They add also that the Dorian word for 'doing' is dran,
and the Athenian, prattein.
This may suffice as to the number and nature of the various modes of
imitation.
POETICS|4
IV
Poetry in general seems to have sprung from two causes, each of them
lying deep in our nature. First, the instinct of imitation is
implanted in man from childhood, one difference between him and
other animals being that he is the most imitative of living creatures,
and through imitation learns his earliest lessons; and no less
universal is the pleasure felt in things imitated. We have evidence of
this in the facts of experience. Objects which in themselves we view
with pain, we delight to contemplate when reproduced with minute
fidelity: such as the forms of the most ignoble animals and of dead
bodies. The cause of this again is, that to learn gives the
liveliest pleasure, not only to philosophers but to men in general;
whose capacity, however, of learning is more limited. Thus the
reason why men enjoy seeing a likeness is, that in contemplating it
they find themselves learning or inferring, and saying perhaps, 'Ah,
that is he.' For if you happen not to have seen the original, the
pleasure will be due not to the imitation as such, but to the
execution, the coloring, or some such other cause.
Imitation, then, is one instinct of our nature. Next, there is the
instinct for 'harmony' and rhythm, meters being manifestly sections of
rhythm. Persons, therefore, starting with this natural gift
developed by degrees their special aptitudes, till their rude
improvisations gave birth to Poetry.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25