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Here the found of the word "Exrayčav admirably expreffes the clanking of armour; as the third: line after this furprisingly imitates the twanging of a bow.

Δεινὴ δὲ κλαγγὴ γένετ' ἀργυρέοιο βιοϊο.

In fhrill-ton'd murmurs fung the twanging bow.

Many beauties of the fame kind are fcattered through Homer, Pindar, and Theocritus, fuch as the βομβευσα μελίσσα, fufurrans apicula; the “δυ ψιθύρισμα, dulcem fufurrum ; and the μελισδέζαι for the fighing of the pine.

The Latin language teems with founds adapted to every fituation, and the English is not deftitute of this fignificant energy. We have the cooing turtle, the fighing reed, the warbling rivulet, the fliding ftream, the whispering breeze, the glance, the gleam, the flash, the bickering flame, the dashing wave, the gufbing fpring, the bowling blaft, the rattling storm, the pattering thower, the crimp earth, the mouldering tower, the twanging bow-ftring, the clanging arms, the clanking chains, the twinkling ftars, the tinkling chords, the trickling drops, the twittering fwallow, the cawing rook, the fcreeching owl; and a thousand other words and epithets wonderfully fuited to the fenfe they imply.

Among the felect paffages of poetry which we fhall infert by way of illuftration, the reader will find inftances of all the different tropes and figures, which the beft authors have adopted in the variety of their poetical works, as well as of the apoftrophe, abrupt tranfition, repetition, and profopopoeia.

In the mean time it will be neceffary ftill farther to analyfe thofe principles, which conftitute the effence of poetical merit; to display thofe delightful

parterres,

parterres, that teem with the faireft flowers of imagination, and diftinguish between the gaudy offfpring of a cold infipid fancy, and the glowing progeny, diffufing fweets, produced and invigorated bythe fun of Genius.

ESSAY XVI.

OF all the implements of Poetry the metaphor is the moft generally and fuccefsfully used, and indeed may be termed the Mufe's caduceus, by the power of which the enchants all nature. The metaphor is a fhorter fimile, or rather a kind of magical coat, by which the fame idea affumes a thousand different appearances. Thus the word plough, which originally belongs to agriculture, being metaphorically used, reprefents the motion of a fhip at fea, and the effects of old age upon the human countenance-Plough'd the bofom of the deep

And Time had plough'd his venerable front.

Almost every verb, noun fubftantive, or term of art in any language, may be in this manner applied to a variety of fubjects with admirable effect; but the danger is in fowing metaphors too thick, so as to diftract the imagination of the reader, and incur the imputation of deferting Nature, in order to hunt after conceits. Every day produces poems of all kinds fo inflated with metaphor, that they may be compared to the gaudy bubbles blown up from a folution of foap. Longinus is of opinion, that a multitude of metaphors is never excufable, except in thofe cafes when the paffions are roufed, and, like a winter torrent, rush down impetuous, fweeping them with

collective

collective force along. He brings an inftance of the following quotation from Demofthenes. "Men, (fays he) profligates, mifcreants, and flatterers, who having feverally preyed upon the bowels of their country, at length betrayed her liberty, firft to Philip, and now again to Alexander; who, placing the chief felicity of life in the indulgence of infamous lufts and appetites, overturned in the duft that freedom and independence, which was the chief aim and end of all our worthy ancestors-*.'

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Ariftotle and Theophraftus feem to think it is rather too bold and hazardous to ufe metaphors fo freely, without interpofing fome mitigating phrase; fuch as, "if I may be allowed the expreffion," or fome equivalent excufe. At the fame time, Longinus finds fault with Plato for hazarding fome metaphors, which indeed appear to be equally affected and extravagant, when he fays, "the government "of a ftate fhould not resemble a bowl of hot fer

menting wine, but a cool and moderate beverage, "chaftifed by the fober deity"-a metaphor that fig nifies nothing more than "mixed or lowered with "water." Demetrius Phalereus juftly obferves, that though a judicious ufe of metaphors wonderfully raises, fublimes, and adorns oratory or elocution; yet they should seem to flow naturally from the fubject; and too great a redundancy of them inflates the difcourfe to a mere rhapfody. The fame observation will hold in poetry; and the more liberal or fparing use of them will depend in a great measure on the nature of the fubject.

