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The Origin of the Term "Image"Author(s): Ray FrazerSource: ELH, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Jun., 1960), pp. 149-161Published by: Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2871916Accessed: 10-11-2015 19:27 UTC
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THE ORIGIN OF
THE TERM
"
IMAGE"
BY RAY
FRAZER
"
Image
"
is
one of
the
most common-and
ambiguous-terms
in
modern
iterary
riticism.
Brooks
and
Warrendefine
t
as
"
the
representation
npoetry f
any sense
experience."
Another
and-
book
defines
t
as "a mental
picture
evoked
by
the
use
of
metaphors,
imiles
nd
other
figures
f
speech."
In his
new
Art
ofPoetry,Hugh Kennersays that imagesare " what the words
actually name
";
an
image
is
"
a
thing
the
writer
names
and
introduces
ecause its
presence
n
the
piece
of
writing
will
release
and
clarify
meaning."
There
are
thus
at least
three
bases for
definition:
n
image may be
that
which s
sensuous,
r
figurative,
or
particularlymeaningful.
Nor
does
image
have a
syntactic
dimension. t
may
be
a
word,
phrase,
clause,
a
sentence even
a
whole
poem
(e.g., Pound's "In a
Station of
the
Metro").
It maybe a noun, djective, dverb or verb. It maybe a simple
term,
uch as
"
a
dome,"
or t
may be
a
complex
et of
terms, uch
as
"
Life, like a
dome of
many-coloured
lass,/Stains
he
white
radianceof
Eternity."
Yet
the term
originallymeant
no more
than
picture, mitation
or
copy.
Thus
it was in the
Renaissance,
nd when
we
speak of
Spenser's
picturesquemagery or
Donne's
"
powerful
magery
we are
using
a
term
unknown o
them. In
thecritical
vocabulary
of the period-that of classical rhetoric nd logic-therewas a
special term
(Icon)
whichmeant a
pictureof
something,
nd a
general
concept
(Enargia)
which
meant the
process
of making
the
reader eem
to see
something. hese
were
dutifully
mentioned
by
such
derivative
writers
s
Puttenham,
but with
nothing
ike
the
frequencyhat
we
wouldexpect.
The
Renaissance
poet,
whose
1
Understanding
oetry New
York,
1938),
p.
633;
Dan S.
Norton
and
Peters
Rushton,
A
Glossary of
Literary
Terms
(New
York,
1941), p.
32;
Art
of
Poetry
(New
York,
1959), p. 38. Kenneralso speaks of an " unstated mage"-which is presumablywhat
the
words
don't
actually
name.
Ray Frazer
149
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work was characteristically
o full of
imagery,
didn't think
of
himself
s
using any.
What
he did
think n terms f was "
figures
-the techniques
of expression.
As ProfessorRosemond Tuve
has
shown,2
he
fusion f ogicand rhetoricn theRenaissanceprovided complex
and subtletheory
f
poetry
n which he
poet
was
conceived
s a
"maker,"
a
fashioner.
His
tools
were the
Aigures,
he
nearly
numberless
ways
and
fashions
of
molding language.
A
good
poem-that
is to
say,
an
"
artificial
poem-could
be
completely
described
n termsof
figures.
A
poem's
structure
might
be
one
figure;
ts
logical progression nother;
its sentence
structure
another; nd its phrasing,anguage, nd
even
spelling,
tillothers.
Miss Tuve pointsout thatnearlyeverycriticalvalue, including
our
own
originality,
ichness r
tension,
an
be
found
n the
ogical-
rhetorical ystem,but its
chiefvalue
was surely
technical:
the
poet,
the
maker,
was
to
be
praised
for
his
technical
virtuosity.
But
technical
virtuosity
was to
become
suspect
in the later
seventeenth
entury;
artificial was to take on
a
pejorative
meaning; he employment
f
figures
ame
to be
thought
f
as a
sort
of
dishonest ampering
with
the truth.
As
poems
themselves
became essrhetorical,rgumentative,ententious, idactic, o the
terminology
f
criticism
hanged.
The
curiously rgentdemand
for
"
perspicuity"
after
1660,
whether he result
of
the
French
classical influence
n the
court
of
Charles
II,
the new science,
philosophic mpiricism,
he reaction
gainst religious nthusiasm
(or
all of these
together),
expressed tselfchiefly
n
a hostility
towardsrhetoric, owardsfigures,nd
particularly
owards
meta-
phor.
