Poetry
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2.The origins and history of poetry
2a.The antiquity and universality of poetry
Herodotus, An Account of EgyptVol. 33
- p. 15–17He suggests Homer or an earlier poet invented the river Ocean and introduced it into verse.read · scan
- p. 30–32Homer and Hesiod, four hundred years earlier, made the Greek theogony; supposed earlier poets were later.read · scan
- p. 40The lament song of Linos, Egypt's only song, sung for a king's son who died young.read · scan
- p. 78–79Aeschylus differs from earlier poets by making Artemis daughter of Demeter, taking it from Egyptian story.read · scan
Tacitus, GermanyVol. 33
- p. 93Old ballads celebrate Tuisto and Mannus as founders of the nation.read · scan
- p. 94Germans' battle songs, 'Barding', inspire bravery, and by their sound they divine the fight's outcome.read · scan
BeowulfVol. 49
- p. 7The singer's clear song of early tales enlivens the hall with harps.read · scan
- p. 28A king's thane, stored with old sagas, composes a lay in well-knit rime on Beowulf's quest and Sigemund.read · scan
- p. 32–34The singer's hero-lay of the Finn feud is sung with harp and music at the feast.read · scan
- p. 37–38The gleeman's lay is finished and revel resumes.read · scan
- p. 61The old king harps and chants lays of sooth and sadness and legends of wonder.read · scan
The Destruction of Dá Derga's HostelVol. 49
- p. 236–237The king's three poets, sons of Maphar of the Mighty Song, are counted among his household.read · scan
- p. 245–246Conaire's head speaks a verse of praise for Mac cecht.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, PurgatoryVol. 20
- p. 260Ancient poets who sang the golden age on Parnassus perhaps dreamed of this place, where man was guiltless.read · scan
Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31
- p. 58An improvisatory poet, Aurelio Ascolano, chants compliments to the women after the concert.read · scan
- p. 62Luigi Pulci, a gifted improvisatory poet and Latin scholar, sang in Florence, admired by Michelangelo.read · scan
Sir Philip Sidney, The Defense of PoesyVol. 27
- p. 6Poets like Homer, Hesiod, Dante and Chaucer were the first light-givers and nurses of learning in every nation; attackers of poetry are ungrateful.read · scan
- p. 7–8Poetry is found among all peoples, from Ireland to Indians and Welsh bards, and precedes learning; Romans called poets vates.read · scan
- p. 8–9Oracles and Sibyl spoke in verse, whose measure seemed divinely forceful; David's Psalms are divine poems deserving a place in church.read · scan
John Milton, Tractate on EducationVol. 3
- p. 243–244Mentions poets among those bred in the ancient schools of Greece; no real treatment of poetry itself.read · scan
Abraham Cowley, Of AgricultureVol. 27
- p. 65–66Poetry was born among shepherds; verse cannot grow in city noise; poets withdrew to the retired life.read · scan
- p. 66–67Poets adorned the retired life in ever-living poems; Hesiod, early poet and first writer on husbandry.read · scan
Edmund Burke, On Taste: Introductory DiscourseVol. 24
- p. 17Barbarous nations excel in similitudes, metaphors and allegories yet are weak in distinguishing ideas.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 235–236Fairy train appears, and bards sing heroic ditties.read · scan
- p. 362–363Old poets and chronicles sing the champions' contests.read · scan
William Wordsworth, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 620–628Ballad of the traveller's argument with his companion over visiting the famed river of song and legend.read · scan
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 728–729Opens with the old ballad of Sir Patrick Spence and the bard as weather-wise.read · scan
Sir Aubrey de Vere, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 911–912Landscape compared to scenes minstrels have sung.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defence of PoetryVol. 27
- p. 329Poetry defined as the expression of the imagination, connate with man's origin, arising from the child's and savage's expressive response to impressions.read · scan
Thomas Carlyle, CharacteristicsVol. 25
- p. 331–332In healthy ages thought took the form of heroic song rather than speculation.read · scan
Thomas Babington Macaulay, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 915Ballad in heroic narrative style, invoking hearers to attend.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The PoetVol. 5
- p. 167–168Everyone is susceptible to nature's enchantments; the people fancy they hate poetry yet are all poets and mystics.read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29
