In constructing the plot the poet should place the scene before his eyes. Thus more vividness is achieved. Inconsistencies should be avoided. The poet should work out the play with appropriate gestures. He must emotionalize the incidents and his impgination, must identify himself with the characters. So it becomes more convincing as life-like reality. Poetry implies a frenry or madness, lifting himself out of his self. The story, whether his or not, should be sketched in outline first and then episodes filled in and details amplified. Episodes must be relevant to the action. In drama episodes are short. But these give extension to epic. The story of Odysiiy'is brief; the rest is episode.
Epic poetry should have as its subject a single action; whole and completb, with a beginning, a middle and an end. It will thus resemble a living'organism. History presents not a single action but a single period and all that happened within that period without any connection. Here lies the excellence of Homer who never attempted to make the whole war of Troy the subject of his poem. He detaches a single portion and admits episodes. For this reason the Illiad and the Odyssey furnish the subject of one tragedy or two. Tragedy depends on h istrionics, demands gesture.
Therefore, it appeals to an inferior audience. It is lower than the epic. But it produces its effect without action even in reading. Tragedy has all epic qualities. Even the epic metre. It attains its end within narrower limits for its concentrated effect is more pleasurable than the diluted and watery effect of epic' Tragedy produces pleasure proper to it, it is the higher art' attaining its end more PerfectlY'
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