The
proscription
f rhetoric
roscribed he chief
critical
vocabulary
of the
past. Image was one of the termsto
fill the
vacuum.
Modern
suspicion
f
propaganda,profound hough t
may be,
seems
thin
n
comparison
o
the
suspicionof language tself
held
by
the
people
of
the Restoration. n
almostparanoiac rritation,
writer fterwriter
ccusedhis mediumof an inherent uplicity.
Although
acon
early nthe century ad called the studyofwords
rather han things the first istemper f learning," t was
not
until 1660 that
this
attitude was widely shared. By then
even
'Elizabethan and
Metaphysical
magery
(Chicago,1947);
cf.
W. G.
Crane,
Wit and
Rhetoric
n the
Renaissance
(New
York,
1937),
and
Sister
Miriam
Joseph,
hakespeare.
Use
of
the Arts
of
Language (New
York, 1947).
150
The
Origin
f
the
Tern
"
Image
"'
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Jeremy
Taylor
was
converted
to
plainness,
urging
his
fellow
clergymen
o use
only
"
primitive,
nown,
ccustomed
words."
The
famous
passage
in
Sprat's
History
of
the
Royal
Society
calls
for
similar
purity:
"
a
close,
naked,
natural
way
of
speaking."
To Bishop Sprat, the unfortunatetate of the language,with
meaning
so
slippery,
was the
result of the
civil
wars,
Puritan
enthusiasm
nd
the
general
ocial
chaos of the
Interregnum;
t
is
only
"now,
when
mens
minds
are
somewhat
ettled,"
that
the
reformation
an
take
place.
But
if
anguage
tself
was
shifty,
igurative
anguage
was
totally
dishonest,
nd
metaphor
not
be
borne.
Sprat called
metaphor
"
a
trick,"
specious,"
eading
to all
sorts of
"
mists
and
uncer-
tainties."A fewyears ater,SamuelParkerarguedseriously for
all
we
know)
that a
law
which
would
forbid
fulsome nd
lushious
Metaphors
would
cure
"
all our
present
Distempers."
Much
of
the
argument
or
plain
style
n
prose
came
from
hose
who
would
reform
he
methods
of
preaching,
ut
even
the
clergymen
who
were
o
simple
hemselves ad
to
deal
with
the
murky
nd
meta-
phorical
Bible:
how
could
the
unplain
anguage
of
God
be jus-
tified?
By
the
nature
f
His
original
udience,
ccording
o
Robert
Boyle.
In
primitive
imes,whenvocabulariesweresmall, meta-phor was considerablymore
necessary
for
communication,
aid
Boyle;
and then
the
fiery
nd
passionate
nature
of
the
Asiatic
races
is
naturally
nclined
to
"
Dark
and
Involv'd
Sentences,"
"Figurative
and
Parabolical
Discourses,"
and
"
Abrupt
and
Maim'd
"
expression.6
t
would
follow
from
his
view
that
for
an
age
preparing o
be
Augustan,
for
a
people
neither
rimitive,
passionate
nor
Asiatic,
metaphor
was
not
only
an
unseemly
dis-
playof
wit,
but
also
a
sort
of
cultural
egression.
Such antagonismowardsmetaphor nd similar igureswas not
limited
o
prose
nor
to
the
years
mmediately
fter
he
Restora-
tion.
To
Hobbes,
there
were
seven
things
which
make
a
poem
excellent,
nd
the
first
wo
of
these
were
perspicuity
f
language
'Quoted from
Taylor's
Rules
and
Advices
to
the
Clergy
by A.
C. Howell
in
his
excellent
ssay
on
this
subject,
"
Res
et
Verba:
Words
and
Things,"
ELH,
XIII
(1946),
187.
See
also
the
essays
by
R.
F.
Jones
n
The
Seventeenth
entury
(Stanford,
951).
'Part
IX,
Section
xx,
in
Critical
Essays
of
the
Seventeenth
Century,
ed.
J.
E.
Spingarn Oxford, 909), II, 113.'
A
Discourse
of
Ecclesiastical
Politie
(London,
1670),
p.
76.
Some
Considerations
Touching
the
Style
of
the
Holy
Scriptures
(London,
1661),
pp.
30-38,
166.