- p. 409Children sing impromptu verses in chorus around bonfires, celebrating the visitors' arrival.read · scan
Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23
- p. 147Islanders' extempore chanting about persons around them, with Mannini as improvisatore, is used as ridicule and private speech.read · scan
2b.The succession of ode, epic and drama
See also: Religion 1c
Victor Hugo, Preface to CromwellVol. 39
- p. 338–339Poetry is superposed on society; primitive poetry is the hymn or ode, with man's first speech a song to God, soul and creation.read · scan
- p. 340–341Epic poetry expresses ancient society: Genesis as primitive ode, Homer dominating antiquity, tragedy re-echoing the epic, and even history remaining epic.read · scan
- p. 341–342Greek tragedy derives from Homeric epic; the Chorus is the poet completing his epic; epic dies with Virgil copying Homer.read · scan
- p. 351–352Poetry has three periods, ode, epic and drama, and Shakespeare unites grotesque and sublime in the drama.read · scan
- p. 352–353Lyric precedes epic, and epic precedes drama in every literature; each age has a dominant poetic element.read · scan
- p. 353–354The drama is complete poetry, containing ode and epic; lyric befits it, and a metaphor of lake, stream and ocean.read · scan
- p. 354–355Drama is the goal of modern poetry; Dante, Milton and Shakespeare blend grotesque and sublime; poetry is harmony of contraries.read · scan
2c.National and racial poetries
See also: Race and Nationality 5c · Chivalry 1a · National Character 5d · Religion 1c
The Story of the Volsungs and NiblungsVol. 49
- p. 250Translators present the Volsunga Saga as the great Northern epic, derived from Eddaic songs, rendered closely yet not too prosaically for lovers of poetry.read · scan
- p. 250–251Compares the saga's prose with its Eddaic lay sources, noting which parts keep metrical form and which were translated separately.read · scan
- p. 251–252Praises the Eddaic lays, especially the First Lay of Gudrun, and the saga's realism, subtlety and sympathy with human passions.read · scan
- p. 252Claims the Volsung tale is an unversified poem, the great story of the North, deserving the standing the Tale of Troy has for the Greeks.read · scan
Sir Philip Sidney, The Defense of PoesyVol. 27
- p. 42–43Sidney surveys English poets (Chaucer, Surrey, Spenser) and faults verse and drama that lack order and reason.read · scan
John Dryden, Preface to Fables, Ancient and ModernVol. 39
- p. 153Dryden traces English poetic descent from Chaucer through Spenser to Milton and Waller, and plans to compare Ovid and Chaucer through translation.read · scan
- p. 162Chaucer's verse is rough and unequal in numbers yet natural; English poetry in its infancy, perfected only by successive poets.read · scan
Thomas Gray, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 455–456History of poetry from Greece to Rome to Britain: Shakespeare gifted with Nature's pencil, Milton soaring, Dryden's car, and Gray's own modest aspiration.read · scan
- p. 458–459Taliessin's harp and strains of rapture close the vision.read · scan
John Skinner, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 568–570A convivial song praising Scottish music over Italian airs.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 87–89Burns urges a fellow poet to sing Ayrshire's streams and plains as other Scottish poets have sung theirs; the muse comes to those who wander alone.read · scan
- p. 373–374Complains that London plays are courted while Scottish themes are neglected; calls for a native poet.read · scan
- p. 374–375Calls for a bard to write dramas of Wallace and Bruce and appeals for patronage of the Muses' servants.read · scan
- p. 492–494The poet takes up Columbia's harp instead of the classical lyre and calls on the patriot bards.read · scan
William Wordsworth, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 628–630Pity sanctifies verse that paints by sorrow the unconquerable strength of love; Border songs and legend shape the place.read · scan
- p. 676–678Milton's soul praised as a star, his voice like the sea; poet loves his country as a lover.read · scan
Thomas Moore, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 818–820The silent harp of Tara stands for departed glory and ruined pride.read · scan
George Gordon, Lord Byron, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 812–814The heroic lay is tuneless, the lyre degenerate; the poet asks what is left him but a blush and a tear.read · scan
Thomas Carlyle, Sir Walter ScottVol. 25
- p. 409–410Scott's business was to be song-singer and taleteller to Britain and Europe in the artificial nineteenth century.read · scan
