1920
CONTENTS OF VOL. IV
SUBSECTION III
THE ROMANTIC ARTS—continued
CHAPTER III
POETRY
Introduction [3]
[Summary and contrast between poetry and the other particular arts. Its relation to the other two romantic arts. Absence of all external sensuous presence. Poetry appeals to imaginative vision. Not so direct as sense-perception. Advantage over painting through its ability to display facts in their historical succession or natural process. Far profounder and more extended embrace of world of idea than in music; due to its greater power of definition in speech and its use of tone merely as a subordinate instrument. The content of poetry is the ideal envisagement of imaginative content itself. Everything made intelligible by language may form part of content, subject to the condition that it is poetical. Analysis of what this condition implies. The imagination of artist must be Contributive; distinction from mere prose consciousness and thinking. In its entire independence of the material of sense it may be defined as the universal art. The material is the imagination, and as such conjoint with all the arts. It is, however, not the only art open to philosophical review on this ground. It marks, however, the commencement of the disintegration of Art, its bridge of passage to the notion of religion and philosophical thought] [3]
Subdivision of subject-matter [17]
I. Poetical composition as distinguished from that of Prose [19]
1. The poetical and prosaic composition [20]
(a) The world of natural or prosaic fact relatively excluded. Primarily what it deals with is the infinite domain of Spirit and the energies of its life [21]
(b) Distinction between poetical and prosaic conception [21]
[(α) Poetical anterior to the prosaic form of artistic speech. It is the original imaginative grasp of truth. Dates from first effort of man at self-expression. Endeavours to make that expression of a higher virtue than mere prose [22]
(β) The kind of prose life from which poetry is separate postulates a different kind of conception and speech. The finite categories of the understanding applicable to the former. The ideal rationale of fact is aimed at by poetry. Its affinity with and distinction from pure thought [23]
(γ) Difference between the relation of poetic conception to prosaic in early times and more modern, where the prosaic form of life has become stereotyped in a definite system] [26]
(c) The nature of the differentiation of poetical activity in different ages and nations [26]
[(α) It has no particular epoch of unique celebration. It embraces the collective Spirit of man. It is conditioned by the outlook of various nations and epochs [27]
(β) Some of these have closer affinity with its essential spirit, e.g., the Oriental in comparison with the Western nations, if we exclude Greece [27]
(γ) Modern interest in Hellenic and certain portions of Oriental poetry] [28]
2. The Art-product of poetry and prose [29]
(a) The artistic composition of poetry generally [29]
[(α) It must possess intrinsic unity. The action must be conceived as that of particular men or women. There must be vital coalescence of characters, events, and actions. Unity in the nature of a process and a differentiation of parts which coalesce therein [29]
(β) Nature of this organic differentiation and synthesis. Tendency of Art to particularization. Delight in detail. Nature of its treatment of such detail. Result, a secure self-subsistency [31]
(γ) Substantive unity preserved. Display of particular features, despite all opposition, must combine in a union of mysterious accord. The unity is essential and organic. It is the soul of the entirety. Parallel in musical trichord. Varied type of artistic form in the Epic, the Drama, and the Lyric] [34]
(b) History and oratory compared with the poetical product [38]
[(α) The arts of history and oratory come into closest affinity with poetical composition. History implies great ends, cannot rest content with mere chronicles. Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, and Tacitus. Products of the art of language, but not entirely free art. The nature of the historical content prohibits this. The prosaic element in the historical age and the historical treatment defined [38]
(β) Oratory appears to be closer to the freedom of Art. The orator appeals to the whole man. It is directed to the enunciation of principles. It is none the less almost wholly relative to the rule of practical utility. Religious oratory. It is in the service of a collateral purpose] [42]
(c) The free poetical work of Art [47]
[(α) The attitude of the poet in his work, to contingent and insignificant fact and local conditions, actions, events, etc. [47]
(β) The end of Art not practical as in oratory. Nor is it to edification. Poems d'occasion [49]
(γ) It is an essentially infinite (self-rounded) organism. Permeated with a principle of unity. Independent of any one particular condition of Life or Nature] [51]
