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Learning Unreal Engine Game
Development

A step-by-step guide that paves the way for developing

fantastic games with Unreal Engine 4

Joanna Lee

BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Learning Unreal Engine Game Development

Copyright © 2016 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written
permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in
critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy
of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is
sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt
Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages
caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the
companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals.
However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: February 2016

Production reference: 1240216

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place
35 Livery Street
Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78439-815-6

www.packtpub.com

[ FM-2 ]
 Credits

Author Copy Editor

Joanna Lee Sonia Cheema

Reviewers Project Coordinator

Michele Bertolini Shweta H. Birwatkar
Kyle Langley
Daniel Jonathan Valik Proofreader
Safis Editing

Commissioning Editor
Edward Bowkett Indexer
Tejal Daruwale Soni

Acquisition Editor
Subho Gupta Production Coordinator
Nilesh Mohite

Content Development Editor

Preeti Singh Cover Work
Nilesh Mohite

Technical Editor
Ankita Thakur

[ FM-3 ]
 About the Author

Joanna Lee has more than 8 years of experience in game development. She has
designed and programmed various video games. She first started working with
Unreal's game engine in 2005 and is very excited to be able to author a book about
the newest Unreal Engine 4. She has also worked with many other engines as well as
reviewed books and videos on Cry Engine 4.

I would like to thank my parents and sister for their constant support
in my game development journey and my brother, Jerome, who
first drew me into the world of gaming. I also want to thank all my
ex-colleagues and managers for their patience while teaching me
about developing games and making each work day a pleasure.
Lastly, I would also like to thank the amazing team at Packt
Publishing for guiding me through the publishing process and
making this book possible.

[ FM-4 ]
 About the Reviewers

Michele "Budello" Bertolini always had a passion for videogames, but his way
into the industry had been long and strange. In his youth, he was more interested
in becoming a professional volleyball player despite studying computer science and
computer graphics.

Then, he stopped growing and he only had one choice left.

Michele's education and background are strongly technical due to his master's in
computer engineering degree. Through the course of his career, he's developed
various artistic skills, passing drawing and photography courses. He's also a keen
observer of nature. He thinks of himself as a technical guy with a good taste.

34BigThings is a small indie company based in Turin, Italy. Currently, it's involved
in two titles: Redout, a tribute to old racing monsters, such as F-Zero, WipeOut,
Rollcage, and POD and Hyperdrive Massacre, an 80s inspired multiplayer fragfest for
up to four local players, which is focused on kinesthetic, tactical, and shooting skills.

I'd like to thank all the guys and gals in 34BigThings: first friends,
then coworkers.

Kyle Langley is a self-taught game designer currently working for Vex Studios. He
has also worked with Emotional Robots Inc, Sony Online Entertainment, and High
Moon Studios. He is the author of Learn Programming With Unreal Script, which is
aimed at teaching beginners the concept of object-oriented programming as well as
the initial aspects of programming for the Unreal Development Kit. He was also the
technical reviewer of Source SDK Game Development Essentials, Packt Publishing. You
can find more about him on his website (www.dotvawxgames.com).

[ FM-5 ]
Daniel Jonathan Valik is an industry expert in the areas of Unified/Universal
Communications, IaaS, SaaS, DevOps, Cloud Native Apps, WebRTC, Cloud Voice
and Business Voice, mobile computing, social networking and UC-enabled Contact
Center technologies. Daniel has driven these topics for more than 15 years in the IT
and telecommunication industries, and he has also lived and worked in different
regions, such as Europe, Southeast Asia, and the United States. Daniel is currently
a senior technical product marketing manager for Cloud Native Apps, DevOps
and Cloud Technologies at the VMWare HQ in Palo Alto, California. He was
previously the senior technical product marketing manager for the Skype Developer
Platform and Skype for Business Online at the Skype/Microsoft HQ in Redmond,
Washington, USA. As part of the Skype product team, Daniel drove the positioning
of Skype for Business, Online, Developer Platform, a UC-enabled contact center, and
other emerging technologies. He holds a number of technical certifications, including
Microsoft Certified Trainer; he has a double master's degree (MBA), a master's
degree (MAS) in general business, and additionally holds a degree in international
business management.

