Poetry
‹ 5 · Outline · 7 ›
6.The effects of poetry on the mind
6a.Pleasure in tragedy and pity
See also: Pleasure and Pain 7a · Emotion 10b
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 31–32Stage-plays of tragic fictions move audience to tears and applause; the drama's effects on the spectator.read · scan
- p. 32–33Feigned, acted misery pleased him most as theatre.read · scan
Sir Philip Sidney, The Defense of PoesyVol. 27
- p. 27–28Tragedy moved even the tyrant Alexander of Pherae to tears, and the lyric and old ballads like Percy and Douglas stir the heart.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of DenmarkVol. 46
- p. 138Player's feigned passion in a dream of fiction moves body and soul; drama's power to strike the guilty.read · scan
Samuel Johnson, Preface to ShakespeareVol. 39
- p. 222–223Johnson argues drama moves us as a just picture of reality, not because it is mistaken for real; delight of tragedy comes from consciousness of fiction.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among MankindVol. 34
- p. 189Theatrical representation shows men sympathize with sufferers on stage.read · scan
Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and BeautifulVol. 24
- p. 33–34Cites Menelaus's melancholy recollections in Homer's Odyssey as illustrating pleasure in grief.read · scan
- p. 39Poetry, painting and tragedy transfuse passions and give delight from misery; this pleasure is instinctive rather than reasoned.read · scan
- p. 40Examines why we take pleasure in tragedy and in fictitious romances and poems, comparing it with real distress; sympathy explains tragic delight.read · scan
- p. 40Continues the account of delight in spectacles of calamity, in life or history; bears on tragedy only implicitly.read · scan
- p. 42Tragedy's power depends on nearness to reality; real sympathy outweighs the imitative arts, as an emptied theatre for an execution shows.read · scan
- p. 125Uses Homer's Iliad to show we feel pity for young fallen warriors, not for huge men; Homer knew human nature.read · scan
- p. 125Homer gives Trojans amiable virtues to excite pity and Greeks politic and military virtues to excite admiration.read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24
- p. 216–217Tragedy on the stage draws tears through pity and terror; feeling for painted distress but exulting over real distress is hypocrisy.read · scan
6b.Words, images and the sublime
See also: The Sublime 2b · Language 2c · Idea 4c · Rhetoric 1d
Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9
- p. 208Homeric verses illustrate styles of eloquence: thunder, winter snow, few but strong words.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, PurgatoryVol. 20
- p. 272–275Dante confesses that no poet, even one steeped in the Muses' fount, could represent Beatrice's unveiled beauty.read · scan
- p. 275–277Dante says he lacks the painter's skill to depict his falling asleep, and passes on to his waking.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, ParadiseVol. 20
- p. 325Dante bids the reader feed on the matter himself, as the theme demands his whole thought; genius and art cannot express the sun's light.read · scan
- p. 326–327Fantasy fails of such heights; celestial song is like jewels that cannot be carried out of that realm.read · scan
- p. 365The poet says his vision of the speaking eagle cannot be uttered, written or imagined.read · scan
- p. 383Dante confesses that all poets nurtured by the Muses could not express a thousandth of the saintly smile; his mortal song trembles under its theme.read · scan
- p. 395Dante's wonder and dazzled sight lead him to speak, with Beatrice's look as the remedy.read · scan
- p. 411–412Dante confesses his song fails his theme, as an artist reaches the limit of his skill.read · scan
- p. 417The poet laments that even fancy's rich colouring and eloquence would be too poor to utter the least part.read · scan
Samuel Johnson, Life of Addison, 1672-1719Vol. 27
- p. 182–183Defends The Campaign against Warton's censure; poetry's images should come from life, and song cannot paint.read · scan
Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and BeautifulVol. 24
- p. 43–44Cites Longinus on the inward greatness readers feel from sublime passages in poets and orators.read · scan
- p. 51Milton's portrait of Death succeeds through judicious obscurity; verbal description moves the passions more than clear painting.read · scan
