The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1893-03-02
- BIC STONE CAP WISE COUNTY, VA. THURSDAY MARC

The difference Between Prose and Poetry.
w. II. AIallock, in the Fortnightly Re-
view forlast June, defines poetry and prose
thus: sProse is the Language men use
when expressing themselves without emo
ton, or with emotion which is slight OF
intermittent; poetry is the language
they use under emotion which is excep-
tional or sustained. Poetry, in short, 10
in its essence tliis:it is the successful rep
resenfation of life, as regarded with sus-
tanned emotion"
Is this corrcc. definition? Let us test
it by the actions of men in actual life.
Does the lover face to face with the OBJ
iect of his love breath his passion for the
first time in poetry or prose! In what
language does the victim of a murderous
assault plead for life with her assailantg
In what form are expressed the wailings
of the mother when her beloved SON is
brought home lifcless corpsg How the
anger of a man who has been called a
"liar" or had his jaws boxedI Did any
one ever hear such emotions expressed IN
poetry? Would not poetry in the first and
last cases be ludicrous in the extreme,
and in the other two, pitiable and an evil
dence of mental alteration? Yet, are
not these all cases of exceptional emo
tion," nay, the most intense emotion!
Now if we follow the lover home, wheth-
er accepted or rejected, We will doubtless
find him shaping his rapturcs or his mis-
cries in verse. But are his emotions now
as intense as while preposingy So the
mother, after her transports of anguish
have passed away, may find relief for her
broken heart by expressing her grief in
rhyme and rythm; but would any one say
her emotion was not rs deep rs when she
first beheld the manglcd remains Of her
beloved?
/ conclude then that the most intense
emotions are never expressed in poetry.
Nor is il difficult to see the reason for
this. Every language has certain word
which will express particular thought or
feeling more APPLY than any other word
So, too, when words are put in sentences,
one certain relative position of the
words will express the thought or
emotion more aptIy than any other
relative position. But poetry requires
tie transpositon of words and often
the selection of other words in or
der to get the rhyme and rythm. In the
nature of things, therefore, one can not ex-
press in poetry, his thoughts CT feelings
SO clearly and forcibly as he Gun in prose.
Again, the ability to transpose and Sc
lect new words so as to produce rhyme is
All art which few possess. With the ma
iority who do, it is acquired only alter
years of practice, and while with some it
seems a gift Of nature, it is nothing more
than faculty inherited from ancestors
who have acquired it by practice. 10
transposc, to select, requires time, and
objective action of the mind. The
expression Of the most intense emotion
is spontaneous, mechanical, instantane-
Gus with the emotion felt There is no
time for the transportation of words nor
the selection Of others, and the mind Is
too busy with the emotion to engage in
the objective process of selection and
transposition. If one takes time to ar
range, transposc or select, it is indisputa-
bic evidncc that his mind is engaged part
lv with the objective consideration of the
effect his expression will have, and not
wholly occupied with the emotion itself,
and. therefore, evidence that the emotion
il not the most intense. And here we see
why laughter from the maiden would
greet the lovers verse of pretended pres
ent emotion. But why would she laugh at
the poem of love written and sent her and
read in the absence Of the writer? five
enquire into this closely think We will
begin to get at the real difference between
prose and poetry. Orally expressed pas
sion, in verse, would, as we have seen,
be more or less pretense, sham, and
would excite derision, as all shams do.
But when one avriteS, whether prose or po-
etrv, he does pretend to be wholly en-
crossed with the emotions he attempts to
express. He is expressing present. emo
ton. produced by remembrance OF past
sensation. Necessarily the mere act of
writing presupposcs recollection, refec-
tions; and, if for one purpose, Why not for
another2 Why not for the purpose of
deciding upon the most beautiful, as well
as the most apt;twords and phrases? AS
there are no pretense that this is not
done, written love verse is not nccesari-
lv Ridiculous.
From these considerations think that
n better definition Of the difference be-
tween prose and poetry would be this:
Prose is the language men use when ex-
pressing themselves without emotion,and
when expressing emotions, whether slight
or intense, which are the direct and inn
mediate results Of sensation and is the
better vehicle for the expression Of exact
thought and definite ideas, whether emo
tioal-or otherwise. Poetry is used only
when expressing secondary emotions
which result from remembrance. of past