Down from the clouds upon a ship doth light,
And the whole hulk with scattering foam is white,
And through the sails all tattered and forlorn
Roars the fell blast: the seamen with affright
Shake, and from death a hand-breadth they are borne."[34]

The first quoted passage is indeed not only "embroidery," but mere talk
about shipwrecks, and the terrors of the deep. Homer realizes the
situation by sensory images; he makes the reader see the white foam, and
hear the wind howl through the torn sails, yes, and shake with the
frightened sailors.



3. Plutarch


But judgments like those of the appreciative and discerning author of the
treatise _On the Sublime_ are rare. Plutarch in his essay _On the Reading
of Poets_, is much more representative of late Greek criticism. This essay
is not a treatise on the theory of poetry, but a thoughtful discussion of
the place of poetry in the education of young men. Consequently the
greater part of the essay is devoted to the moral purpose of poetry, and
as such will be treated in the second section of this study. Two points,
however, are of importance to treat here: his theory of poetical
imitation, and his comparison of poetry with painting.

The "imitation" of Plutarch was far narrower than that of Aristotle. To
Plutarch, imitation meant a naturalistic copy of things as they are.
"While poetry is based on imitations ... it does not resign the likeness