Poetry is most indulged in the infancy
of society when nature is a sealed book, and the uneducated mind fills
creation with all sorts of beings and phantoms. There is then wide scope
for the rude imagination to wander at will through the unknown universe,
and to people it with every description of mythical beings and
superstitious objects. Poetry is most powerful in the infancy of
civilization, and enjoys a license of idea and language which would shock
the taste of more advanced times. The Hindustani poetry as furnished by
Sir William Jones, that of the Persian Hafiz, the early ballads of the
Arabians, Moors and Spaniards, the poems of Ossian, besides the primitive
Saxon ballads, and the triads of Wales, all indicate the extravagant
imagery and rude license of poetry in the early ages of society. The
history of those several nations also attests the magical influence of
their early poetry upon the peoples. We find that Tallifer the Norman
trouvere, who accompanied William to the invasion of England, went before
his hosts at Hastings, reciting the Norman prowess and might, and flung
himself upon the Saxon phalanx where he met his doom.
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