Ray
Frazer
151
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and
perspicuity
f
style-i. e.,
the avoidance
of
figures.
Davenant
thought
he
figures
f
speech
to be the lowest
evel of
refinement
in
language;
they
should
not
be
used
in
poetry.
Pope's
friend
George
Granville,
o
late
as
1701, expressed
he
same
view:
But
Poetry n Fiction
akes
Delight,
And Mounting
p in Figures ut
of
Sight,
Leaves Truthbehind
n
her audacious
Flight;
Fables and
Metaphors hatalways
ie,
And
rash
Hyperboles,hatsoar
so
high,
And
every
Ornamentf Verse,must
die.7
And
Pope's
own
Peri Bathous
is
primarily
n attack on
the
absurdity
f
far-fetched etaphors.
The
decline
n
the
reputation
ofCowleyand Donne is an index to these attitudes.
The
neo-classic
disinclination
o
be
deceived
and
unwillingness
to
suspend
disbeliefblinded
the
age
to much of the
power
of
Renaissance
poetry
nd
to
all of
the
theory
ehind
t.
Rhetoric,
which at
the
time of
Shakespeare
had included
most
of
the art
of
logic,had been
split by Ramus;
the
Ramistic
rhetorics
which
appeared
n
the
seventeenth entury ealt
only with
elocution
-the
ornamentation nd decoration
of a
previously rganized
expression.Whattheyperceived o be thenature fcontemporary
rhetoric ooks (such as
The
Mysterie of Rhetorique
Unvail'd
[1657])
Restoration eaders
ssumedto be the
nature of
subject
itself. Rhetoric
to them
was a kind of black
art, a
hangover
from
he
scholasticDark Ages, a
systematic
rogramof decep-
tion
whichcovered
honest
"
things with
doubtful
words."
Its
unpopularity as
such thattherewere
virtually o
rhetoric
books
publishedfrom
the
Restorationto the
later
eighteenth
century.
When Blair and
Campbell
did
publishbooks of
rhetoric
theydefined hesubjectas " criticism,"nd themselves s critics.
Blair
was anxious to
dissociate
himself romthe old
fashioned
system f
rhetoric ecause of the many
"
prejudices" against
t
in
his
day:
A
sort of art is
immediately
hought f, that is
ostentatious nd
deceitful;he
minute nd triflingtudy
f words
lone; the pompof
expression;hestudied
allacies f
rhetoric;rnamenttudied
n the
room f
use....8
7
"An
Essay
Upon Unnatural
Flights
n
Poetry," n
Spingarn,
ll,
292-293.
8
Lectures
on
Rhetoric
nd
Belles
Lettres
1762]
(Philadelphia,
1849),
p.
10; this
was
one of
many
nineteenth
entury
eprints.
The
Origin
f
the
Term
"
Image
"'
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Needless
to
say,
"
figures
are handled
rather
gingerly y
these
new critics.
Blair,
for
xample,
s
not
quite
sure
which
re
figures
of
words,
which
of
thoughts;
he calls
the former
tropes."
The
whole lassical
ystem
as somehow aded
out of
knowledge.
Lord
Kames, in his Elementsof
Criticism,
can actuallysay that the
ancients had
no
precise
criterion or
distinguishing
ropes
from
plain
language."'
But
although
t
was
the
hair-splitting
cholastic
distinctions
f
rhetoric
which
annoyed the
eighteenth
entury
writers
Kames
thoughtthem
"trash"),
the
new
analyses
were
just
as
com-
plicated.
Kames finds
wenty-sevenifferent
arieties
f
"
meto-
nymy,"
which
he calls
by
various
names. And
Campbell,
qually
anxiousto simplifyndgeneralize,ndsupwith everalminorypes
of
two
main kinds
f
lassical
"
synechdoche
-good
and
bad. It is
good when
poet
substitutes
he
ess
general
or
he
more
general,
but
"
obstructive
o
vivacity
whenhe
does the
opposite.
What
has
happened s a
change
n
interest
rom
he
writer o
the
reader,
from n
analysis
of
the
technique
f
expression
o
an
analysis of
the
nature f
the
response.
t was
the
processof
substitution
nd
the
typeof
relation
between
erms
which
nterested
he
classical
rhetorician;
othe
eighteenth
entury
ritic
figurative
anguage
(the new, ess preciseterm) is evaluated according o its effect
on
the
reader.
