lables in modern poetry, of any kind of measure, must continue uniform.

In the following extracts it will be perceived, that not only care has been taken as to the quantities of the syllables, but that those words have been selected, which, by their sound, might more strikingly express the sense. Thus in the following well-known sonorous line, Homer describes the roaring of the sea:

Βη δακεων παρα θινα πολυφλοισβοιο θαλασσης.

The swiftness of a horse, as also the sound of his feet, are expressed by Virgil, thus,

Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum."

While the slow motion of the waggon is evident in the long syllables of the following line:

"Tardaque Eleusinæ matris volventia plaustra."

The laborious efforts of the Cyclops are also described in a line consisting almost entirely of long syllables.

"Illi inter sese magna vi brachia tollunt."

A sorrowful parting is admirably expressed as follows: "Et, longum, formose, vale, vale, inquit, Iola."

The above are not insulated examples, for both Homer and Virgil have so modulated their verse as to express by the sound, as well as by the language, the sense they intend to convey.

Our own poets are found to accommodate, in a similar manner, the structure of the verse to the sense. Milton thus describes the immense size of Satan :

"So stretch'd out huge in length the arch fiend lay."

The following lines of Pope's are very expressive; the first two consisting principally of liquid sounds have an indescribable softness which is beautifully contrasted with the harshness of the two subsequent lines. The last four lines of the same extract form also a contrast between difficult and laborious movement, and ease and rapidity :

"Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows,
And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows;
But when loud surges lash the sounding shore,
The hoarse rough verse should like the torrent rcar.

When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,
The line, too, labours, and the words move slow:
Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain,

Flies o'er the unbending corn, and skims along the main."

The following lines of Dryden's possess a remarkable

sweetness:

Softly sweet in Lydian measures,

Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures."

Pope, in the Odyssey, thus describes the efforts of Sisyphus in rolling his ponderous stone :

"With many a weary step, and many a groan,

Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone."

The rapidity of the downward descent of the stone is beautifully contrasted with the above:

"The huge round stone resulting with a bound,

Thunders impetuous down, and smokes along the ground."
The following are Pope's, and are very expressive:
"Loud sounds the air, redoubling strokes on strokes,
On all sides round the forest hurls her oaks

Headlong. Deep echoing groan the thickets brown,
Then rustling, cracking, crashing, thunder down."

The sounding of a trumpet, and the rolling of a drum, are thus expressed by Dryden :

"The trumpet's loud clangor

Excites us to arms,

With shrill notes of anger

And mortal alarms.

The double, double, double, beat

Of the thundering drum,

Cries, hark! the foes come!

Charge! charge! 'tis too late to retreat."

The sound may be truly said to be a picture of the sense throughout the following extract :

"His thoughts the bard must suitably express,
Each in a different face and different dress;
Lest in unvaried looks the crowd be shown,
And the whole multitude appear as one.
With rapid feet, and wings without delay,
This swiftly flies, and smoothly skims away;

That vast of size, his limbs huge, broad, and strong,
Moves pond'rous, and scarce drags his bulk along
This blooms with youth and beauty in his face,
And Venus breathes on every limb a grace:

That of rude form his uncouth numbers shews,
Looks horrible, and frowns with his rough brows;
His monstrous tail in many a fold and wind,
Voluminous and vast curls up behind;
At once the image and the lines appear
Rude to the eye and frightful to the ear.
Thus in smooth lines, smooth subjects we rehearse,
But the rough rock roars in as rough a verse.
If gay the subject, gay must be the song,
And the brisk numbers quickly glide along.

When things are small the terms should still be so,
For low words please us when the theme is low;
But when some giant horrible and grim,
Enormous in his gait, and vast in every limb
Stalks towering on, the swelling words must rise
In just proportion to the monster's size.

If some large weight his huge arms strive to shove,
The verse too labours, the throng'd words scarce move.
When each stiff clod beneath the pond'rous plough
Crumbles and breaks, th' encumber'd lines move slow
Nor less when pilots catch the friendly gales

Run up the shrouds and hoist the wide stretch'd sails;
But if the poem suffers from delay,

Let the lines fly precipitate away;

And when the viper issues from the brake,

Be quick; with stones and brands and fire attack

His rising crest, and drive the serpent back.