- p. 411–412Burns's inspired melody and Scott's autobiographical narrative are cited as expressions of national thought.read · scan
- p. 413Scott's raids into Liddesdale gathered ballads, songs and tunes that became the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border; every land finds its poet.read · scan
- p. 417–418Scott's Minstrelsy and metrical romances revived the old life of men and gave the age a new literature.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American ScholarVol. 5
- p. 5Emerson hopes poetry will revive and lead a new age in America, singing events that must be sung.read · scan
- p. 20Literature turns to the common, low and familiar; the poetizing of household life is a sign of new vigor.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The PoetVol. 5
- p. 179–180Emerson seeks the ideal poet who will sing America's own times and materials; criticizes Milton, Homer and English poets.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5
- p. 341–342Celts gave places poetic names and made the best popular medieval literature in the songs of Merlin and Arthur.read · scan
- p. 342–343Heimskringla is called the Iliad and Odyssey of English history, with Homeric individual portraits.read · scan
- p. 377–379Defoe's verse is quoted to characterize English openness in intrigue.read · scan
- p. 432English poetry and prose favor plain, earthy, realistic expression; poet quickly recovers from imagination; Dante prized for tenacious mental image.read · scan
- p. 432–433English poets from Chaucer to Milton combine material exactitude with elevation; poetry is common-sense inspired, iron raised to white heat.read · scan
- p. 434Elizabethan English poets and writers flowered with force, vigor and edge, turning even vulgar objects into charm.read · scan
- p. 441–442Modern English muse hints of the steam-whistle; poem made as ornament of monarchy, not a bird of new morning.read · scan
- p. 444–445Emerson criticizes modern English poetry as ornamental; poetry should speak the spiritual law; praises Wordsworth's sanity and nature-taught genius.read · scan
- p. 445–446Indian writings' grand style and ornaments of fancy contrast with English decorum.read · scan
Giuseppe Mazzini, Byron and GoetheVol. 32
- p. 396Byron introduced English literature and Shakespeare to the Continent; his fame among nations of Europe.read · scan
Robert Browning, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1067–1069Wordsworth as fallen poet; great English poets of freedom named against him; songs no longer his.read · scan
Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of GrassVol. 39
- p. 388Whitman declares the United States essentially the greatest poem, with Americans having the fullest poetical nature.read · scan
- p. 388–389Manners, speech and character of the people are unrhymed poetry awaiting worthy treatment.read · scan
- p. 389–390The American bard must be commensurate with a people, incarnating its geography and natural life.read · scan
- p. 390The American poet's expression must be transcendent, indirect and creative, not epic or descriptive.read · scan
- p. 398American bards are generous, encourage competitors, favor no class or region, and draw on science for their structure.read · scan
- p. 407–408New poets shall be interpreters of men and events, drawing inspiration from real objects.read · scan
- p. 409Derivative poems will pass; a poet's proof is that his country absorbs him as he has absorbed it.read · scan
James Russell Lowell, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1388A poet cannot tower unless his passions and triumphs keep measure with his people.read · scan
Walt Whitman, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1402–1403The poet declares his subject, singing the separate person and the democratic mass.read · scan
- p. 1406–1408The poet calls for bards latent on the prairies to rise and join the march.read · scan
Matthew Arnold, The Study of PoetryVol. 28
- p. 75Traces the course of English poetry from its origins in medieval French romance-poetry, which dominated Europe in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.read · scan
- p. 76Contrasts the dead French romance-poetry, valued only by the historic estimate, with Chaucer's enduring poetic importance.read · scan
- p. 77–78Chaucer's superiority over romance-poetry lies in substance and in style, his liquid diction and fluid movement, which found the English tradition.read · scan
- p. 84–85The real Burns is in his Scotch poems, yet his world of Scotch drink, religion and manners is harsh and unbeautiful, a disadvantage to a poet.read · scan
Edward Augustus Freeman, Race and LanguageVol. 28
- p. 255Poets sang of language as the badge of national union.read · scan