With
such
terms
s
"
figure
and
"
metaphor
misunderstood
or
mistrusted,
here
was
roomfor
new
terminology.
ut
before
new
term
an
come
into
vogue
there
must be
a
particular
need
for
t:
something
ew in
poetry
which
t
can
defineor
a new
way
of
looking at
poetry
which
it can
express.
For
example,
Eliot's
"
objective
orrelative
is a
definition
f
his
new
technique;
our useof" myth is required y a newwayof ooking t poetry.
Like
the
term
"
organic
form,"
which
both
described
Romantic
poetryand
represented
omantic
attitudes,
he
term
"
image
seems
to
have
developed
as
a
resultof
both
causes.
The
epis-
temology f
Hobbes
and the
psychologyf
the
associationists
ed
to a
new
way
of
looking t
poetry.
To
Hobbes,
the
image
was
the
connecting
ink
between
xperience
nd
knowledge-of
funda-
mental
mportance.
And
there
was
something
ew
in
poetry:
the
descriptive nature poetry ftheeighteenthenturys charac-
teristically
ull
of
visual
images,
nd
the
dominant
metaphorical
9 First
published n
1762;
in
the
edition
of
1805,
II,
185.
Ray
Frazer
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mode-personification-is
itself
pictorial.
Inoculation,
in
be-
coming
heavenlymaid,
becomes
n
image.
Hobbes'
sensationalist
heory
brought
the term
image
into
common se
and
magnified
ts
importance
n the creative
process
and the aesthetic xperience.His epistemology,s categorically
set
down
n
the first
nd
second
hapters
f
the
Leviathan, mpha-
sized
the
sense
origin
f
all
knowledge.
Sensations,
he
said,
were
registered
n
themind in
"
images
;
an
object
perceived
aused
an
impression
r
print
which
ould
convey
he
dea of
the
subject
to
the mind.
Hobbes also formulated
he
theory
f the
"
fancy,"
or
magination,
s
a
vast
storehouse
fall
past
sense
mpressions
r
images.
Although
Hobbes,
and later
Locke,
derogated
he
power
ofthe maginationo perceive imilaritiesand hence similes nd
metaphors)
in
favor of
the
discriminating
nd
distinguishing
power of
the
judgment-although,
n
fact,
neither
Hobbes nor
Locke was
much
interested n
poetry-yet
this
new
theory
had
an
important
ffect
pon
literary
riticism.
So
early
as
1664
Dryden
was a
believer
n
the
Hobbesian
idea
of the
creative
process.
He
speaks
of a
play
long before
t
was
a
play;
when
t was
only
a
confused
mass
of
thoughts,umblingverone anothern the dark;whenthe fancy
was
yet
n
ts
first
ork,
moving
he
sleeping
mages
f
things
oward
the
ight, here
o be
distinguished,
nd
then
ither
hosen
r
rejected
by
the
udgment.'
Three
years
later
Dryden
used
Hobbes'
familiar
figure:
"the
faculty f
maginationn
a
writer
. .
like a
nimble
paniel,
beats
over
and
ranges
through
he
field
of
memory,
ill it
springs he
quarry
hunted after."
As
the
eighteenth
entury
progressed,
thespanielwas seento operate nparticularways,connectingne
image
with another
by
contiguityn
time
or space,
by
cause
or
effect,
nd so
on,'2
but
the
principal
conception
remained
the
same:
the
poet's
creative
power
ies
in
his
"
imagination,"
hat s,
in
the
richness
with
which
his
otherwiseblank
mind has
been
covered
by
the
"images
"
of
his
experience.
Although
we
do
learn
bysmell,
aste
and
touch,
ur
primary
ource f
knowledge-
1
n
his
dedication
f
The Rival
Ladies,
Works,
d.
Sir
Walter
Scott
and
rev.
George
Saintsbury Edinburgh, 882-1892), I, 1929-30.
'
"An
Account
of
the
Ensuing
Poem
[Annus
Mirabili],"
Works,
X,
95.
2
For a full
account of
the
associationist
critics, ee
Gordon
McKenzie,
Critical
Responsiveness
Berkeley,
1949).
154
The
Origin
f
the
Term
"image"
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and therefore
he most
powerful
mode of communication-is
visual.
