only to read the works of the greatest English poets, and indeed of many who are not classed among the greatest, to discover what an admirable use they have made of their liberty in this respect and in some others. Let him study this passage, among many, of Milton.

Now came still evening on, and twilight gray
Had in her sober livery all things clad;
Silence accompanied; for beast and bird,
They to their grassy couch, these to their nests,
Were slunk, all but the wakeful nightingale.
She all night long her amorous descant sung:
Silence was pleased. Now glowed the firmament
With living sapphires; Hesperus, that led
The starry host, rode brightest, till the Moon,
Rising in clouded majesty, at length,
Apparent queen, unveiled her peerless light,
And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw.

VIII

RHYME

Rhyme, that similarity of sound in the final syllables of two or more successive lines, is not at all indispensable to English verse. Milton, Thomson, Young, Cowper, Shelley, Wordsworth, and many other poets, have written long poems without rhyme; Collins, Southey, and others have composed verses without rhyme in lyrical poetry; and in dramatic verse rhyme is very rarely used. Most short poems, however, are rhymed, and the greater number of long ones.

For the rhyme to be correct, the final syllables of the lines which rhyme together must have the same vowel sound, and if this vowel sound is followed by a consonant sound, simple or complex, it must be exactly the same in the corresponding lines. Thus, praise and days; high, and lie; nest and blessed are good rhymes. Whatever difference there may be in the spelling, provided the sound is the same, the rhyme is good. Love and grove, notwithstanding the similarity in the spelling, are bad rhymes; so are wood and flood.

So are the following, and they are to be found, alas! in Keats, thorns, fawns; thoughts, sorts; Thalia, higher.

ON THE STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH VERSE

75

Though Keats has used them, they are none the less detestable rhymes, the more so that they countenance the vulgar cockney pronunciation of sort, thorn, higher, as sawt, thawn, highah, substituting in all such words aw for or, and ah for er, a pronunciation unfortunately tolerated in too many schools. Such false rhymes as giving, live in, should be avoided, for they also countenance the substitution of n for ng in giving, lying, singing, and other similar words, degrading them into the vulgar givin, lyin, singin.

The seat of the rhyme is the last accented syllable of the verse, and when that syllable is followed by another unaccented one, this unaccented syllable should be identically the same in the verses that rhyme together, as in wénded and blended, highly and drily.

In comic verse there are sometimes two unaccented syllables after the last accented one, and in this case both these syllables must be the same respectively in the corresponding lines; grávity rhymes thus with suávity; and docility with humility, in these lines of Byron.

He liked the gentle Spaniard for his gravity;

He almost honoured him for his docility;

Because, though young, he acquiesced with suávity,
Or contradicted but with proud humility.

We have now to examine the use made of rhyme by English poets.

In long poems the verses are mostly written in couplets; that is, they rhyme two by two. Pope rarely uses any other than iambic verses of five feet rhyming in this manner. This measure is called the heroic couplet, because it is used in heroic or epic poetry. It is, however, employed in short poems as well.

Poems of any length may be written in verses of the octosyllabic measure, or iambic verses of four feet, rhyming two by two.

Verses of any metre and of any length may be rhymed in the same manner; but there are other modes of rhyming, besides this regular succession of couplets: the rhymes may be alternate or intermixed in various ways.

Verses of any metre and of any length may be arranged in separate groups, called stanzas, containing a greater or less number of verses, made to rhyme either two by two, or by crossing the rhymes and interweaving two or more successive couplets with each other, or by disposing the rhymes in any order whatever, at the will of the poet. It would be impossible to enumerate all the varieties of stanzas it will be sufficient to give examples of the principal ones that have been adopted by the best poets.

But it will be well first to give our attention to heroic couplets, which occupy a very important place in English poetry.

IX

HEROIC COUPLETS

This rhymed heroic measure has been diversely handled by different poets, each with his own peculiar harmony; and the same poet often changes his tone, and varies his modulations. To go back as far as Chaucer, the opening lines of the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, quoted below, are written in smooth and evenly flowing verse, not monotonous, for the accents are well distributed; there is a richness and fullness in the melody of the vowels; and the pauses, and the occasional overflowing of the sentence from one verse to another, are so skilfully managed, that the whole is delightfully musical, and admirably adapted to the subject: there is a feeling of healthful enjoyment in it, and of hope and promise; and the breath of spring

Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses.

(1) Such.

Whanne that April with his shourës sote

The droughte of March hath percëd to the rote,

And bathëd every veine in swiche (1) licour,

Of whiche vertue engendred is the flour;