This term means that prose and poetry may contain latent sentiments and

thoughts, as well as expressions and sentences that present an apparent sense

of beauty. "Latent sentiment and evident beauty" first appeared as the title of a

chapter in The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons. There, "latent sentiment"

means what lies beyond events and landscapes in a narrative or a description,

triggering imaginations on the part of the reader. On the other hand, "evident

beauty" refers to the kind of beauty created by expressions and sentences in

a piece of writing, which bring out that latent meaning. The latent and the

apparent qualities are inseparable, constituting an aesthetic feature of good

literary works. Later, this term developed into a rhetorical device in writing

prose and poetry.