Poetic diction: A study of eighteenth century verse

by Thomas Quayle

[263] “Convention and Revolt in Poetry” (London, 1921), p. 13.

[264] Just as this book was about to go to press, there appeared “The Theory of Poetry,” by Professor Lascelles Abercrombie, in which a poet and critic of great distinction has embodied his thoughts on his own art. Chaps. III and IV especially should be consulted for a most valuable account and analysis of how the poetical “magic” of words is achieved.

[265] “Essays in Criticism,” Second Series (1888): “Wordsworth” (1913 ed.), p. 157.

[266] O. Barfield, “Form in Poetry” (“New Statesman” August 7, 1920, pp. 501-2).

[267] “Œuvres” (ed. Assézat), I, p. 377 (quoted by Babbitt), op. cit., p. 121.

[268] Preface to “The Tales” (Poems), ed. A. W. Ward, (Cambridge, 1906), Vol. II, p. 10.

INDEX

• Abercrombie, Lascelles, [197 n.], [201 n.]
• Addison, Joseph, [21]
• “Ælla” (T. Chatterton’s), [163]
• Akenside, Mark, [16], [27], [69-70], [138-9], [189], [195]
• Dr. Johnson’s criticism, [16]
• “Epistle to Curio,” [195]
• Latinism, [69-70]
• Personification, [138-9]
• “Pleasures of the Imagination,” [69]
• “Alma” (M. Prior’s), [75]
• “Amyntor and Theodora,” [142]
• “Anti-Jacobin, The,” [173 n.]
• “Approach of Summer, The,” [179]
• “Archaism,” [17-21], [80-101]
• Aristotle, [10-12], [185]
• Armstrong, John, [69-70], [110]
• Arnold, Matthew, [2], [41], [181], [198], [201]
• “Art of Preserving Health,” [69], [110]
• Babbitt, I., [13 n.], [203 n.]
• Bailey, J. C., [169 n.]
• Ballads, [95-7], [196]
• Barfield, Owen, [202 n.]
• “Bastard, The,” [111]
• Beattie, James, [19], [93 n.], [125]
• Beers, H. A., [97 n.]
• “Beowulf, The,” [104 n.]
• Binyon, Laurence, [13 n.]
• “Biographia Literaria,” [13 n.], [24 n.], [48 n.], [51 n.], [127 n.], [156 n.], [173 n.], [185 n.]
• “Birth of Flattery, The” (G. Crabbe’s), [168]
• Blair, Robert, [110], [176 n.]
• Blake, William, [28], [46-7], [77], [99], [124], [129], [136-59], [163-7], [179-80], [181], [187 n.], [198], [202]
• Allegory and Vision, remarks on, [165]
• Artist, as, [136], [159 n.]
• Compounds, [124], [129]
• Felicity of diction, [46-7], [202]
• “Imitation of Spenser,” [47], [165]
• “Letters,” [47 n.], [164 n.], [187 n.]
• “Muses, To the,” [47]
• Mysticism, [164]
• Personifications, [163-7], [179-80]
• “Piper, The,” [202]
• “Songs of Experience,” [46], [165 n.], [166]
• “Songs of Innocence,” [46], [165]
• Stock diction, [46-7]
• Blount, T., [93]
• Boswell’s “Life of Johnson,” [16 n.]
• “Botanic Garden” (E. Darwin’s), [12], [51-2], [126], [173-5]
• Bowles, William Lisle, [48]
• Boyce, S., [162]
• Bruce, Michael, [122]
• Burns, Robert, [28], [100], [198]
• Bysshe, Edward, [30]
• “By-ways Round Helicon”, [195 n.]
• Campbell, Dykes, [128 n.]
• Canning, George, [139], [173 n.]
• Capell, Edward, [95-6]
• “Castaway, The,” [49], [170]
• “Castle of Indolence,” [90-2], [161]
• Chapman, George, [105]
• “Charge to the Poets” (W. Whitehead’s), [20 n.]
• “Chase, The” (W. Somerville’s), [68], [110], [142]
• Chatterton, Thomas, [19], [42-3], [97-8], [123-4], [162-3]
• Compounds, [123-4]
• Personifications, [162-3]
• “Rowley Poems,” [97-8]
• Stock diction, [42-3]
• Chaucer, Geoffrey, [26], [84-6], [133]
• Chaucerian imitations, [84-6]
• Chesterfield, Lord, [20]
• “Child of Quality, Lines to” (M. Prior’s), [195]
