CHAPTER XI.

POETIC-PROSE SPEECH.

AN attempt at classification in any department of knowledge finds varieties which belong partly under one recognized species and partly under another. For illustration: Rhetoric has its province, so has Mental Science; but there are many topics which are found upon the border-land between the two. Thus, likewise, classification in the Art of Speech discovers many varieties which fall partly under Poetic, and partly under Prose representation, and lead to a new grouping, which is properly termed Prose-Poetry, or Poetic-Prose Speech.

The sub-topics belonging to this chapter are:

I. Distinction between Poetic-Prose and the Forms of Speech already discussed.

We have seen that pure poetic speech is largely metaphorical. The illustration previously employed, Pilgrim's Progress, has sufficiently established this principle. That is, as Bunyan originally published his work, it was correctly termed an allegory. The Christian is a pilgrim, is that allegory reduced to a metaphor. The Christian is like a pilgrim, is a metaphor converted to a simile.

But the phrase, The pilgrim Christian, belongs to neither of the pure poetic forms of speech; nor is it ordinary prose. It answers in part, and only in part, the conditions of these two great families of speech. It is, for instance, poetic in conception. Should the word pilgrim be followed by a pause, an image will be presented to the mind, at least, of any one who can define the word, or who has seen a pilgrim. When the sentence is completed, then the qualities of that imagined pilgrim are transferred to the Christian. Thus far the speech fulfils two conditions of pure poetry, namely, picture-making and metaphorizing. But the construction of the sentence is not poetic; there is no tendency to measure or rhythm.

Further examination of the illustration before us discloses other distinctions which may be stated thus: Both poetic and prose speech use terms in their ordinary sense; but poetic-prose often uses terms in other than their ordinary sense. In the sentence, The Christian is a pilgrim, there is nothing but plain statement, involving only the ordinary use of words. The pilgrim Christian involves a special use of the word pilgrim. It is made either a compound noun with Christian, or is converted from a noun to an adjective or adjective-noun. Again, pure poetic speech seeks to discover or institute resemblances; but poetic-prose speech may, and often does, utterly disregard resemblances.

In general such speech as abounds with imaginative but unmetred expressions is properly classed

under poetic-prose composition. Mitchel's Astronomical Lectures and Everett's Historical Orations are representative.

II. Classification of Figures belonging to PoeticProse Speech.

1. The use of one noun for another, called Metonymy. Between seventy and eighty varieties of this figure, including their contraries, have already been discovered and specified. A few of the more important are the following:

(1) The name of the cause used for that of the effect; as, "Have you read Longfellow?" See also Luke xvi. 27-31. Detect the figure, and explain why, probably, our Lord employed it.

(2) The name of the effect used for that of the cause. Thus the scientist says, "Nature produces all changes in the physical universe;" he means, of course, the Cause, or the Author of nature. See also Gen. xxxi. 53; 2 Kings iv. 40; Rev. i. 12. (3) The name of a place used for the name of the inhabitant; as, "The songs of Heaven." See likewise, Matt. x. 11-14; Rev. iii. 10.

(4) The name of that which contains, used for what is contained; as, "The kettle boils;" "He smokes his pipe;" "Your purse or your life." See also Luke xx. II, 20.

(5) The voice used for the speaker. See John i. 23; Rev. i. 12.

(6) The name of the instrument used for the one who employs it; as, "In this day bayonets think;"

"The pen is the grand civilizer; "In war the bullet, in peace the ballot rules; " and Isa. xiii. 18. (7) The name of a symbol used for what is symbolized; as, "As the cross advances, the crescent retires." See also 1 Kings xii. 10-14.

(8) The name of one served used for the service rendered. See Phil. i. 21.

(9) The name of a tempter or a leader used for the one tempted or led. See Matt. xvi. 19, 23; xviii. 18.

(10) The name of one class of loved objects applied to another class of loved objects. See Mark iii. 31-35. This is a favorite figure with both Demosthenes and Paul.

(11) The name of the whole put for a part, and the reverse. The importance and frequent use of this variety of metonymy has secured for it the technical name synecdoche. "A maid of seventeen summers was carried to the tomb;" "The snows of seventy winters whitened his head;" Mark xvi. 15; Acts xxiv. 5; Rom. i. 8; 2 Peter iii. 6 (?) (whole for a part); Gen. i. 5, 8; iii. 19; Matt. viii. 8; Acts xxvii. 37 (part for the whole), are illustrations of this figure.

(12) The name of experiences ascribed to God, which properly belong to man, called Anthropopathy. It is a figure usually brought into use when Deity is alluded to in ordinary discourse, in prayer, or in the Scriptures. See 2 Chron. xvi. 9; 2 Sam. xxii. 9 (comp. Ps. xviii. 8); Job x. 8; xi. 8; xiii. 26; Ps. viii. 3; civ. 3; lxxxix. 13; Hab. iii. 5; Rev. xx. 2.

2. The use of an adjective in other than its ordinary sense, properly termed Trope.54

When an adjective is turned from an object to which it naturally belongs, and is applied to another object whose special relations and connections allow such change and application, there results this distinctive type of poetic-prose speech. Of the many varieties enumerated we specify the following:

(1) An adjective describing some person or thing affected, applied to the person or thing producing the effect; and the reverse; as, "Blushing honors;" "Giddy brink;" "A bold discovery;" "A daring wound;" "Merry bells."

(2) An adjective belonging to a subject, applied to some part or parts of that subject; as, “Longing arms;" "Willing feet;" "An impatient hand."

(3) An adjective belonging to an agent, applied to the instrument used by that agent; as, "Coward swords; ""The cannon's deadly rattle." "I have seen a fan so very angry that it would have been dangerous for the absent lover to have come within the wind of it.". Addison.

(4) An adjective belonging to one object, applied to another object, the two having some associated or apparent relation; as, "Fond roof;" "Drooping chair; ""Fearless ship;" "Ripe October;" "The genial sunshine;""The starry Galileo;" "Breezy summit;" "Melancholy darkness."

3. Such a use of the verb as converts an object into a subject. "The smell of the rose is sweet," is pure and correct prose. "The rose smells sweet,"