Addison
wrote n the
Spectator 411),
" We cannot ndeed
have a single mage
in
the
fancy
that
did not make its
first
appearance through
he sight."
Addisonwas writing ot about thecreativeprocess,but about
the aesthetic pleasures
of the
imagination."
According
o
the
theoryof the association
of
ideas,
the
appreciation
of
art
was
the
exact
reversal
of
its creation:
the reader's
spaniel
followed
the writer's ack through
he fieldof
memory.
The
poet
would
naturally think
in terms of
images, and
the reader would
as
naturally espond o them.
The
popularity
f the Horatian
tag,
ut
picturapoesi.s,
s an indication f the
ubiquity
of these
deas.
The ReasonwhyDescriptionsmake iveliermpressionsn common
Readers
hanany other
artsof
a
Poem,
s because
they
re
form'd
of deas drawn rom heSenses,
which
s
sometimes
oocall'd
maging,
and
are thus, n a
manner,ike Pictures,made Objects
of
the Sight;
whereasmoral houghts
nd Discourses,onsistingf deas abstracted
from ense,operate lower
nd with ess Vivacity.
So
wroteJohn
Hughes
n
1735.13
So
felt
JohnGildon,
ome
years
before,
whenhe
praised
the
"
perfect icture ofa poet,
"
setting
before heMind an Image," on the grounds hat " the framing
of admirable
mages"
was the main
business of
poetry.1" o it
was
throughouthe
century: o Daniel Webb,
n
1762,
"
the prin-
cipal
Beauties
in
Poetry springfrom he force r elegance of its
Images ";
in
the same
year
Blair wrote hat
"
the
highest xertion
of
genius
is to be found
n
descriptivemagery;
n
1770 William
Duff isted the
power
of magery s one of the fourgreat talents
of the
"
originalGenius."
5
For these ater writers
mageryhad
some of the
complexity
f
meaning which belongs
to it today,
but its primarymeaningwas stillthat of a vivid " picture or
description,
aised
to
higher ignificance y its epistemological
function.
As a critical
erm,
mage,we may say, s thus partly product
of
the
new
way
of
ooking t poetry, he new aesthetics
f sensa-
tionalism.
But it
was also a very necessaryterm
for the new
poetry,
for the
only
new
genre of the neo-classic
period, the
iS
Poems on SeveralOccasions, I, 830.
1'
Complete
Art of
Poetry
(London,
1718), p.
55.
1 Remarks
on the
Beauties
of
Poetry,p.
69;
Lectures,p.
452; Critical
Observations
on . . .
the
Most
Celebrated
Original
Geniuses
n
Poetry,p.
839.
Ray
Frazer
155
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descriptive
oem. Poems
descriptive
f
naturewere
not
unknown
before
he
eighteenth
entury,
ut
they
differed
rom he
later
type
n
intention, one
and structure.
Dear stream dearbank where ftenHave sat and
pleased
my
pensive ye
.
.
.
wrote
Henry
Vaughan
in
"
The
Waterfall,"
but
unlike,
say,
Wordsworth,
e
had
gone
to nature to finda
series
of
intricate
parallels
between he scene
before
him
and the
faith
within. And
Marvell's
"
The
Garden,"
hough
t marks
(as someonehas
said)
a
change
in
the
basic color of
English
poetry,
s still a
logical,
rhetorical
oem,full
of
wit:
"
Two
Paradises twere n
one/To
ive
inParadisealone."The intention fBen Jonson's To Penshurst
is
to flatter
he
residents
f
that
estate;
its
method s
to call on
all
aspects of
beauty,
peace
and
ease
visible at
Penshurst as
rhetorical
testimony"
of
the
virtuesof
the
Sidneys.
Waller's
poem
on
St.
James's Park
has
a similar
ntention
nd
structure:
the
remodelingob done
there
by
Charles I is
argument f
the
similar
reforms
nd
improvements
waiting
the
countryas a
whole.
The
subjects of
descriptive
oems
kept
getting arger (fromgarden to park to the view from
Cooper's
Hill to
the
whole
of
Windsor
Forest)
until, with
Thomson, the
property o
be
described
was
Nature,
and the
owner
to
be
flattered,
od. But
by
his time
the intentions f
the
descriptive
oems
had
changed
as
well.
Poets
were to be
associationists
f
ideas:
they
reflected,
or,
as T.