• “Choice, The” (J. Pomfret’s), [195]
• Churchill, John, [139-40], [169-70]
• Classical literature (connexion with romantic), [181-2]
• Coleridge, H. N., [156 n.]
• Coleridge, S. T., [1], [13], [24], [31], [32], [51], [100], [127-8], [156], [173], [182], [193], [204]
• Archaisms, [100]
• Compounds, [127-8]
• Darwin, E., remarks, on, [13], [173]
• Gray’s personifications, on, [156]
• Imagination, on, [13]
• “Letters,” [173 n.]
• Pope’s style, on, [24], [32], [193]
• Collins, William, [16], [40-1], [71], [98], [116-7], [129], [149], [150-5], [166], [167], [191], [196]
• Archaisms, [98]
• Compounds, [116-7], [129]
• Dr. Johnson’s criticisms of, [16], [40], [151]
• “Odes,” [149 n.], [150-5]
• Personifications, [150-5], [166], [167], [178], [179], [191]
• Romantic forerunner, a, [196]
• Stock diction, [40-1]
• Compound epithets, [4], [102-31], [204]
• “Convention and Revolt in Poetry,” [200 n.]
• Courthope, W. J., [9 n.], [17 n.], [45 n.], [50 n.], [57 n.], [133 n.], [149 n.], [194 n.]
• Coventry, F., [147]
• Cowper, William, [20], [24], [31], [48-50], [73-4], [76], [126], [168-73]
• Archaism, on, [20]
• Compounds, [126]
• Familiar style, on the, [24]
• “Homer” translation, [48], [74], [126]
• Latinism, [73-5]
• “Letters,” [20 n.], [48 n.], [74 n.]
• “Olney Hymns,” [49], [169]
• Personifications, [169-73], [179]
• Stock diction, [48-9]
• “Table Talk,” [49]
• “Task, The,” [49], [73-4], [170-1]
• Crabbe, George, [50-1], [124-5], [167-8], [179], [195], [204]
• Compounds, [124-5]
• Dryden’s style, on, [204]
• Personifications, [167-8], [179]
• Stock diction, [50-1]
• Croxall, Samuel, [93 n.]
• Cunningham, John, [27], [189]
• Darwin, Erasmus, [12], [37], [51-2], [53], [120], [173-5]
• Davenant, Sir William, [21]
• Denham, Sir John, [15]
• Dennis, John, [11 n.]
• De Quincey, Thomas, [52]
• “Descriptive Sketches,” [52], [175], [176 n.]
• “Deserted Village, The,” [45-6], [111-2], [195]
• Diderot, Denis, [203]
• Dodsley, Robert, [147], [195]
• Doughty, Oswald, [98 n.], [195 n.]
• Drayton, Michael, [107]
• Drinkwater, John, [9 n.]
• Dryden, John, [5], [7], [8], [9], [11], [14], [15], [18], [21], [22], [26-7], [28], [30], [31], [32], [33], [36], [58-9], [81-2], [83], [105-6], [109], [134], [181], [194], [204]
• “Annus Mirabilis,” [8]
• Archaisms, [18], [81-2]
• Chaucer “translations,” [26-7]
• Compounds, [105-6]
• “Essays” and “Prefaces,” [7-11]
• “Hind and Panther,” [195]
• Language of poetry, on, [8-9]
• Latinism, [58-9]
• Periphrasis, use of, [28], [33]
• Personifications, [134]
• “Religio Laici,” [194]
• Royal Society, [7]
• Satire, [106], [140]
• Technical terms, on, [21]
• “Duellist, The” (Charles Churchill’s), [140 n.]
• Dyer, John, [39], [70], [109], [142], [188-9]
• Earle, J., [35 n.]
• “Economy of Vegetation,” [12], [126], [173-4]
• Edmonds, C., [173 n.]
• “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” [42], [72], [157], [159], [195], [198]
• “Eloisa to Abelard,” [134]
• Elton, Oliver, [10 n.], [135 n.], [182 n.], [186 n.], [197 n.]
• Emerson, O., [104 n.]
• “English Lyric in the Age of Reason,” [195]
• “Enthusiast, The,” [71], [121], [149]
• “Epistle to Curio” (M. Akenside’s), [195 n.]
• Epithalamium (W. Thompson’s), [160]
• “Essay on Criticism,” [9-10], [29 n.], [195]
• “Eton College, Ode on a Distant View of,” [156]
• Evelyn, John, [7]
• “Evening, Ode to,” [41], [116], [155]
