| Share page | Visit Us On FB |
|
»4 |
ORTHOMETRY. |
||
|
4.—DESCRIPTIVE POETRY.
Description enters into, every kind of poetical composition, but there are some poems almost wholly of that kind. To this class belong Drayton's Polyolhion, Pope's Windsor Forest, Denham's Cooper's Hill, Thomson's Seasons, Goldsmith's Traveller and Deserted Village, &c. Perhaps the choicest speci mens in the language are Milton's L'Allegro and // Penseroso.
Pastoral is a species of descriptive poetry. It consists of descriptions of rural life and scenery, of the simplicity and loves of shepherd swains and village maids. It is rarely attempted by modern poets, perhaps because much of the charm and simplicity of country life has disappeared before the manifold invasions of commercial enterprise. Shenstone's Pastoral Ballad and Allan Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd are typical examples.
5.—DIDACTIC POETRY.
Under this head are included all poems the prime object of which, distinct from the conveyance of pleasure, is to instruct, whether in arts, morals, or philosophy. Tusser's Hundred Points of Good Husbandries Armstrong's Art of Preserving Health, Pope's Essay on Criticism and Essay on Man, Young's Night Thoughts, Blair's Grave, Akenside's Pleasures of the Imagination, and most of Cowper's poems are of this class. The finest didactic poem in English is Wordsworth's Excursion.
Satirical poetry is a species of didactic, as its |
|||