What are airs, and how to be observed in reading? What is style, and how to be observed in reading? What is lyre, which pertains to verse? How is this to be observed in reading ? Are different poems written in different lyres? Are there some poems which are adapted to music, and thence called lyric poems? Are there others which are better adapted to reading and speaking, and thence called oratorical? Are those two classes of poems to be read alike? How are they to be read differently? Is there another kind of movement, which pertains to verse, aside from that which pertains to the different orders, iambic, trochaic, &c.? How is this regulated ? What varieties pertain to this kind of movement ? Read a poem in which the different kinds of movement, common movement, quick, and slow, may be exemplified. Is there a difference in different poems, and different authors, in point of style, airs, lyre, and movement? Are these differences to be observed in reading? Is this subject (the subject of prosody, of reading verse, &c.) one on which rules and precepts alone are insufficient? What more is wanting? What other sources of information may be resorted to? The rules of prosody are ended. The following, being connected therewith, and being necessary to be taught in this connection, may properly be made an appendage to it. CHAPTER IX. A DESCRIPTION OF POEMS. A poem is an essay or treatise, which is written in verse, either long or short. Some are so long as to be voluminous; some contain a few pages, and some a few lines. Our poems have these subdivisions: larger poems are divided into books, like Milton's Paradise Lost; and smaller ones are divided into parts, sections, or cantos. Poems are written in different ways; being different and diverse from each other, in point of orders, metres, forms, &c. being adapted, in these respects, to the different subjects on which they are written. Larger poems are commonly written in iambic verse, and five feet metres; sometimes in rhyme, but most commonly in blank verse. Smaller poems are written in every variety of order, metre, and form. The different orders, metres, and forms, having been described in the foregoing chapters, a description of them needs not to be repeated here. Pertaining to larger poems are several incidental properties, called arguments, episodes, machinery, and invocations. These are technical terms, which, to common readers, may need explanation. An argument is the subject or theme, or contents of the subject matter contained in the poem. An episode is a detached story contained in the poem, a digression, a narrative of some disconnected event, separable from the main plot, or main subject of the poem. The decorations, contained in a poem, are called the machinery; such as the flowers of rhetoric, animating figures, sublime and awful descriptions, &c. The invocation, with which a poem is commonly introduced, is an address to the Deity, to some celestial or imaginary being, or some one of the Grecian muses, invoking aid and inspiration. It was the general practice of the heathen poets, who had not the knowledge of the true God, to invoke some imaginary being, who was held sacred in their mythology. In this they were conscientious and devout, and of course excuseable; but this practice is not to be recommended to writers in a Christian land. Some explanations, however, may be necessary on this subject, for the information of some of our readers, who may read their poems. The antient Greeks, who were fertile in their imaginations, imagined some superior beings as presiding over the sciences, the affairs, fates, fortunes, and destinies of mortals here below; and that to each one of those was assigned a different department, over which to preside. And several of their gods and goddesses, together with the nine muses, were imagined as presiding, each, over some department of science, or some subject of literature; and hence, the poet, in commencing upon any subject, would invoke the one who was thought to preside over that department. And hence we may know the kind of subject intended to be treated on, by the invocation, when the office of the being invoked is known. The following were some of their principal deities and imaginary beings, and those most frequently invoked. Jupiter, the son of Saturn, their supreme god. Mars, the god of war. Apollo, the god of wisdom and the sciences. Nænia, the goddess of funeral poems. Venus, the goddess of love. Ceres, the goddess of agriculture, and the vegetable kingdom. Muses, the nine daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne, mistresses of the sciences, presidents of musicians and poets, &c. Calliope, the epic muse, and muse of eloquence. Clio, the muse presiding over history, and patroness of the poets. Melpomene, the muse of tragedy. Thalia, the muse of comedy and lyric poetry. Polyhymnia, the muse of rhetoric. Erato, the muse of love poetry. Euterpe, the muse presiding over musicians and music. Terpsichore, the muse of music and dancing. Urania, the muse presiding over astronomy, and the heavenly constellations. ter. Poems are of various kinds; not only in form and kind of verse, but also in point of style and subject matIn this respect, as well as in others, verse has a greater variety than prose. The principal kinds, in point of subject matter, are the following. 