy which says that there is nothing to be done for the reader but to impart to him a knowledge of the rudiments, and then leave him to work out his own salvation as best he may. The result of that policy is seen to-day, when we have a very few readers of discrimination, and a great majority to whom "book" and "novel" are synonymous terms. We are all readers now, if by that is meant the ability to go from title-page to colophon with a certain amount of comprehension of the matters of fact contained by the print. But if the ability to weigh, to judge, and to appreciate is meant, then comparatively few of us dare lay claim to the title. So much we must cheerfully recognize before any further progress can be made. We have but taken a step or two in a very long journey, and we cannot afford to loiter; nor can we neglect any light that will help us over difficult and obscure places. The idea is not to put the reader out of conceit with a swift and thrilling narrative, but to show him how much more there is if he will but cultivate the seeing eye and the hearing ear. In short, the aim is to broaden the basis of enjoyment. The reader will certainly not be less susceptible to the excitement of rapid movement because he has learned to appreciate those subtler beauties of which the best literature is full. Exercises and suggestions for further reading are appended to each chapter. It is hoped that these hints will indicate how any interest that may be aroused by the chapters themselves can be most usefully directed. The only justification for a book of this kind is in the awakening of a desire for individual effort. The reader's part not a passive one: A liter- The meaning of unity: The main impression: Times and seasons for reading: The effective- ness of contrast: Examples from literature and art: Rembrandt: George Meredith: Charles Reade: Robert Louis Stevenson: Con- IV. All natural movement is rhythmical: Stress and pause in speech: Emotion and rhythm: Examples from Scott: The elemental litera- ture of the old ballads: Speech and verse rhythm: The regular recurrence of the stress: Initial and terminal measures: Triple meas- ures: Rhythmic variation: Examples from The natural delight in repetition: Jotham's tale: Alliteration: Assonance: Vowel-repeti- tion: Parallelism: Examples from the Psalms 35 ous rime-effects: Blank verse: Consonance: Repetition of words: The refrain: Repetition Plain facts and emotional expression: The The inevitable word: Monosyllables and poly- syllables: Unusual words: Proper names: The catalogue: Examples from Spenser, Bridges, Jeremy Taylor, and Milton: The humorous use of names: Sonorous lines: Various ex- A comparison: Different ways of expressing The elements of verse-design: Rhythm and repetition: Verse-architecture based upon parallelism: Parallelism of idea in Hebrew verse, of form in English verse: The lyric: The sonnet: Other developments of the lyric: Horatian and Pindaric odes: The elegy: Ballads, ancient and modern: Story-clusters: 116 |