The more I read and re-read the works of the great poets,
and the more I study the writings of those who have some
Theory of Poetry to set forth, the more am I convinced that
the question What is Poetry? can be properly answered only if
we make What it does take precedence of How it does it."

J. A. STEWART, The Myths of Plato

IN the previous chapter we have attempted
a brief survey of some of the general æsthetic
questions which arise whenever we consider
the form and meaning of the fine arts. We
must now try to look more narrowly at the
special field of poetry, asking ourselves how
it comes into being, what material it employs,
and how it uses this material to secure those
specific effects which we all agree in calling
"poetical," however widely we may differ
from one another in our analysis of the means
by which the effect is produced.

Let us begin with a truism. It is universally
admitted that poetry, like each of the fine
arts, has a field of its own. To run a sur-
veyor's line accurately around the borders
of this field, determining what belongs to it
rather than to the neighboring arts, is always

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