• “Evening Walk, The,” [52], [127], [175-6]
• “Excursion, The” (David Mallet’s), [142]
• “Faerie Queene,” [87], [94], [99], [133], [159-60], [192]
• Falconer, William, [22], [43-4]
• “Fleece, The,” (J. Dyer’s), [39], [70]
• Fletcher, Giles, [57]
• Fletcher, Phineas, [57]
• “Fugitive Poets” (Bell’s), [122], [147 n.], [195]
• Furetière, Antoine, [5]
• Gay, John, [33], [109]
• Gibbon, Edward, [198]
• Glanvill, Joseph, [7]
• Goldsmith, Oliver, [14-15], [20], [44-6], [72], [111-2], [140-1], [195]
• Archaism, on, [20]
• Compounds, in, [117-8]
• Diction of poetry, on, [15]
• Latinism, [72-3]
• Personifications, [141-2], [179]
• Stock diction, [44-6]
• Graeme, James, [122]
• Grainger, James, [70], [110], [142]
• “Grave,” the (Robert Blair’s), [110]
• Gray, Thomas, [8], [16-17], [18-19], [21-2], [31], [41-2], [67], [71-2], [93 n.], [98-9], [117-20], [146], [155-9], [177], [196]
• Archaisms, on, [18-19], [98-9]
• Coinages, on, [21]
• Compounds, [117-20]
• Diction of poetry, on, [8], [16-17]
• “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” [42], [72], [157], [159], [195], [198]
• Latinism, [71-2]
• Letters, [8 n.], [16 n.]
• Personifications, [155-9], [177], [191]
• Plain colloquial style, [17], [195]
• Romantic forerunner, A, [150], [196]
• Stock diction, [41-2]
• Technical terms, on, [22]
• Grierson, H. J. C., [159 n.]
• “Grongar Hill,” [39], [109], [184], [188], [190]
• Hamilton, William (of Bangor), [146]
• Hill, G. B., [8 n.], [15 n.], [16 n.], [23 n.], [112 n.], [151 n.]
• “Hind and Panther, The,” [195]
• “Horror, Ode to,” [148]
• Hughes, John, [83]
• Hume, David, [198]
• Hutchinson, T., [52 n.], [68 n.], [97 n.], [132 n.], [176 n.]
• “Hymn to May” (W. Thompson’s), [160]
• “Il Bellicoso,” [147]
• “Il Pacifico,” [147]
• “Il Penseroso,” [71], [176]
• “Inebriety,” [167]
• Jago, R., [122]
• Johnson, Dr., [15-16], [17], [19-20], [23], [31], [40-2], [44], [72-3], [111], [119], [140-1], [151], [159], [177], [179]
• Archaism, [19-20]
• Collins, on, [150], [151]
• Compounds, [111], [119-20]
• Diction, on, [15-16]
• “Dictionary,” [140 n.]
• Dryden, on, [8]
• Gray’s personifications, on, [156 n.]
• Latinism, [73]
• Personifications, [140-1], [177], [179]
• Pope’s style, on, [23], [31], [193]
• Satire, [139]
• Stock diction, [45]
• Jonson, Ben, [17-18]
• Keats, John, [126], [128], [129], [144], [187], [188], [192], [196], [203], [204]
• Ker, W. P., [7 n.], [8 n.], [9 n.], [11 n.], [18 n.], [21 n.]
• Kersey, John, [97]
• “L’Allegro,” [162], [176]
• Langhorne, J., [122]
• Langland, William, [133]
• Latinism, [56-79], [191-2]
• Lee, Vernon, [197 n.]
• “Legacy of Greece, The,” [199]
• Legouis, E., [53 n.], [127 n.], [175 n.]
• Lessing’s “Laokoon,” [12 n.]
• Lloyd, Robert, [88 n.]
• “London” (Dr. Johnson’s), [111], [140-1]
• “Loves of the Plants” (E. Darwin’s), [12], [173]
• “Loves of the Triangles” (G. Canning’s), [173 n.]
• Lowes, Professor J. L., [200]
• “Lyrical Ballads,” [1], [2], [175]
• Lyttleton, G., [119]
• Maeterlinck, M., [200]
• Mallet, D., [110], [144 n.], [142]
• Marlowe, Christopher, [105 n.]
• Marriott, Dr., [147]
• Mason, William, [86], [146-7]
• Masson, David, [58 n.]
• Mendez, Moses, [88], [122]
• Mickle, William, [93], [125], [162 n.], [171 n.]
• Milton, John, [8], [33-6], [41], [57-8], [60], [61], [62], [66], [70], [71], [72], [76], [77], [81], [94], [107], [133], [136], [142], [146-7], [148], [149], [150], [176-7], [191-2]
