EXTERNAL NATURE. 261 poetry. The simpler grandeurs and beauties of inanimate nature, undergoing their characteristic movements or changes, are freely made use of; day and night, seasons, tempests, lightnings, torrents, rivers, sea-billows, earthquakes; but scenes laborious to conceive are necessarily avoided. (See DESCRIPTION, § 17.) The personifying treatment of nature imparts, in the first instance, a fictitious activity to objects in themselves stationary. Thus the visible objects of nature and all the sounds of nature, possessing an original charm, are open to the poet, and, as occasion suits, he brings them to mind. He must farther include the circle of associated effects, by which the domain of Art is greatly enlarged. Whatever suggests pleasing emotions is freely adopted by the artist; the hue of rosy health, the transparency of the unpolluted stream, the quiet surface of the lake, are effects superadded to the original impressions on the sight. The smoke of a distant cottage always affected Burns and Wordsworth with home associations. The suggestion of remoteness and vast magnitude imparts sublimity to the Alpine prospect and the celestial expanse. The associated effects of sounds are likewise numerous; as the moan of the wind, the dashing of the torrent, the purling of the brook, the roar of the sea, the boom of artillery, the merry note of the lark, the solitary cry of the owl, the deceptive voice of the cuckoo (Wordsworth). The associations of industry in the streets of busy towns, of rural quiet in the fields, of time, decay, and of past ages in crumbling and moss-grown walls, excite various and interesting emotions, sufficiently pleasing to be admitted into Art. These effects of outward things, whether intrinsic or associated, often chime in with feelings otherwise arising. Strong light and intense colors harmonize with gayety of mind; gloom and sombre hues are in keeping with depression and sorrow. The sound of the martial trumpet suits hilarious excitement; tho quietness of the country is sought for in repose. A susceptibility to the sensuous influences of nature, and to the emotions suggested by them—whether inclining to power, or to pathos—must exist in a high degree in the poet, and in a considerable, if less, degree, in the minds of such as receive delight from poetry. And, as the poet's instrument or material is language, a feeling for Numbers must exist in addition. 122. II. Our interest in Humanity is made to enter largely into Poetry, as into the other Fine Arts. The interest in human beings is various and complex, while a certain portion of it extends to the lower animals. In so far as available in Art, it turns chiefly on the following points :— (1.) The contemplation of might, strength, greatness, superiority, admirable or shining qualities,—whether in individuals or in collective bodies. The frame and deeds of a Hercules; the adroitness of a Ulysses; the skill of a great politician, general, or other expert in practical affairs; the energy and endurance of a strong will; creative originality in science and in art; high artistic excellence,—raise in the mind of the beholder that pleasurable elation already described as culminating in the Sublime. (strength.) Mere superiority of good fortune, as shown in wealth, splendor, rank, and power, fascinate the gaze of the spectator; and the representation of it may be a source of pleasure. The unrestrained worship of strength leads to the adulation of great conquerors—Alexander, Cæsar, Napoleon—and prepares the mind for receiving the maxim, "Might is right." It is unnecessary to dwell again on the process of attributing human energy to inanimate objects, whereby the whole face of nature is rendered active, and overspread with an adventitious expression of feeling. Human sentiments are suggested to the poet in a thousand various forms. Thus in Lear:— "I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness; I never gave you kingdom, called you children!" (2.) The displays of sympathy, tenderness, affection, devotedness, are a source of warm interest. The powerful attractions between human beings are largely dwelt upon by the poet. The love of the sexes, parental tenderness, the attachments of kindred and of friendship, presented in description or in story, INTEREST IN HUMANITY. 263 are capable of awakening responsive echoes and interesting recollections in the hearer. (pathos.) The picture of devotedness is always affecting. The interest excited by it is peculiar, and not always free from self-regarding considerations. One man's voluntary renunciation of good things is the conferring of them upon somebody else. Ascetic self-denial is highly esteemed, partly from the moral energy implied in the restraint, and partly from its leaving unconsumed the individual's share of gratifications. On similar grounds, the rigid observance of all the laws and customs of society is pleasing to contemplate. (3.) The littleness, insignificance, and worthlessness of human beings, when such as to arouse the emotions of the Ludicrous, give an interest to our observation of the ways of men. See the Ludicrous. Characters too hateful for derision may be poetically interesting, provided our feelings of anger, antipathy, and detestation can be gratified by their condign punishment. (4.) Our moral sentiments determine us to look with pleasure upon those that fulfil their requirements. From these various considerations, the portraying of character, and the representation of human beings in action, belong pre-eminently to the poetic department, although appearing also in narrative or history. 