[ FM-6 ]
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[ FM-7 ]
 Table of Contents
Preface ix
Chapter 1: An Overview of Unreal Engine 1
What goes into a game? 1
What is a game engine? 2
The history of Unreal Engine 2
Game development 4
Artists 4
Cinematic creators 4
Sound designers 4
Game designers 5
Programmers 5
The components of Unreal Engine 4 5
The sound engine 5
The physics engine 6
The graphics engine 6
Input and the Gameplay framework 7
Light and shadow 7
Post-process effects 8
Artificial intelligence 8
Online and multiplatform capabilities 9
Unreal Engine and its powerful editors 9
Unreal Editor 9
Material Editor 10
The Cascade particle system 10
The Persona skeletal mesh animation 11
Landscape – building large outdoor worlds and foliage 12
Sound Cue Editor 12
Matinee Editor 12
The Blueprint visual scripting system 13
[i]
Table of Contents

Unreal programming 14
Unreal objects 15
A beginner's guide to the Unreal Editor 15
The start menu 15
Project Browser 16
Content Browser 16
Toolbar 17
Viewport 18
Scene Outliner 18
Modes 19
Summary 20
Chapter 2: Creating Your First Level 21
Exploring preconfigured levels 22
Creating a new project 22
Navigating the viewport 24
Views 24
Control keys 25
Creating a level from a new blank map 27
Creating the ground using the BSP Box brush 29
Useful tip – selecting an object easily 33
Useful tip – changing View Mode to aid visuals 34
Adding light to a level 34
Useful tip – positioning objects in a level 36
Adding the sky to a level 37
Adding Player Start 37
Useful tip – rotating objects in a level 39
Viewing a level that's been created 40
Saving a level 41
Configuring a map as a start level 42
Adding material to the ground 42
Adding a wall 44
Duplicating a wall 45
Creating an opening for a door 46
Adding materials to the walls 49
Sealing a room 50
Adding props or a static mesh to the room 51
Adding Lightmass Importance Volume 53
Applying finishing touches to a room 55
Useful tip – using the drag snap grid 56
Summary 58

[ ii ]
 Table of Contents

Chapter 3: Game Objects – More and Move 59

BSP Brush 59
Background 60
Brush type 60
Brush solidity 60
Static Mesh 61
BSP Brush versus Static Mesh 61
Making Static Mesh movable 62
Materials 63
Creating a Material in Unreal 64
Materials versus Textures 65
Texture/UV mapping 66
How to create and use a Texture Map 66
Multitexturing 67
A special form of texture maps – Normal Maps 67
Level of detail 68
Collisions 68
Collision configuration properties 69
Simulation Generates Hit Events 70
Generate Overlap Events 70
Collision Presets 70
Collision Enabled 70
Object Type 70
Collision Responses 70
Collision hulls 71
Interactions 72
Static Mesh creation pipeline 73
Introducing volumes 73
Blocking Volume 73
Camera Blocking Volume 75
Trigger Volume 75
Nav Mesh Bounds Volume 75
Physics Volume 76
Pain Causing Volume 77
Kill Z Volume 78
Level Streaming Volume 78
Cull Distance Volume 79
Audio Volume 80
PostProcess Volume 80
Lightmass Importance Volume 80
Introducing Blueprint 81
Level Blueprint 82
Using the Trigger Volume to turn on/off light 83

[ iii ]
Table of Contents

Using Trigger Volume to toggle light on/off (optional) 94

Summary 96
Chapter 4: Material and Light 97
Materials 97
The Material Editor 98
The rendering system 98
Physical Based Shading Model 98
High Level Shading Language 99
Getting started 99
Creating a simple custom material 99
Creating custom material using simple textures 107
Using custom materials to transform the level 109
Rendering pipeline 110
Shaders 111
APIs – DirectX and OpenGL 115
DirectX 115
DirectX12 115
Lights 118
Configuring a Point Light with more settings 119
Attenuation Radius 120
Intensity 121
Color 122
Adding and configuring a Spot Light 122
Inner cone and outer cone angle 123
Using the IES Profile 123
Downloading IES Light Profiles 124
Importing IES Profiles into the Unreal Engine Editor 124
Using IES Profiles 125
Adding and configuring a Directional Light 126
Example – adding and configuring a Sky light 127
Static, stationary, or movable lights 128
Common light/shadow definitions 129
Static Light 130
Stationary Light 130
Movable Light 130
Exercise – extending your game level (optional) 130
Useful tips 131
Guidelines 131
Summary 138
Chapter 5: Animation and AI 139
What is animation? 140
Understanding how to animate a 3D model 141
Preparing before animation 141