S. Eliot has
said,
they
"ruminated."
Denham,
in
Cooper's
Hill,
is
halfway
between
the
neatly
structured
rgu-
mentative
poem
of
the
past and the
associational
meditation
f
the future. There is a logical argumentn the poem,but also,
as
Pope
observed,
the
descriptions
f
places
and
images
raised
by
the
poet are
still
tending
o some
hint,
r
leading
nto
ome
reflection
pon
moral
ife
or
political
nstitution,
uch
n the
same
manner
s
the
real
sight f
such scenes nd
prospects
s
apt
to
give
the
mind
composed
urn,
and
incline
t to
thoughts
nd
contemplations
hat
have
a
relation
to
the
object-"
16
Quoted
y
Earl
R.
Wasserman
n
The
Subtler
anguage
Baltimore,
959),
p.
46.
Wassermaninds n
organic
holeness
n
Cooper's
lH
and
in
Windsor
orest,
which
his
"
narrowly
imited
ritical
erminology
kept
Pope
from
eing
ble
to
describe.
156
The
Origin
f
the
Term
Image
"
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In
a
few
years
descriptive
nd reflective
oems
were
tructured
not
by
ogic
ut
by association.
he reaction
gainst
he
Renais-
sance
view
of
art,
against
the
conception
f
the artist
s
a
fashioner
f
elegantly
rtificial
roducts,
s
perhaps
est seen
n
a man ikeYoung,who aid ofhisNightThoughts1742):
As
the
occasion fthis
poem
was
real,
not
fictitious,
o
the
method
pursued
n
t
wasrather
mposed,
y
what
pontaneously
rose n
the
author's ind
n that
ccasion,
hanmeditated
r
designed.
.
As
the
intention
nd
structure f the
descriptive-reflective
poems
hanged, o
did the
use of
magery.
n the
Renaissance,
descriptionsf
natural
bjects
were
lmost
lways
heminor
erms
offigures,llustrationsrexamples:na word,hetoolsof ntel-
lectual r
spiritual
rgument.
Shall
compare
hee
oa
summer's
ay?
How
fresh,
Lord,
ow
weet nd
clean
Are
hy
eturns
v'n
as
the
flowers
n
spring....
Like
unto
hese
nmeasurable
ountains
So is
my
painful
ife....
In suchpoetry,hou nd andGodaremoremportanthan he
summer's
ay,
the
flowers
nd
the
mountains.
Herrick's
ittle
lyric
s
not
about
daffodils,
ut
about
a
memento
mori.
The
Renaissance
oet
s
usually
xplicit,nd
the
relationship
e
sees
between
he
mage
nd
the
dea
is
logically
xplained.
ince
his
time
here
as
been a
gradual
hift
way
from
ogic
and
away
from
xplanation:
twentieth
entury
magist
poem
contains
only
he
mage.
Pre-Romantic
nature
oetry
f
he
ighteenth
centurys
a
step n
themodern irection. hough till xplicit,evengarrulous,henature oet s notmerely sing mageryor
some
ogical
urpose,
ut
celebrating
t-or
celebratingis
own
sensitive
esponse
o
it.
Ut
pictura
oesis
till,
ut
the
picture
his
poetry
esembles
s
not
the
Renaissance
mblem
r
allegorical
painting,
ut
the
andscape.
Young
was
suspicious
f
fictitious
poetry,
f a
structure
hatwas
"
meditated
or
"
designed
; a
corollaryf
his
ttitude
as
suspicionf
unnatural
r
untruthful
imagery.
Thus
Joseph
Warton, n
disparaging
ope,
praised
Thompsonor newandoriginalmageswhich epainted rom
17
Works
(Boston, 1907), p.
S.
Ray FrazeT
157
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nature
tself and
whichweremore
ruthfulhan the
observations
of
"
poets
who have
only copied
from
ach other."
8
The
novelty
nd
freshness
Warton admiredwas that of visual
images,
literal
pictures: what oft
was
seen
but
ne'er so well
described. But if the termimage were to have kept only its
original
imension f
a
picture
of
something,
set of
descriptive
details, t would have
remained
hiefly pplicable
only
to
a
short-
lived genre
of
poetry.
We might till
speak
of
Thomson's
or
of
Wordsworth's
magery
or
even
that of
Spenser
nd
Keats),
but
the
termwouldn'tbe of
much use
in
relation o
Donne or
Eliot.
