344
Notes.
He then declares that
bare representing is not all
To make a poem what we perfect call;
We must be sharp too, and patheticall.
To make a poem what we perfect call;
We must be sharp too, and patheticall.
neque enitn concludere versum
Dixeris esse satis: neque, si quis scribat, uti nos,
Sermoni propiora, putes hunc esse poetam.
Ingenium cui sit, cui mens divinior, atque os
Magna sonaturum, des nominis hujus honorem.
Dixeris esse satis: neque, si quis scribat, uti nos,
Sermoni propiora, putes hunc esse poetam.
Ingenium cui sit, cui mens divinior, atque os
Magna sonaturum, des nominis hujus honorem.
There must be "acer spiritus, ac vis, et verbis et rebus."
He says "he ever scorn'd laborious toyes" (difficiles nugæ) and "toyling witts" Such as Pope describes:
impenitently bold
In sounds, and jingling syllables grown old,
Still run on poets in a raging vein,
Ev'n to the dregs and squeezings of the brain,
Strain out the last dull droppings of their sense,
And rhyme with all the rage of impotence.—Essay on Criticism.
In sounds, and jingling syllables grown old,
Still run on poets in a raging vein,
Ev'n to the dregs and squeezings of the brain,
Strain out the last dull droppings of their sense,
And rhyme with all the rage of impotence.—Essay on Criticism.
In the next letter, he protests, agreeably with the most judicious critics, against the use of sacred subjects in poetry, and equally condemns the trite, threadbare topics of mythology:—
And yet Medea lent me not a moane,
Nor Ariadne yet a single grone,
Nor Niobe a brest, or foot of stone.
Nor Ariadne yet a single grone,
Nor Niobe a brest, or foot of stone.
He concludes by pronouncing, that "to faigne is all in poetry;" which, in fact, is all that is contained in the original meaning of the word poet, ποιητης from ποιειν, a maker, or inventor.
P. 40. l. 16 Methinks your misticall poetick straine, &c.
Boileau and Johnson were of the same opinion.
