Poetry
‹ 6 · Outline · 8 ›
7.Style, diction and versification
7a.Poetic diction versus the language of men
See also: Language 6b · Emotion 12c
Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9
- p. 348–350Pliny's own defence lapses into figurative diction, and he invites debate over his style.read · scan
Sir Philip Sidney, The Defense of PoesyVol. 27
- p. 48–49Sidney corrects common faults of writers so as to use matter and manner rightly.read · scan
John Dryden, Dedication of the AeneisVol. 13
- p. 57Dryden claims his translation keeps more of Virgil's spirit than French or Italian ones; words are to poetry what colors are to painting.read · scan
- p. 57–59Bombastic poets please only young men and lose reputation; Virgil wrote for neither the lowest nor the middle readers.read · scan
- p. 60Virgil's beauty lies in his choice of words, which English heroic verse cannot reproduce; monosyllabic lines are usually harsh.read · scan
- p. 61Translation should keep the author's graces, chiefly the beauty of his figurative words, between paraphrase and literal rendering.read · scan
- p. 64Virgil's inexhaustible figurative diction makes translating him arduous; Dryden excuses imperfect verses for lack of time.read · scan
- p. 66Poetry requires ornament and magnificent diction; a poet must distinguish pedantry from poetry and innovate cautiously.read · scan
John Dryden, Postscript to the ReaderVol. 13
- p. 424–425Dryden reflects on translating Virgil, improving English word choice and harmony of numbers, and criticizes poets who neglect the ornament of language.read · scan
Samuel Johnson, Preface to the English DictionaryVol. 39
- p. 196–197Assigns the dialect of poetry and fiction to Spenser and Sidney, and common life's diction to Shakespeare.read · scan
William Wordsworth, Prefaces to Various Volumes of PoemsVol. 39
- p. 267–268Wordsworth says poetry's materials lie in any subject interesting to the mind; his poems experiment with conversational language and natural delineation of human passions.read · scan
- p. 269Wordsworth declines a full theoretical defence of his poems, but notes they aim at a class of poetry of lasting moral interest.read · scan
- p. 270Writing in verse implies an engagement to readers' expectations that varies by era; Wordsworth explains his purpose against gaudy phraseology.read · scan
- p. 271Wordsworth's aim: choose incidents from common life, in men's real language, coloured by imagination, tracing the primary laws of our nature.read · scan
- p. 274Wordsworth rejects personification and poetic diction, aiming to imitate the real language of men and looking steadily at his subject.read · scan
- p. 274–276Defends prose-like language in poems, citing Milton and Gray's sonnet; critics of 'prosaisms' are wrong.read · scan
- p. 278Poet's language falls short of real passion's speech; he selects to give pleasure and trusts reality over fanciful ornament.read · scan
- p. 282Poet differs from others only in degree; he writes for men, so must express himself as other men do, selecting real language.read · scan
- p. 287Wordsworth defends his choice of common-life subjects and real language, admits possible faults, and resists altering work on others' authority.read · scan
- p. 291Wordsworth leaves it to the reader to judge whether his poetic aim is attained and worth attaining.read · scan
William Wordsworth, Appendix to Lyrical BalladsVol. 39
- p. 292Poetic diction arose when later poets mechanically imitated the passionate figurative language of the earliest poets without feeling, producing distorted language.read · scan
- p. 293Metre became a promise of unusual language, and successive poets corrupted poetic language with tricks and enigmas, thrusting out the plain humanities of nature.read · scan
- p. 294–295Poetic diction pleases by suggesting the poet's exalted character; Wordsworth contrasts Johnson's verse paraphrase of a passage on the ant with the plainer original.read · scan
- p. 295Contrasts Proverbs' plain ant passage with Johnson's paraphrase, then criticizes Cowper's Selkirk verses for prosaic and abused language.read · scan
William Wordsworth, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 668–670Lyric poems of feeling in simple language about ordinary humble persons.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, The CenciVol. 18
- p. 278Shelley avoids mere poetry; imagery must serve passion in drama, and language should be the real familiar speech of men, following older English poets.read · scan
Victor Hugo, Preface to CromwellVol. 39
- p. 369–370Criticizes the Delille school of descriptive tragedy, which ennobles trivial things with periphrasis and shuns plain speech, unlike Shakespeare's varied emotions.read · scan
- p. 374First merit of the dramatic writer is deep correctness that knows the genius of the language.read · scan
Henry David Thoreau, WalkingVol. 28
- p. 413–414Only the wild attracts in literature; English literature is tame and civilized, and the true poet uses words fresh and natural.read · scan
