Classic Poem

Simile

A simile's the likeness of a thing
The poet does for illumination bring,
A bright reflection of a brighter mind
In which right judgment and true fancy's joined.
Thus Phoebus in a cloud, his skill to show,
With silver pencil paints his golden bow.

Metaphor

When words we from their genuine sense transfer
To stand for others, let us first take care
That they true likeness and proportion bear.
Hence golden phrases come, and metaphor
By a new stamp makes words to pass for more.

It pleases much when poets do translate
Their terms from living things t' inanimate;
Thus they give life and motion to their strains
By frowning mountains and by smiling plains.

From dead to living all those terms are good
In which there's found a just similitude.
Such metaphors we see give life to life;
Thunder and lightning best illustrate strife.
So from the dead we to the dead translate,
And add more life to things inanimate.

Allegory

Thus we refine the gold 'till by degrees
We run in metaphors whole sentences;
Hence liquid streams of allegory flow,
All of a piece and regularly slow.

Antonomasia

Another name to metaphor we give
When that a proper's made appellative;
Antonomasia's the word; no doubt
He was a Molo that first found it out.

Catachresis

A catachresis next is known to be
A metaphor of mere necessity;
Forced headlong in where other language fails,
So much our passion o'er our sense prevails.
Thus Master Witty on poor scholar dull
Calls him a leaden or a wooden skull.

Metonymia

A metonymia is another kind
Of metaphor by which we often find
That authors make some proper names to stand
For their invention and for their command.
Read Homer, Virgil, Horace, Lucan through;
In them you'll find that what I say is true:
When lovely Ceres makes her autumn smile,
With golden grain rewards the ploughman's toil,
He sits contented and his work surveys,
Forgets his labors for his present ease.

Synecdoche

To this synecdoche is near allied
When by a part the whole is signified;
But care must be, lest we obscure the sense,
Always to choose some part of eminence;
I've lived some autumns, yet I wonder why
Men make a part the whole to signify:
" Some love with rapid wheels to raise
Olympian dust, and gather praise. "

Hyperbole

Hyperbole is an exceeding lie
Made to diminish things or magnify,
Which, by a monstrous falseness, is designed
To bring the truth the nearer to our mind.
It makes a giant wade the deepest sea,
Contracts a pigmy to a litle flea.

Ironia

An irony for raillery's designed;
In this the tongue runs counter to the mind;
The keenest satire can't so sharply bite,
As when we thus compare things opposite:
So when I would the vicious wretch reclaim,
I praise what he has not, his virtue, to his shame.
Thou pretty boy that never mind'st thy book,
'Tis hence thy Master gives the kind rebuke.

Antithesis

Antithesis agrees with this, so far
As we do qual'ties opposite compare;
In the same line a contradiction springs,
But 'tis in epithets and not in things.
Much I conceive, but little can express
How sweet's the turn of this poetic dress.
" Not fierce but awful in his manly page,
Bold is his strength, but sober is his rage. "

Correction

Correction does a wondrous pleasure give,
Whether of thoughts affirmed or negative;
When poets, on condition pleasing more,
Unsay whatever they have said before.
Sweet are their melting strains when soft they sing,
Sweet are their numbers joined with warbling string,
But neither melting strains, nor numbers joined
To string, so much as this engage the mind.

Suspension

Suspension follows next, a grateful stay
That holds the eager mind a while at bay,
Reserves a pleasure which we long to know,
And does at last its latent beauty show.
As evening clouds, pleased at the sun's farewell,
With blushing joy the coming dawn foretell;
As the grey dawn smiles through the dusky gloom
Of summer's night, and shows that Sol's to come
To beautify the skies and bless the day —
Suspension courts us with the like delay.

Change

Judgment pursues when Fancy's on the wing,
Feign would his mistress to sedateness bring,
While she does all his arguments despise,
And from his magisterial precepts flies;
Not faster runs the hare before the hound;
Not faster he pursues her mazing round:
But such enchanting music's in her tongue,
Judgment's convinced she does good sense no wrong,
For though she backward sings her froward lays,
The diff'rent turns she gives deserve new praise.

Action

When in few lines much action is expressed
With lively thoughts, the active soul is pleased;
We love the bounding of a deer much more
Than crawling worm flat-moving on a floor.
Who will not startle when he hears this sound:
" Air blackens, rowls the thunder, groans the ground. "

Of Figures Occasioned by Passion

Passions have language proper to declare
Whether the soul's inclined to peace or war,
Whether soft love sheds poison through the veins,
Aversion cools, or hope low thoughts disdains.
Or joy transports, or loads of grief depress,
Or envy wastes, or fear destroys no less —
All these require a diff'rent air and dress.
Nature alone instructs us best to find
The secret springs and movements of the mind.

Exclamation

First then she teaches to describe our woes,
And pressing grief by exclamation shows.
The tortured slaves, as well as injured chief,
In deep-fetched groans do place their best relief:
" Oh, 'tis vain to beg relief from thee,
Thou black contriver of my misery! "

Prosopopoeia

Prosopopoeia, when the breast is filled
With swelling grief, makes our expressions wild;
Hence we each rock, each grove and stream address
As if they could commis'rate our distress;
Love's pleasing raptures make us do no less.

Aposiopesis

But if great floods of passion higher swell,
We then want words our sentiments to tell.

Asyndeton

When wild surprise or anger makes us speak,
Asyndeton conjunctions does forsake.

Doubting

When we do with ourselves expostulate
For being treated at the basest rate,
By doubts and questions we resolve to try
How to return or bear the injury.

Interrogations

The reader best to questions does attend
When we some thing of moment recommend.
Interrogations first his mind assail;
Such arguments can very seldom fail.

Repetitions

If our expressions from true passions fall,
Most repetitions are emphatical.