SIMILITUDES IN POETRY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 478, 10 April 1909, Page 9

SIMILITUDES IN POETRY.

In tho hands of:'a master the various figures of speech,..comprised in the, term 'similitudes; gre4§so¥e'rt/ > Their skilful use enables the writer, especially the poet, to, illustrate his.work with.pictures the effectsiof ;whicbV for the '■' time -being at least, are more brilliant .'and'convincing than are possible to ,the' painter, and which, are lasting and renewable according to the sensibility, of the, reader. ...It. s would have been marvellous if these figures had escaped the notice of the Literary. Regulation Department ; and they have not. ' I have beon looking at a. book which I understand to be a standard, authority" on English .composition.. .It. devotes; '23' octavo pages to figures of comparison .alone. ■ I shall content', myself..' with, .one-fifth 'a page leaving the remaining 22 4-5. pages to be studied by ..those 'who list. Thus .saith: -the text:—. .''.'.!''...'...!",:',. ~.;'','..V,.',-'...!" '.t'.'.'.".]';.. "II. \Vhen,; figures, .of ;similaritv arie .'used to give intelligibility,: .'.;-,. "■ " ,'.-. V>. ; ., ', (1) The, rosemblanco shall turn on relevant circumstances; '"'.'■'. (2) The comparison shall.be more intelligible ,',t'o those addressed than' the thing compared... . 11. When employed with, a view to heighten the feelings. . ' . ; ': ' (1) The; ; figure'employed ta'ust be more impressive ; than the original.(2) The' degree of elevation should bo withinf the bounds the hearer, can tolerate,' . V " ,-"'■'.•. No doubt the rules here'quoted, .and those contained in the .22,4-5. pages I have hot quoted, would have been .very good guides to poets who, perpetrated Juvenila and to writers 'of indifferent, verso, of lall ages, yet oven for these they seem somewhat elaborate. Similitudes must bo appropriate, appropriate, and yet again appropriate;.and.if the poet's natural taste does not tell him when' ho fails in this respect, all.the.treatises ever written .will be utterly.valueless.' Tor instance that the figure employed should be. inore impressive than the original (II 1) is generally true, yet. its observance must be governed' by' discretion. A very notable example occurs iii Longfellow:— Forth from curtain of clouds,' from tho tent of purple and scarlet • . '■'.'.■ Issued the sun, -.he great High-priest, in his garments resplendent, • ■ ■ Holiness unto the Lord in letters of gold on his forehead, Eound the hem of his robe the golden bells and pomegranates; Blessing the world'he :came, and the'bars >;f vapour beneath him Gleamed like a grate.of brass, and the sea at his feet was. a layer. . -. The effect hero is altogether admirable, but the regulation is violated on every occasion, and though Longfellow was not a poot of the early nineteenth century, I make no apology for introducing this. illustration from his work. . * ■. There is, however, in the matter of similitudes, which need very special care, a general tendency to laxity.-,; On occasions even the most masterly poets • seem'to' have taken the first imago that occurred to their fervid and used : it''without:- considering whether it was' wholly, appropriate or ..not. In thehands, of these the result was generally striking, often' pleasingj but with the weaker brethren _ frequently,,, grotesque, often offensive.- Evidences of a less pardonable practico can also be found. The writer casually, hits.on a good similitude,-or one he thinks good; it is a pity to let his inspiration lie barren until some fitting opportunity occurs for using it,' so he proceeds to drag it in by the heels. \ I trust I shall hot be accused of want of genorosity'if I select as an example of a sinner of tho first dogrco the over-abused and over-defended Keats. There is no need for laborious search hero. Tho first passage that comes to hand will serve. Immediately after tho initial reflections in "Endymion" on tho endurihgnoss of beauty, which, by tho way, contain about as much truth and sense as tho rest of the poem, come those lines:— For one short hour; no, even as the trees Nor. merely do we. feel these essences That whisper round the temple become soon Dear as the temple's self, so does (sic) tho moon, The>passion poesy, glories infinite. Haunt us till they become a cheering-lien t Until our souls, and bound to us so fast That, whether (here bo shine or gloom o'er- : cast, They must be i-lways with us, or wo die. I take it that the meaning of this passage is that, as the trees round the temple hecomo soon as dear (to tho votaries) as the temjple's self, so does the moon, anions other

