 | David Daiches - 1979 - 336 pages
...generality: "The business of a poet," said Imlac, is to examine, not the individual, but the species; to remark general properties and large appearances; he does not number the streaks of the tulip, or describe the different shades in the verdure of the forest. He is to exhibit... | |
 | John Calhoun Stephens - Literary Collections - 840 pages
...Johnson's Rasselas (1759): "The business of a poet ... is to examine, not the individual, but the species; to remark general properties and large appearances. He does not number the streaks of the tulip, or describe the different shades in the verdure of the forest: he is to exhibit... | |
 | Kristina Straub - Literary Criticism - 1987 - 260 pages
...of art: " 'The business of a poet,' said Imlac, 'is to examine, not the individual, but the species; to remark general properties and large appearances: he does not number the streaks of the tulip, or describe the different shades in the verdure of the forest' " (R 10.28). At... | |
 | Patrick Deane - Literary Criticism - 1994 - 270 pages
...quotes Imlac in Rasselas: "The business of a poet is to examine, not the individual, but the species; to remark general properties and large appearances; he does not number the streaks of the tulip, or describe the different shades in the verdure of the forest ..." (179) Interestingly,... | |
 | Constance Caroline Relihan - Language Arts & Disciplines - 1994 - 196 pages
...writer: The business of the poet [or prose writer] ... is to examine not the individual but the species; to remark general properties and large appearances: he does not number the streaks of the tulip, or describe the different shades in the verdure of the forest. He is to exhibit... | |
 | John Barrell - Art - 1995 - 384 pages
...before us: The business of a poet, said Imlac, is to examine, not the individual, but the species; to remark general properties and large appearances: he does not number the streaks of the tulip, or describe the different shades in the verdure of a forest. He is to exhibit... | |
 | Marcia R. Pointon - Art and society - 1997 - 468 pages
...in this discourse that the business of the poet is to examine, not the individual, but the species; to remark general properties and large appearances: he does not number the streaks of the tulip, or describe the different shades in the verdure of the forest. He is to exhibit... | |
 | Greg Clingham - Literary Criticism - 1997 - 290 pages
..."The business of a poet," says Imlac, famously, "is to examine, not the individual, but the species; to remark general properties and large appearances: he does not number the streaks of the tulip" (Rasselas, p. 43). While Johnson is not identified with Imlac's ideals of Enlightenment... | |
 | Lawrence Lipking - Biography & Autobiography - 2009 - 396 pages
...particulars. "The business of a poet,' said Imlac, 'is to examine, not the individual, but the species; to remark general properties and large appearances: he does not number the streaks of the tulip.'"29 Whatever the merits of this rule, considered abstractly, the Vanity makes... | |
 | Howard Anderson - Aesthetics - 1967 - 429 pages
...never heeded." "The business of a poet, said Imlac, is to examine, not the individual, but the species; to remark general properties and large appearances: he does not number the streaks of the tulip, or describe the different shades in the verdure of the forest. He is to exhibit... | |
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The business of a poet," said Imlac, "is to examine not the individual but the species, to remark general properties and large appearances; he does not number the streaks of the tulip or describe the different shades in the verdure of the forest. 
