51. Hence, then, the higher forms of speech acquire a secondary
strength from association. Having, in actual life, habitually heard
them in connection with vivid mental impressions, and having been
accustomed to meet with them in the most powerful writing, they
come to have in themselves a species of force. The emotions that
have from time to time been produced by the strong thoughts wrapped
up in these forms, are partially aroused by the forms themselves.
They create a certain degree of animation; they induce a preparatory
sympathy, and when the striking ideas looked for are reached, they
are the more vividly realized.
52. The continuous use of these modes of expression that are
alike forcible in themselves and forcible from their associations,
produces the peculiarly impressive species of composition which we
call poetry. Poetry, we shall find, habitually adopts those symbols
of thought, and those methods of using them, which instinct and
analysis agree in choosing as most effective, and becomes poetry
by virtue of doing this.
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