shapes of beauty, haunt .us 'until it becomes a cheering light unto our Souls, so fast bound to us that, unless it is''always with us, we die. ; Mooro's disposition rendered him peculiarly liablo to fall into the error of introducing a similitudo by attaching a context to it. Instance :— Alas! how light a cause may move Dissension between hearts that lovo Hearts that the world in vain had tried. And sorrow but more closely tied, . That stood tho storm when waves were rough, let in a sunny hour fall off, Liko ships that have gone down at sea When heaven was all tranquillity. Now,-the wholo point of this-passage is that a light causo may separate old and tried friends. Ships that go down in a calm havo no natural connection with this reflection. No matter! Tho ideas had occurred to Moore, and he was determined to uso both. So he proceeded to tack them together. Tho stitches can bo very plainly seen in lines 5 and 6. Much, however) may bo forgiven to a poet, especially to a young poet. Tho oxuhcrance of his ideas, tho richness of his fancy, tho very consciousness of power may lead him astray. Such excuses, may bo urged in defence of Moore and Keats. It may, however, be observed that, whereas Moore's falso similitude is in a degrco unobjectionable, inasmuch as it sounds sufficiently like sense to attract no particular notice from the casual reader, and a certain amount of scrutiny is necessary to the detection of . tho fault, lieats's is wholly objectionablo, becauso it leads the. most trivial individual to stop and waste his timo trying to turn a farrago of nonsense into sense. Tho stylo of Campbell bears tho impress of the school of his predecessors—tho school of our so-called Augustine ago, tho exact school of Queen Anne—moro markedly than that of any other of tho poets of the Revolution. He is smooth, graceful, intelligible. Also," liko his predecessors, lie has a tendency to elaborate a long series of elegant platitudes in such a manner as to take all interest out of a subject,' 1 however interesting. Hope, under one or other of its various synonvms, is the mainspring of our existence. I question whether anyone has realised this truth more fully,.or has felt more hopeful, after reading "The Pleasures of Hope." Personally, before I como to the end of Part I. I am weighed down by a feeling more akin to despair. What Campbell had to say he usually said .well; tho pity of it is he did not find something better to say. In some of his shorter poems, however, ho preserves his original grace, whilst increasing in power and humanity. Moreover, his work bears evidence of a careful revision that cannot be too closely imitated. As an example, halfway through Lochiol's "Warning" are these lines: — ' ' Then welcome be Cumberland's steed to the shock! ■ . ; Let him dash his proud foam like a wave on the rock., . . . . , and at tho end, with admirable consistency; ; he makes Lochiel revert to the same image' in connection with the same event:— Though my perishing ranks should be strewed in their gore, Like ocean' weeds heaped on the surf-beaten shore. . 'Work like this is as rare as it is excellent. The poetry of Shelley is essentially ethereal; there is little of the earth, earthly, in it; it occupies a unique and unrivalled position in its own sphere. Yet some of his most exquisite, passages are marred by a culpable 'want, of car<h-one hesitates to say want of taste. I will tako two examples from two poems which are admittedly masterpieces. Asia; replying to Panthea, says: . .... 'All love is sweet/ Given or returned. Common as light i* love. And its familiar voice wearies not. ever. '.'■ ' which. is true and beautiful. Then, -.howeyor, ho adds: ' [\ Like the wide heaven, the all-sustaining air, It makes the rtptilo equal to the god. which is hideously untrue. ' Again, in another poem, one of the most perfect images ever created is somewhat' 'similarly, injured:— Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass, Stains the white radiance,of eternity. Admirable, ;and more thaiiradmirablejWi; I-Until-dcath tramples it to fragments. Somewhere-or other I heard this last line rendered: , . . '■ '■ ' Until death.shivers it to atoms. I know not who is responsible for the amendment, ■ but it'is incomparably superior to the original. ' ' ■ •'■ ' The poetry of Byron, in the plenitude of his power, is robust, direct, clear, musical; the pictures aro drawn with extraordinary skill and power. Moreover, he had, with the single and universal exception of Shakespeare,' the art of expressing more in fewer words thaii any other poet. . I havo already shown that one of the regulations—that the figure employed should be moro impressive than the'original—may'- be ..broken "with good effect. : I "shall now endeavour to illustrate from the masterpiece of a master tho danger of violating that rule. I "..'. Most people are familiar with Butler's simile: ■:■■••. And, like a lobster boiled, the morn From black to red began to turn. No exception can be taken to this in its propeiv place—to wit, in a composition like Hudibras. The like imagery used in a serious poem is hardly so successful: 'tv vi it j, , • , Parting dav Dies like the dolphin, whom each pang imbues With a new colour, as it gasps away, lne last still loveliest till—'tis gone—and all is grey. . It would bo. idle-to deny that there is merit m this passage. Yet there is something objectionable in it, and the objectionab o element is duo to the violation of tho rule. . - Here endeth the .first lesson. The second must be read at largo from the poets themselves. In that I have confined myself almost wholly to pointing out the errors of these great men this essay may be deemed invidious. I am not careful to answer. My object has been to submit a few suggestions in outline whereby the merit of a similitude m poetry and even of a poem itself, may be estimated.-Claude Benson, in the "Glasgow