2. In matters of rhyme the letter h counts as nothing. High and 1, hair and air, are imperfect rhymes, because h (being no articulate sound) counts for nothing, and so the parts before the vowels i and a are not different (as they ought to be), but identical.

Whose generous children narrow'd not their hearts
With commerce, given alone to arms and arts.—BYRON.

3. Words where the letters coincide, but the sounds differ, are only rhymes to the eye: breathe and beneath are in this predicament; so also are cease and ease (eaze.)

In the fat age of pleasure, wealth, and ease,

Sprang the rank weed, and thrived with large increase.-POPE.

4. If the sounds coincide, the difference of the letters is unimportant. They talk of principles, but notions prize;

nd all to one loved folly sacrifice.-POPE.

DOUBLE AND TRIPLE RHYMES.

§ 486. An accented syllable standing by itself, and coming under the conditions given above, constitutes a SINGLE RHYME. An accented syllable followed by an unaccented one, coming under the conditions given above, constitutes a DOUBLE RHYME.

When LOVE came first to earth, the SPRING
Spread rose-buds to receive him;

And back, he vow'd, his flight he'd wing
To heaven, if she should leave him.

But Spring departing, saw his faith
Pledged to the next new-comer;
He revel'd in the warmer breath
And richer bowers of SUMMER.

The sportive AUTUMN claim'd by rights
An Archer for her lover;

And even in WINTER's dark, cold nights,
A charm he could discover.

Her routs, and balls, and fireside joy,

For this time were his reasons;

In short, Young Love's a gallant boy

That likes all times and seasons.-CAMPBELL.

An accented syllable followed by two unaccented ones, and coming under the conditions stated above, constitutes a TREBLE RHYME.

Oh ye immortal gods! what is theogony?

Oh thou, too, immortal man! what is philanthropy?
Oh world that was and is! what is cosmogony?

Some people have accused me of misanthropy,

And yet I know no more than the mahogany

That forms this desk of what they mean: lycanthropy

I comprehend; for, without transformation,

Men become wolves on any slight occasion.-BYRON.

MIDDLE RHYME.

§ 487. MIDDLE RHYME is that which exists between the last accented syllables of the two sections of a line.

And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cold;

And ice, mast-high, came floating by
As green as emerald.

The ice was here, the ice was there,

The ice was all around:

It crack'd and growl'd, and roar'd and howl'd

Like noises in a swound.-COLERIDGE.

SECTIONAL RHYME.

§ 488. SECTIONAL RHYME is that which exists between syllables contained in the same section.

Will stoode for skill, | and law obeyed lust;

Might trode down right; | of king there was no feare.-FERRERS.
Lightly and brightly breaks away

The morning from her mantle gray.-BYRON.

So many as love me, and use me aright,

With treasure and pleasure I richly requite.—TUSSER.

INVERSE RHYME.

§ 489. INVERSE RHYME is that which exists between the last accented syllable of the first section and the first accented syllable of the second.

The piper loud and louder blew;

The dancers quick | and quicker flew.—BURNS.
These steps both reach, and teach thee shall
To come by thrift, | to shift withal.-TUSSER.

WORD-MATCHING.

§ 490. "There is in Eastern poetry a kind of wordrhyming or word-matching, in which every word of a line is answered by another of the same measure and rhyme in the other line of the distich."

She drove her flock o'er mountains,
By grove, or rock, or fountains.
Now, O now I needs must part,
Parting though I absent mourn;
Absence can no joy impart,
Joy once fled can ne'er return.

ALLITERATION.

§ 491. ALLITERATION is the repetition of the same letter at the commencement of two or more words, or at short intervals; as,

Who often, but without success, have pray'd

For apt alliteration's artful aid.

Alliteration is the distinctive characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon, and, indeed, of all the Gothic metres.

The high king's 'hest, around him was holy light.-CADMON.

On last legdun, lathum leodum.

At foot they laid on the loathed bonds.-Brunanburgh War Song.

As one that runnes beyond his race and rows beyond his reach.-BOURCHER.

When bound to some bay

In the billowy ocean,
O'er sea rolling surges
The sailors are steering,
God weighs on his waters
Their wandering bark,

And wafts them with winds
On their watery way.

TASK POETRY.

§ 492. The following is a task poem of George Herbert's. The task is, that the last words of the latter two lines of each verse are formed by dropping letters from the last words of the former ones:

Inclose me still, for fear I start,
Be to me rather sharp and tart,
Than let me want thy hand and art.

