A Study of Poetry

"As conceptions are the images of things to the mind within itself, so are words or names the marks of those conceptions to the minds of them we converse with." SOUTH, quoted in...

"When this verse was first dictated to me I consider'd a Monotonous Cadence like that used by Milton & Shakspeare, & all writers of English Blank Verse, derived from the modern...

"_Milk-Woman_. What song was it, I pray? Was it 'Come, shepherds, deck your heads'? or, 'As at noon Dulcina rested'? or, 'Phillida flouts me'? or, 'Chevy Chase'? or, 'Johnny Arm...

We must not at the outset insist too strongly upon the radical distinction between "the poet"--as we have called him for convenience--and other men. The common sense of mankind...

And why must the words begin to dance? The answer is to be perceived in the very nature of Rhythm, that old name for the ceaseless pulsing or "flowing" of all living things. So...

It is a gray day in autumn. I am sitting at my desk, wondering how to begin the first chapter of this book about poetry. Outside the window a woman is contentedly kneeling on th...

That "confusion of the genres" which characterizes so much of contemporary art has not obliterated the ancient division of poetry into three chief types, namely, lyric, epic and...

"Unless there is a concurrence between the contemporary idioms and rhythms of a period, with the individual idiom of the lyrist, half the expressional force of his ideas will be...

"And the same may be said of lust and anger and all the other affections, of desire and pain and pleasure which are held to be inseparable from every action--in all of them poet...

"The more I read and re-read the works of the great poets, and the more I study the writings of those who have some Theory of Poetry to set forth, the more am I convinced that t...

While this chapter does not attempt to comment upon the work of living American authors, except as illustrating certain general tendencies of the lyric, I think that teachers of...

A fresh and clear discussion of the principles governing Rhythm and Metre may be found in C. E. Andrews's _Writing and Reading of Verse_. The well-known books by Alden, Corson,...

This chapter, like the first, will be difficult for some students. They may profitably read, in connection with it, Professor Winchester's chapter on "Imagination" in his _Liter...

I regret that Professor Lowes's brilliant discussion of "Poetic Diction" in his _Convention and Revolt_ did not appear until after this chapter was written. There are stimulatin...

"Thou art shut in thy banks, but the stream I love flows in thy water, and flows through rocks and through the air and through rays of light as well, and through darkness, and t...

The various periods of English lyric poetry are covered, as has been already noted, by the general treatises of Rhys, Reed and Schelling. Old English lyrics are well translated...

While I hope that the book may attract the traditional "general reader," I have also tried to arrange it in such a fashion that it may be utilized in the classroom. I have there...

Recent criticism has been rich in its discussions of the lyric. John Drinkwater's little volume on _The Lyric_ is suggestive. See also C. E. Whitmore's article in the _Pub. Mod....

This chapter aims to present, in as simple a form as possible, some of the fundamental questions in aesthetic theory as far as they bear upon the study of poetry. James Sully's...

The need here is to look at an old subject with fresh eyes. Teachers who are fond of music or painting or sculpture can invent many illustrations following the hint given in the...

I have not attempted in this chapter to give elaborate illustrations of the varieties of rhyme and stanza in English poetry. Full illustrations will be found in Alden's _English...

For the further study of ballads, note G. L. Kittredge's one volume edition of Child's _English and Scottish Popular Ballads_, Gummere's _Popular Ballad_, G. H. Stempel's _Book...