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One of the greatest sources of poetical delight is description, or the powers of presenting pictures to the mind.

Ibid.

Waller's opinion concerning the duty of a poet. was "That he should blot from his works any line that did not contain some motive to virtue." Life of Waller,

It is in vain for those who borrow too many of their sentiments and illustrations from the old mythology, to plead the example of the ancient poets. The deities which they produced so fre-.. quently were considered as realities, so far as to... be received by the imagination, whatever sober. reason might then determine. But of these images time has tarnished the splendor. A fiction not only detected but despised, can never afford. a solid basis to any position, though sometimes it may furnish a transient allusion, or slight illustration. No modern monarch can be much exalted by hearing, that as Hercules has had his club, he has his navy..

Ibid.

Those who admire the beauties of a great poet, sometimes force their own judgment into a false approbation of his little pieces, and prevail upon themselves to think that admirable which is only singular. All that short compositions can, commonly attain is neatness and elegance..

Life of Milton.

Bossu is of opinion, that the poet's first work: is to find a moral, which his fable is afterwards. to illustrate and establish..

Ibid...

Pleasure

Pleasure and terror are indeed the genuine sources of poetry; but poetical pleasure must be such as human imagination can at least conceive, and poetical terror such as human strength and fortitude may combat.

Ibid.

In every work one part must be for the sake of others; a palace must have its passages; a poem must have transitions. It is no more to be required that wit should be always blazing, than that the sun should stand at noon. In a great work there is a vicissitude of luminous and opaque parts, as there is in the world a succession of day and night.

Ibid.

The occasional poet is circumscribed by the narrowness of his subject. Whatever can happen to a man has happened so often, that little remains for fancy and invention. Not only matter, but time is wanting. The poem must not be delayed till the occasion is forgotten. Occasional compositions may, however, secure to a writer the praise both of learning and facility; for they cannot be the effect of long study, and must be furnished immediately from the treasures of the mind.

Life of Dryden,

Knowledge of the subject is to a poet what materials are to the architect.

Ibid.

Local poetry is a species of composition, of which the fundamental subject is some particular landscape to be poetically described, with the addition of such embellishments as may be supplied by historical retrospection, or incidental medita

tion. Sir John Denham's Cooper's Hill appears, to claim the originality of this kind of poetry among us.

Life of Denham.

A poem frigidly didactic, without rhyme, is so near to prose, that the reader only scorns it for pretending to be verse.

Life of Rofcommon.

Those performances which strike with wonder, are combinations of skilful genius with happy casualty.

Life of Pope.

As men are often esteemed who cannot be loved, so the poetry of some writers may sometimes extort praise when it gives little pleasure.

Life of Collins.

For the same reason that pastoral poetry was the first employment of the human imagination, it is generally the first literary amusement of our

minds.

Rambler, vol. I, p. 218.

The occasions on which pastoral poetry can be properly produced, are few, and general. The state of a man confined to the employments and pleasures of the country, is so little diversified, are exposed to so few of those accidents which produce perplexities, terrors, and surprises, in more complicated transactions, that he can be shown but seldom in such circumstances as attract curiosity. His ambition is without policy, and his love without intrigue. He has no complaints to make of his rival, but that he is richer than himself; nor any disasters to lament, but a cruel mistress, or a bad harvest.

Ibid. p. 2201

If we search the writings of Virgil, for the true definition of a pastoral, it will be found, " A* * poem in which action or passion is represented by its effects upon a country life.”

Ibid. p. 224.

Every other power by which the understanding is enlightened, or the imagination enchanted, may be exercised in prose. But the poet has this peculiar superiority, that to all the powers which the perfection of every other composition can require, he adds the faculty of joining music with reason, and of acting at once upon the senses and the passions.

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Ibid, vol. 2, p. 184.

Easy poetry is that in which natural thoughts. are expressed, without violence to the language.. Any epithet which can be ejected without diminution of the sense, any curious iteration of the same word, and all unusual, though not ungrammatical, structure of speech, destroy the grace of casy poetry..

Idler, vol. 2, p. 136..

It is the prerogative of easy poetry, to be understood as long as the language lasts; but modes of speech, which owe their prevalence only to modish folly, or to the eminence of those that use them, die away with their inventors; and their meaning, in a few years, is no longer

known.

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Ibid. p. 139..

Easy poetry, though it excludes pomp, will admit greatness.

Ibid...

The

The poets, from the time of Dryden, have gradually advanced in embellishment, and, consequently, departed from simplicitly and ease. Ibid. p. 140.

1

POVERTY.

Poverty has, in large cities, very different appearances. It is often concealed in splendor," and often in extravagance. It is the care of a very great part of mankind to conceal their indigence from the rest. They support themselves by temporary expedients, and every day is lost in contriving for to-morrow.

Prince of Abyssinia, p. 151.

It is the great privilege of poverty to be hap py unenvied, to be healthful without physic, and secure without a guard. To obtain from the bounty of nature what the great and wealthy are compelled to procure by the help of artists, and the attendance of flatterers and spies.

Rambler, vol. 4, p. 229..

There are natural reasons why poverty does not easily conciliate. He that has been confined from his infancy to the conversation of the lowest classes of mankind, must necessarily want those accomplishments which are the usual means of attracting favour; and though truth, fortitude, and probity, give an indisputable right to reverence and kindness, they will not be distinguished by common eyes, unless they are brightened by elegance of manners, but are cast aside, like unpolished gems, of which none but the artist knows the intrinsic value, till their asperities are smoothed and their incrustations rubbed away.

Ibid. p. 35.

Nature

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