1. Sacred; 2. Epic; 3. Sentimental; 4. Didactic; 5. Dramatic; 6. Elegiac; 7. Tragic; 8. Comic; 9. Satiric; 10. Humourous; 11. Panegyrical; 12. Pastoral; 13. Narrative; 14. Descriptive; 15. Ethic; 16. Amorous; 17. Pathetic; 18. Plaintive; 19. Fictitious; 20. Epistolary; 21. Rhetorical; 22. Lyric; 23. Doggrel; 24. Small and fugitive pieces, &c. The various Kinds of Poems described. The following is a description of the various kinds of poems. Appended to some of them are the names of some poets who have written such, or some poem of the kind. 1. An epic poem, or epopee, is narrative of some noble exploits and heroic adventures: is majestic and sublime in style and descriptions, adorned with machinery, and in which different muses are invoked by turns. --Milton. 2. A sentimental poem is one which contains thoughts, sentiments, and ideas, moral, scientific, &c. and one in which sentiment is the distinguishing characteristic.-Young. 3. A didactic poem is doctrinal and preceptive, giving rules for some art, &c.-Armstrong on Health. 4. A descriptive poem is descriptive of various scenes, and various objects; of places and things, natural and artificial. Goldsmith. 5. A narrative poem is narrative of historical or other events. Mrs. Bradstreet's Four Great Monarchies of Antiquity. 6. An ethic poem is one which is written on moral subjects, moral philosophy, moral essays, &c. --Pope's ethic poems. 7. A pathetic poem is one which is written in pathetic strains, and calculated to move our passions, and excite sympathy. Pathetic poems are various, as various passions are intended to be excited. We have many poems of the pathetic kind; but no examples of this kind are more in point, to our present purpose than some episodes in some of our poems. Among which are-Goldsmith's Apostrophe to Poetry; and Thomson's description of a man perishing in the snow. We have many examples among our English poems, in which pathos is a conspicuous trait. We have some which are denominated tender pathetic, and some, tragi-pathetic. Campbell's "Capture of Warsaw" may stand as an example of the latter; and Pope's Abelard and Louisa," of the former. 8. A plaintive poem-a lamentation or lament, is written in plaintive strains, expressive of sorrow, at some sad_and rueful event, or cruel reverse of fortune. Geehale, an Indian Lament. This kind of poem is designated by some modern writers by a new coined name-lament; and which, if it be proper to use the noun in the same form with the verb from which it was derived, is properly applied. Sacred Poems. 9. Sacred poems are those which are written on religious and devotional subjects. These are of various kinds, such as translations of, and paraphases on some passages of scripture, theological treatises, songs, hymns, anthems, &c. some of which I will describe. 10. A sacred song is a general name for those which are written on religious and devotional subjects, and whose numbers are lyrical and adapted to music. Watts. 11. A psalm is a song on religious and devotional subjects, in praise of, and in address to, the Deity. Of these, we have no specimens in English, or in any European language, antient or modern. Those in our possession are translations from the writings of the antient Hebrew bards, which were written by inspiration of the Holy Spirit.-Watts. 12. A hymn is a song of praise and adoration to God, and somewhat similar to a psalm; but one is of Hebrew origin, and the other of Grecian.-Watts. 13. An anthem is a sacred song, somewhat similar to a hymn, but in strains more elevated, and whose numbers are sometimes adapted to some particular tune, or notes of music. Watts' hymn 21. I. book is an example of this kind. 14. A hosanna is a song of praise and adoration to the Saviour.Watts. 15. A hallelujah is a song of universal praise to God; the whole creation joining in concert. The hallelujah, and also the hosanna, are songs of Hebrew original. - Watts. Ogilvie. 16. A doxology is a form of giving glory, and ascriptions of praise, to the Triune God, or to either of the persons in the Trinity, in Christian churches. -Watts. 17. A Te Deum is a hymn used in the liturgy of the church of England. Watts. Besides these, there are other kinds which come under the denomination of sacred poems, such as More's Sacred Dramas, Pope's Messiah, Ogilvie's ode, in praise of the author of creation, and others of similar character. Elegiac. 18. An elegy is a mournful pathetic poem, descanting on some solemn and melancholy subject, commemorating the dead, &c.Gray. 19. A dirge is a poem of the elegiac kind, a funeral poem, to be spoken or sung at a funeral or over the grave. 20. An epicedeum is a poem of the elegiac kind, a funeral poem, not unlike the dirge. 21. A requiem is a kind of elegiac or funeral song, bidding adieu to departed friends, &c. 22. An epitaph is a short poem, a monumental inscription for the dead. This kind of poem should be classed with those of the elegiac kind; but it is a fact well known that the comic muse is too often invoked in this kind of composition. Dramatic. 23. A dramatic poem, or drama, is one designed for the stage or theatre; and is the representation of, and personating the lives, actions and converse of mankind; and is taken from life, or from historical facts. Of these we have various kinds, tragic, comic, sacred, &c. 24. A sacred drama is one, the subject matter of which is taken from sacred history. More. 25. A tragic drama, scene. Shakespeare. or tragedy, is a representation of some tragic 26. A comic drama, or comedy, is a representation of some comic scene. Shakespeare. 27. A prologue is a short speech at the introduction of a play on the stage. : |