PREFACE,
The essay here reprinted is the initial one in Leigh Hunt's Imagitiation and Fatuy^ which is among the very best of his prose works. In the Preface to that volume, which was published in 1844, he thus describes his object in writing it : "to furnish such an account, in an Essay, of the nature and requirements of poetry, as may enable readers in general to give an answer on those points to themselves and others!' The whole volume is suggestive, so much so that Ruskin refers to it as an "admirable piece of criticism," and adds that it "ought to be read with care" {Modem Painters^ Vol. III., 'Of Imagination Penetrative'). Still, the opening essay is the only part of the book which bears the character of sustained exposition, the remainder consisting mostly of poetical extracts, with brief introductions and comments ; it is, accordingly the part which is likely to prove most acceptable to students of the theory and art of poetry.
The author is frequently inaccurate in quotation ; as there is no advantage, but rather loss, in pcrpet-
iiating the results of inadvertence, I have endeavored to verify all the passages cited, and to conform them to the reading of the most authoritative editions. In the cases where I have not succeeded, I shall be grateful for information from those who are better read. With reference to the use of italics for emphasis, in which Hunt abounds, I need scarcely say that I have made no change.
As Leigh Hunt gave to the volume from which this essay'is taken the title of Imaginatioji and Fancy, and as he has much to say on these two subjects, it has seemed to me that students might •be glad of the opportunity to consult with ease the principal discussions of these two related faculties, antecedent to the date of Hunt's volume. ^ I have therefore collected in a note near the end of this book the chief passages from Coleridge and Wordsworth bearing upon this subject, together with those from Jean Paul upon which Coleridge is supposed to have built his theory.
Albert S. Cook. Yale University, Feb. 27, 1893.
AN ANSWER TO THE QUESTION
WHAT IS POETRY?
INCLUDING
REMARKS ON- VERSIFICATION
PuKikv, strictly and artistically so called, that is to say, considered not merely as poetic feeling, which is more or less shared by all the world, but as the operation of that feeling, such as we see it in the poet's book, is the u tterance of a) 5 passjim for truth, beauty, and power, embodying and illustrating its conceptions by imagination and fancy, and modulating its language on the principle of variety in uniformity. Its means are whatever the universe contains ; and its ends, 10
ul exaltation. Poetry stands between iuiiu.^ aini convention, keeping alive among us the enjoyment of the external and the spiritual world ; it has constituted the most enduring fame of nations ; and, next to Love and Beauty, which 15 an- its iKircnts. is ihr L'rcalest proof to man of
the pleasure to be found in all things, and of the probable riches of infinitude.
Poetry is a passion,^ because it seeks the deepest impressions; and because it must undergo, 5 in order to convey them.
It is a passion for truth, because without truth the impression would be false or defective.
It is a passion for beauty, because its office is ' to exalt and refine by means of pleasure, and 10 because beauty is nothing but the loveliest iorm of pleasure. ^^—^
It is a passion for power, because power is impression triumphant, whether over the poet, as desired by himself, or over the reader, as affected 15 by the poet.
It embodies and illustrates its impressions by imagination,, or images of the objects of which it treats, and other images brought in to throw light on those objects, in order that it may enjoy and 20 impart the feeling of their truth in its utmost conviction and affluence.
It illustrates them by fancy, which is a lighter
play of imagination, or the feeling of analogy
coming short of seriousness, in order that it may
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