John Ruskin, Sesame and LiliesVol. 28
- p. 107–108Milton's choice of 'creep, intrude, climb' is exhaustive and precise, not verse-filling.read · scan
7b.Rhyme, blank verse and metrical form
See also: Language 9a · Life and Death 9c
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 39Augustine's verse-making with varying feet in varying metres illustrates one art comprising differing cases under single principles.read · scan
Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31
- p. 236–237He begins a Capitolo in praise of his prison, writing with brick-dust paste.read · scan
- p. 250–252Cellini introduces the Capitolo he wrote in prison in mock praise of the prison, in terza rima.read · scan
George Gascoigne, A Lover's LullabyVol. 40
- p. 195–196The lullaby form is used as a conceit for quieting the passions.read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14
- p. 43He recites an old romance ballad, mixing verse with reality.read · scan
Balow; The Old Cloak; Jolly Good Ale and OldVol. 40
- p. 186–188Refrain and lullaby form give the folk song its voice.read · scan
Sir Philip Sidney, The Defense of PoesyVol. 27
- p. 49Compares ancient quantitative verse and modern rime and accent; English suits both better than Italian, French or Spanish.read · scan
- p. 50English rime surpasses other tongues; Sidney sums up poesy as virtue-breeding and adjures readers to honor poets as bringers of civility and knowledge.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 87Milton defends blank verse against rime as barbarous; follows Homer and Virgil in the true music of apt numbers.read · scan
John Dryden, Dedication of the AeneisVol. 13
- p. 51Virgil is the model of versification: words chosen and placed for sound, with caesura used to temper vowel sweetness; Dryden imitates him.read · scan
- p. 51–53Virgil labored eleven years yet thought the Aeneid imperfect; Dryden discusses vowel elision and asks indulgence for the faults of his translation.read · scan
- p. 53Dryden discusses English prosody, feet, pauses and the Alexandrine, and cites Virgil and Spenser as his masters in heroic verse.read · scan
- p. 55Heroic poetry and the constraint of rhyme versus blank verse; rhyme adds sweetness but takes away sense; Spenser's genius.read · scan
- p. 62Dryden defends his triplet rhymes and Pindaric last line in heroic verse, citing Spenser, Chapman and Cowley, and criticizes French heroic verse for timid metaphor.read · scan
- p. 63Dryden argues Virgil never meant to leave hemistichs, examines them in Virgil, Spenser and Cowley, and shuns them in his own heroic verse.read · scan
- p. 64–65Dryden admires Virgil's sublime harmony and laments that translation cannot copy his numbers; invention frees the poet, translation binds him.read · scan
Jonathan Swift, A Letter of Advice to a Young PoetVol. 27
- p. 111–112Rhyme is held the essence of verse; Crambo-like games train rhyming; Milton is blamed and Paradise Lost to be rhymed.read · scan
Alexander Pope, Solitude; On a Certain Lady at Court; Essay on ManVol. 40
- p. 405–406Pope's verse epigram praising a woman deaf to praise; wit in short poems.read · scan
John Logan, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 500–501Ballad narrative with refrain and supernatural ghost/water-wraith imagery.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust, Part IVol. 19
- p. 118–119Margaret sings the ballad of the king in Thule, song embedded in the drama.read · scan
- p. 119–120The Thule ballad concludes with the king's final drink and the goblet sinking.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 40–42Mock-elegiac ballad in dialect verse, comic pathos treating an animal's death in the manner of a dying testament.read · scan
- p. 50–52Political satire in comic ballad form.read · scan
- p. 120–122Comic epitaph and satirical verse in Scots.read · scan
- p. 242–244Burns composes a comic elegy and epitaph, using the Standard Habbie stanza and its refrain to mourn a friend.read · scan
- p. 244–246Mock elegy with refrain; a verse epistle to Willie hails the fiddling, rhyming brotherhood and hopes his heart stays in tune.read · scan
- p. 252–254Ode to Edina and mock-heroic address to the haggis, which the poet praises.read · scan
- p. 254–256Mock-heroic praise of the haggis, plus a birthday verse, portrait of Willie Smellie and a song for a child.read · scan
- p. 264–267Verse epigrams and a drinking song; a portrait of the bard sent as a gift.read · scan
- p. 356–358Songs set to traditional tunes with refrains, in the folk-song manner.read · scan
- p. 379–381Mock-epic burlesque, with classical allusions and invocation of what verse can sing.read · scan
- p. 459–461Occasional satirical epigrams and toasts.read · scan
- p. 486–488Satirical epigram and elegiac sonnet forms; the poet boasts of his and Maria's wit and pen.read · scan
- p. 532–534Songs set to traditional tunes, altered from an old English song.read · scan
