On turning back to the various specimens
that have been quoted, it will be seen that the direct or inverted
form of sentence predominates in them; and that to a degree quite
inadmissible in prose. And not only in the frequency, but in what
is termed the violence of the inversions, will this distinction be
remarked. In the abundant use of figures, again, we may recognize
the same truth. Metaphors, similes, hyperboles, and personifications,
are the poet's colours, which he has liberty to employ almost without
limit. We characterize as "poetical" the prose which uses these
appliances of language with any frequency, and condemn it as "over
florid" or "affected" long before they occur with the profusion
allowed in verse. Further, let it be remarked that in brevity--the
other requisite of forcible expression which theory points out,
and emotion spontaneously fulfils--poetical phraseology similarly
differs from ordinary phraseology. Imperfect periods are frequent;
elisions are perpetual; and many of the minor words, which would
be deemed essential in prose, are dispensed with.
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