Ernest Renan, The Poetry of the Celtic RacesVol. 32
- p. 137The Celtic literature shaped medieval Europe's poetical motives and expresses penetrating feeling; criticism should preserve its fading tones.read · scan
- p. 138–139The Mabinogion is called the pearl of Gaelic literature, the completest expression of Cymric genius.read · scan
- p. 141–142Bardic songs weep more defeats than they sing victories; national melodies possess delicious sadness.read · scan
- p. 142–143Mabinogion tales like Peredur and Maxem Wledig show the Celtic poetic life.read · scan
- p. 143–144Welsh literature divides into bardic lyric, Mabinogion romance and ecclesiastical legend; the Mabinogion best expresses Celtic genius.read · scan
- p. 145Describes the romantic tone of the Mabinogion, its manuscripts, and heroes of limitless individuality with miraculous objects.read · scan
- p. 146–147Compares the Welsh story-tellers' serene narrative art with Chretien de Troyes, Wolfram and Ariosto, judging their manner of recital.read · scan
- p. 147–148Praises Lady Guest's translation as faithful, simple and tasteful rendering of the Mabinogion.read · scan
- p. 148Analyses the Mabinogion's classes, style, and the primitive originality of Kilhwch and Olwen as a poem.read · scan
- p. 149–150The trials form a romantic epic, preserved fragmentarily in the manuscript.read · scan
- p. 151–152Animal knights of the Lion, Falcon and Swan are Breton imaginings in medieval poetry.read · scan
- p. 152Merlin, Arthur and Elaine legends embody the Celtic imagination's attraction to nature.read · scan
- p. 155The Mabinogion transformed the poetic art of Europe in the twelfth century.read · scan
- p. 157Breton narratives introduced a romantic element into European poetry, differing from the classical Carlovingian epic and Homeric heroes.read · scan
- p. 158Breton romances transformed hard mediaeval poetry by introducing delicate feeling and women's characters; French imitators later debased their chaste original.read · scan
- p. 159Breton romances changed how the marvellous was conceived and used in European literature.read · scan
- p. 160Naturalistic marvellous of Celtic romance suits poetry better than classical mythology or Christian dogma; Ariosto and Shakespeare draw on it.read · scan
- p. 161–162French Brittany's glory lies in popular songs, while Wales produced authentic books and epic creations.read · scan
- p. 162–163Argues that Lancelot, Tristan and Grail elements of French romances are of Cymric origin, comparing the Welsh Peredur with continental versions.read · scan
- p. 163–164Compares Welsh and French romances and the name Lancelot as translation of Mael.read · scan
- p. 164The vessel inspires poetic genius; the trouvere treats the theme as a narrative he can scarcely understand.read · scan
- p. 166–167Defends the authenticity of sixth-century bardic poetry, heroic in theme, artificial in style, and prefers Breton popular songs.read · scan
- p. 167Bardic literature decayed into unoriginal style and conventional metaphors, and the people alter songs they no longer understand.read · scan
- p. 174St. Brandan legend as a product of Celtic naturalism joined with Christian spiritualism.read · scan
- p. 175The legend as a monastic Odyssey, a fantastical imaginative narrative.read · scan
- p. 176St. Brandan poem is an extraordinary creation and completest expression of the Celtic ideal, joining fiction with truth to nature.read · scan
- p. 177–178Narratives of travels beyond the tomb became a fashionable literary form.read · scan
- p. 179–180Europe owes half its poetic subjects, even the Divine Comedy's framework, to Celtic imagination, though medieval writers slighted the Celts.read · scan
- p. 180–181Celtic legends called beautiful creations, scorned by chroniclers as childish nonsense.read · scan
- p. 181Celts had a complete poetic childhood; poetical races are philosophic races, and philosophy is only a manner of poetry.read · scan
Hippolyte Taine, Introduction to the History of English LiteratureVol. 39
- p. 421Race and circumstance shape civilization including literary state; only a glancing link to literature.read · scan
- p. 428–430Indian epics extravagant, Greek poetry marked by lucidity and proportion, Roman poetry null or borrowed.read · scan
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1153–1155Narrator tells the ballad of King James; the captive prince's song learned from the nightingale is praised as sweeter than any English poet's.read · scan
William Ernest Henley, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1209–1211Lyric refrain of the song on bugles blown celebrates England.read · scan
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