When night descends or stunn'd by numerous strokes,
And groaning to the earth drops the vast ox,

The line too sinks with correspondent sound

Flat with the steer and headlong to the ground."

;

Pitt's translation of Vida's Art of Poetry. Book iii.

OF POETICAL LICENSES.

In order to make a stronger impression on the mind, as also to please the ear, poets have recourse to certain artifices; one of the most elegant of which is, the transposing of the natural order of the words, which is called IN

VERSION.

In the Greek and Latin languages, Inversion is used to such a degree, that the arrangement, or disposition of the words of most sentences, either in poetry or prose, would seem altogether arbitrary. It will, however be perceived, by attention to the construction of those languages, that scarcely a word in any sentence of the best classical writers could be differently situated without weakening the force, or injuring the euphony of the period.

The English language, as well as other modern languages, is susceptible of very little inversion, except in poetry, to which it imparts a dignity and grandeur, which, in exterior, distinguishes it from prose.

The following are some of the most usual inversions of our language :

The nominative is made to follow the verb, and the objective to precede it, as,

"Bent was his bow, the Grecian hearts to wound."
"Strongest of men, they pierced the mountain boar,
Ranged the wild deserts red with monsters gore,
And from their hills the shaggy centaurs tore.”

POPE.

POPE.

The nominative and the verb are placed at the end of a sentence, although understood at the beginning, as,

"Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, 'till one greater man
Restore us and regain the blissful seat,
Sing heavenly muse.

The adjective is placed after the noun, as,

"He scarce had ceased when the superior fiend

MILTON.

Was moving t'wards the shore; his pond'rous shield,
Ethereal temper, massy, large and round,
Behind him cast."

MILTON.

"O argument blasphemous, false, and proud."

MILTON.

A verb is made to commence a sentence.

"Trembled the poles of Heaven."
"Follows the loosen'd aggravated roar."
"The sun is rising dimly red;
The wind is wailing low and dread;
From his cliff the eagle sallies,
Leaves the wolf his darksome vallies;
In the midst the ravens hover,
Peep the wild dogs from the cover;
Screaming, croaking, baying, yelling,
Each in his wild accents telling,
Soon we feast on dead and dying,

Fair hair'd Harold's flag is flying."

DRYDEN.

THOMSON.

SIR W. SCOTT.

Adverbs are placed before instead of after their verbs, and prepositions are occasionally placed after instead of before the words they govern, as,

"So truth proclaims; I hear the sacred sound
Burst from the centre of her burning zone;
Where, aye she sits with star-wreathed lustre crowned,
A bright sun clasps her adamantine zone.'

"

Brighter once amidst the hosts
Of angels, than that star the stars among.'

MASON.

MILTON.

WARTON.

"Where echo walks steep hills among,
Listening to the shepherds song."

Poets sometimes avail themselves of other licenses besides the inversion. They occasionally omit the article, as,

"How many bright

And splendid lamps shine in heaven's temple high!
Day hath his golden sun, her moon the night,
Her fixed and wandering stars the azure sky;

So framed all by their Creator's might

That still they live and shine and ne'er shall die;
'Till in a moment with the last day's brand
They burn, and with them burn sea, air, and land."
Fairfax-Tasso's Jerusalem delivered.

They frequently omit the verb, as,

"To this the Thunderer."
"To whom Pelides."

They use the adjective for the adverb, as,

POPE.

MASON.

They form adjectives from substantives, generally making them to terminate in y, as, the glassy wave, inky coat, pitchy darkness, &c.

They use each for all or every, and either for both, as,

"Each chief his sevenfold shield displayed."

"What wonder? when

Millions of fire encount'ring angels fought
On either side."

DRYDEN.

MILTON.

They abbreviate words, as, eve for evening, morn for morning, lone for lonely, list for listen, yon for yonder, &c. They use antiquated words and modes of expression, as, methinks, ere, behest, erst, ken, sheeny, ycleaped, murky, dight, don, doff, &c.

"Methinks the gentleman quoth she,
Opposite in the apple-tree."

Why should Rome fall a moment ere her time."

"And as he rose the high behest was given."

COWPER.

ADDISON.

MASON.

There are some few other licenses, but the above are

the principal ones in our language.