2
The censure upon Carcinos is evidence of this. Amphiaraos was was made to rise from a temple. The poet did not visualize the scene and therefore this escaped his notice, but on the stage it was a failure since the audience objected.The example is obscure. Clearly Carcinus introduced an absurdity which escaped notice until the play was staged. Margoliouth suggests that if Amphiaraus were a god he should come down, and if a mere hero, he sould not have a temple. In The Master of Ballantrae Mrs. Henry cleans a sword by thrusting it up to the hilt in the ground—which is iron-bound by frost. The would be noticed on the stage: a reader may miss the incongruity.
3
The poet should also, as far as possible, complete the effect by using the gestures. For, if their natural powers are equal, those who are actually in the emotions are the most convincing; he who is agitated blusters and the angry man rages with the maximum of conviction.Sir Joshua Reynolds used thus to simulate emotion before a mirror. In his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads Wordsworth says that the Poet will wish to bring his feelings near to those of the persons whose feelings he describes . . . and even confound and identify his own feelings with theirs. See also Burke, On the Sublime and Beautiful,4. 4.
4
And that is why poetry needs either a sympathetic nature or a madman,Genius to madness near allied is the meaning of μανικός as used here. Plato held that the only excuse for a poet was that he couldn’t help it. the former being impressionable and the latter inspired.
5
The stories, whether they are traditional or whether you make them up yourself, should first be sketched in outline and then expanded by putting in episodes.
