imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothings
A local habitation and a name";

and this again recalls in Holy Writ that clarifying description of the
imaginative power of "seeing the invisible" which is called "faith,"
as being "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen."

These varied sayings concern the elements of poetry, and help to an
apprehension of its scope and power; yet they but partially satisfy
the desire to know what is meant by that familiar word,--which we
constantly use, and use understandingly, while yet the very makers of
poetry find difficulty in telling just what is signified by it.

Let us turn to the dictionary, and see how the matter looks to the
cold-minded definer. Webster gives Poetry as "the art of apprehending
and interpreting ideas by the faculty of the imagination; the art
of idealizing in thought and in expression;" and then, specifically,
"imaginative language or composition, whether expressed rhythmically
or in prose." This seems to come nearer the mark; although, by
admitting poetical prose, the popular idea of poetry is expanded to
include all writing that is infused with the imaginative quality. Thus
is found place for Walt Whitman, who defies all metre, and who yet
lays strong hold upon the reader--despite his whimsicalities--by the
very multiplicity and suggestiveness of his imaginings among real
things.

Perhaps as satisfactory a presentation of the matter as can be
found is in a casual phrase of Stedman's in the Introduction to his
"American Anthology." This true poet and master-critic, in pursuit of
another idea, alludes to poetry as "being _a rhythmical expression of
emotion and ideality_." Here at last we have form, spirit, and theme
combined in one terse utterance. In poetry we look for the musical
metre, the recurrent refrain of rhythm; while that which inspires it
arises from the universal motives which Coleridge names as ministers
to Love,--

"All thoughts, all passions, all delights,
_Whatever stirs_ this mortal frame."

With this view, then, of the vast range of poetical thinking and
feeling--such as most arouse interest in all possible moods of the
reader, and recalling the fact that the aim of the poet is to set
forth his strains in musical measures that allure the attention and
satisfy the sense of perfect expression, it will be of interest to
note a few