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Would start and tremble under her feet,

And blossom in purple and red.

-Maud: Tennyson.

Illustrative, like direct, representation may be used, of

course, for wit and humor.

When Loveless married Lady Jenny,

Whose beauty was the ready penny;
"I chose her," says he, "like old plate,
Not for the fashion but the weight."

-Elegant Extracts.

You beat your pate, and fancy wit will come ;
Knock as you please, there's nobody at home.

-Epigram: Pope.

CHAPTER XXII.

PURE REPRESENTATION IN THE POETRY OF HOMER.

How the Phenomena of Nature should be used in Representation-Homer as a Model-His Descriptions are Mental, Fragmentary, Specific, Typical-The Descriptions of Lytton, Goethe, Morris, Southey, etcHomer's Descriptions also Progressive-Examples-Dramatic Poems should show the same Traits-Homer's Illustrative Representation.

HAVING found now how poetry through pure rep

resentation, whether direct or illustrative, is able to give definite expression to thoughts and feelings, let us take up the second question proposed in Chapter Twentieth, and try to find how an artist desirous of representing his own thoughts and feelings must use the phenomena of nature in order to do this in the most effective way. In answering this question, it is essential that we start with a proper standard. Fortunately, we can get one universally acknowledged to be sufficient for our purpose, in the works of Homer, and this too-to say much less than is deserved-in a sufficiently accurate English translation. So far at least as concerns the passages to be quoted in this discussion, all have been verified by comparing them with the original text. These poems of Homer have stood the tests of centuries, and there are reasons why they have survived them. The consideration which should interest us most in the present connection, is the fact that the poems were produced by a man who spoke directly from the first promptings of nature; a man

upon whom the methods of representation in other arts, and of presentation as used in science and philosophy, had had the least possible influence. In his works, therefore, better than in any others with which, in our day, we can become acquainted, we can study the tendencies of poetry in its most spontaneous and unadulterated form. Let us begin here, therefore, by examining some of the poetry of Homer, and trying to find out how he dealt with the phenomena of nature.

As we pursue our inquiry, one feature with reference to his methods should impress us immediately, and it may as well be mentioned before we take up any particular passages, because it is apparent in all of them. It may be indicated by saying that the Homeric representations are all mental. They fulfil in this respect the requirement already mentioned many times in this work-that the products of art should represent both man and nature. By saying that the Homeric descriptions are mental, it is meant that they show that there is a mind between the phenomena of nature and the account of them that we get in the poetry—a mind addressing our minds. Not that this mind distorts the objects which it has perceived and describes; the fact is just the opposite. Homer's representations are pure in the highest sense; yet they are not like those of a guide-book or map. He suggests his picture by telling us about those features of it that have had an effect upon him as a thinking being, or,-what is the same thing-that he expects will have an effect upon What he tells us is true to nature, but not, by any means, all the truth concerning it. Certain parts of the scenes presumably witnessed have arrested his attention, and suggested certain inferences to him. These parts, consciously or unconsciously, he selects and arranges in

us.

ways that arrest our attention as they have arrested his. In this sense it is that his descriptions are mental. Let us look now at some of them. Here is one of his accounts of a man, and another of a homestead, both very simple, but for this very reason admirably adapted to our present purpose.

And first, Æneas, with defiant mien

And nodding casque, stood forth. He held his shield
Before him, which he wielded right and left,

And shook his brazen spear.

-Iliad, Book 20: Bryant's Trans.

He wedded there

A daughter of Adrastus, and he dwelt

Within a mansion filled with wealth; broad fields
Fertile in corn were his, and many rows

Of trees and vines around him; large his flocks,
And great his fame as one expert to wield,
Beyond all other Greeks, the spear in war.

-Iliad, 14: Bryant's Trans.

Notice now, in the second place, that these descriptions are fragmentary, the items mentioned in them being few. They present us with just such incomplete glimpses as one would obtain or remember amid circumstances in which the persons or objects observed would form parts of larger objects of consideration, while at the same time all of them, or, perhaps, he himself might be in motion.

Notice, in the third place, that the descriptions are specific. Of the few items that are mentioned, we have a very definite account in the "defiant mien," the "nodding casque," the shaking "shield" and "spear," the "mansion filled with wealth," the "broad fields fertile in corn," the "rows of trees," the "vines," the "large flocks," and the "expert" in wielding "the spear." There is no uncertainty of outline here, and therefore there is no doubt in

the mind of the reader as to whether or not the author has taken his descriptions from nature. The whole impression conveyed is that he is describing the appearance of some particular man and homestead, and of no other.

Notice also, in the fourth place, that the descriptions, while specific, are also typical. The features spoken of are such as to indicate the genus or kind of person or thing that is represented. So fully is this the case, that the few specific items mentioned, like the few bold outlines of a painter's sketch, suggest every thing that the imagination really needs in order to make out a complete picture. This fact makes it possible for them to be few and definite, and yet distinctly representative. They do not include all the objects that might be seen, all that might be photographed, but only a few of them. At the same time, they are those which in the circumstances would be likely to attract any one's eye, those from which, and from which only, even if one saw the scene, he would be likely to draw his impressions with reference to the whole of it. Some of my readers may remember that Timothy Titcomb,' in giving advice to young men intending to go into ladies' society, does not bid them attend mainly to that which shall make them appear intelligent or moral. Not at all. He writes from the view-point of a man of common-sense, understanding human nature. He advises them to attend to their neckties. The truth is, that our first view of a person always lights upon some one or two prominent features, the eyes, lips, smile, hand, gait, coat, or necktie, as the case may be, which, by absorbing our attention, causes us to overlook every thing else. In fact, we always remember people, and houses, and localities, by these single and simple, often very ab. 1 Timothy Titcomb's Letters: J. G. HOLLAND.

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