**Ανθρωποί, φησι, μιαροί, καὶ ἀλάτορες, καὶ κόλακες, ἠκρωτηριασμένοι τὰς ἑαυλων ἕκαστοι πατρίδας, τὴν ἐλευθερίαν προπεπωκότες, πρότερον Φιλίππω, νῦν δ' Αλεξάνδρῳ, τῇ γαςρὶ μερῶνες καὶ τοῖς αἰσχίσοις τὴν εὐδαιμονίαν, τὴν δ' ἐλευθερίαν, καὶ τὸ μηδένα ἔχειν δεσπότην αὑτῶν, ἃ τοῖς προτέροις, Ἕλλησιν ὄρος τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἦσαν καὶ κανόνες, &c. &c.

Paffion

Paffion itself is very figurative, and often burfts out into metaphors; but in touching the pathos, the poet must be perfectly well acquainted with the emotions of the human foul, and carefully diftinguish between those metaphors, which rife glowing from the heart, and thofe cold conceits, which are ingendered in the fancy. Should one of thefe laft unfortunately intervene, it will be apt to deftroy the whole effect of the moft pathetical incident or fituation. Indeed it requires the most delicate tafte, and a confummate knowledge of propriety, to employ metaphors in fuch a manner, as to avoid what the Antients called the rouxpov, the frigid, or false fublime. Inftances of this kind were frequent even among the correct antients. Sappho herself is blamed for ufing the hyperbole λευκοτέραι χιόνος, wbi ter than fnow. Demetrius is fo nice as to be difgufted. at the fimile of fwift as the wind; though, in fpeaking of a race-horse, we know from experience that this is not even an hyperbole. He would have had more reason to cenfure that kind of metaphor, which Ariftotle ftiles al vipyaav, exhibiting things inanimate as endued with fenfe and reafon; fuch as that of the fharp-pointed arrow eager to take wing among the crowd. “ Ο' ξυβελής καθ' ὅμιλον ἐπιπτέσθαι μevealwv." Not but that in defcriptive poetry this figure is often allowed and admired. The cruel fword, the ruthless dagger, the ruffian blaft, are epithets which frequently occur. The faithful bofom of the earth, the joyous boughs, the trees that admire their images reflected in the ftream, and many other examples of this kind, are found diffeminated through the works of our beft modern poets: yet ftill they must be sheltered under the privilege of the poetica licentia; and, except in poetry, they would give offence.

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VOL. IV.

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More chafte metaphors are freely used in all kinds of writing; more fparingly in Hiftory; and more abundantly in Rhetoric: we have feen that Plato indulges in them even to excefs. The orations of Demofthenes are animated, and even inflamed with metaphors, fome of them fo bold as even to entail upon him the cenfure of the critics. Τίτε τῷ Πυθωνι τῷ ῥήτορι ῥέονλι καθ' ὑμῶν. — then I did not yield to Python the orator, when he overflowed you with a "tide of eloquence." Cicero is ftill more liberal in the use of them; he ranfacks all nature, and pours forth a redundancy of figures, even with a lavish hand. Even the chafte Xenophon, who generally illuftrates his fubject by way of fimile, fometimes ventures to produce an expreffive metaphor, fuch as part of the phalanx fluctuated in the march; and indeed nothing can be more fignificant than this word Exμne, to represent a body of men staggered, and on the point of giving way. Armftrong has used the word fluctuate with admirable efficacy, in his philofophical poem intituled the Art of Preferving Health. O! when the growling winds contend, and all The founding foreft fluctuates in the storm, To fink in warm repofe, and hear the din Howl o'er the steady battlements

The word fluctuate on this occafion not only exhibits an idea of ftruggling, but alfo echoes to the fenfe like the ppter de paxn of Homer; which, by the bye, it is impoffible to render into English: for the verb plow fignifies not only to ftand erect like prickles, as a grove of lances, but also to make a noise like the crashing of armour, the hiffing of javelins, and the fplinters of fpears.

Over and above an excefs of figures, a young author is apt to run into a confufion of mixed metaphors, which leave the fenfe disjointed, and diftract the imagination: Shakspeare himfelf is often guilty

of

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