[ iv ]
 Table of Contents

How is animation created? 142

What Unreal Engine 4 offers for animation in games 143
Importing animation from Maya/3ds Max 143
Tutorial – importing the animation pack from Marketplace 143
What can you do with Persona? 145
Tutorial – assigning existing animation to a Pawn 145
Why do we need to blend animations? 147
Tutorial – creating a Blend Animation 148
Tutorial – setting up the Animation Blueprint to use a Blend Animation 151
Artificial intelligence 162
Understanding a Behavior Tree 163
Exercise – designing the logic of a Behavior Tree 164
Example – creating a simple Behavior Tree 164
How to implement a Behavior Tree in Unreal Engine 4 167
Navigation Mesh 167
Tutorial – creating a Navigation Mesh 168
Tutorial – setting up AI logic 169
Creating the Blueprint AIController 170
Creating the Blueprint character 171
Adding and configuring Mesh to a Character Blueprint 171
Linking AIController to the Character Blueprint 174
Adding basic animation 175
Configuring AIController 175
Adjusting movement speed 177
Creating the BlackBoardData 178
Creating a Behavior Tree 179
Creating a simple BT using a Wait task 180
Using the Behavior Tree 182
Creating a custom task for the Behavior Tree 182
Using the PickTargetLocation custom task in BT 185
Replacing the Wait task with Move To 186
Implementing AI in games 187
Summary 187
Chapter 6: A Particle System and Sound 189
What is a particle system? 189
Exploring an existing particle system 190
The main components of a particle system 191
Modules 191
The design principles of a particle system 192
Research 192
The iterative creative process 193
Example – creating a fireplace particle system 193
Crafting P_Fireplace 197
Observing the solo emitters of the system 197

[v]
Table of Contents

Deleting non-essential emitters 197

Focusing on editing the Flame emitter 198
Looking at the complete particle system 198
Sound and music 199
How do we produce sound and music for games? 199
Audio quality 200
How are sounds recorded? 200
The Unreal audio system 201
Getting audio into Unreal 201
The audio format 201
The sampling rate 201
Bit depth 202
Supported sound channels 202
Unreal sound formats and terminologies 204
The Sound Cue Editor 204
How to open the Sound Cue Editor 204
Exercise – importing a sound into the Unreal Editor 206
Exercise – adding custom sounds to a level 209
Configuring the Sound Cue Editor 212
Summary 213
Chapter 7: Terrain and Cinematics 215
Introducing terrain manipulation 215
Exercise – creating hills using the Landscape tool 216
Landscape creation options 223
Multiple landscapes 224
Using custom material 224
Importing height maps and layers 224
Scale 224
The number of components 224
Section Size 225
Introducing cinematics 225
Why do we need cut scenes? 226
Cinematic techniques 227
Adjusted camera functions 227
Zoom 227
Field of view 227
Depth of field 228
Camera movement 229
Tilt 230
Pan 230
Dolly/track/truck 231
Pedestal 232

[ vi ]
 Table of Contents

Capturing a scene 232

Lighting 232
Framing 232
Shot plan 233
Getting familiar with the Unreal Matinee Editor 234
Exercise – creating a simple matinee sequence 234
Summary 241
Index 243

[ vii ]
 Chapter 1

Input and the Gameplay framework

Unreal Engine consists of an input system that converts key and button presses by
the player into actions performed by the in-game character. This input system can be
configured through the Gameplay framework. The Gameplay framework contains
the functionality to track game progress and control the rules of the game. Heads-
up displays (HUDs)/user interfaces (UIs) are part of the Gameplay framework to
provide feedback to the player during the course of the game. Gameplay classes
such as GameMode, GameState, and PlayerState set the rules and control the state
of the game. The in-game characters are controlled either by players (using the
PlayerController class) or AI (using AIController class). In-game characters,
whether controlled by the player or AI, are part of a base class known as the Pawn
class. The Character class is a subset of the Pawn class, which is specifically made for
vertically-oriented player representation, for example, a human.

With the Unreal Gameplay framework and controllers in place, it allows for full
customization of the player's behavior and flexibility, as shown in the following figure:

Light and shadow

Light is a powerful tool in game creation. It can be used in many ways, such as to
create the mood of a scene or focus a player's attention on objects in the game. Unreal
Engine 4 provides a set of basic lights that could be easily placed in your game level.
They are Directional Light, Point Light, Spot Light, and Sky Light.

