ANALYSIS.

I. Poetry the Expression of the Imagination, as distinguished from that of the Reasoning Faculty, 1 1—11 12.

A. Inferiority of reason to imagination, 1 1—2 5.

B. Poetry, which always exists in the infancy of society, is a product of the soul's imitative, yet creative activity, 2 1–3 31.

1. Occasioned by impressions from without, 2 1–3 2.

2. A reflex of the social sympathies, 3 2―31.

C. Poets are those, the creative activity of whose imagination causes the purest and most intense pleasure to others, 3 32-5 19.

1. The language they employ marks the before unapprehended
relations of things, and its very words are fragmentary
poetry, 4 27-5 19.

D. The harmony perceived and rendered by the poets is mani-
fested not only through the medium of form, sound, and
color, but also through inventions and institutions, 5 20-6 26.
1. To the poet distinctions of time and place disappear, and
his intense perception of the present is also a discovery of
the future, in so far as the sequence of events is disclosed
as orderly and organic to the eye of his soul, 5 31–6 26.
E. Yet language is the best medium for poetic expression, because
less refractory and more plastic than any other, 6 27—7 32.
1. Poetry may be defined as those arrangements of language
which are effected by the creative imagination, 6 31-7 17.
2. The fame of other artists and originators inferior to that of
poets, 7 17-32.

F. Poetry rhythmical, but not necessarily metrical, 7 33—10 7.
Translation of poetry impossible, since its music can never
be reproduced, 8 8–25.

2. Distinction between poets and prose writers a vulgar error, 8 26-9 33.

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3. Creative poets and persuasive original philosophers practically identical, 9 33—10 7.

G. Superiority of poetry to history, 10 8-11 12.

1. But the fragments of a history may be poetical, 10 33—

11 12.

II. The Effects of Poetry, 11 13-33 26.

A. Poetry gives delight, 11 16–12 7.

B. Poetry is an instrument of moral improvement, 12 7—13 14.
1. And this notwithstanding the moral conventionalities of
his time and place, which the poet cannot help observing,
12 19-13 14.

C. Poetry more efficacious for good than moral philosophy,
13 15-15 4.

1. But poets must not moralize, in the restricted sense, 14 21-15 4.

D. Historical review of European poetry, 15 5-33 26.

1. Grecian poetry, 15 5-23 22.

a. The perfection of the lyric and the drama at Athens will serve as the index of Athenian greatness in general, 15 5-21 8.

aa. The Athenian drama in the main superior to every other, 16 6—17 30.

a. Reservation in favor of tragicomedy; King Lear the most perfect specimen of dramatic art in the world, 17 2-30.

bb. The degeneracy of the drama always connected with the elimination of its poetry, 17 31

21 8.

a. The ennobling effects of the drama at its best estate, 18 12-19 12.

B. The decay of the drama accompanies the decay of social life; the Restoration plays are an example, 19 13-20 20.

7. Necessity of regenerating the drama when it has been debased, 20 21-21 8.

b. Inferiority of the Alexandrian writers, though creative imagination is not yet wholly extinct, 21 9-23 22.

2. Roman poetry, 23 23-25 5.

a. Poetry an exotic at Rome, 23 23-24 17.

b. The Romans excelled rather in the poetry of action,

24 17-25 5.

3. Poetry under Christian influences, 25 6-33 26.

a. Christianity the cosmical principle of a world otherwise anarchic, 25 6-19.

6. Effect of Hebrew poetry upon that of Christianity, 25 20-25.

The darkness of the Middle Ages results from the obscuration of the poetic principle, 25 25–27 6. d. Efflorescence of Christian poetry about the eleventh century, 27 7-28 1.

e. The abolition of slavery and the emancipation of woman, 28 1–15.

f. Poetry revives among the Provençals and with Petrarch, 28 15-31.

g. Dante the great poet of purified and exalted love, 28 31-29 19.

h. Italian, English, Spanish, and French exponents of this new poetry, 29 19–32.

i. The strength of their insight made Dante and Milton superior to their times, that is, heretical in some of their views, 29 33-31 27.

j. Dante and Milton stand respectively second and third among epic poets, not even Virgil being worthy of so exalted a place, much less Ariosto, Tasso, Camoens, or Spenser, 31 28-32 14.

k. Dante the leader of Italian reformers, poets, and humanists; the successive unfoldings of poetic truth,

32 15-33 15.

7. Italian poetry caused a revival of the other arts, and of English literature, 33 16-21.

III. The Superiority of Poetry to Science and Political Philosophy, .33 27-40 13.

A. Two species of utility, corresponding to two kinds of pleasure, the higher producing a pleasure durable, universal, and permanent, the lower a pleasure transitory and particular, 33 27-34 17.

B. The mere reasoner useful in a limited sense, yet he must beware of exceeding his appointed limits, 34 18-35 11.

C. Poets and poetical philosophers produce the higher pleasare, though one that is inseparable from pain, 35 12364.

D. The world could have dispensed with critics, reasoners, and political philosophers, but never with poets, 36 5–33.

E. At present, calculation has outrun conception, and deeds do
not keep pace with knowledge, 37 1-38 2.

F. Poetry would give us an enlarged power over things, 38 3-15.
G. Poetry the centre, the life, the essence of all science, 38 16-

39 5.

H. Poetry incapable of being produced at will, 39 5—40 13.

IV. The Diviner Sources and Effects of Poetry, 40 14-44 27. A. Poets visited by transient inspirations, which, in recording, they transmute into immortal benefits to mankind, 40 1441 21.

B. Poetry exorcises evil, enhances beauty, reconciles contradictions, banishes the commonplace, and creates the world anew, 41 22-42 24.

C. The poet, as poet, is the happiest, best, wisest, and most illustrious of men, 42 25-43 31.

1. But as man, being more susceptible to pain and pleasure, he is more sorely tempted than others, 43 32-44 23.

2. Still, the purely evil passions have little control over him, 44 24-27.

V. Concluding Observations, 44 28-46 32.

A. Digression concerning the particular occasion of the essay, 44 28-45 20.

B. Announcement of a second part, to be a defense of modern poetry in particular, 45 21-26.

C. This poetry likely to be the precursor of a new spiritual awakening to England, 45 26-46 3.

D. Poets the unconscious heralds of larger dispensations, 46 4–32.