3. The creative impulse of the Poet [51]
[(a) Less under restriction in respect to his medium. The problem proposed in one respect more easy, and in another more difficult than that of the other arts. Technical control of the medium which is easier makes the demand for imaginative penetration the greater [52]
(b) Being operative in the realm of imaginative idea itself poetry has to guard against encroaching upon the spheres of religion, philosophy, and the ordinary consciousness as such [53]
(c) To a greater extent than in the other arts the poet has transfused the external mode of envisagement, which he creates, with the vitality of soul-life. Mohammedan poetry. The creative energy must be absolutely free from all restrictions imposed by the material handled] [53]
II. The Expression of Poetry [56]
1. The poetical Conception [57]
(a) Poetical conception in its origins [58]
[In its origin not consciously distinct from the prosaic or scientific consciousness. In general terms the poetic imagination is plastic. Illustration of difference between the concrete poetical image and the abstract concept] [58]
(b) Distinction between poetic mode of conception and that of prose. Language of poetical metaphor and imagery less accurate than the definition of prosaic fact [61]
(c) Exceptional difficulties which confront the poet of a world where the distinction between ordinary prose life and imagination is emphasised. Artificial appearance of his creations. Difficulty of retaining spontaneous simplicity and freshness
2. Verbal Expression [63]
(a) Poetical speech generally [64]
[Another mode of speech necessitated by the fact that the world of poetry and art in general should not be identical with that of ordinary life, or that of science and religion] [65]
(b) The means by which this is realized [65]
[(α) Particular words and expressions only proper to poetry. Entitled to borrow from language forms obsolete in ordinary speech. The invention exercised in creating novel modes of utterance [66]
(β) The relative order of words admits of change; how the licence in this respect may be abused and degenerate into rhetoric and declamation [66]
(γ) The periods of poetical construction composed in accordance with the ideality of the soul-experience embodied] [66]
(c) Distinctions in the use of these means [66]
[(α) Poetry in the age where poetry is the one revealer of spiritual truth. Force of creative power and simplicity of diction most obvious features. Creation of a poetic diction by Dante [66]
(β) Distinction from above in an age where prose diction already elaborated. Expression of poetry becomes more elaborate and eventually more self-conscious and rhetorical. The poetry of Rome. The satire. Spanish poetry [67]
(γ) The nature of genuine poetical expression. Spontaneity above all essential] [69]
3. Versification.
[Only a superficial view would banish it. It is implied in the demand that the medium should be elaborated by Art and that the realm entered should be other than every-day life] [70]
(a) Rhythmical Versification (that is, without rhyme)
[(α) Made by time-duration and the movement. Starting point in the natural length and shortness of syllables. The distinctions of the sound of words in consonants and vowels contribute the basis of this. Description and illustration. Poetry regulates the accidental interchange of various syllables and words. Time-duration. Nature of dactyl, anapaest, etc. It further regulates the particular time-relations in a series of verse-lines. The iambic metre, etc. Problem of time-beats in the metre of the ancients. No necessity as in music for abstract time-beat [74]
(β) The accent and caesura. Every time-relation has its particular accent. Particular feet ought not with abstract precision to be identical with beginning and conclusion of single words. The caesura checks the monotony of measure. Further independent verbal accent. Fundamental influence on the measure of the poetical idea. Also a definite type of content corresponds with the entire character of a particular verse-measure. The use of hexameter, elegiacs, and iambics in this respect [78]
(γ) Rhythmical versification embraces the actual musical sound of syllables and words. The stem-syllable in the Greek and Latin languages. Aspects of the German language in this respect. In modern languages the element of rhythm less room for display. This in itself necessitates the alternative of rhyme as a resistant against the too exclusive assertion of ideal content] [81]
(b) Rhyme [84]
[(α) Rhyme a necessary feature of romantic poetry. Closer approximation to music. Reaction against the stringent character of Roman poetry. Source of rhyme in Germanic languages [86]