William Wordsworth, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 680–681Wordsworth defends the sonnet's narrow form, listing Shakespeare, Petrarch, Tasso, Dante, Spenser and Milton as poets who found solace and power in it.read · scan
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 710–711Narrative ballad uses atmospheric supernatural suspense.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1257Nature's rhyme and 'lofty rhymes' as the pattern man has lostread · scan
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1291–1292An old song's refrain about a boy's will and long thoughts of youth recurs through the poem.read · scan
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 967–968Ballad narrative of the enchanted Lady of Shalott, weaving in her tower, dramatizing imaginative art through a mirror of shadows.read · scan
- p. 969–970Vivid imagery of the knight and her final song exemplify balladry.read · scan
Edgar Allan Poe, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1231–1233Sound-play of the bells poem, with its rhyme and tintinnabulation, dwells on musical effect.read · scan
- p. 1233–1234Sound-imitating verse in which bell rhythms and rhymes render joy and terror; a display of the poet's craft.read · scan
- p. 1234–1236Runic rhyme and repeated bell-sounds show the poet's craft of imitative rhythm.read · scan
- p. 1239–1241Ballad and dramatic allegory in verse.read · scan
Henry David Thoreau, WalkingVol. 28
- p. 401–403Thoreau's verses on the Old Marlborough Road, a humorous ballad about a disused road and its guide-boards.read · scan
Matthew Arnold, The Study of PoetryVol. 28
- p. 78The charm of Chaucer's verse is shown in his lines and in Wordsworth's modernization, which loses it; fluidity depends on talent, not on licence.read · scan
Matthew Arnold, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1123–1124Narrative lyric of the forsaken merman.read · scan
Sydney Dobell, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1114–1116Ballad of a haunting legend.read · scan
William Allingham, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1116–1117Nursery-style ballad of fairy lore.read · scan
Sidney Lanier, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1392–1394Lyric of tide and marsh opens a narrative ballad of the hunt.read · scan
7c.Figures, similes and conceits
See also: Memory and Imagination 6a · The Sublime 6b
Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22
- p. 270The nightingale simile ornaments Penelope's grief.read · scan
Aristophanes, The FrogsVol. 8
- p. 439Dionysus praises daring, novel conceits in verse such as 'Time's foot' and the tongue perjuring, while Heracles calls it ribald nonsense.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 283Cites Homer's simile of leaves in spring.read · scan
Songs from the Elder EddaVol. 49
- p. 361–363Lament and praise in verse, with similes of the wolf and goat and of the fawn among wild things.read · scan
The Story of the Volsungs and NiblungsVol. 49
- p. 330–333Lament in verse, with similes such as leek, stone and pearl.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, HellVol. 20
- p. 21Epic similes of starlings and cranes render the hurried, wailing spirits.read · scan
- p. 123Dante draws on classical myth from Ovid for comparisons.read · scan
- p. 127Allusions to Orlando and classical epic serve the simile.read · scan
Michel de Montaigne, Of BookesVol. 32
- p. 91Ancient poets shunned affected conceits; Catullus's smooth neatness preferred over Martial's witty quips; comparison of Aeneid and Orlando Furioso.read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14
- p. 324Quotes a poet's verse on seeking the impossible, in paradoxes.read · scan
Sir Philip Sidney, The Defense of PoesyVol. 27
- p. 46–47Laments abuse of stage plays, lyric poetry that should praise God, insincere love verse, and affected diction.read · scan
Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34
- p. 350–351Good poems in every form require both judgment and fancy, with fancy the more eminent since they please by extravagancy.read · scan
Izaak Walton, The Life of Dr. John DonneVol. 15
- p. 337–339Walton presents Donne's verses as equal to Greek or Latin poets; the poem uses conceits of gold and compasses.read · scan
John Milton, Poems Written at School and at College, 1624-1632Vol. 4
- p. 26Witty conceits and wordplay on motion and rest characterise the epitaph.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 19Sonnets that say little things in big words are like a girl adorned with mirrors and chains, admired by the ignorant.read · scan
John Dryden, Dedication of the AeneisVol. 13
- p. 53–55Virgil is sparing of verbal turns in the epic, unlike Ovid; Dryden owns his own use of them as a fault and criticizes French poets.read · scan
John Dryden, Preface to Fables, Ancient and ModernVol. 39
