the lyre, hence its name. In every language it is the oldest kind of poetry.

The chief divisions of lyric poetry are songs, odes, and

sonnets.

Songs. Songs are lyric poems intended to be sung. They are of great variety, embracing love songs, sentimental songs, war songs, campaign songs, comic songs, convivial songs, patriotic songs, hymns, and psalms. These are so well known that the title in each suggests the character of the song.

Odes.-Odes are lyric poems not intended to be sung, though the name is derived from the Greek word for song. The ode is much more extended than the song, and its versification is more elaborate. Dryden's " Alexander's Feast" is one of the best examples of the ode. In subject the ode has been made, by different poets, to include almost every variety of sentiment-love, patriotism, war, religion, etc.

Of heroic odes, those of Pindar in the Greek are the most noted. In English, Dryden's "Alexander's Feast" holds the first place.

Of moral odes, Collins' "Ode on the Passions" and Gray's "Ode to Eton College" are among the best in English.

Sonnets. Sonnets, though no longer used in song, are properly lyric poetry. The sonnet stanza will be explained hereafter. The sonnet was first cultivated in Italy, where Petrarch made it famous. It was first introduced into the English language during the reign of Henry VIII. by Sir Thomas Wyatt.

The Ballad, which is a species of lyric poetry, records in easy and uniform verse some interesting incident or romantic adventure.

3. ELEGIAC POETRY.

An Elegy is a poem of a mournful character celebrating the virtues of those deceased.

In some cases, as Milton's "Lycidas," it celebrates the virtues of a single individual. In others, as Gray's "Elegy," it is of a more general character.

Note.-The elegy is, by some writers on Rhetoric, classed with lyric poetry.

An Epitaph is a short elegy, usually inscribed on a tombstone or a monument.

4. DRAMATIC POETRY.

Dramatic poetry is that which is written to be acted. It exists in the form known as "plays." The events, instead of being related as in the epic poem, are, by means of dialogue between the various characters, represented as actually taking place.

What are known as the dramatic unities are

1. Unity of Action, which requires that but one leading train of events characterize the play; underplots are admissible only when closely connected with the principal action.

2. Unity of Time, which limits the action to a short period of time, usually a day.

3. Unity of Place, which restricts the action to narrow geographical limits.

Note. The last two of these unities are often disregarded in modern drama.

Division of Dramas.-Dramas are divided into Acts, and these again are subdivided into Scenes. Regular dramas usually consist of five acts, each of which contains a number of scenes, but this division is not always strictly followed.

Kinds of Drama.-The leading kinds of dramatic poetry are Tragedy and Comedy.

Tragedy is usually serious and earnest, and deals with lofty actions. It delineates the strongest passions, and aims to arouse in the spectator emotions of pity or horror. It is usually attended with a fatal catastrophe to the person in whom the spectator is most interested.

Comedy is light and humorous, and is full of ludicrous action and incident. Its aim is not to arouse the stronger emotions, but to amuse. Its plot always has a happy termination, sometimes marriage, but always good-fortune to the hero or heroine of the play.

Dramas are further subdivided into Farces, Burlesques, Operas, Melodramas, Operettas.

A Farce is a short comedy, whose object is simply to excite mirth. It never exceeds three acts, and often consists of only one or two acts.

A Burlesque is a short comedy, the humor of which consists in mixing things high and low; that is, in clothing elevated thoughts in ordinary expressions, or in clothing ordinary thoughts with an artificial dignity.

An Opera is a drama set to music, in which the actors sing the parts of the dialogue instead of speaking it.

A Melodrama is a drama in which some parts are spoken and some sung. It differs from the opera only in having a greater part of the dialogue spoken.

An Operetta is a short opera.

In the opera and the melodrama one of the chief elements is a gorgeous display in the presentation of dress and scenery, which add to the effect.

The Drama has always held a foremost place in poetic composition. Of the Greeks, Æschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles were especially distinguished as dramatic writers; of the French, Racine, Molière, and Corneille; of the Germans, Schiller and Kotzebue; of the Spanish, Lope de Vega and Calderon; and of the English, Shakespeare.

5. PASTORAL POETRY.

Pastoral Poetry is that which deals with the objects of Nature, especially rustic life and scenes. It finds its topics in all that is charming of rural life-green fields, golden harvests, the rich colorings of Nature, glowing sunsets, falling snows, and the like.

An Idyl is a short descriptive pastoral poem, though some poems called by this title, as Tennyson's Idyls of the King, have but little of the character of pastoral poetry.

An Eclogue is a pastoral poem in which shepherds are represented as conversing with one another. The name was given by Virgil to his pastoral poems, and it has been so used ever since.

6. DIDACTIC POETRY.

Didactic Poetry is that which aims chiefly to teach. It aims also to please, but instruction is its chief object. Many didactic poems are, of necessity, dry, and for this reason they have by some been called poems under protest, since they lack one of the most essential elements of poetry.

It is argued, on the other side, that the mere form of the instruction, when placed in verse, carries with it an element of pleasure which could not be conveyed

through the medium of prose, and therefore that didactic verse has its proper place with other kinds of poetry. Didactic poetry has been subdivided as follows:

1. Technical, or such as explains; as Virgil's Georgics, a treatise on agriculture; Horace's Art of Poetry; Pope's Essay on Criticism.

2. Moral, exhorting to a nobler life; as Bryant's Thanatopsis, Pollok's Course of Time.

3. Meditative, illustrating precepts by the beauties of nature or pleasures of the mind; as Thomson's Seasons, Cowper's Task, Campbell's Pleasures of Hope, Akenside's Pleasures of the Imagination, and Rogers' Pleasures of the Memory.

4. Philosophical, proposing theories of life or nature; as Young's Night Thoughts, Pope's Essay on Man, Tupper's Proverbial Philosophy, and Wordsworth's Excursion.

7. SATIRICAL POETRY.

Satirical Poetry is that which is intended to ridicule the vices and follies of mankind. By some critics satirical poetry is held to be a variety of didactic poetry, but it is not so much designed to teach as it is to expose folly and reform the abuses which it attacks.

A Satire is a poem aimed at the weaknesses or follies of men. It is not aimed at individuals, but at faults in general.

A Lampoon is that variety of satire which attacks the individual rather than his faults. It is offensive because it aims not so much to reform as to abuse and annoy.

Of satires, some of the most prominent are Pope's Dunciad, Johnson's Vanity of Human Wishes, Butler's Hudibras, and Byron's English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.