the mind of the reader, a correct and vivid picture of the object described.

Q. What is requisite for the writing of descriptive poetry?

A. Acute observation and great vividness of imagination, that we may at once observe, and be able to delineate, the most striking features of an object.

Q.

Can you mention any poem that stands very high, as belonging to the descriptive class? A. Thomson's Seasons, a work which abounds with some of the most delightful views of nature.

Q. In what light may we view poetry in which past events are described?

A. It may be viewed as a species of descriptive poetry; and, when well executed, it possesses great fascination.

Q. Can you mention any poetry of this class?

A. The most of Sir Walter Scott's is of this sort, but particularly his Lady of the Lake, Marmion, and Lord of the Isles.

Q. Are not pastoral poetry and descriptive very much allied to each other?

A. They are certainly closely connected; but pastoral poetry is a display of rural life and manners; descriptive poetry, chiefly a picture of inanimate objects; though neither is exclusively confined to its own province.

CHAPTER XLV.

Of Didactic and Lyric Poetry.

Q. What do you mean by Didactic Poetry? A. Poetry employed for the purpose of teaching some particular art or science, or other branch of knowledge, whether moral or intellectual,

Q. Is this a pleasing vehicle of knowledge? A. If well executed, there can be but one opinion as to its pleasantness; but it may be doubted whether it be always a safe mode of acquiring accurate information.

Q. What are its chief advantages?

A. It at once pleases the fancy, and assists the memory; and an obvious truth may often be expressed with greater brevity and force in verse than in prose.

Q. What do you conceive to be its disadvantages?

A. By taking possession of the imagination, it is apt to mislead the judgment, and make us ready to acquiesce in what is said by the poet, without inquiring into its truth.

Q. Can you mention any poems of the didactic class?

A. Virgil's Georgics, Pope's Essay on Criticism, Armstrong's Poem on Health, and some of Cowper's poems, are among the best and most popular of this class.

Q. What is to be understood by Lyric Poetry?

A. All poetry intended to be set, or that might be set, to music; including chiefly songs

and odes.

Q. Was its meaning always so confined? A. No; for, in ancient times, it might be said to include poetry of all descriptions; as all

poetic compositions were accompanied with music, either vocal or instrumental.

Q. From what is the word lyric derived?

A. From the lyre, an important musical instrument in former times; and hence the lyre is generally an emblem of all poetry.

Q. What then does a poet mean when he speaks of singing or tuning his lyre?

A. Simply the writing of poetry; and he uses these expressions in a figurative manner, in reference to the inseparable connexion which once subsisted between poetry and music.

Q. What do you understand by a song? A. A short poem in regular stanzas, and fitted for being set to music and sung.

Q. What is the nature of the ode?

A. A poem more irregular in its structure, and may or may not be set to music; being generally a short but fervid flow of genius, displaying, in animated strains, all the various passions and feelings of the human heart.

Q. Who are our principal writers of odes? A. Dryden, Pope, Collins, Gray, and War

ton.

Q. What do you mean by sonnet?

A. The word is from the Italian, and literally means a little song; but, as usually employed, it signifies a short poem, consisting generally of fourteen lines, arranged in a particular manner, and ending in some pointed thought or sentiment.

Q. What rank does the Epic hold in poetry? A. It generally occupies the first place among poetic compositions; and, if well executed, is regarded as one of the noblest displays of poetic, if not of human genius.

Q. What is its peculiar object?

A. To describe some great and important action or event, for the purpose of making it subservient to moral instruction.

Q. What other name does it often receive? A. It is frequently styled heroic poetry, because, in every poem of this sort, there is generally a leading character called the hero. Q. Why is he so named?