(β) Difference between two systems. Rhythmical versification supreme in Hellenic poetry. Most important change effected that of the validity of the national quantity in the older system. This replaced by the intrinsic meaning of syllables and words. French and Italian poetry an extreme example of the collapse of the former system. The necessity of rhyme and its character analysed [86]
(γ) The types of modern romantic poetry. Its alliteration, assonance, and ordinary rhyme. Scandinavian poetry. Not necessary for assonant words to come only at conclusion of line. Rhyme is the fulfilment of alliteration and assonance. Pre-eminently the form of lyric poetry. Examples] [92]
(c) The union of rhythm and rhyme
[(α) Attempt made in modern times to return to the natural quantity of syllables. Not generally successful. Overwhelming importance in modern verse of intelligible significance and the accent thus asserted [95]
(β) Not possible to retain the plastic consistency of the metrical medium as secured by classical poetry. Modern languages do not possess the stable quantitative basis [96]
(γ) The combination equivalent to the absorption by modern versification of the older system. The significance of the identical repetition of the same time-measure. Modern imitation of sapphics and alcaics based on a contradiction] [97]
III. The Several Generic Types of Poetry [99]
Introduction and Division of Subject [100]
A. Epic Poetry [106]
1. General character of Epic poetry [106]
(a) Epigrams and Gnomes [106]
(b) Philosophical didactic poems, Cosmogonies and Theogonies [108]
(c) The genuine Epopaea [110]
[(α) The saga, the bible of a folk. Not every national bible can rank as Epos. Greeks possess no ancient religious books resembling Hindoo literature [111]
(β) Not necessarily composed in the heroic time itself. Homer. Views expressed which belong to earlier times [112]
(γ) Position of the epic poet. His work a free creation. He must feel at home in the world he depicts. Objective independence of composition. The work of one artist] [115]
2. Particular Characteristics of true Epos [118]
(a) The general World-condition of the Epos [119]
[(α) A positive social state conjoined to primitive simplicity. Intuitive sense of right the support of moral order. Vital human association with nature and particular objects possessed. Heroic condition, e.g., that of free individuality. Examples. Expresses entire horizon of national condition [120]
(β) The mirror must be of one particular people. The Hellenic spirit in Homer. A foreign locale not necessarily prejudicial to artistic effect. The remoteness to present ideas of the "Niebelungen Lied" [125]
(γ) Main event of poem must be a deliberately conceived purpose. It must imply collisions. The belligerent condition most pertinent. The Odyssey not only an exception. Courage the fundamental interest. Justification of such attitude] [128]
(b) The individual Epic action [135]
[(α) Must be one of individual vitality. Must appropriate form of an event, and the happening of such. Analysis. Problem of an absolute Epos. Mere biography not most complete subject-matter. "The Divine Comedy" only partially an exception [134]
(β) Question of human personality implied. Epic character must be a totality. Achilles, the Cid, and other heroes, discussed. Circumstances as active as persons. Illustrations [139]
(γ) The form under which the intrinsic significance of the occurrence proclaims itself, whether as ideal Necessity or disclosed spiritual forces. Destiny. What it defines. General tone of sadness in the Epic. Different modes of appearance. Poems of Ossian, and others. Loss of original freshness in Latin poetry. Virgil] [143]
(c) The Epos as unified totality [152]
[(α) The unity of the assumed general background and the individuals therein. Humanity displayed in its entire collective relation of all interests and occupations. The individual event. The commencement of the Iliad and Odyssey [153]
(β) The difference between the epic mode of disclosure and that of the Lyric or drama. Greater extension of range. In the epic work character may give way to external condition. Objective nature of its exposition. Motivisation of drama and the Epic entirely different. Examples from Homer and modern poetry [157]
(γ) Nature of unity of Epos. Though not of most importance essential to artistic result. Insistence upon fundamental unity of the Homeric poems. Epic unity within a national whole. Distinction from dramatic action. The Idyll. The novel as the Epopaea of modern society] [164]
3. The historical development of epic Poetry [172]
(a) The Oriental Epos [174]
[(α) Epos of Hindoos and Persians. The sense of the unity of the One Substance [174]
(β) Contrast between Hindoo and Persian Epos. The Ramajana and Maha-Bharata [176]
(γ) Hebrew Epic poetry] [176]
(b) Epic poetry of Greece and Rome [178]
[(α) Essential unity of Iliad and Odyssey. The ne plus ultra of attainment. The cyclic poets [178]
(β) Roman Epos cannot compare in quality with the Greek prototype] [179]
(c) The Romantic Epos.