123. III. Conereteness and Combination, as opposed to the abstract and the isolated, are characteristic of Poetry. We have formerly seen that objects in the concrete, that is, as they appear in nature to the senses, are easier to conceive than their properties viewed abstractedly: a river is readily conceivable; the abstractions—gravity, accelerated velocity, liquidity, transparency—are notions laboriously acquired by scientific study. The abstractions of science have a double disqualification for Poetry; they discard in a great degree the sensuous element of color, and entail intellectual effort. In addition to conereteness, it is sought to multiply and combine objects and effects; while science proceeds by separation, isolation, or analysis. Combination, or Creation, has always entered into the notion of the poet (оinтns, a maker). In old English, the same idea appears. Thus, in Spenser— "And hath he skill to make so excellent—." As a painter groups in a landscape as many objects as can enter into the general effect, so a poem is made to combine scenery, situations, circumstances, characters, and incidents, subject only to the indispensable condition of harmony. It is enough, on this head, to refer to any known poem. Observe in the successive stanzas of Gray's " Eleg " an accumulation of examples bearing on the main theme, and in every example an accumulation of picturesque circumstances. The Epithets applied in poetic description are, in the first place, designed to combine and accumulate interesting particulars. They are farther expected to be harmoniously adjusted. And, in addition, their novelty imparts interest and freshness to the object they are applied to. The Homeric poetry exemplifies largely the process of combining by descriptive epithets;— the many-fountained, spring-abounding Ida; steed-taming Thrace; the white-armed, large-eyed Juno; the cloud-compelling, ægis-bearing Jove; winged words; the sea-bathed fort; storm-swift Iris; the fishy deep. The same process has been continued by succeeding poets. Objects and situations occurring in Poetry are beset with circumstances and collaterals, provided by the genius of the poet. Sometimes they are happily selected from the complexity of the thing itself, as in the "Seven Ages." At other times, they are added on from without. What follows under the next head will embrace the present subject. 124. IY. A poem, or other work of Art, especially involves the production of Harmony. A plurality of things affecting the senses or the mind to-gether may be either in concord or in discord; the one gives pleasure, the other pain. The pleasure of concord or harmony is often intense; it is sought to be realized in all the Fine Arts. HAEMONY ESSENTIAL. 265 Music is sweet sounds made sweeter by harmony; painting harmonizes color and form in the first place, and, next, the subjects expressed by them. With regard to the Language, or Diction, of Poetry, considered as sound, we have seen (melody) that language may be both melodious in itself, and also expressive, that is, in harmony with the feelings of the speaker. Both these effects are aimed at by the poet. (1.) In the poetic description of outward things, all the particulars selected, the illustrative language, and the march of the verse, must conspire to support the emotion of the scene. Milton's Eden may be studied as an example; the "Seasons" furnish numerous instances. See, also, the Lotos-Eaters. Pope's Windsor Forest has been blamed as deficient in scenic harmony. In this, and in every other department of Poetry, and of Fine Art, the creating of harmony results from a keen sense of the emotional effect of the images and the language employed. Some writers are sensitive chiefly to the intellectual consistency of the thoughts; and others, having little feeling for either effect, display at best the genius of mere profusion. Numerous examples of Harmony have already occurred. (See Figures Of Similarity, Strength, &c.) The following is a short example from the opening of the "Seasons" :— "Come, gentle Spring, ethereal Mildness, come, (2.) Scenery is harmonized with incident. In real life, events have rarely any suitable scenic accompaniments. The battle of Waterloo was fought on the flats of Belgium; and the future of a nation may be settled in the monotony of a Governmcnt office. But the artist provides a background adapted to the action of the piece. See the example from Milton quoted under Personification, p. 35. Scott's Pirate is a well-known instance of harmony of scenery and characters. Senior remarks:— |