• Archaism, [81], [94]
• Compound epithets, [105]
• Diction, [34-6], [57-8]
• Imitated in eighteenth century, [60-70], [76-7], [146-50], [191-2]
• Latinism, [57-8], [177]
• Personification, [133], [137], [142], [146-7], [176-7]
• “Monody written near Stratford-on-Avon,” [149 n.]
• Morel, Leon, [39 n.], [63 n.], [78 n.], [91 n.], [114 n.], [145 n.]
• Murray, Gilbert, [199]
• Nashe, Thomas, [105 n.]
• Neo-classicism, [9-13], [53-4]
• “Night Thoughts” (E. Young’s), [28], [68-9], [136-8]
• “Nocturnal Reverie” (Countess of Winchilsea’s), [187]
• Old English Compounds, [104]
• “Ossian” poems, [19], [166]
• “Paradise Lost,” [34-6], [57-8], [76], [133], [136], [184]
• Parnell, Thomas, [135-6]
• “Passions, Ode to the,” [153]
• “Penshurst” (F. Coventry’s), [147]
• Percy, Bishop, [96-7]
• Personification and abstraction, [133-80], [190-1]
• Phelps, W. L., [142 n.]
• Philips, John, [37], [60-1], [86], [109], [142]
• “Pity, Ode to” (W. Collins’), [153]
• “Pleasures of the Imagination” (M. Akenside’s), [69], [138-9], [189]
• “Pleasures of Melancholy, The” (T. Warton’s), [71], [121]
• “Poetical Character, Ode on the” (W. Collins’s), [152]
• “Poetical Sketches” (W. Blake’s), [99], [167], [181]
• Pomfret, John, [195]
• Pope, Alexander, [2], [3], [8], [9], [10], [14], [15], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21-2], [23-4], [25], [29], [31-4], [36-7], [40], [42], [45], [46], [48], [50], [54], [59-60], [67], [73], [81], [82-3], [85], [106-9], [111], [115], [130], [134], [135], [136], [139], [140], [183], [184], [185], [189], [193-4], [204]
• Archaism, [18], [82-3]
• Compounds, [21], [106-9]
• Diction, [33], [36-7]
• “Dunciad,” [18], [134]
• “Essay on Criticism,” [14], [29 n.], [195]
• Heroic couplet, [29-30], [31-2]
• “Homer,” [2], [14], [17], [31-2], [40], [48], [184]
• Language of poetry, [9-10]
• Latinism, [59-60]
• Personifications, [134]
• Satire, [139], [140]
• Potter, R., [122]
• Prior, Matthew, [75], [87], [95], [195]
• “Progress of Error” (W. Cowper’s), [170]
• “Progress of Poetry” (Thomas Gray’s), [72]
• “Prolusions” (E. Capell’s), [95-6]
• Raleigh, Sir Walter, [35 n.], [58 n.], [66 n.]
• “Rape of the Lock,” [134]
• “Religio Laici,” [194]
• “Reliques of Ancient English Poetry,” [19], [96-7]
• Reynolds, Myra, [28 n.], [61 n.], [75 n.]
• Ritson, Joseph, [96 n.]
• Robertson, J. L., [6 n.], [62]
• Rogers, Samuel, [125-6]
• Romanticism, connexion with classicism, [181-2]
• Rowley poems, [42-4], [97-8], [162-3]
• “Ruins of Rome” (J. Dyer’s), [109], [142]
• Ruskin, John, [180]
• Russell, A. J. B., [164 n.]
• Saintsbury, George, [29-30], [76 n.], [106], [130], [131], [194 n.]
• Sampson, John, [47 n.], [99 n.], [165 n.]
• Savage, Richard, [75], [111], [136]
• Schmidt’s “Shakespeare Lexicon,” [35]
• “Schoolmistress, The,” [88-9], [161]
• Scott, John, [123]
• Scott, Sir Walter, [100], [192]
• “Seasons, The” (J. Thomson’s), [37-9], [62-8], [112-6], [142-6], [190], [196], [198]
• Selincourt, B. de, [35 n.], [128 n.]
• Shakespeare, William, [35], [105 n.], [129]
• Shawcross, T. (see “[Biographia Literaria]”).
• Shelley, P. B., [126], [178], [203], [204]
• Shenstone, W., [26], [29], [75], [88-9], [118 n.], [161]
• “Shorter Poems of the Eighteenth Century,” [195 n.]
• Sidney, Sir Philip, [105 n.]
• Skeat, W. W., [43 n.], [97], [98 n.], [102 n.]