- p. 52–53Against Du Bos, Burke holds poetry has more power over passions than painting, despite or because of its obscurity.read · scan
- p. 53Milton's Satan passage works through crowded, confused images that hurry the mind out of itself; poetry's effects don't depend on clear images.read · scan
- p. 54Poetry handles apparitions and allegorical figures like Virgil's Fame better than painting, which makes them ridiculous.read · scan
- p. 56Burke cites Job's descriptions of the horse, wild ass, unicorn and leviathan as sublime poetry.read · scan
- p. 59–60Virgil's imagery at the mouth of hell shows imagination joined with severity of judgment.read · scan
- p. 60–61Virgil's invocation of the infernal gods, with Pitt's and Dryden's translations, exemplifies sublime darkness and silence.read · scan
- p. 66–67Poetic sublimity arises from richness of images, as in Shakespeare's description of the king's army and Ecclesiasticus.read · scan
- p. 67The Son of Sirach's panegyric of the high priest Simon heaps splendid images as a model of magnificence.read · scan
- p. 67–68Milton's 'majesty of darkness' and 'dark with excessive light' praised as poetic and philosophically just.read · scan
- p. 70–71Virgil and English verse illustrate the fear of walking by uncertain moonlight.read · scan
- p. 71Virgil's lines on roaring lions, boars, bears and wolves illustrate the sublime sound.read · scan
- p. 71–72Virgil's verses on Albunea and Acheron illustrate how stench contributes to sublime poetic description.read · scan
- p. 129Examines how poetry and eloquence affect the mind, not by raising ideas as commonly supposed.read · scan
- p. 132–133The blind poet Blacklock describes visual objects with spirit and moves readers without possessing visual ideas.read · scan
- p. 135–136Poetry's effect does not depend on raising sensible images; Virgil's Vulcan's cavern is sublime though its picture would be absurd.read · scan
- p. 136–137Poetry and rhetoric affect by sympathy rather than exact imitation, showing effect of things on the mind, unlike painting.read · scan
- p. 137Poetry is more capable of deep impressions than other arts.read · scan
- p. 137–139Milton's 'universe of Death' raises the sublime through words alone, not images.read · scan
William Wordsworth, Essay Supplementary to PrefaceVol. 39
- p. 332–333Pathetic and sublime in poetry require the reader's co-operating power for sympathy.read · scan
- p. 333The poet affects the heart through language and must extend readers' capacity for the sublime.read · scan
John Keats, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 877–878The urn, a sylvan historian, tells a flowery tale more sweetly than rhyme.read · scan
6c.Poetry and music
See also: Diversion 9a · Emotion 12c
Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22
- p. 12–13Minstrel Phemius sings to the lyre, song being the crown of the feast.read · scan
- p. 46–47A divine minstrel sings to the lyre at the wedding feast.read · scan
- p. 105The lyre is fetched for Demodocus to accompany the dance.read · scan
- p. 106Demodocus sings the tale of Ares and Aphrodite's love and Hephaestus's snare.read · scan
- p. 107–108The minstrel's song ends and Odysseus and Phaeacians listen with gladness.read · scan
- p. 115–116Odysseus praises listening to a minstrel with a godlike voice as a great delight.read · scan
- p. 153–154Alcinous compares Odysseus's telling of his tale to a minstrel's singing, with beauty crowning his words.read · scan
- p. 241–242Eumaeus likens the stranger's tale to a god-taught singer whose song charms mortals with ceaseless desire to hear.read · scan
Euripides, HippolytusVol. 8
- p. 326–328Lyric choral ode retelling myths of Iole and Semele to illustrate love's power.read · scan
- p. 334–335The lyric ode imagines a mythic paradise of the Hesperides, using mythic geography.read · scan
Euripides, The BacchaeVol. 8
- p. 371–373The song tells origins of the timbrel and its music passing from Rhea to the Satyrs to Dionysus.read · scan
Aristophanes, The FrogsVol. 8
- p. 439The Frogs' chorus sings in praise of Dionysus and claims the love of the Muses, Pan and Apollo.read · scan
- p. 439–449The chorus sings hymns and dances of the Muses as part of the ritual.read · scan
- p. 457The chorus invokes the Muse and mocks a foreign demagogue.read · scan
Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13
- p. 99A bard sings with golden lyre, and the feasting crowd praises the song.read · scan
