Has Poetry Power to Arouse Pity and Fear?

By JH Sayyar

Mighty lines mean; unrhymed iambic pentameters, which are sometimes, called blank verse. In which each line is divided into five feet; in each feet there are two syllables, in each the second syllable is stressed, So each line has ten syllables and five feet. See the example:

For fall ing to a dev il ish exer cise

And glutt ed now with learn ing gold en gift

So the readers may see that each line has five feet and ten syllables and the second syllable is stressed. A well-known critic has rightly said that Marlowe was the first great poet of English tragedy and also was the creator of English blank verse. But T. S. Eliot said that Marlowe was not the innovator of mighty lines. The Earl of Surrey who for the first time introduced mighty lines in the 16th century when he translated Virgil’s Aenied for the dramatic purpose, Sacville and Norton also used mighty lines in Gorbaduce in 1561, that is considered the first English tragedy.

It is a fact that before Marlowe blank verses were in defective and unnatural shape. Here John Jack says, “ Marlowe was the first who reformed the defective blank verse.” But for the first time an Italian writer used blank verse in his poetry. Therefore Marlowe may not be called the pioneer of blank verse, but the reformer of blank verse. Its credit goes to Sackelle and Norton, the co-authors of Gorbaduce.

In the broader sense blank verse flourished on the literary soil of England by the mighty pen of  Marlowe. So we can say that Marlowe was the first who introduced blank verse to the English writers with an amazing force, varieties of rhyme and rhythm. As we see how Marlowe uses mighty lines in his plays:

“ The stars move still time runs the clock will strike

The devil will come and Faustus must be damned

O, I shall leap to my God, who pulls to down

See, see where Christ’s blood stream in the firmament

One drop would save my soul, half a drop, Oh, my Christ.”

So Marlowe shows a great advancement in using blank verse in his plays and it was Marlowe who freed blank verse from all faults that were prior to Marlowe. As Sanitary says, “ The blank verse prior to Marlowe were like a dried preparation like something waiting for the infusion of blood, the imitation of living breath.” So Marlowe’s blank is a beautiful mixture of old defective elements that were refined to use in the play. Each line of the play gives a clear cut idea of Marlowe’s thinking:

“Was this the face that launched a thousand ships

And burnt the hopeless towers of Illume

Sweet Helen make immortal with a kiss

O, thou art fairer than the evening star.”

These lines show that Marlowe has touched the peak of perfection in using mighty lines in Dr. Faustus along with it he uses dramatic effects in the blank verse to make his thinking and passions clear like a crystal stream. Marlowe infused a new soul into the old blank verse with powerful style and amazing force of mind. He released the old blank verse from boredom and conventionalist. As we see in the these lines;

“o what a world of profit and delight

Of power, of honour, of omnipotence.”

‘ Nothing is so sweet, as magic is to him

Which he prefers, before his chiefest bless.”

“ Be I a devil yet, God may pity me

And God will pity me, if I repent.”

So with Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus blank verse got fame in England. After Marlowe many writers used blank verse in their plays to express confused and dull thoughts in the plays. Among whom Maxwell, Cromwell, Milton, and Addison are most famous and used in their literary works. Milton used it in his famous book Paradise Lost and Paradise Lost and got fame all over the world. Eliot used it in his famous book Waste Land and Land James Thomson used it his descriptive writings. On the other hand Wordsworth used it in his famous book The Prelude.

To sum up, first of all an Italian writer used blank verse in his writings. After this Marlowe introduced it in England and used in his plays as Dr. Faustus. Before Marlowe they were imperfect and Marlowe made them perfect with his mighty pen.

According to Jackson, “Blank verse is the most powerful weapon to express scattered thoughts and confused and bounded feelings in simple words.” Because it releases the pressure of rhyme and rhythm from the writer’s mind while writing something. We can use our ideas in free atmosphere of writing. Shakespeare got fame due to using blank verse in his plays. If Marlowe were alive he got fame  as the greatest poet of blank verse , not becomes Shakespeare.