keeping before the eyes of the latter a constant guide for them to follow in their work. Special attention has been paid to the rules and hints for each kind of verse that the pupil may not be hindered in advancing from one species to another. The rules of prosody are as complete as possible, embracing all the rules and exceptions found in the Latin editions. The vocabulary will be found to contain every word used in the paraphrases of each exercise. This will help the student to avoid the useless loss of time deplored by many in the crowded curriculum of our classical course. The one hundred and twenty exercises have been written to embrace a course of three years in Latin versification. With the exception of the first part,. all have been written by the pupils of one class, thus showing they are within the powers of the average student. With the hope that these exercises may help the student to a further appreciation of the noble masterpieces of English and Latin the present volume is offered to the public. ST. JOSEPH'S COLLEGE, L. T. B., S. J. LATIN VERSIFICATION I. INTRODUCTION POETRY has been defined as the embodiment of realized beauty expressed through the medium of language subjected to fixed laws of harmony. This definition contains the essential elements of poetry. At the same time it excludes the kindred arts of music, painting, and sculpture; for while beauty is the vital principle common to each, yet it is poetry alone that employs language as its mode of expression. Prose, too, is excluded, for its language is not subjected to fixed laws of harmony. The aim of poetry, then, is to portray the beautiful or that quality which appeals to the mind and satisfies the aesthetic faculty. Absolute beauty is found in God alone, but anything that partakes of the nature of that which is found perfect in God is relatively beautiful. And so poetry is one of the means by which man satisfies the instinctive craving of his aesthetic faculty for idealized beauty, which is attained in different degrees in individual poems according to their respective merits. Language is a necessary medium for poetry, and by the written or spoken word this art arouses the imagination, moves the soul, and awakens its best and noblest passions. It has a diction wholly its own which separates it from the field of prose. The latter appeals to the intellect by exposition and argument, expressed in phrases clear, succinct, and effective, while poetry gratifies the emotions of the soul by fanciful imagery and apt adornments, clothed in verses delicate, dignified, and unrivalled. Poetry is subject to fixed laws of harmony. These at first were few, for poetry in the beginning was merely the outpouring of a heart filled with unrestrained emotion. But gradually, as time went on, these effusions became more regular, and then great masters invented, fashioned, and perfected the different rules, bringing forth by their creations exemplars for all time. This definition of poetry brings clearly before our mind two essentials in a poem. For just as in man we have a soul and a body, one vitalizing and the other containing the vital spark, which, when disunited, become one a lifeless form and the other a spirit; so a poem has its two component parts. Each poetic composition must have, express, or portray some thought or picture to the mind, by which there is formed in the imagination an image of beauty. This may be called the soul of the poem. The other element is the exterior form, mechanical, it may be, but none the less necessary, wherein this thought or picture is encased like a jewel within a harmonious and brilliant setting. To breathe the soul into a poem is the more difficult task, for in this lies the art of creative fancy, and because of this "a poet is born, not made." But the application of the fixed laws of |