[7]
An Overview of Unreal Engine

Directional Light emits beams of parallel lights, Point Light emits light like a light
bulb (from a single point radially outward in all directions), Spot Light emits light in
a conical shape outwards, and Sky Light mimics light from the sky downwards on
the objects in the level:

The effective design of light also creates realistic shadows for your game. By
choosing the types of light in the level, you can affect both the mood and time it takes
to render the scene, which in turns affect the frames per second of your game. In the
game world, you can have two types of shadows: static and dynamic. Static shadows
can be prebaked into the scene and, which makes them quick to render. Dynamic
shadows are changed during runtime and are more expensive to render. We will
learn more about lights and shadows in Chapter 4, Light and Environment Control.

Post-process effects
Post-process effects are effects that are added at the end to improve the quality of the
scene. Unreal Engine 4 provides a very good selection of post-process effects, which
you can add to your level to accentuate the overall scene.

It offers full scene high dynamic range rendering (HDRR). This allows objects that
are bright to be very bright and dark to be very dark, but we are still able to see
details in them. (This is NVDIA's motivation for HDR rendering.)

UE4 post-process effects include Anti-Aliasing using Temporal Anti-Aliasing

(TXAA), Bloom, Color Grading, Depth of Field, Eye Adaptation, Lens Flare, Post
Process Materials, Scene Fringe, Screen Space Reflection, and Vignette. Although
a game is often designed with the post-process effects in mind, users are normally
given the option to turn them off, if desired. This is because they often consume
reasonable amount of additional resources in return for better visuals.

Artificial intelligence
If you are totally new to the concept of artificial intelligence (AI), it can be thought
of as intelligence created by humans to mimic real life. Humans created AI to give
objects a brain, the ability to think, and make decisions on their own.

[8]
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Lectures on
English poets
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the
laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.

Title: Lectures on English poets

Author: James Russell Lowell

Release date: December 5, 2023 [eBook #72324]

Language: English

Original publication: Cleveland: The Rowfant Club, 1897

Credits: Charlene Taylor and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file
was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LECTURES

ON ENGLISH POETS ***
Two hundred and twenty-four copies printed in the month of March,
1897.

This is No.
 LECTURES
ON
ENGLISH POETS
BY
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

“—CALL UP HIM WHO LEFT HALF-TOLD

THE STORY OF CAMBUSCAN BOLD.”

CLEVELAND
THE ROWFANT CLUB
MDCCCXCVII
 Copyright, 1897,
By The Rowfant Club.
 CONTENTS
PAGE
Introduction, vii
Lecture I, Definitions, 3
Lecture II, Piers Ploughman’s Vision, 23
Lecture III, The Metrical Romances, 39
Lecture IV, The Ballads, 59
Lecture V, Chaucer, 79
Lecture VI, Spenser, 97
Lecture VII, Milton, 117
Lecture VIII, Butler, 135
Lecture IX, Pope, 149
Lecture X, Poetic Diction, 167
Lecture XI, Wordsworth, 183
Lecture XII, The Function of the Poet, 199
 INTRODUCTION
WHILST midway in his thirty-fifth year Lowell was appointed to
deliver a course of lectures before the Institute founded by a relative,
and bearing the family name. He was then known as the author of
two volumes of poems besides the biting “Fable for Critics” and the
tender “Vision of Sir Launfal,” and the nimbus was still brightly
shining around the head of him who had created the tuneful “Hosea
Biglow” and the erudite “Parson Wilbur.” It was not the accident of
relationship that procured this appointment; he had fairly earned the
honor by his scholarly acquirements and poetly achievements.

When the twelfth and last lecture had been delivered, the
correspondent of the “New York Evening Post” wrote:

“Mr. Lowell has completed his course of lectures on English

Poetry, which have been attended throughout by crowded
audiences of the highest intelligence. The verdict of his
hearers has been a unanimous one of approval and delight.
Certainly no course of literary lectures has ever been
delivered here so overflowing with vigorous, serious thought,
with sound criticism, noble, manly sentiments, and genuine
poetry. Mr. Lowell is a poet, and how could a true poet speak
otherwise?

“His appointment to the Professorship of Belles Lettres in

Harvard College, made vacant by the resignation of
Longfellow, is the very best that could have been made, and
gives high satisfaction. It is such names that are a tower of
strength and a crown of glory to our Alma Mater. Everett,
Sparks, Ticknor, Longfellow, Agassiz, Peirce, are known in
their respective departments wherever science and polite
letters have a foothold, and the nomination of James Russell
 Lowell as the associate and successor of such men is the
most ‘fit to be made.’”