[The poems of Ossian. The Edda. National character of epic poems of Middle Ages. "The Cid." The peculiar nature of Dante's "Divine Comedy." The poems relating to Charlemagne, King Arthur, etc. The revolt against Chivalry in Ariosto and Cervantes. The "Lysiad" of Camoens. Milton's "Paradise Lost" and Klopstock's "Messias">[ [180]
B. Lyric Poetry [193]
1. General character of lyric poetry [195]
[(a) The content of lyric poetry [196]
(α) Not merely translation of content from immediacy of experience. Creation of object purified from the incidental mood. Deliverance thus effected. Self-expression not the development of objective action. We have the universal as such. The entire sphere of human belief, religion, art, and to some extent scientific thought comprised as they fall into a personal view of the world [190]
(β) Aspect of particularity. The Eumenides chorus in the "Cranes" of Ibicus. The Elegy and Epistle [197]
(γ) Emphasis throughout on personal feeling. Parallel with genre painting. Contingency of content. Growth of whole in temperament] [197]
(b) The form of the same
[(α) Unity different from that of Epos. Mysterious intimacy of personal mood. Approximates to Epos in heroic songs, ballads, and romances. The Greek Anthology [199]
(β) Poems d'occasion. Personal aspect. Pindaric Odes. Goethe. Individual soul supplied focus of unity rather than positive reality [201]
(γ) Point of departure an external occurrence either in personal experience or that of others. Element of narrative as in songs of Anacreon] [203]
(c) The external culture condition of the Lyric. [200]
[(α) Different from that of Epic. Not limited to one particular epoch, but exceptionally displayed in modern times. Folk-songs and the lyric poem [207]
(β) Possesses a power of free expansion into all kinds of subject-matter, a free recognition of imaginative conception no less than artistic activity [210]
(γ) The philosophical lyric poem. A false and a genuine style compared. Schiller's poetry] [212]
2. Particular aspects of the Lyric [213]
(a) The lyric poet [214]
[(α) The poet himself supplies the principle of combination. He is the focus of unity [214]
(β) Spontaneity of result. Sings because he cannot help it. His object himself. Self-respect. Pindar and Klopstock [215]
(γ) Creative in dealing with personal experience. Goethe a fine example] [217]
(b) The lyric work of art [217]
[(α) The unity of the Lyric. Springs from memory or vivid association of poet. The formal unity of self-conscious life. Mood must be defined in its concreteness, not tend too much to generalization [218]
(β) Nature of the progressive disclosure of content. The principle of the Lyric is assimilation. Poems limited to local description. Mainly a definition of emotional forces made vital in objects as seen by the "inward eye." Episodes permissible. Passionate intensity in its freedom [219]
(γ) External form of the Lyric. Variety of metres. Varied use of caesura. Strophes which admit of much alternation, both as to length of line, and their rhythmic structure. Musical sound of words and syllables. Free use of assonance, alliteration and rhyme, especially the diversified use of last-mentioned. Association with musical accompaniment] [221]
(c) Types of the genuine Lyric [225]
[(α) Hymns, dithyrambs, paeans and psalms. Personal religious emotion. Greek treatment of chorus. Psalms of Old Testament [225]
(β) Personal life of poet the subject-matter. Not so much the subject as the enthusiasm or personal note. Pindaric Odes. Horace. Klopstock [228]
(γ) The song as such. A field of blossom ever starting anew. The Oriental and Western type. Anacreon. Protestant hymns. Sonnet, elegy, epistle, etc. Dithyrambic emotion of Schiller] [230]
3. Historical evolution of the Lyric [235]
(a) Oriental lyrical poetry
[Vital absorption in the object. Objective character as compared with pure romantic. Hymns of exaltation. Metaphor, image, and simile particularly favoured. Present in Chinese, Hindoo, Hebrew, Arab and Persian poetry] [236]
(b) The Lyric of the Greeks and Romans
[General character that of classic individuality. Image and metaphor not so largely used. Emphasizes mainly on the sensuous verbal quantity in the rhythm of its movement. The dance not unfrequently attached. Point of departure hymns. Elegiac measure. The lyric of the chorus. Pindar. Roman lyric less original] [238]
(c) Romantic Lyric.
