g. that the man there is
so-and-so; for if one has not seen the thing before, one's pleasure
will not be in the picture as an imitation of it, but will be due to
the execution or colouring or some similar cause. Imitation, then,
being natural to us--as also the sense of harmony and rhythm, the
metres being obviously species of rhythms--it was through their
original aptitude, and by a series of improvements for the most part
gradual on their first efforts, that they created poetry out of their
improvisations.
Poetry, however, soon broke up into two kinds according to the
differences of character in the individual poets; for the graver among
them would represent noble actions, and those of noble personages; and
the meaner sort the actions of the ignoble. The latter class produced
invectives at first, just as others did hymns and panegyrics. We know
of no such poem by any of the pre-Homeric poets, though there were
probably many such writers among them; instances, however, may be
found from Homer downwards, e.g. his _Margites_, and the similar
poems of others. In this poetry of invective its natural fitness
brought an iambic metre into use; hence our present term 'iambic',
because it was the metre of their 'iambs' or invectives against one
another.
Pages:
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36