| There may have been a time when, besides the | | | | respect. |
| epic and the two species of poetry Hesiod | | | | It was a long time before the old poetry gave |
| represented, the Greeks had only folk songs with | | | | way to new forms, this event occurring only |
| refrains. Following this mythopoeic, religious, | | | | after all imaginable contents had been poured into |
| seasonal, and festival art, the lyric arose as a | | | | the old forms. Greek poetry grew slowly and |
| spontaneous creation, not like the poetry of | | | | consistently, each order giving way when its |
| Occidental nations that at the very least had Latin | | | | season of fruition was over. No foreign literature, |
| church hymns as models. The elegy may well | | | | no religion with foreign imagery, interrupted this |
| have appeared as a great innovation, even as a | | | | development; hence we shall proceed in |
| kind of debasement. | | | | accordance with the development of the various |
| Modern lyric poetry contrasts most sharply with | | | | forms. |
| the Greek, recognizing hardly any set limits or | | | | A large number of poets enjoyed renown from |
| laws and seeking to escape discipline for pleasure. | | | | the outset, and though their works were topical |
| Greek lyric poetry on the other hand was, by its | | | | and involved in contemporary affairs, their names |
| connection with singing and conviviality, with | | | | endured. Complete collections of their works were |
| dancing and instrumental music, bound to detailed | | | | made early, and it is a misfortune that apart from |
| standards of composition and performance, being | | | | Pindar and the tragedians so little has survived. |
| thereby protected against sublimation into | | | | Later Greeks possessed these works intact and |
| nothingness. | | | | consciously treasured them as significant cultural |
| Our discussion of Greek poetry does not claim to | | | | developments. |
| be a clearly arranged literary survey; we shall deal | | | | Poetry accorded with the life of the individual as |
| with poesy only as a free expression of life and | | | | well as with that of the nation; it was not faced |
| as a cultural force in the nation. The individual | | | | with a division into the educated and the |
| states and social castes took part in many ways, | | | | uneducated, being accessible to every freeborn |
| now here, now there, now stressing this aspect, | | | | Greek. Its original source was the body of myths |
| now that. Beginning with the epic bards, poetry fell | | | | known to rich and poor alike, as were the rites of |
| into all sorts of hands but remained a high art | | | | worship; yet it remained a sublime art. |
| nonetheless, its forms commanding the utmost | | | | |