- p. 210In Elysium some souls sing heroic verse and the Thracian bard plays his lyre.read · scan
- p. 270Song recounts Hercules' labors, with the death of Cacus crowning the feast.read · scan
Plutarch, AlcibiadesVol. 12
- p. 114Euripides' victory ode celebrates Alcibiades' triple win.read · scan
Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9
- p. 244Pliny compares eloquence to music and reflects on authors fashioning works to popular taste, his craft of writing.read · scan
- p. 258She reads and memorizes his writings and sets his verses to her lyre.read · scan
Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16
- p. 62–63Verses sung to the lute express a lover's torment and move the listener to swoon.read · scan
- p. 63–64Verses of longing sung by the cateress provoke the scene.read · scan
- p. 233The host asks to hear the porter's verses and is moved with delight.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, PurgatoryVol. 20
- p. 151–152Dante asks Casella to sing a love-song; the spirits are rapt by its sweetness until Cato rebukes them.read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14
- p. 81–82A goatherd's love song introduced; the shepherds prize music, reading and writing, and a song composed by the singer's uncle.read · scan
- p. 83–84The ditty concludes; Sancho prefers sleep to music.read · scan
- p. 237–238Sung verses and sonnet move the listeners with the singer's voice and art.read · scan
- p. 430A sweet unaccompanied song by a supposed lackey enchants the ladies, introducing the verses.read · scan
Balow; The Old Cloak; Jolly Good Ale and OldVol. 40
- p. 190–192A jolly drinking song with a refrain.read · scan
Christopher Marlowe, The Tragical History of Doctor FaustusVol. 19
- p. 224Faustus consoles himself with Homer's song and Orpheus' music summoned by Mephistophilis.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The TempestVol. 46
- p. 410–413Ariel's songs, 'Come unto these yellow sands' and 'Full fathom five', lyrically charm Ferdinand and mourn the drowned father.read · scan
Thomas Dekker, The Shoemaker's HolidayVol. 47
- p. 528–530A drinking song in praise of Saint Hugh is sung.read · scan
William Drummond, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 329Sweet lines sung; nature listening to voice and verse.read · scan
John Milton, Poems Written at Horton, 1632-1638Vol. 4
- p. 30Praises Jonson's and Shakespeare's plays and verse married to music, rivaling Orpheus.read · scan
- p. 39–40Voice and Verse invoked as sister Sirens to unite divine sounds.read · scan
- p. 49–50The Lady's song to Echo enchants Comus, who compares it with the Sirens' singing.read · scan
- p. 66–67Spirit will add the power of adjuring verse and song to undo the spell.read · scan
- p. 67–69Song of invocation catalogues sea deities to summon the goddess.read · scan
John Milton, Poems Written During the Civil War and the Protectorate, 1642-1658Vol. 4
- p. 80–81Praise of Henry Lawes, whose settings taught English music to fit words with true note and accent.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 108Angelic song of their heroic deeds charms Hell; song charms the sense as eloquence charms the soul.read · scan
John Dryden, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 389–391Song for St. Cecilia's Day: music's power to raise and quell the passions, celebrated in verse.read · scan
- p. 391–393Timotheus the musician-poet sings to shape the king's moods.read · scan
- p. 396Cecilia is judged greater than Timotheus; the epigram on Homer, Virgil and Milton says nature joined the first two to make the third.read · scan
Voltaire, Letters on the EnglishVol. 34
- p. 147Poetry is like music, needing knowledge to judge; Hudibras and Swift's humour and Rabelais are assessed and untranslatable.read · scan
Henry Fielding, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 501–502Hunting song with refrain.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among MankindVol. 34
- p. 203Singing and dancing are called offspring of love and leisure.read · scan
Thomas Gray, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 453–454Power of song and the Muse: music calms cares and passions, tames war and the eagle, and civilizes savage lands.read · scan
William Collins, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 475–477Ode on music's power to move the passions; dirge and song as poetic tribute.read · scan
