form. Sentiments are opposed to sentiments, words to words, actions to actions, thus: Faithful are the wounds of a friend: But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. The full soul loatheth a honeycomb; But to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet. - Proverbs xxvii. 8. There is a third kind of parallelism, in which the sentences answer to each other, not by the iteration of the same image or sentiment, or the opposition of their contraries, but merely by the form of construction. lowing is a fine example: The fol The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. - Psalm xix. XLI. POETRY OF RHYME AND BLANK VERSE. 1. Poetry, as Coleridge defined it, is the blossom and the fragrance of all human knowledge, human thoughts, human passions, emotions, language. It differs from prose as much in its form as in its character and purpose. In form it is measured, in character it is imaginative, and in purpose it is emotional. To be sure, we often have poetic prose, and, alas! too frequently, prosy poetry; but the above is characteristic. 2. The earliest attempts at poetry, outside of that of Hebrews, were both rhythmical and rhyming. Much that followed was merely rhythmical. In a loose way, the first may be called the poetry of the passions, and the second the poetry of thought. Not that there is no thought in the one, or passion in the other; but in the first the emotional predominates, and in the second thought controls. In 3. The lyrics and ballads-those composed for song or musical recitation — are rhyming; while much of that devoted to the consideration of noble themes, as the epic and the drama, is in the form known as blank verse. this the measure is preserved, but there is no closing of lines with rhyming syllables or words. But all modern poetry, whether rhyming verse or blank verse, contains a succession of accented or unaccented syllables, true to the scheme decided upon. 4. The following quotations will serve as illustrations of the difference between rhyming verse and blank verse: In the Spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin's breast; His gain is loss; for he that wrongs his friend -FROM TENNYSON'S "SEA DREAMS." XLII. TO A MOUNTAIN DAISY. ROBERT BURNS. BY ROBERT BURNS. He Robert Burns, the greatest poet that Scotland has yet produced, was born January 25, 1759. died July 21, 1796. Burns is generally regarded as by far the greatest peasant-poet who has yet appeared in any country; but his poetry is so remarkable in itself that the circumstances in which it was produced add hardly anything to our admiration. The character of this poetry is like the mind and the nature out of which it sprung, - instinct with passion, but not less so with power of thought, full of light, as well as full of fire. More of matter and meaning will be found in no verses than are found in his. To under stand Burns one must understand the dialect in which all his best poems are written. Fully to comprehend the secret of the abiding and growing hold Burns has on all hearts, it is necessary to know and to appreciate his view of life. Every form of life was dear to him; that of the unconscious daisy, the lowest grade of sentient life in the despised field mouse, or the higher type of conscious, responsible life of his fellow-man, with its hopes and its fears, its joys and its sorrows, each was sacred in his eyes. 1. Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flow'r, For I maun crush amang the stoure Thy slender stem; To spare thee now is past my pow'r, Thou bonnie gem. 2. Alas! it's no thy neebor sweet, Wi' spreckled breast, When upward-springing, blithe, to greet 3. Cauld blew the bitter-biting north Scarce rear'd above the parent earth 4. The flaunting flowers our gardens yield, O' clod or stane, Adorns the histie stibble-field, Unseen, alane. 5. There, in thy scanty mantle clad, In humble guise; But now the share uptears thy bed, And low thou lies! I. Definitions: (1) maun, must; (1) stoure (stoor), dust or earth; (2) spree'kled, speckled; (2) breast, rhymes with "east"; (3) glint'ed, peeped ; (4) bield, shelter; (4) his'tie, dry and rugged ; (4) stāne, stone. II. Note: It will help greatly in the proper reading of the selec tions from Burns to remember that the dialect of Scotland uses the long sounds of the vowels almost exclusively; thus "bonny "is " bōny," "power" is "poor." Note also the abbreviations, as "wi'" for "with"; "o'” for “of "; " 'mang" for "among"; "wa's" for "walls." 66 The Scottish dialect has no silent vowels, hence, where it is not intended to make an extra syllable, the apostrophe is used; thus "flow'r" indicates one syllable, and "rear'd " is one syllable instead of "reared," as it would be without the indicated contraction. This dialect is also peculiarly rich in the abundance of its diminutives, and this gives it especial fitness for ballad poetry, since diminutives are the natural language of the affections, and ballad poetry its form of literary expression. "Mousie" is a diminutive for "mouse," but we have "wee mousie," "wee bit mousie"; so "laddie wee laddie" and "wee bit laddie." XLIII. TO A MOUSE. BY ROBERT BURNS. 1. Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie, Wi' bickering brattle ! I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee, 2. I'm truly sorry man's dominion An' justifies that ill opinion Which makes thee startle At me, thy poor, earth-born companion, 3. I doubt na, whiles, but thou may thieve; |