- p. 159–160Dryden prefers Chaucer's natural thoughts and lively characters to Ovid's witty conceits, which are unnatural in a serious poem.read · scan
- p. 160–162Dryden judges Ovid's wordplay and Chaucer's simplicity, praises Chaucer as father of English poetry, and faults a poet (Cowley) who indulged every conceit.read · scan
Jonathan Swift, A Letter of Advice to a Young PoetVol. 27
- p. 112–113Recommends games like 'What is it like?' to supply a poet with similes; creating likeness between unlike things is the poet's business.read · scan
Samuel Johnson, Life of Addison, 1672-1719Vol. 27
- p. 181–182Johnson criticizes Addison's poems, praising their correctness and equability but faulting a mixed metaphor of the bridled Muse.read · scan
- p. 183Johnson examines the Angel simile in The Campaign, testing what makes a true poetic simile.read · scan
- p. 184Judges the angel simile redundant with Marlborough's lines and appraises Addison's opera Rosamond as airy and elegant.read · scan
Edmund Burke, On Taste: Introductory DiscourseVol. 24
- p. 17–18Homer and Oriental writers love similitudes but take little care to make them exact.read · scan
Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and BeautifulVol. 24
- p. 31–32Burke cites Homer's simile of the fugitive murderer reaching a frontier to illustrate feeling after escaped danger.read · scan
- p. 32Homer's portrayal of the man escaped from danger illustrates the mixed passion of terror and surprise.read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24
- p. 200Poets' license to perish in a volcano is mocked as folly.read · scan
Edmund Burke, A Letter to a Noble LordVol. 24
- p. 389–391Virgilian verses on the harpies serve as imagery for the revolutionaries.read · scan
- p. 391–392Virgil's inability to describe the monster, Hamlet's remark, used to convey horror at revolution.read · scan
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for ScandalVol. 18
- p. 119–120Sir Benjamin is called a wit and poet; wit's respect is judged against malice.read · scan
- p. 121–122Sir Benjamin's epigrams, rebuses and charades are praised as fashionable wit and poetry.read · scan
- p. 132–133Sir Benjamin recites his extempore doggerel verses on ponies and is flattered as a Phoebus; trivial fashionable verse-making satirized.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 407–408Disparages poets' stale conceits of a heathen goddess of libertyread · scan
William Wordsworth, Preface to Poems (1815)Vol. 39
- p. 301–302Illustrates poetic imagination with Virgil, Shakespeare, and Milton, where things are contemplated as 'hanging' figuratively.read · scan
- p. 302–303Close reading of metaphors in Milton and Wordsworth ('broods', 'buried among trees', 'wandering Voice') to show poetic technique.read · scan
- p. 303–304Analyzes the leech-gatherer stanzas and Virgil's goat to show how poetic comparison works by contrast and assimilation.read · scan
- p. 305Milton's 'So seemed the flying Fiend' and the Messiah's coming show the poet's creative technique.read · scan
- p. 306–307Contrasts Queen Mab with Milton's angel whose stature 'reached the sky' to show imaginative versus fanciful comparison.read · scan
- p. 307–309Contrasts Chesterfield's conceit of dew as tears with Milton's weeping sky after the Fall, and praises Cotton's fanciful Ode upon Winter.read · scan
- p. 309–310Concludes quoting Cotton's ode as an instance of fancy, then apologizes for the Preface's length and ends it.read · scan
William Wordsworth, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 639–641The poet cannot help being gay among daffodils; he plays with similes and names for the daisy, showing imaginative craft.read · scan
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 727–728The poet reflects on why loving feeling is expressed in contrary words, and on pairing unlike thoughts.read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21
- p. 133Lyrical descriptive passage personifying the palace as a savage brooding over sleepers.read · scan
- p. 134–135Lyrical apostrophe to mountains, villages and cottage.read · scan
Thomas Carlyle, CharacteristicsVol. 25
- p. 332Poets sing hymns to Night and Silence, using figures to express the Invisible.read · scan
William Makepeace Thackeray, Jonathan SwiftVol. 28
- p. 14The image of grief putting menials into mourning livery is praised as fine, written by a resentful servant-secretary.read · scan
John Ruskin, Sesame and LiliesVol. 28
- p. 109Milton's image of swollen wind is defended as literally accurate.read · scan
Arthur Hugh Clough, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1121–1122Allegorical sea lyrics.read · scan
Walter Bagehot, John MiltonVol. 28
- p. 192Milton's poetry combines bare simplicity of ideas with rich illustration; second-hand poetry compared with original genius.read · scan
- p. 192–194Milton's superficial complexity of imagery contrasts with latent simplicity; Paradise Lost is hard to criticize as imaginative work with dogmatic aim.read · scan
‹ 6 · Outline · 8 ›