A quarter of a century after their delivery, one who heard them bore
this testimony: “The lectures made a deep impression upon
cultivated auditors, and full reports of them were printed in the
Boston ‘Advertiser.’ Their success was due to their intrinsic merits.
The popular lecturer is often led to imitate the vehement action of the
stump-speaker and the drollery of the comedian by turns. Mr.
Lowell’s pronunciation is clear and precise, and the modulations of
his voice unstudied and agreeable, but he seldom if ever raised a
hand for gesticulation, and his voice was kept in its natural compass.
He read like one who had something of importance to utter, and the
just emphasis was felt in the penetrating tone. There were no
oratorical climaxes, and no pitfalls set for applause. But the weighty
thoughts, the earnest feeling, and the brilliant poetical images gave
to every discourse an indescribable charm. The younger portion of
the audience, especially, enjoyed a feast for which all the study of
their lives had been a preparation.”

The same auditor, writing after Lowell’s death, mentions them again:
“In 1854 [it was really 1855] Lowell delivered a course of twelve
lectures on the British Poets at the Lowell Institute. They were not
printed at the time, except, partially, in newspaper reports, but
doubtless many of their ideas were absorbed in the published
essays. In these lectures the qualities of his prose style began to be
manifested. It was felt by every hearer to be the prose of a poet, as it
teemed with original images, fortunate epithets, and artistically
wrought allusions, and had a movement and music all its own. A few
friends from Cambridge attended these lectures, walking into the
city, and more than once through deep snow. The lecturer
humorously acknowledged his indebtedness to them, saying that
when he saw their faces he was in the presence of his literary
conscience. These lectures have not been published as yet, and
may not be.”
Even while they were yet ringing in the ears of those delighted
audiences, Ticknor and Fields were eager to publish them, but
Lowell withheld consent. The lectures had been rapidly written, and
needed the labor of the file, and this the unexpected duties of the
equally unexpected professorship precluded. There were five
applicants for the chair vacated by Longfellow, but Lowell was not
one of them; both his nomination and his appointment were made
without his knowledge. He accepted the chair with the understanding
that he should be allowed to spend one year abroad for some
necessary study in Germany and Spain. Then his professorial duties
engaged him and the “Lectures on English Poets” were left as a waif
stranded on the forgotten columns of a newspaper. When at length
the opportunity of leisure came Lowell found himself capable of
better things, and he was satisfied with absorbing into later essays
some fragments of the early lectures. There ended his concern for
them; but an enthusiastic hearer had preserved the Boston
“Advertiser’s” reports of them in a special scrap-book, which
ultimately became the property of the University of Michigan and
thus fell into the editor’s hands, who felt the charm thereof, and was
desirous of sharing his pleasure with the Rowfant Club.

There is little doubt that Lowell had been too fastidious when he
wrote to James T. Fields, in May, 1855: “It has just got through my
skull, and made a dint into my sensorium, that you wrote me a note,
ever so long ago, about my lectures and the publication of them. I
don’t mean to print them yet—nor ever till they are better—but, at
any rate, I consider myself one of your flock, though not, perhaps, as
lanigerous as some of them.” And when Lowell’s literary executor
wrote: “His powers of critical appreciation and reflection were
displayed to advantage in these lectures. No such discourses had
been heard in America. They added greatly to his reputation as critic,
scholar, and poet,”—there could be no hesitation in setting aside
Lowell’s modest self-depreciation. After the delivery of his first
lecture, he had written to his friend Stillman: “So far as the public are
concerned, I have succeeded.” And his words are as true in 1896 as
they were in 1855; and although his literary art was not so
consummate as it became in his ultimate development, these early
lectures will aid and encourage the student by showing his growth:
we see the rivulet become the flowing river.

We share, too, in the delight of his first audience on reading:

“The lines of Dante seem to answer his every mood:

sometimes they have the compressed implacability of his lips,
sometimes they ring like an angry gauntlet thrown down in
defiance, and sometimes they soften or tremble as if that
stern nature would let its depth of pity show itself only in a
quiver of the voice.”

“So in ‘Paradise Lost’ not only is there the pomp of long

passages that move with the stately glitter of Milton’s own
angelic squadrons, but if you meet anywhere a single verse,
that, too, is obstinately epic, and you recognize it by its march
as certainly as you know a friend by his walk.”

