Her Face, her Neck, her Breast, her Arms, I praise, not taken with her Charms; Suspicious Thoughts remove; Let almost forty feeble Years Secure thy Mind from jealous Fears, And tell that Horace is too old for Love. Oldsworth.
I shall omit any more Examples; tho' what I have hitherto laid before you, I dare say, have brought their own Reward with them, as they are true Specimens of poetic Elegance, and abundantly illustrate what I had to say upon this Head. To alledge all that relate to it, would be only to transcribe the greatest Part of the best Poets. And as the Beauty of the poetic Style chiefly consists in its own Peculiarities, those that would thoroughly understand it, must endeavour, with Diligence and Application, to make it familiar to them.
Nor is the Style of Poetry distinct from Oratory in Greek and Latin only; the same Difference runs thro' all Tongues, both modern and ancient, English as well as foreign. To this is owing that Difficulty, which the Learners of a new Language complain of much more in reading the Poets, than the Prose Writers. The Reason why the former use such a Variety of Style so remote from that of the latter, seems to be owing to this; that as Poetry requires a peculiar Way of Thinking, it affects, likewise, a peculiar Manner of Writing and Speaking, that so it may be set off at as great a Distance from Prose as possible. Besides, as it is confined within the strict Rules of Measure, it is but just to allow it a greater Liberty of Diction, and so compensate, in some Degree, that Inconvenience with this Advantage.
The Expressions I have hitherto produced are purely poetical, which, beautiful as they are in Verse, if once resolved into Prose, become flat and insipid; you would acknowledge them, indeed, to be poetical Materials, but rudely scattered, and disjointed; and, as Horace describes it,
—Invenias disjecti membra Poetæ[31].
Dissected Fragments of a Poet's Limbs.
Other Phrases there are, which tho' not merely poetical, yet are much more suitable to Verse than Prose: They may well enough be used sparingly, and with Caution, by an Orator, or an Historian; but if they occur frequently, they are Blemishes in his Composition, and mere Affectation. Of this Stamp are, Campus pinguis sanguine; the Field now sated with Blood: Vela vento turgida; the turgid Sails: Duces sordidi pulvere honesto, or non indecora; with honourable Dust besmeared; and the like.
But tho' the Expressions above, that are purely poetical, or that are chiefly so, conduce much to the Beauty of a Poem, yet good Verse may be made of those only that are common to all Kinds of Writing. For Proof of this one Example shall suffice, from the Odes of Horace:
Sæpius ventis agitatur ingens[32] Pinus, & celsæ graviore casu Decidunt turres, feriuntque summos Fulmina montes.
Storms often vex the stately Oak, High Mountains feel the Thunder's Stroke; And lofty Tow'rs, when Winds prevail, Are ruin'd with the greater Fall. Creech.