of danger becomes tragic; in other words, while the mere suddenness of transition, the mere baulking our expectations, and turning them suddenly into another channel, seems to give additional liveliness and gaiety to the animal spirits, the instant the change is not only sudden, but threatens serious consequences, or calls up the shape of danger, that instant is our disposition to mirth superseded by terror, and laughter gives place to tears."

Thomas Hood, James and Horace Smith, the "Ingoldsby Legends" (Barham), and Mr. W. M. Thackeray's Ballads, afford ample scope in which to study the various rhythms and methods adopted by the writers of wit and humour.

Having pointed out the various styles that predominate in the poetry of certain writers, the student must observe that they all enter more or less into every class of metrical composition; and it is by a happy blending of all these essential qualifications that anything like eminence can be attained. He will probably lean to some particular one, according to the bent of his own inclination, or the requirements of the subject upon which he proposes to treat; but not the less should they all be carefully studied and considered.

Not less in poetry than in prose writing is perspicuity an essential element; it is that which gives clearness of diction, while the choice of words gives elegance of phraseology. The requirements of poetry will generally determine the length of the sentences; but, as inversion

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of language is frequently resorted to for the sake of a rhyme, it must be used with the greatest care, and very slightly, or obscurity will be sure to result.

As an instance of inversion of language, and the danger arising from it, take the following from the wellknown psalm commencing, "My soul, praise the Lord; speak good of his name:

His chamber-beams lie in the clouds full sure,

Which, as his chariots, are made him to bear;

And there, with much swiftness, his course doth endure,
Upon the wings riding, of winds in the air;

from the ludicrous effect of which even its sacred character does not permit us to escape.

The confusion of the Tenses (by which is meant, in grammar, the distinction of time) is one of the most frequent errors into which young writers are apt to fall. For instance, you may frequently meet with a stanza beginning in the perfect tense, such as

I have loved thee, maiden, dearly,

For thy smiles with bliss were fraught;

and then going off into the imperfect tense, thus:

Yes! I loved her for her beauty,

Never absent from my thought.

:

The reader will say "this is doggerel," and with truth; but it is better to write grammatical doggerel than to sacrifice both sense and grammar.

Here is another verse from a song:

Thou hast sworn my bride to be, love,

And my word to thee is passed;
All my hopes are fixed on thee, love,

You may trust me to the last.

"Thou hast" is in the second person singular of the indicative mood, present tense, of the auxiliary verb "to have." "Thou may'st," being also an auxiliary verb in the same tense, ought to have been used here instead of "you may," which is only used in the plural in this tense. The constant use of the auxiliary verb, as in the lines,—

Therefore my heart all grief defies,

My glory does rejoice;

must be avoided as a vulgarism, not now to be tolerated in elegant verse. In brief, the rules of grammar must be as strictly followed in poetry as in prose; and unless the beginner has mastered his own language, he will have but little chance of succeeding in that of the Muses' and the Graces'.

CHAPTER V.

ON ORNAMENT.

OETRY is ornamented by tropes, imagery, figures, similes, and metaphors. A metaphor

is the application of a word to another use than that its original meaning implies; it is also called in poetry a "figure of speech," or a simile. The use of metaphor is likewise called imagery, since it likens one thing to another which it is not, but with which it will bear a comparison, and thus turn what would be a homely phrase into an apt poetical conceit.

Figurate language is of very ancient date; the most barbarous nations use it, and it seems to be as natural to the untutored savage as it is attainable by the most accomplished linguist. An address of condolence recently sent to Her Majesty the Queen, on the lamented demise of H.R.H. the Prince Consort, by the native New Zealand chiefs, was as full of imagery as many of the finest poems in our language. What better proof that it is grateful to the perceptive faculties of man, since it is not so much the result of civilization, as the carrying out of one of

those grand principles for which language, in its unbounded variety, was given to us.

For an author to say, "I reaped my harvest early in the day," in allusion to his having been rewarded for his efforts early in life, would be for him to use a metaphor; he reaped no harvest in the harvest-field, but no one can mistake the meaning. "I made my money in my early days" would be the plain English of it, and correspond with the sentence in rhythm, but what would become of the poetry?

Metaphors should never be crowded together, as I have before explained; it is difficult for the mind to grasp a number of brilliant objects presented in quick succession.

METAPHOR is founded on comparison: in contradistinction to it is ANTITHESIS, one of the most useful figures in poetry, since it is the contrast or opposition of two objects. Light and shade are always charming in a picture, whether the medium producing it be the pencil or the pen.

As an example of antithesis we cannot improve on that selected in the old familiar volume of our schoolboy days,

Tho' deep, yet clear; tho' gentle, yet not dull;
Strong, without rage; without o'erflowing, full.

APOSTROPHE can be used but seldom in poetry. It is the turning off from the regular course of the subject to address some person or thing, as Oh, death! where is thy sting?" Here is an example from Mrs. Hemans:

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