“Who can doubt the innate charm of rhyme whose eye has
ever been delighted by the visible consonance of a tree
growing at once toward an upward and a downward heaven,
on the edge of the unrippled river; or as the kingfisher flits
from shore to shore, his silent echo flies under him and
completes the vanishing couplet in the visionary world below.”

“Every desire of the heart finds its gratification in the poet

because he always speaks imaginatively and satisfies ideal
hungers.”

And see, too, how the “powers of critical appreciation” that Professor
Norton has mentioned were bursting into blossom and giving
promise of the golden harvest to come:

“Sir Thomas Browne, * * * a man who gives proof of more

imagination than any other Englishman except Shakspeare.”

For subtlety and depth of insight Lowell has never excelled this early
example, nor has he ever outdone the critical estimate, so true and
so terse, of his final pronouncement upon Pope:
 “Measured by any high standard of imagination, he will be
found wanting; tried by any test of wit, he is unrivaled.”

And what of such a shining felicity as where he meets Sir Thomas

Browne on common ground and the author of “Religio Medici”
gravely smiles and acknowledges kinship:

“If a naturalist showed us a toad we should feel indifferent, but

if he told us that it had been found in a block of granite we
should instantly look with profound interest on a creature that
perhaps ate moths in Abel’s garden or hopped out of the path
of Lamech.”

Most truly “No such lectures had been heard in America,” and as
truly they deserve to be made more than a delightful memory for the
early hearers alone.

Lowell wrote to a friend that at his first lecture he had held his
audience for an hour and a quarter, but the reporter’s notes of that
lecture fall far short of that fullness; nevertheless, compared with
Anstey’s shorthand notes of Carlyle’s lectures on the “History of
Literature,” we come much nearer to the living voice in the Boston
“Advertiser’s” reports of these Lowell lectures. Carlyle spoke without
a written text, nor had he any notes save a few bits of paper which in
his hyper-nervousness he twisted out of all hope of reportorial
decipherment—and without once looking at them; Lowell had his
manuscripts (written currente calamo, for the new wine of life was in
full ferment and it was no small feat to bottle any of it successfully),
and we are assured from internal evidence that the “Advertiser’s”
reporter was allowed access to them. His text has a tang as
characteristic as Thoreau’s wild apples, and we do not feel the
dubiety of the blind patriarch, “The voice is Jacob’s, but the hands
are Esau’s.” No; it is James Russell Lowell, his voice, his inimitable
mark, and these are his words sounding in our ears after half a
century.

The only attempt at “editing” has been as far as possible to

reproduce the reporter’s “copy.” To that end Lowell’s profusion of
capitals is retained (and the reader will bear in mind that the
Transcendental spirit was then in both the air and the alphabet), and
even his italics, suggested, as Mr. Underwood says, by the speaker’s
emphasis, find their respective places. Here and there a
compositor’s error has been corrected and a proof-reader’s oversight
adjusted; sometimes this has been conjectural, and again the
needful change was obvious. In all else, save the applause, this
Rowfant Book may be called a faint echo of the Lowell Institute
Lectures.

It is “printed, but not published” in loving fealty to Lowell’s memory,

and every Rowfanter has at heart the assurance that his Shade will
look upon this literary flotsam without a frown, or with one that will
soon fade into forgiveness.

S. A. J.

Ann Arbor, November 10th, 1896.

 LECTURE I
DEFINITIONS

(Tuesday Evening, January 9, 1855)

I
Mr. Lowell began by expressing his sense of the responsibility he
had assumed in undertaking a course of lectures on English Poets.
Few men, he said, had in them twelve hours of talk that would be
worth hearing on any subject; but on a subject like poetry no person
could hope to combine in himself the qualities that would enable him
to do justice to his theme. A lecturer on science has only to show
how much he knows—the lecturer on Poetry can only be sure how
much he feels.

Almost everybody has a fixed opinion about the merits of certain

poets which he does not like to have disturbed. There are no
fanaticisms so ardent as those of Taste, especially in this country,
where we are so accustomed to settle everything by vote that if a
majority should decide to put a stop to the precession of the
Equinoxes we should expect to hear no more of that interesting
ceremony.

A distinguished woman [Mrs. Stowe] who has lately published a

volume of travels, affirms that it is as easy to judge of painting as of
poetry by instinct. It is as easy. But without reverent study of their
works no instinct is competent to judge of the masters of either art.

Yet every one has a right to his private opinion, and the critic should
deal tenderly with illusions which give men innocent pleasure. You
may sometime see japonicas carved out of turnips, and if a near-
sighted friend should exclaim, “What a pretty japonica!” do not growl
“Turnip!” unless, on discovering his mistake, he endeavors to prove
that the imitation is as good as the real flower.

