00042--What is the true function of poetry according to Dryden? [Poetry/true function/Dryden's concept of poetry/end of poetry/to delight]

            There has been a grate controversy amongst literary critics, poets and scholars on the true function of poetry ever since Plato down to our own day.  To Plato the function of poetry was to ‘instruct', to Aristotle 'to delight', to Horace both 'to instruct and to delight' and to Longinus 'to transport'.  Considering all these views Dryden was led to conclude that the final end of poetry was 'to delight and transport' rather than to teach and instruct.  Dryden writes:  "Delight is the chief, if not the only end of poetry; instruction can be admitted but in the second place; for poesy only instructs as it delights".  As such a bare imitation of nature cannot be great poetry.  Poetry should imitate only that part of nature which is beautiful and delighting.  The poet is, therefore, not merely an imitator or even a teacher, but a creator, creating a new thing out of life and nature.  But this fancy should not run wild.  To control this fancy the poet must have the restraining power of good sense, judgment and discretion.  Thus the poet presents the images of life and nature more perfect than the real life of man, shorn of all its deformities or faults.  The poet imitates the ideal pattern of life.  The poet is the creator of not the real but of the ideal.