ABSTRACT
In an 1834 survey of modern and contemporary poets, Egyrton Brydges remarks upon recent "compositions which at a distance look very much like poetry to the eye; but when they are approached, it is found to be all on the surface—there is no life beneath". As Benjamin Humphrey Smart—arguably the last in a long, coherent tradition of pragmatic rhetoricians—explains in The Practice of Elocution, when it comes to reading, the feeling that "the tones, and other signs are real" must be taught. Pragmatic theory highlights the importance of training readers to understand and employ linguistic structures and techniques, including figuration, by learning to identify and practice rhetorical techniques that constitute the tools of discourse's power. A truly poetic discourse is easily misunderstood when it appears in the pages of a widely distributed periodical. The Repository under Fox also stressed the importance of combining "movement" articles on specific political issues with serious essays on art topics.
