3. Imitative harmony in words and movement; as,

"O'er the river, through the brake,

On we hie with screech and roar !

Splashing! flashing! crashing! dashing !
Over ridges, gullies, bridges !
By the bubbling rill, and mill
Highways, byways,

Sometimes proper names are changed or modified for the sake of euphony; as,—

"Which Albyn's hills have heard."

"Under the Ethiop line."

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE.

Figurative language, like most of the other features of poetic diction, is not peculiar to poetry, but is common also to prose; yet there is a wide distinction in its use in these two departments of composition. In the divisions of prose that fall under the heads of Description, Narration, and Exposition, figures of speech are sparingly used, and rarely for any purpose except that of illustration or explanation; in Oratory, whose object is to influence the will by appealing to the feelings, the passions, or the prejudices of the listeners, figurative language is more freely employed. The orator seeks to ingratiate himself with his hearers in order that his opinions and views may find acceptance with them. Hence, he makes his language pleasing that he may first catch the ear and afterwards win the judgment. In poetry, whose chief object is to give pleasure, and whose grand aim is missed if it does not, the adornment of the language is of the highest importance. Yet figures of speech are not the only, nor even the chief beauty of poetic diction; there is much true poetry in which the language

is as plain and simple as that of any prose. In this the very plainness, simplicity, and neatness are the choicest embellishments. But poetry is allowed every variety of diction from the lowest to the highest, according to the nature of the subjcct and the style of treatment required. Although there is no subject dealt with in poetry that might not be treated in prose, yet the converse is not true, for the materials of poetry are confined to nature and humanity, while even here the choice of subjects is limited by the laws of æsthetic feeling and by a consideration of what will give pleasure. Now, it is evident that if the same subject is treated in poetry and in prose, as the 'ject is, in each case, different, so the style, diction, and effect must be dissimilar. In Narrative and Descriptive poetry, for example, there is distinct purpose to be attained; in the one, to relate a story, and in the other to present a picture to the mind's eye. In both cases that purpose is to be accomplished in such a manner that the process and the result, the means and the end, shall be pleasing apart from the intrinsic interest of the story or the beauty of the picture. The instrumentality by which each of these purposes is to be effected is language. Hence, as figurative speech is briefer, more pleasing, and more striking than literal, it is the chosen vehicle of poetry.

In transposing, the difficulty is to determine just what figures are to be allowed to remain, and what ones are to be cast out. This cannot be taught by rule, but must be left to the taste and judgment of the pupil.

The Limit. - Perhaps, after all, it is only the humbler and more indifferent kinds of poetry that can be rendered in prose. It is true, as already stated, that thoughts or fancies may be expressed either in the prose or in the poetic form. But how much is sometimes conveyed in the form alone! What richness of fancy, what sublime harmony, what warmth of coloring, what delicacy of feeling, what grandeur and loftiness of sentiment, are often enwrapped in the very language in which poetry clothes the thought! Who, for example, could express in prose all the effect

of Milton's description of Satan's flight to this world, or of the Garden of Eden, or, in fact, any of our sublimer poetry? The literal meaning of the words may, undoubtedly, be written out in a pitiful kind of prose - prose that at its best is scarcely fit to be considered a caricature of the original. It may convey the same ideas, but these ideas, so presented, do not produce on the mind the same effect as they do in the form of poetry. Words are not all of language; the manner in which they are combined, and the way in which they are made to present pictures to the mind, and, above all, the power they have, in a master's hand, to suggest images, thoughts, and fancies, to fill themselves, as it were, with life, and beauty, and passion, — this is the body and soul of language, and without this the words themselves are but as the dry bones in Ezekiel's valley.

DIRECTION.

EXERCISE LX.

TRANSPOSING AND PARAPHRASING.

Transpose by removing the measure and the poetic arrange ment; then paraphrase.

I.

1. "For contemplation he, and valor, formed; For softness she, and sweet attractive.grace."

2.

3.

4.

"His step than the red-deer's was freer and lighter;
His eye than the eagle's was keener and brighter."

"Here rests his head upon the lap of earth,

66

5.

A youth to fortune and to fame unknown.”

When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,
The line too labors, and the words move slow."

The

power of music all our hearts allow, And what Timotheus was, is Dryden now."

6. "How sleep the brave that sink to rest, By all their country's wishes blest!"

7. "On Fame's eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread;

And Glory guards, with solemn round,
The bivouac of the dead."

8. "I saw from the beach when the morning was shining, A bark o'er the waters move gloriously on :

9.

I came, when the sun o'er that beach was declining —
The bark was still there, but the waters were gone."

"'Mid scenes of confusion and creature complaints,
How sweet to the soul is communion with Saints;
To find at the banquet of mercy there's room,
And feel in the presence of Jesus at home!"

EXERCISE LXI.

TRANSPOSING AND PARAPHRASING.

DIRECTION. - Transpose by removing the rhyme, measure, and poetic diction; then paraphrase.

I.

"Six frozen winters spent,

Return with welcome home from banishment."

2. "The cock is crowing: the stream is flowing;
The small birds twitter: the lake doth glitter;
The green fields sleep in the sun."

3.

4.

"Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime;

And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time."

"And as a hare, whom hounds and horns pursue,
Pants to the place from whence at first she flew,
I still had hopes, my long vexations past,

5.

6.

7.

"The crawling glaciers pierce me with the spears
Of their moon-freezing crystals, the bright chains
Eat with their burning cold into my bones."

"Know ye ot me,

The Titan? He who made his agony

The barrier to your else all-conquering foe?
Oh, rock-embosomed lawns, and snow-fed streams,
Now seen athwart frore vapors, deep below,

Through whose o'ershadowing woods I wandered once
With Asia, drinking life from her loved yes."

"Thus ended he, and both

Sat silent for the maid was very oth

To answer; feeling well that breathed words
Would all be lost, unheard, and vain as swords
Against the encased crocodile, or leaps
Of grasshoppers against the sun."

EXERCISE LXII.

TRANSPOSING AND PARAPHRASING.

DIRECTIONS. -Transpose by removing the rhyme, measure, and poetic diction; then paraphrase.

1. "Deep in the shady sadness of a vale

Far sunken from the healthy breath of morn,
Far from the ery noon, and eve's lone star,
Sat gray-haired Saturn, quiet as a stone."

2. "He held him with his skinny hand;
"There was a ship,' quoth he.

'Hold off! unhand me, gray-beard loon !'
Eftsoons his hand dropt he."