CLASSICAL POETICS other successful innovations such as the introduc- Pushkin, used the form in the 19th c., esp. for trs. tion of blank verse (q.v.). Later attempts to devise The accentual pattern that is produced is close to a strict q. principle for modern langs. (e.g. Robert that of the dol'nik (q.v.), a folk meter which be- Bridges) succeeded only in showing that quantity came important in the 20th c. It. imitations pre- is not a phonological feature which can be trans- sent a somewhat different picture, since the lang. ferred from the Cl. langs. and verseforms are less strictly based on stress. The II. Accentual Imitations. Although modern schol- most influential naturalizer of Cl. versification was arship has for the most part held the view that Lat. Carducci, whose Odi barbare (Barbarian Odes, verse should be read with its normal prose stresses, 1877-89; 2d ed., 1878, with useful preface by for a long time there existed an alternative mode Chiarini) made use of the accentual patterns of of reading in which the ictus of each foot is Cl. meters (when read with their normal prose stressed, thereby converting the Cl. metrical pat- stresses) and ignored the q. patterns. He was thus tern into a kind of accentual verse. This trad, has able to bring Cl. imitations close to the native trad, sometimes encouraged prosodists (e.g. Saintsbury) of It. verse, though at the cost of the Cl. metrical to use the terminology of Cl. prosody (esp. longs schemes themselves. He added a historical study and shorts) in discussing accentual meter. There is to his own experiments in 1881. evidence of this mode of reading in Ren. schools, For a different modern attempt to imitate the and it was firmly entrenched in 19th-c. Eng. and meters of an ancient poetry, this one Germanic, Ger. pedagogy. As a result, the rhythms of these See ALLITERATIVE METERS IN MODERN LAN- accentual equivalents of Cl. meters were familiar GUAGES. See also CLASSICAL PROSODY; HEXAME- to many poets, and it is not surprising that a TER; ITALIAN PROSODY; SAPPHIC. number attempted to use such meters in their own K. Elze, Die englischeHexameter (1867); Lapoesia langs. Two Lat. forms in particular produce dis- barbara neisecoliXVeXVI, ed. G. Carducci (1881); tinctive rhythmic patterns when converted into A. H. Baxter, The Intro, of Cl. Metres into It. Poetry accentual verse: the hexameter and the Sapphic (1901); R. B. McKerrow, "The Use of So-called Cl. (qq.v.); the latter esp. has had a long hist, in Metres in Elizabethan Verse," MLQ (London) 4-5 European lit. The influence of accentual versions (1901); Kastner, ch. 11; G. L. Bickersteth, Intro., of Cl. meters can be seen in many Ren. imitations, Carducci (1913); Omond—valuable survey; P. and one of the most significant features of Cam- Habermann, "Antike Versmasse und Strophenfor- pion's relatively successful experiments is that men im Deutschen," Reallexikon—extensive bibls.; they combine a strict pseudo-q. scansion with an G. D. Willcock, "Passing Pitefull Hexameters," accentual one. In Germany, Opitz argued for an MLR29 (1934); G. L. Hendrickson, "Elizabethan equivalence between length and stress in 1624, Quantitative Hexameters," PQ 28 (1949); A. while in Spain accentual imitations, esp. Sapphics, Burgi, Hist, of the Rus. Hexameter (1954); Beare; A. date from the mid 16th c. However, it was not until Kabell, Metrische Studien II: Antiker Form sich the second half of the 18th c. that experiments ndhernd (1960)—wide-ranging; The Poems of Sir with accentual imitation became common, and in Philip Sidney, ed. W. A. Ringler (1962); W. Bennett, the 19th c. they are legion. The most influential Ger. Verse in Cl. Metres (1963); Elwert, Italienische poet in this movement was F. G. Klopstock, whose (1968); B. A. Park, "The Quantitative Experi- accentual hexameters had a profound effect on ments of the Ren. and After as a Problem in later Ger. versification (see GERMAN POETRY; GER- Comparative Metrics," DAI 29 (1968): 905A; MAN PROSODY) , and whose example was followed Wilkins; D. Attridge, Well-weighed Syllables by numerous Ger. and Eng. poets. Goethe, (1974)—Elizabethan imitations; Die Lehre von der Schiller, A. W. Schlegel, and Holderlin all wrote Nachahmung der antike Versmasse im Deutschen, ed. accentual imitations of Cl. schemes, followed by H.