- p. 477–478Music and song personified as expressive art rendering each passion in sound.read · scan
- p. 478–480Invocation of Music to return to Greek simplicity; poet asks Eve to teach a soft pastoral strain.read · scan
Christopher Smart, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 488–490David's harp and hymns quell Saul's frenzy.read · scan
Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and BeautifulVol. 24
- p. 100Quotes Milton's verse on soft Lydian airs as an example of beautiful music.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust, Part IVol. 19
- p. 62–64Lyrical choral song of spirits lulls Faust with numbers.read · scan
- p. 147–150Margaret's refrain lyric 'My peace is gone' expresses her longing.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, EgmontVol. 19
- p. 290–291Clara sings a song of love's joy and despair.read · scan
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for ScandalVol. 18
- p. 150–152Sir Harry offers a drinking song toasting maidens, widows and housewives.read · scan
Thomas Chatterton, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 558–559A song, a roundelay, framed as a lament to be sung.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 236–238Music and bards' songs; the soul of music heard in the fairy band.read · scan
- p. 530–532Poet begs the woodlark to repeat its melting art that he may catch it.read · scan
Friedrich Schiller, William TellVol. 26
- p. 379–380Fisher boy's song of the lake luring the sleeping boy, and the herdsman's farewell song, open the play in lyric form.read · scan
- p. 428–429Walter sings a huntsman's song about dominion over crag and forest.read · scan
Friedrich von Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of ManVol. 32
- p. 269Poetry relies on the contingent play of imagination, and at its highest should stir like music and calm like plastic art.read · scan
Samuel Rogers, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 582–583Lyric of wish and tenderness, in song form.read · scan
William Wordsworth, Preface to Poems (1815)Vol. 39
- p. 300–301Poets feign musical accompaniment; Wordsworth asks only impassioned recitation and defends the true poet's distinct privilege over the prose writer.read · scan
William Wordsworth, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 641–643Lyric address to bird and linnet as celebratory song.read · scan
- p. 653–655The solitary reaper's melancholy song stays in the heart long after it is heard.read · scan
Lord Byron, ManfredVol. 18
- p. 409–410Lyric songs of the spirits with shifting meter.read · scan
- p. 411–414Incantation in lyric verse.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, The CenciVol. 18
- p. 351A song within the drama expresses distrust of false friends and longing for rest.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 823–825Pan's song of his pipings that silenced nature and made Apollo envious; the poet's music and its power to move gods and men.read · scan
Thomas Carlyle, Inaugural Address at EdinburghVol. 25
- p. 381–382Goethe calls art music, painting, poetry, but in a higher sense than most poets would meet.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, New England ReformersVol. 5
- p. 263–264Music and poetry make men radicals and stir them to hope.read · scan
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1323–1324The mocking-bird's song, plaintive then frenzied like Bacchantes, is rendered in imaginative verse.read · scan
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 973–975Bugle song: poetic echoes roll from soul to soul and grow forever, image of art's influence.read · scan
- p. 1041–1043Lyric song of the garden, with music and personified flowers.read · scan
Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23
- p. 134–135Verse quoted on song lightening the slave's oar.read · scan
- p. 156Italian sailors sing barcarolles and provincial airs with spirit and feeling, in parts.read · scan
James Russell Lowell, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1384–1385The poet tries to sweep his strings for a paean but they wane into a dirge.read · scan
Walt Whitman, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1412–1413The thrush sings a death's outlet song of life; singing is what keeps one from dying.read · scan
Algernon Charles Swinburne, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1199–1201Song, lyre and myth of Pan and Bacchus in the lyric praise of spring.read · scan
‹ 5 · Outline · 7 ›