However,we also mean
figurative
anguage
when
we say
imagery:
metaphors
nd
similes
re
images
to
us.
The figurative
meaning
of image was first mployedby Dryden,who used the termto
describe
Cowley's
metaphorical
ractice;
9it
was
only
very lowly
picked up by other ritics.
Perhaps
it was first
mployed n
lieu
of
figure r
metaphorbecause those
terms were in
bad
odor,
smacking f scholasticism.
ut there
developed
theoretic
ustifi-
cation
of
the
term n
the
early eighteenth
entury:
a
striking
sensitivity o
sense
impressions
ed
critics
to
believe
that all
devices
of
anguage
were
ssentially
escriptive.
As
Joseph
Trapp
put it in 1711:
Poetry
onsistsmore
n
Description,
han
is
generally
magined.
For,
besides
hose
onger
nd set
Descriptions
f
Things,
laces and
Persons, here
re
numberless
thers,
nobserved
y
common
eaders,
contained
n
one
Verse,
ometimesn
one
Word,
o
which
he whole
Beautyofthe
Thought
s
owing; nd
which
wonderfully
ffect s,for
no otherReason
but because
hey
re
Descriptions,
hat s,
mpress
lively mage
of somewhat
pon
the
Mind.
To
this
t is
that meta-
phorical
xpressions,
hen
elected
with
Judgement,we
their
eauty
and their legance; veryMetaphor eing short
escription.20
This
became
the
commonview
during
he
century.There
were
refinements
n
the
theory
s it
became
widespread, uch
as
these
in a later
handbook:
"
allusions
nd
similes
re
descriptionslaced
in an
opposite
point
of
view
.
.
.
and the
hyperbole s often
no
more
than
a
description
arried
beyond
the
bounds of
prob-
"'
Essay
on
the
Genius
and
Writings
f Pope
[1756],
(London, 1806), I,
40.
19
n his
"Apology
forHeroic
Poetry
and
Poetic
License,"
Works,V,
119.
This was
in 1674, two years earlierthan the Hobbes quotation in the OED-and a moreclear
use of the
meaning.
0
Lecture
on
Poetry,
rans.E.
Bowyer
(London,
1742), p.
103.
158
The
Origin
f
the Term
"Image
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ability."1 Since
the term
mage
had
always
been
synonymous
with
description,
t took on this new
meaning
s well. When
Dr.
Johnson
peaks
of
the
"
exhausted
mages
of Milton's
Lycidas,
he
means
not
picturesbut
figures-the
trite
metaphors
of
the
pastoralelegy.
Extension f
the
termfrom
icture
or
description
o
metaphor
was not
after
ll
so
striking
change
n
the
eighteenth
entury,
for he
characteristic
metaphorical
orm
f the
period
was
proso-
popoeia,
personification.
n
The
Seasons,
for
xample,
he
device
is
everywhere.
rom
God on down
through he
Great
Chain,
all
links are
personified
y
Thomson:
abstractions, uch as
Virtue
and
Vice, are given human
form; nanimate
nature s animated
(rivers rage" and clouds " stagger ); and animatenatureis
raised
a
rank
and humanized
chickens,
r
"
feathery
eople,"
are
"
pensive
)
. Thomson
ven
employs device which
has not been
dignified
ith
name,but whichwe
might all
depersonification:
flowers
blush"
or
"
bare their
bosoms,"
but
girlsare
nearly
always
"blooming"; the
spider
s
diabolically
human,but a
fop
is
called
"
a gay
insect."
Critics
were
s fond f
this
type of mage
as were
poets.
Blair
appealed
to
human
nature, n
which,
he
thought, herewas " a wonderful roneness . . to animate all
objects
;
to
Campbell,
personification
ontributed o
"
vivacity
because "it
is
evident hat
things nimate
awaken greater
tten-
tion,
and make a
strongermpression
n the
mind, than
things
senseless."22
The
common ppeal
of
the
personification
asvisual:
instead of
an empty
bstraction
which
had been, at
some
prior
time,
abstracted
from
sense
mpression) ne
found
pleasing
picture
(which
struck
ne
directly n
the
senses).
This
picture-
metaphor
ould bestbe
defined y the
new
term
image."