• Smart, Christopher, [169 n.]
• Smith, Gregory, [14 n.], [18 n.], [56 n.]
• Somerville, William, [110], [142]
• “Song to David,” [169 n.]
• Spence, Joseph, [12]
• Spenser, Edmund, [80-1], [105 n.], [133], [159-60], [191], [192]
• Spenserian imitations, [18], [84], [86-94], [160-2], [178], [191], [192]
• Spingarn, J. E., [5 n.], [6 n.], [7 n.]
• Sprat, Thomas, [6], [7]
• Stock diction, The, [25-55], [183-7]
• “Stones of Venice, The” (J. Ruskin’s), [180 n.]
• “Storie of William Canynge,” [163]
• “Sugar Cane, The,” [70], [110], [142]
• Sweet, Henry, [102 n.], [103 n.]
• Swift, Jonathan, [139]
• Symbolism, [13], [164], [179], [180]
• Symons, Arthur, [47 n.]
• “Syr Martin,” [93], [125], [162 n.]
• “Table Talk” (S. T. Coleridge’s), [156 n.]
• “Table Talk” (W. Cowper’s), [49], [170]
• Taine, H., [183]
• “Task, The” (W. Cowper’s), [49], [73-4], [170-1]
• Theory of diction, [5-24]
• Thomson, James, [37-9], [62-8], [76], [77], [78], [90-2], [94], [112-6], [131], [142-6], [161], [167], [179], [186], [188]
• “Castle of Indolence,” [90-2], [161]
• Compounds, [112-6], [131]
• Diction generally, [37], [67]
• Latinism, [62-8], [78], [192]
• Miltonic borrowings, [37], [66]
• Nature poet, a, [37], [78], [186]
• Personifications, [142-6], [161], [166], [178-9]
• Romantic forerunner, a, [196]
• “Seasons, The,” [37-9], [62-8], [112-6], [142-6], [190], [195], [196], [198]
• Stock diction, [37-8]
• Thompson, W., [61-2], [85], [89-90], [118 n.]
• “Tintern Abbey, Lines written above,” [131]
• “Traveller, The” (O. Goldsmith’s), [45], [72], [112], [141]
• Trenery, Grace R., [95 n.]
• “Triumph of Isis,” [149 n.]
• Tyrwhitt, Thomas, [86], [98 n.]
• Upton, John, [93 n.]
• “Vacation, The,” [147]
• “Vale Abbey, Lines written at” (T. Warton’s), [149]
• “Valetudinarian, The,” [147]
• “Vanity of Human Wishes,” [73], [111], [140-1], [195]
• “Village, The” (G. Crabbe’s), [167], [168], [195]
• “Vision of Patience” (S. Boyce’s), [162]
• “Vision of Solomon” (W. Whitehead’s), [162]
• Wakefield, Benjamin, [95 n.]
• Waller, Edmund, [15]
• Walpole, Horace, [119], [156 n.]
• “Wanderer, The” (R. Savage’s), [111], [136]
• Ward, A. W., [204 n.]
• Warton, Joseph, [21], [70-1], [121], [134], [148-9]
• Warton, Thomas, [71], [83], [84], [85], [86], [120-1], [149]
• Watson, George, [100 n.]
• Watts, Isaac, [49]
• Welsted, Leonard, [59 n.]
• Wesley, John, [49], [50], [198]
• Wesley, Charles, [49]
• West, Gilbert, [118 n.]
• White, Gilbert (of Selborne), [28]
• White, H. O., [148 n.]
• Whitehead, W., [20 n.], [122], [162]
• Williams, I. O., [195 n.]
• Wilson, Sir James, [100 n.]
• Winchilsea, Anne, Countess of, [61], [109], [187-8]
• “Windsor Forest,” [134]
• Wordsworth, William, [1], [3], [13], [15], [24], [25], [27 n.], [28], [31], [32], [33], [35], [36], [48], [51-3], [67], [68], [77], [79], [97], [115], [132], [175], [182], [185], [187], [189], [192], [193], [197], [201], [204]
• Archaism, [100]
• Compounds, [127]
• Darwin’s (Erasmus) influence, [52-4], [175]
• Latinism, [79], [192]
• Percy’s “Reliques,” on, [97]
• Personifications, [133], [175-6], [178], [180]
• Pope’s style, on, [24]
• “Prefaces,” [1], [53], [132], [182], [197], [204]
• “Prelude, The,” [184-5]
• Wyche, Sir Peter, [7]
• “Yardley Oak” (W. Cowper’s), [131], [172]
• Yeats, W. B., [164 n.]
• Young, Edward, [9 n.], [28], [68-9], [136-8], [151]