About This Book
This work presents an accessible study of poetic art, combining critical essays with a selection of poems and translations. The opening section treats poetic imagination and the national spirit, considering imagery, language, the role of myth, folk versus cultivated poetry, and evolving aesthetic ideals across cultures and historical periods. The middle section analyzes poetic content and artistic modes, discussing beauty, the sublime, tragic and comic effects, styles, nature, individuality, social and historical themes, and thought-based verse with attention to authentic mood. The final section surveys outward form and genres — figurative language, sound, epic and narrative forms, lyric and drama — though parts of it remain unfinished. An appended essay on national education and a trove of narrative poems complete the volume.