-H. Hellmuth and J. Schroder (1976); H. M. Eduard Morike, Christian Morgenstern, R. A. Brown, "Vers mesures," New Grove 19.G80; Bro- Schroeder, and Rilke, while scholars such as gan; Navarro; Scherr. D.A. Schlegel, Platen, and J. H. Voss attempted a stricter transfer of Cl. metrical principles. Imitations based on Klopstock's principles were CLASSICAL POETICS. introduced into Eng. by William Taylor in the late I. DEFINITION 18th c., followed by Coleridge and Southey. Ten- II. PRE-PLATONIC POETICS AND CRITICISM nyson made attempts to combine the accentual III. PLATO principle with a q. one, while long poems in accen- IV. ARISTOTLE tual hexameters by Longfellow ("Evangeline"), V. HELLENISTIC POETICS Kingsley, and Clough achieved some success. Swin- VI. HORACE burne and Meredith also experimented with ac- VII. RHETORICAL CRITICISM, centual Cl. imitations, as have many 20th-c. poets, GREEK AND ROMAN incl. Pound, MacNeice, and Auden. Rus. accen- VIII. SURVIVAL AND INFLUENCE tual imitations also date from the latter part of the 18th c.; Trediakovsky's hexameters were particu- I. DEFINITION. Cl. p. can be defined in either larly influential, and a number of poets, incl. of two ways: (1) as the aggregate of opinions and - [204 ] - CLASSICAL POETICS doctrines which were put forward concerning po- feud between poetry and philosophy." The objec- etry during Cl. antiquity, i.e. roughly between 750 tors grant that poetry, esp. the epic, is a source of B.C. and A.D. 200; or (2) as that more or less delight and the recognized custodian of truth and coherent body of critical doctrine which is repre- moral values, but insist that she is an unworthy sented chiefly by the Poetics of Aristotle and the custodian. This struggle between philosophy and so-called Ars poetica of Horace, and which gave poetry (q.v.) for the position of teacher to the Gr. rise, during the Ren., to the poetic creed called people is of fundamental importance for the later "Classicism" (q.v.). We shall take up the notion of hist, of Western critical theory. Cl. p. here in the first and broader of the two One way of saving Homer's gods was to take senses, but with particular attention to the origin their quarrels as representing conflicts of natural and devel. of Classicism. elements (earth, air, fire, water) or of social and II. PRE-PLATONIC POETICS AND CRITICISM. So far political principles. This "allegorical interp.," as the Western world is concerned, the very con- which was to have a long hist, (see ALLEGORY), cept of poetics, in fact of literary crit. in general, originally sprang from a scientific motive and went is a Gr. invention. Although it is a commonplace hand in hand with the rise of cosmology and the that crit. follows rather than precedes the making natural sciences. Appearing as early as the end of of lit., in the case of the Greeks the striking thing the 6th c. (Theagenes of Rhegium), it was is not how late the critical impulse was in making adopted by some of the Sophists and later by the its appearance, but how early. Crit. followed close Stoics, though rejected by Plato (Phaedrus). on the heels of poetry, and insisted from the be- Pindar, the aristocratic Theban poet (518-ca. ginning on raising fundamental questions and fun- 445 B.C.), shows an interesting blend of trad, and damental issues. personal attitudes toward poetry. For him poetry Before summarizing this earliest stage of Gr. is both an exacting craft and a thing inspired (see crit., we must point to certain tacit presupposi- particularly his First Olympian and First Pythian). tions which it shared with Gr. poetry itself and The poet's wisdom (sophia) embraces both techni- which underlie the whole later devel. (1) The cal proficiency and insight into truth; his mission is chief subjects of poetry are the actions and lives of to glorify great prowess or achievement ("virtue," mankind (indeed, the Homeric gods, with their arete) and guide his fellow men. Pindar was con- advanced anthropomorphism and their consum- scious of the dubious morality of some of the older ing interest in human beings, confirm rather than tales; his solution was to leave them untold. belie this principle). (2) Poetry is a serious, public In the 5th c., poetry was still, as it had always concern, the cornerstone of education and of civic been, the basis of primary education and an offi- life, and a source, for good or for evil, of insight cial repository of truth. But two potent new forces and knowledge. (3) It is also a delightful thing, came into play at Athens which enhanced and at endowed with a fascination that borders on en- the same time undercut the honor traditionally chantment (Walsh). (4) It is not merely terrestrial paid to poetry. These were the drama and the and utilitarian, but somehow divine, being in- Sophists. Tragedy and comedy (qq.v), with their spired by the gods or the Muses. (5) It is at the vividness of presentation and their semiofficial same time an art (techne), a craft or profession, status, tended to bring every citizen into direct requiring native talent, training, and long prac- contact with lit., making each a potential critic. tice. (6) The poet, though inspired from on high, Moreover, the Old Comedy arrogated to itself the is after all not a priest or a prophet but a secular right to satirize anything, including poetry.