The verbalmeans by whichmostpersonifications ereaccom-
plished
was that
of a
noun and
an
epithet. The
peculiarfascina-
tion of
eighteenth
enturypoets
for
the
epithet has
puzzled-
and
irritated-posterity.
rofessor
illotsonhas
shown
that the
diction
which
rritated
Wordsworth
the
"
finnyribe
or
"
fuzzy
race
")
has
the
very mportant
lassical
precedent nd can
evoke
a
sense
of the
Great
Chain
of
Being,
n
which
ach
animate ink
is a
race or
tribe;
as he
says,
we
still
use the
diction
"
heavenly
s
John
Newberry ?],
Art
of Poetry
on a New
Plan
(London,
1762), p.
43.
2
Lectures,p.
172;
Philosophy f
Rhetoric
1776]
(Philadelphia,
1818), p.
832.
Ray
Frazer
159
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bodies."
8
Eighteenth
entury
riticsthemselves
nly
note
the
sensuous
ffect
f the well
chosen
pithet,
r its capacity
to
bring
out
the
"
essential
nature
of
the
substantive.
Joseph
Trapp,
forexample,
devotes
many
pages
to
highly
refined
istinctions:
some epithets dd " distinctdeas," someadd " Lightand Orna-
ment," ome
are
"generally
but
not
always
true,"
nd some
may
"always
be used." 4 Eighteenth
entury oetryhas
more
adjec-
tives
and fewer
erbs
than
the
poetry
of the
Renaissance,
s
the
studies
fProfessor
osephine
Miles have
shown;5
of theseadjec-
tives
or
epithets
a
good many
are metaphoric.
Considerable
creative nergy
was spentupon poetry
which eems o the
modern
reader
to be bland
or flat. Perhaps
the reason
for
this s that
a
metaphor eemsmoremetaphoricf t is a verb. Onlyverbmeta-
phors
carry he
sense
in
the fashion
ur new criticism dmires.
On
the
other
hand,
a
personification-noun
nd
epithet
n some
metaphoric
ombination-seems
more ike an
image
than
does a
metaphoric
erb.
We may
trace,
then,
wo of the
modern
meanings
f the
term
imageback
to the
Restoration r eighteenth
entury.There
was,
of
course,
an
etymological
asis
forthe meaning
of picture
or
imitation. xtension
f meaning rom
n appeal
tothe sight
o an
appeal to anyof thesensescomes from hesensationalistheories
of
Hobbes;
to the popularity
of
his
ideas is owing
the
greater
currency
f the term
mage.
Modern use of
the term
n this sense
is relatively
nambiguous,
ut one
occasionally
omes across
the
phrase
"
sensuous
magery,"
s though
there were
other
kinds.
The
figurative
meaning
f
mage,
which
temsfrom he defection
of rhetoricn theearlierperiod,
has provedto be
too general
for
some critical uses.
No one has
wished to
returnto the
more
refined ermsof rhetoric synechdoche,metonymy,atechresis,
allegoria,
nd so
on),
but
many
subtypesof images
have
been
proposed.
The metaphysical
onceit
of Donne has
recently
een
called
a
"
functionalmage,"
radical mage," dissonant
mage,"
and
"
conical
mage."
"Geoffrey illotson,
18th
Century
oetic
Diction,"Essays
and
Studiesof the
English
ssociation,
XV
(1939),
59-80.
Cf.
C.
V. Deane,
Aspects
f
he
18thCentury
Nature
oetry Oxford,935),p.
14.
" Lectures n Poetry, . 69ff. See Edward L. Surtz, . J., "Epithets n Pope's
Messiah,"
Q,
XXVII
(1948),
215.
2"
The
Continuityf
Poetic
Language Berkeleynd Los
Angeles, 951),p. 172.
160
The
Origir
of
the Term
"Image"
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A third ense
of the
term, s
defining
he " real meaning"
of
the
anguageof
the poem,
has no
such
historical
rigin.
Professor
Kenner's assumption
hat
in
99 per
cent of what
one reads
the
words do not
mean
what they say
is
remarkably arallel
to the
ideas of Sprat and his contemporaries, ho also desireda dry,
hardand
natural
anguage,
but his
denomination
f
the other
ne
per
centas
"
images
can be traced
no
furtherack
than
Pound
or Hulme.
Pomona CoUege
Ray
Frazer
161