piece, the versification is of course of a subdued character, and devoid of the brilliant poetry of the Paradise Lost. But it is correct and chaste, dignified and solemn. The characters are well sustained,—that of the hero in particular; the occasional employment of familiar language, which offended Johnson, is common to him with the Grecian dramatists. The lyric portion, which is monostrophic, instead of being in strophe, antistrophe, and epode, and which only rimes capriciously, has given most offence to critics. Johnson, as might be expected, that it is "often so harsh and dissonant as scarce to preserve, whether the lines end with or without rimes, any appearance of metrical regularity." Cumberland says, that "in some places it is no measure at all, or such at least as the ear will not patiently endure, nor which any recitation can make harmonious;" and Hallam, that the metre itself "is infelicitous, the lines being frequently of a number of syllables not recognized in the usage of English poetry, and destitute of rhythmical measure, falls into prose." Others have expressed themselves in a similar manner. says Now here are three critics, none perhaps remarkable for a poetic ear, accusing a poet, who had an ear for music and for verse of the utmost delicacy, of writing under the name of lyric poetry lines utterly devoid of melody. Surely then the suspicion must arise that this is but a part of the character of the ordinary English mind, which does not, for example, receive the same enjoyment from the high Italian schools of painting, as from the tamer and more familiar schools of Flanders and Holland. The presumption must be that the fault is in the reader, not in the poet. For our own part we freely own, that we are so convinced that a poet of Milton's order could not write inharmoniously, that wherever we seem to detect a want of melody, we feel quite convinced that the fault must be in ourselves; and, on further consideration, we have always found it to be the case. We will now examine the lines of the lyric parts which seem most likely to have offended the ear of those nice critics; premising, in opposition to Hallam, that he uses no" number of syllables not recognized in the usage of English poetry," for his lines are all of from two to six feet, all measures in use. We have shown above* that, in lines of three and four feet, the first foot may be monosyllabic; and we shall show, when treating of the verse of Paradise Lost, that English poetry admitted anapæsts among its iambs. We will further observe, that it seems to have been the poet's intention, that the lyric parts should be read in a grave, solemn, measured tone:Irrecóverábly dárk, tótal eclipse. 81. By privilége of death and búriál. 104. And by' himself given óver. 120. That heróic, thát renowned Irresistible Sámson? whóm unarmed. 125. Chalibéan témpered steél, and fróck of mail A'damantéan proóf. 133. Prison within prison. 153. Bút the heart of the foól. 298. Oh'! that torments should not bé confi'ned. 606.+ That thou toward him with hand so várïoús, Or might I sáy contrárious. 668. Like a státely ship. 714. *See above, page 260. The Oh! in this verse, and in v. 1267, is like the peù of the Greek drama, which did not count in the iambic line. Oh! how cómely it is and hów reviving To the spirits of júst men lóng oppréssed. 1268. He all their ammunition. 1277. O dearly bought revenge, yet glorious. 1660. A'nd with blindness intérnal struck. 1686.* We may here perhaps without impropriety offer a few remarks on the subject of reading poetry, as we are confident that most of the complaints of want of harmony which have been made against Milton, and other great poets, have their origin in want of skill in the reader.† The power of reading well, like that of singing well, is the gift of nature, and cannot therefore be communicated by instruction. Like singing, however, it may be greatly improved by diligent culture, and it is therefore much to be regretted that it should be so generally neglected in our systems of education. There are not many persons who might not be taught to read prose tolerably well, and even the verse of Pope and his school, without chanting, or singsong as it is called. With * There may possibly have been a transposition, and the line have been And with internal blindness struck, but there would be a loss of energy. + Moore (Diary, April 14, 1819) tells us that himself and Lord Lansdowne found Chaucer "unreadable." The reason was, they did not know how to read him. We quote the following remarks of one who certainly had a musical ear, and both sang and read with feeling and expression :- "Some discussion with respect to Byron's method of repeating poetry, which I professed my strong dislike of. Observe in general that it is the men who have the worst ear for music that sing out poetry in this manner, having no nice perception of the difference there ought to be Milton however, and poets of a higher order, whose verses are of varied melody, the case is different, and here we doubt if any but the born reader will ever attain to complete success: Still improvement may be made, and the reading become tolerable. The following observations may not prove useless :It is impossible in any language whatsoever to pronounce two consecutive syllables without placing an accent, that is elevating the tone, on one of them, forming thus an iamb or a trochee. We shall therefore find that consecutive dactyls or anapæsts, considered with regard to accent, really form a series of these feet, ex. gr. At the close of the day when the hámlet is stíll. Words of more than two syllables have always more than one accent, of which the one is strong, the other (or others) weak, as in régulàr, tránsitory. These sometimes form the foot named choriamb, as in tèrgiversation. A final syllable, as in this word, may either stand alone, or go to the formation of a new foot, with the initial syllable of the following word. A good reader will never attempt to pronounce more than two of these feet, or two with a syllable, at a breath. Hence perhaps it was that the ancient Greeks termed their iambic and trochaic verses dimeters, trimeters, tetrameters, the line naturally dividing itself into two, three, or four portions.* Trimeters, for example, ran thus,— between animated reading and chant. This is very much the Harrow style of reading. Hodgson has it; Lord Holland too (though not, I believe, a Harrow man), gives in to it considerably. Harness himself, I perceived, had it strongly, and by his own avowal he is without a musical ear, as is Lord Holland to a remarkable degree. Lord Byron, though he loved simple music, had no great organization that way."T. Moore, Diary, May 4, 1828. * In dactylic and anapæstic verse the single foot was regarded as a metre. Ω τέκνα, | Κάδμου τοῦ πάλαι | νέα τροφή, In like manner our five-foot heroic and dramatic verse divides itself into three, or sometimes four, portions. Paradise Lost commences thus Of man's first disobedience || and the fruit Restore us, and regain | the blissful seat. The pause indicated by the double line is called the casura, and is frequently as long as that at the end of the verse; that by the single line, which is usually much shorter, may be named the semicæsura. The length of the pause at any of these places can only be determined by the taste and judgement of the reader. In arms not worse, || in foresight | much advanced. are examples of the occurrence of more than one semicæsura in a line. The usual place of the casura in the four-foot verse is the middle of the line. There is sometimes a semicæsura, or even two; but this last is rare. The six-foot verse with which Spenser concludes his stanzas, and which Milton also employs, is, like the French Alexandrine, a compound of two three-foot lines, and should therefore, like that verse, have the cæsura exactly in the middle, as in To wanton with the sun, || her lusty | paramour. |