In whatever I shall say, continued Mr. Lowell, I shall, at least, have

done my best to think before I speak, making no attempt to say
anything new, for it is only strange things and not new ones that
come by effort. In looking up among the starry poets I have no hope
of discovering a new Kepler’s law—one must leave such things to
great mathematicians like Peirce. I shall be content with resolving a
nebula or so, and bringing to notice some rarer shade of color in a
double star. In our day a lecturer can hardly hope to instruct. The
press has so diffused intelligence that everybody has just
misinformation enough on every subject to make him thoroughly
uncomfortable at the misinformation of everybody else.

Mr. Lowell then gave a brief outline of his course, stating that this
first lecture would indicate his point of view, and treat in part of the
imaginative faculty.

After some remarks upon Dr. Johnson’s “Lives of the Poets,” the
lecturer proceeded: Any true criticism of poetry must start from the
axiom that what distinguishes that which we call the poetical in
anything, and makes it so, is that it transcends the understanding, by
however little or much, and is interpreted by the intuitive operation of
some quite other faculty of the mind. It is precisely the something-
more of feeling, of insight, of thought, of expression which for the
moment lulls that hunger for the superfluous which is the strongest
appetite we have, and which always gives the lie to the proverb that
enough is as good as a feast. The boys in the street express it justly
when they define the indefinable merit of something which pleases
them, by saying it is a touch beyond—or it is first-rate and a half. The
poetry of a thing is this touch beyond, this third half on the farther
side of first-rate.

Dr. Johnson said that that only was good poetry out of which good
prose could be made. But poetry cannot be translated into prose at
all. Its condensed meaning may be paraphrased, and you get the
sense of it, but lose the condensation which is a part of its essence.
If on Christmas day you should give your son a half-eagle, and
should presently take it back, and give him the excellent prose
version of five hundred copper cents, the boy would doubtless feel
that the translation had precisely the same meaning in tops, balls,
and gibraltars; but the feeling of infinite riches in a little room, of
being able to carry in his waistcoat pocket what Dr. Johnson would
have called the potentiality of tops and balls and gibraltars beyond
the dreams of avarice—this would have evaporated. By good prose
the Doctor meant prose that was sensible and had a meaning. But
he forgot his own theory sometimes when he thought he was writing
poetry. How would he contrive to make any kind of sense of what he
says of Shakspeare? that

Panting Time toiled after him in vain.

The difference between prose and poetry is one of essence and not
one of accident. What may be called the negatively poetical exists
everywhere. The life of almost every man, however prosaic to
himself, is full of these dumb melodies to his neighbor. The farmer
looks from the hillside and sees the tall ship lean forward with its
desire for the ocean, every full-hearted sail yearning seaward, and
takes passage with her from his drudgery to the beautiful
conjectured land. Meanwhile he himself has Pegasus yoked to his
plough without knowing it, and the sailor, looking back, sees him
sowing his field with the graceful idyl of summer and harvest. Little
did the needle-woman dream that she was stitching passion and
pathos into her weary seam, till Hood came and found them there.

The poetical element may find expression either in prose or verse.

The “Undine” of Fouqué is poetical, but it is not poetry. A prose writer
may have imagination and fancy in abundance and yet not be a
poet. What is it, then, that peculiarly distinguishes the poet? It is not
merely a sense of the beautiful, but so much keener joy in the sense
of it (arising from a greater fineness of organization) that the emotion
must sing, instead of only speaking itself.
The first great distinction of poetry is form or arrangement. This is
not confined to poems alone, but is found involved with the
expression of the poetical in all the Arts. It is here that the statue bids
good-bye to anatomy and passes beyond it into the region of beauty;
that the painter passes out of the copyist and becomes the Artist.

Mr. Lowell here quoted Spenser’s statement of Plato’s doctrine:

For of the soul the body form doth take,

For soul is form and doth the body make.

This coördination of the spirit and form of a poem is especially

remarkable in the “Divina Commedia” of Dante and the “Paradise
Lost” of Milton, and that not only in the general structure, but in
particular parts. The lines of Dante seem to answer his every mood:
sometimes they have the compressed implacability of his lips,
sometimes they ring like an angry gauntlet thrown down in defiance,
and sometimes they soften or tremble as if that stern nature would
let its depth of pity show itself only in a quiver of the voice; but
always and everywhere there is subordination, and the pulse of the
measure seems to keep time to the footfall of the poet along his
fated path, as if a fate were on the verses too. And so in the
“Paradise Lost” not only is there the pomp of long passages that
move with the stately glitter of Milton’s own angelic squadrons, but if
you meet anywhere a single verse, that, too, is obstinately epic, and
you recognize it by its march as certainly as you know a friend by his
walk.

