of words. A great part of
the figures, which have been treated of in one of the chapters of Prosody,
are purely poetical. The primary aim of a poet, is, to please and to move;
and, therefore, it is to the imagination, and the passions, that he speaks.
He may also, and he should, have it in his view, to instruct and to reform;
but it is indirectly, and by pleasing and moving, that such a writer
accomplishes this end. The exterior and most obvious distinction of poetry,
is versification: yet there are some forms of verse so loose and familiar,
as to be hardly distinguishable from prose; and there is also a species of
prose, so measured in its cadences, and so much raised in its tone, as to
approach very nearly to poetic numbers.

This double approximation of some poetry to prose, and of some prose to
poetry, not only makes it a matter of acknowledged difficulty to
distinguish, by satisfactory definitions, the two species of composition,
but, in many instances, embarrasses with like difficulty the attempt to
show, by statements and examples, what usages or licenses, found in English
works, are proper to be regarded as peculiarities of poetic diction. It is
purposed here, to enumerate sundry deviations from the common style of
prose; and perhaps all of them, or nearly all, may be justly considered as
pertaining only to poetry.

POETICAL PECULIARITIES.

The following are among the chief peculiarities in which the poets indulge,
and are indulged:--

I. They not unfrequently omit the ARTICLES, for the sake of brevity or
metre; as,

"What dreadful pleasure! there to stand sublime,
Like _shipwreck'd mariner_ on _desert_ coast!"
--_Beattie's Minstrel_, p. 12.

"_Sky lour'd_, and, muttering thunder, some sad drops
Wept at _completing_ of the mortal sin."
--_Milton, P. L._, B. ix, l. 1002.

II. They sometimes abbreviate common NOUNS, after a manner of their own:
as, _amaze_, for _amazement_; _acclaim_, for _acclamation_; _consult_, for
_consultation_; _corse_, for _corpse_; _eve_ or _even_, for _evening_;
_fount_, for _fountain_; _helm_, for _helmet_; _lament_, for _lamentation_;
_morn_, for _morning_; _plaint_, for _complaint_; _targe_, for _target_;
_weal_, for _wealth_.

III. By _enallage_, they use verbal forms substantively, or put verbs for
nouns; perhaps for brevity, as above: thus,

1. "Instant, without _disturb_, they took alarm."
--_P. Lost: Joh. Dict., w. Aware._

2