[In certain nations epic material treated as lyrical narrative. Lyric composition of modern nations still pagan. In the Christian Middle Ages. That based on the principle of Protestantism. Klopstock and his influence] [242]
C. Dramatic Poetry [248]
1. The Drama as a poetic work of art [249]
(a) The principle of dramatic poetry [249]
[(α) Depends on conditions of collision, human passion, and characters. Leads to action and resolution of conflict. Product of a condition of cultured life [250]
(β) Mediation between epic and lyric poetry. Has to bring before vision action or event, but it is self-conscious personality which is the vital force. Dramatic action must submit to a process of development. Has to exhibit not so much lyrical emotion as situation. Action the executed will recognized as such in its ultimate purpose. The external world only borrowed in so far as it is bound to this purpose. More concentrated than the Epic. Action so treated that it inevitably meets with opposition. Nature of the divine forces operative. The Drama propounds the vital energy of a principle of Necessity [250]
(γ) The nature of the demand on the dramatic poet in respect to the divine energy. The drama is the resolution of the one-sided aspect of these powers, the self-stability whereof is disclosed in dramatic character] [254]
(b) Dramatic Composition [255]
[(α) The unity as contrasted with the Epos and the Lyric. Unity of place, time, and action. First no support to from Aristotle. Nature of demand upon the imagination relative to fact of direct vision. Unity of action alone invariable. Romantic drama less consistent than classical. Examples from Shakespeare [256]
(β) Mode of dénouement. Embrace of material in Epos more extensive. Mean between that and lyrical poetry. True dramatic progression, a continuous movement onwards to catastrophe. Possesses a beginning, middle and end. Aristotle. Significance of acts and their number. In English, French, and German drama generally five [261]
(γ) Nature of means, e.g., dramatic diction, etc. Realistic mode of expression as contrasted with one conventional to the theatre. Must neither be too formal nor too unpolished or colloquial. Choral interlude, monologue, and dialogue. Verse-measure mainly iambic] [264]
(c) The relation of the dramatic composition to the Public [270]
[(α) Distinct Public to cater for and under obligation to it. Fashion of German writers to scorn the Public. Mistaken view. How far possible to reproduce foreign or ancient drama [272]
(β) Dramatis personae must be vital not merely personified interests. Real emphasis on the collision involved. Goethe's "Iphigeneia" [273]
(γ) Attitude of poet himself. The impression of the whole as the product of one original creative force most important. Necessity that the dramatic poet master the eternal and essential foundation of human character and action. Worst case where he seeks to flatter a popular prejudice. Reference to contemporary event. Aristophanes. Didactic matter only admissible in so far as it is no bar to the freedom of the entire artistic product] [275]
2. The external Technique of a dramatic Composition [278] (a) The reading or recitation of a dramatic work [280]
[(α) True sensuous medium of drama the human voice. Modern plays often impracticable in the theatre. Contrast of Greek drama in this respect [280]
(β) Plays written for perusal only. Theatrical reproduction a real test of dramatic vitality. Question whether dramatic works should be printed [281]
(γ) Perusal no sufficient test of the acting possibilities of a drama. Recitation subject to the serious restriction that it is the expression of one voice only] [283]
(b) The art of the Actor [284]
[(α) Among the Greeks acting affiliated to sculpture. Ancients added music to declamation. Means of interpretation in motion of the body. The dance. Plastic character of Greek performance [285]
(β) Speech used solely as spiritual expression in modern acting. Coalescence of actor's personality with his rôle. Facial expression. Increase particularisation in modern character. Illustrations. Increase of difficulties. Modern actor an artist] [286]
(c) The theatrical art which is more independent of Poetry 289
[(α) Plays written for the display of the particular talent of actors. The Italian commedia dell' arte. French attitude to audience [289]
(β) Modern opera. Luxurious display of scenic accessories. Schiller's "Maid of Orleans." Mozart's "Magic Flute" [291]
(γ) The Ballet. The proper subordination of the dance] [292]
3. Types of dramatic poetry and the chief phases of their historical development [292]
(a) The principle of Tragedy, Comedy, and the Play [293]
