Studies in American Literature: A Text-Book for Academies and High Schools (Classic Reprint)

Verse is SO generally employed in poetry that the terms are often confused. They Should be carefully distinguished; for much good verse, like Dr. Holmes' famous One Hoss Shay, has scarcely any elements of poetry, and there is prose, like Ik Marvel's Dream Life, which is essentially poetic. It is not easy to define poetry. It is the kind of writing in which the imagination predominates. It employs metaphor, simile, personification, and other tropes more freely than does prose. Poetry does not argue. It reports the Visions of the seer. It is essentially creative. The poet appeals to the emotions rather than to the understanding. These statements charac terize rather than define, and some of them might be reasonably disputed, but they may serve to help us make the necessary distinction between prose and poetry.

The principal forms of prose and verse had been developed in English Literature before American Literature began to be. American writers imparted qualities of their own to these already established forms. But they have not - except in a few in stances - attempted to change them or to depart from them.

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