sure though every whit as unmeaning as the nonsense verses of the schoolboy." Besides this fundamental distinction between poetry and prose, which is all we are concerned with in dealing with versification, it seems desirable to trace briefly the lines that separate them still further. Without attempting the hazardous task of formulating a definition of poetry, we may say that, in its widest sense, poetry is creation or invention of ideal beauty.* Macaulay says of it: "By poetry we mean the art of employing words in such a manner as to produce illusion on the imagination—the art of doing by words what the painter does by means of colours." Poetry is one of the Fine Arts; it is indeed the queen of the Nine Sisters of the fabled family of the Muses; her children are the myriad forms of the beautiful in sentiment and emotion which are scattered through the world's literatures. It is the result of a divinely bestowed faculty operating upon the infinite resources of nature, creating new forms of the beautiful by combinations of existing materials, through the aid of the imagination.” The poet's eye, in fine frenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name. * The Greek word for it is derived from the verb to make, as the French equivalent is from to find; and in Lowland Scotch the poet is still a maker. In this broad signification poetry is to be found embodied in the higher forms of prose quite as much as in verse. Creations of ideal grace and loveliness abound in amorphous prose, but as in that shape their dress lacks the wavy flow of rhythm, the designation of poetry is denied them. Frequently in impassioned prose there is, indeed, a perceptible rhythm which approaches very nearly the measured movement of verse. Many passages from George Eliot, Dickens, and Ruskin, for instance, not to mention others of the skilled masters in word-painting, might well be arranged as poetic lines. Yet, as metrical rules have not been observed in them throughout, as the cadences cease abruptly, they cannot be dignified by the name of poetry. The poet must always conform to metrical laws, while his brother artist only occasionally falls under their seductive influence. Again, the two forms of literary composition differ with respect to their object; prose seeks for the most part to instruct, whereas the aim of the poet is to give pleasure. And here again we find the two frequently running upon parallel lines, the fictions of romance and the creations of the poet showing a marked family likeness which the presence or absence of rhythmical arrangement alone can differentiate. In addition to these distinctions of form, matter, and aim, the style and diction of poetry differs in many respects from that of prose. Poetry should be "simple, sensuous, and passionate," said Milton; hence it chooses picturesque images and quaint words and epithets that would be out of place in prosaic description. Metaphors, similes, and indeed all the rhetorical figures of speech are freely used to variegate the conventionalities of everyday expressions, as the many-coloured blossoms of spring do the all-pervading sombre tints of winter. There are many words protected by poetic association from vulgar use, such as: woe, ire, blissful, a-weary, haply, list, ken, methinks, morn and eve, thou and ye for you. Striking epithets and picturesque compounds such as those that follow would disfigure good prose, while in verse they are pleasing and natural : sea-girt isle, vasty deep, the breezy blue, airbuilt castles, rosy-fingered dawn, the iron tongue of midnight. The poetic sentence is nervous, terse, and euphonious, and every kind of inversion, elision, and departure from ordinary rule is tolerated in order to make it so. Though bound to be musical, and to excite pleasure, the poet is a chartered libertine in most other respects. In spite of the freedom of treatment necessary in dramatic composition, Shakspere maintains clear distinction between poetry and prose. His servants and jesters always speak prose, and others also in light conversation, but the language of emotion and passion is invariably metrical. Brutus commences his famous speech to the populace after the murder of Cæsar in plain, direct prose; but as soon as he begins to declaim and appeal to the feelings of his hearers, his words run into verse. The eloquent art of Antony's speech is metrical throughout. KINDS OF POETRY. THE earliest compositions in all languages were metrical. Long before the art of writing was invented, rude songs of war and love and hymns to the gods were composed in some rude form of measure or jingle that was catching to the ear, and handed down by tradition. We find bards or poets amongst all nations when emerging from a state of barbarism, whose duty it was to sing those traditional odes on great national, religious and athletic festivals, and to celebrate the achievements of their own heroes and the stirring events of the day in original compositions. In course of time these rude lyrical pieces were collected and committed to writing, with narrative verses inter spersed, in order to give a unity to the collection; hence, in broad outline, the origin of the Epic poem. On national annual holidays the celebration of the deeds of past heroes in song, as well as the chanting of hymns to the gods, formed the chief feature of public gatherings. A rude stage was erected, and performers, fantastically dressed, and made up in some cases to heroic proportions, chanted these national odes in chorus. Gradually, in order to vary the entertainments, 1 soliloquies and dialogues were introduced; here we have the dawn of the drama. The different kinds of poetry may be briefly considered under the following heads : 1.-LYRIC POETRY. This is so called, because it was originally intended to be sung and accompanied on the lyre. We find some early specimens of it in the Old Testament, such as Miriam and Deborah's songs, and David's elegy cn Saul and Jonathan. Lyric poetry comprehends several different kinds. (a). THE ODE. Ode is from a Greek word meaning song. The term ode, though generic, is restricted to lyrical compositions of some length and generally of complexity of structure, corresponding in some degree to the typical form of the Greek choral odes. These consisted of irregular stanzas, arranged in groups of three; the strophe to be chanted by one half of the singers, the antistrophe by the other half, and the epode by the whole. In our own language we have odes written upon a variety of subjects, heroic, sacred, moral, and amorous. Gray has composed some fine examples, adhering in one case strictly to the Greek model; but perhaps the finest specimen we have is Dryden's Alexander's Feast. Collins, Campbell, Shelley, Wordsworth, and Tennyson have produced almost |