[(α) The principle as associated with tragedy in its essential and primitive form. The content of tragic action supplied by spiritual forces which carry with them their own justification, e.g., love of husband, wife, parents, or children, patriotism, social life, etc. The substance in which the greatness and stability of the tragic hero consists. Theme of primitive tragedy generally the godlike in its mundane character. Forces realized as the determinate aim of human pathos. A collision in which both aspects are justified from one point of view. Tragic resolution of division. Meaning of Aristotle's dictum that tragedy excites and purifies fear and pity. Sense of reconciliation [295]
(β) In Tragedy what is eternally substantive is vindicated under a mode of reconciliation. In Comedy the purely personal experience retains the mastery throughout. Nature of social basis of comedy. The comic. The conception of it in Molière and Aristophanes. Requires a resolution even more strongly than tragedy 301
(γ) The Satyric drama. Plautus. The modern dramatic play. Illustrations from classical drama. Boundary lines fluctuate more than in the case of genuine tragedy and comedy. Tendency to pass from poetic form altogether. Theatrical pieces exhibited for mere display of histrionic talent or psychological analysis, or as a mere social relaxation] [305]
(b) The difference between ancient and modern Drama [308]
[(α) No genuine Oriental dramatic art. Principle of individual freedom. Origins among Hindoos and Chinese [308]
(β) True beginning among the Hellenes. The universal and substantive content of the end, which individuals seek to achieve. Exceptional plot and intrigue and varied display of individual character not emphasized [309]
(γ) In modern drama it is rather the destiny of some particular character under exceptional circumstances which forms the subject-matter. Interest directed not so much to ethical vindication and destiny as to the isolation of the individual and his conditions. Crime as a motive not excluded. Formal greatness of character demanded. Variety of characterization, and maze of plot and intrigue. In tragedy further the paramount presence of a more exalted order of the world,—whether conceived as Providence or Fatality,—accepted] [310]
(c) The concrete development of dramatic poetry and its types [312]
[(α) Greek drama. Roman drama an attenuated reflection. Survey limited to Æschylus, Sophocles, and Aristophanes. Background of ancient tragedy the heroic condition. Analysis of modes under which ethical content of human action asserted. The unsevered consciousness of the godlike and the combating human action, presented under the form of chorus and heroic figures. Significance of chorus. Opposition between social obligation and private sense of duty. Antigone. Modern conception of guilt and innocence no place in Greek tragedy in strict sense. Final end reconciliation of forces of human action. Such a dénouement not merely an ethical issue. Contrast between such and the Justice of the Greek Epos. Illustrations. Antigone. Œdipus. Orestes. Conception of old classical Comedy. The laughter of the Olympian gods made present in man. Aristophanes] [312]
(β) Modern dramatic art
[(i) The ends which ought to come into the process of the action as the content of the characters. Borrowed from the concrete world of religious and social life. Not however, the particular ethical forces as of individuals which assert them, e.g., Christ, the saints, kings, vassals, and members of ruling families. Features of the private life accepted not within scope of ancient drama. Personal love, honour, etc. make an exclusive appeal. Faust. Wallenstein. Generally it is the inner experience of soul-life which demands satisfaction. Comparison of problem of Hamlet with that of the Choephorae.
(ii) Nature of characters and collisions. Conflict abides essentially in the character itself. Abstract characterization of French and Italian poetry, also Spanish. In contrast to this that of the English, and above all Shakespeare. Goethe and Schiller. Vacillation of character. "King Lear." **(iii) Nature of tragic issue. Justice of more abstract nature than in ancient tragedy. The issue as the effect of misfortune. "Romeo and Juliet," a kind of unhappy blessedness in misfortune. Social plays the link between tragedy and comedy. As a rule the triumph of ordinary morality celebrated. Modern comedy. Question whether folly is ridiculous only to others, or to the comic character also. The second type mainly that of Aristophanes, the first that of Molière. Invention of the intrigue or intricate plot. Comparison of Shakespeare's comedy with that of Aristophanes] [330]
Final Summary and Conclusion [348]