Such sharpness shows the sweetest friend,
Such cuttings rather heal than rend,
And such beginnings touch their end.

The following task distich is formed of three lines of the fragments of words, so that those of the middle one read with either of the other two:

It is

§ 493. Rhyme is not essential to English verse. an ornament, and something more. Final rhyme has been called a "time-beater:" it separates each verse from the others by a distinct boundary, and thus contributes to the measure. Still, it is not essential. Measures, where there are no rhymes, are called BLANK VERSE. It is a general rule that every verse shall end with an important word.

All night the dreadless angel, unpursued,

Through heaven's wide champaign held his way; till Morn,
Waked by the circling Hours, with rosy hand

Unbarr'd the gates of light.-MILTON.

Wide flush the fields, the softening air is balm,
Echo the mountains round, the forest smiles,

And every sense and every heart is joy.-THOMSON.

POETICAL LICENSE.

§ 494. The Rules of Syntax are sometimes traversed by the practice

of the poets.

1. The verb

precedes the nominative; as,

Sunk was the sun, and up the eastern heaven,
Like maiden on a lonely pilgrimage,
Moved the meek star of eve.-MILMAN.

2. The verb follows the accusative; as,

His prayer he saith, this holy man.- KEATS.

3. The noun precedes the adjective; as,

'Twas in youth, that hour of dreaming,
Round me visions fair were beaming.

Mrs. NORTON.

4. The infinitive mode precedes the governing word; as,

When first thy sire, to send on earth

Virtue, his darling child, designed.-GBAY.

5. An intransitive verb is placed at the beginning of a sentence; as, Air blacken'd, roll'd the thunder, groan'd the ground.-DRYDEN.

6. Adverbs precede the words which they qualify; as,

The plowman homeward plods his weary way.-GRAY.

7. The preposition follows its governing word; as,

"Where echo walks steep hills among."

8. The article is often omitted; as,

"What dreadful pleasure! there to stand, sublime,
Like shipwreck'd mariner on desert coast."

9. Compound epithets are frequently used, as,

O music! sphere-descended maid!-COLLINS,

10. A positive is joined with a comparative; as,

"Near, and more near, the intrepid beauty press'd." 11. After a pronoun its representative noun is repeated; as, "It ceased the melancholy sound."

12. The relative is omitted; as,

""Tis Fancy, in her fiery car,

Transports me to the thickest war!"

13. The antecedent is omitted; as,

"Who never fasts, no banquet e'er enjoys."

14. Intransitive verbs are made to govern the objective; as,
"Still in harmonious intercourse they lived
The rural day, and talk'd the flowing heart."

15. The uncompounded form of the first and third persons imperative is used; as,

"Turn we a moment Fancy's rapid flight."
"Fall he who must beneath a rival's arms."

16. In the compound tenses the auxiliary only is used; as,

"What for ourselves we can is always ours."

17. The idioms of other languages are used; as,

"For not to have been dipp'd in Lethe's lake

Could save the son of Thetis from to die."

"He came; and, standing in the midst, explain'd
The peace rejected, but the truce detain'd."

18. Antiquated words and modes of expression are used; as,

"Shall I receive by gift what of my own,

When where likes me best I can command."

"In sooth, he was a strange and wayward wight."

Some of these forms are not peculiar to poetry.

ELISION.

§ 495. ELISION, Latin elido, to strike off, is a general term for certain Euphonic Figures, in which there is an omission of a letter or letters. See § 110.

'Twas theirs alone to dive into the plan

That truth and mercy had reveal'd to man.-COWPER.
Hence British poets, too, the priesthood shared,
And ev'ry hallow'd Druid was a bard.-COWPER.

For want of faith,

Down the steep precipice of wrong he slides:

There's nothing to support him in the right.-YOUNG.
Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms?-MILTON.
Because the Father, t' whom in Heaven supreme?-MILTON.

CHAPTER II.

IAMBIC MEASURES.

IAMBIC MONOMETER.

Formula x a.

§ 496. In the following extract the two accented lines are each composed of a single Iambus.

In the following stanzas the three accented lines consist of an Iam

bus and an additional syllable.

The day had sunk in dim showers,

But midnight now, with lustre meek,
Illumined all the pale flowers,

Like hope that lights a mourner's cheek.