Thus the lover delights
to sing--
"Why does azure deck the sky?
'Tis to be like thine eyes of blue."
Poetry has been called "the conflict of the elements of our being," and
it is a mark of genius to leave much to the imagination of the reader.
The higher we soar in poetry and the nearer we approach the sublime, the
more the distance between the intertwined ideas increases. But we are
scarcely conscious of any contradiction or discordance, as there is
always something to resolve and explain it. Thus in "Il Penseroso," when
we read of "the rugged brow of Night," we think of emblematic
representations of Nox, and of the dark contraction of the brow in
frowning. There is no breach of harmony, and we always find in poetry
stepping stones which enable us to pass over difficulties. Often, too,
we are assisted in this direction by the intention or tone of the writer
or speaker.
Athenaeus exhibits well, in a story fictitious or traditional, the
contradictory elements to be found in poetry, and shows how easily
metaphorical language may become ludicrous when interpreted according to
the letter rather than the spirit. He makes Sophocles say to an
Erythraean schoolmaster who wanted to take poetical things literally,
"Then this of Simonides does not please you, I suppose, though it seems
to the Greeks very well spoken--
"The maid sends her voice
From out her purple mouth!"
"Nor the poet speaking of the golden-haired Apollo, for if the painter
had made the hair of the god golden and not black, the painting would be
all the worse.
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