The instinctive sensitiveness to order and proportion, this natural

incapability of the formless and vague, seems not only natural to the
highest poetic genius, but to be essential to the universality and
permanence of its influence over the minds of men. The presence of
it makes the charm of Pope’s “Rape of the Lock” perennial; its
absence will always prevent such poems as the “Faëry Queene,”
“Hudibras,” and the “Excursion” (however full of beauty, vivacity, and
depth of thought) from being popular.
Voltaire has said that epic poems were discourses which at first were
written in verse only because it was not yet the custom to narrate in
prose. But instead of believing that verse is an imperfect and
undeveloped prose, it seems much more reasonable to conclude it
the very consummation and fortunate blossom of speech, as the
flower is the perfection towards which the leaf yearns and climbs,
and in which it at last attains to fullness of beauty, of honey, of
perfume, and the power of reproduction.

There is some organic law of expression which, as it must have

dictated the first formation of language, must also to a certain extent
govern and modulate its use. That there is such a law a common
drum-head will teach us, for if you cover it with fine sand and strike it,
the particles will arrange themselves in a certain regular order in
sympathy with its vibrations. So it is well known that the wood of a
violin shows an equal sensibility, and an old instrument is better than
a new one because all resistance has been overcome. I have
observed, too, as something that distinguishes singing birds from
birds of prey, that their flight is made up of a series of parabolic
curves, with rests at regular intervals, produced by a momentary
folding of the wings; as if the law of their being were in some sort
metrical and they flew musically.

Who can doubt the innate charm of rhyme whose eye has ever been
delighted by the visible consonance of the tree growing at once
toward an upward and a downward heaven on the edge of an
unrippled river; or, as the kingfisher flits from shore to shore, his
silent echo flies under him and completes the vanishing couplet in
the visionary world below? Who can question the divine validity of
number, proportion, and harmony, who has studied the various
rhythms of the forest? Look for example at the pine, how its
branches, balancing each other, ray out from the tapering stem in
stanza after stanza, how spray answers to spray, and leaf to leaf in
ordered strophe and antistrophe, till the perfect tree stands an
embodied ode, through which the unthinking wind cannot wander
without finding the melody that is in it and passing away in music.
Language, as the poets use it, is something more than an expedient
for conveying thought. If mere meaning were all, then would the
Dictionary be always the most valuable work in any tongue, for in it
exist potentially all eloquence, all wisdom, all pathos, and all wit. It is
a great wild continent of words ready to be tamed and subjugated, to
have its meanings and uses applied. The prose writer finds there his
quarry and his timber; but the poet enters it like Orpheus, and makes
its wild inmates sing and dance and keep joyous time to every
wavering fancy of his lyre.

All language is dead invention, and our conversational currency is

one of shells like that of some African tribes—shells in which poetic
thoughts once housed themselves, and colored with the tints of
morning. But the poet can give back to them their energy and
freshness; can conjure symbolic powers out of the carnal and the
trite. For it is only an enchanted sleep, a simulated death, that
benumbs language; and see how, when the true prince-poet comes,
the arrested blood and life are set free again by the touch of his fiery
lips, and as Beauty awakens through all her many-chambered
palace runs a thrill as of creation, giving voice and motion and
intelligence to what but now were dumb and stiffened images.

The true reception of whatever is poetical or imaginative

presupposes a more exalted, or, at least, excited, condition of mind
both in the poet and the reader. To take an example from daily life,
look at the wholly diverse emotions with which a partizan and an
indifferent person read the same political newspaper. The one thinks
the editor a very sound and moderate person whose opinion is worth
having on a practical question; the other wonders to see one very
respectable citizen drawn as a Jupiter Tonans, with as near an
approach to real thunderbolts as printer’s ink and paper will
concede, and another, equally respectable and a member of the
same church, painted entirely black, with horns, hoofs, and tail. The
partizan is in the receptive condition just spoken of; the indifferent
occupies the solid ground of the common sense.

To illustrate the superiority of the poetic imagination over the prosaic

understanding, Mr. Lowell quoted a story told by Le Grand in a note