The harmony of this splendid Spenserean stanza, (a form of verse which Shelley considered inexpressibly delightful) is quite perfect, and the ideas are in unison with the music. For some portion of its excellence the noble poet was perhaps indebted to James Montgomery, of Sheffield, who had previously written :: He only, like the ocean-weed uptorn And loose along the world of waters borne, In Lord Byron's grand and vivid description of a storm amongst the mountains, there is a specimen of imitative harmony. Far along From peak to peak, the rattling crags among, Leaps the live thunder! But let me return to Pope, who after all has given us more specimens of this peculiar beauty than almost any other poet. What an admirable illustration of a lame Alexandrine is the following: A needless Alexandrine ends the song, And, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along. The hitch in the verse at the word drags has an excellent effect and completes the image. But Alexandrines are not always "needless," though in the heroic couplet they can very rarely be introduced without an awkward effect. In winding up the volume of sweet sounds in the Spenserean stanza, their grace and fitness are unquestionable. It is absolutely necessary, however, that the cæsural pause should be after the sixth syllable, or the line halts, and " drags, like a wounded snake." It has always excited my surprise that Shelley, who was deeply learned in the mysteries of versification, should have so frequently transgressed this rule. Byron, Campbell and others have been guilty of the same error. Even Spenser himself is often at fault in his concluding lines. The following lines from the Essay on Criticism illustrate the rules they would enforce : These equal syllables alone require, In the next couplet, I think Dryden's name should stand in the place of Denham's. The first line has the " which it speaks. And praise the easy vigour of a line easy vigour" of Where Denham's strength and Waller's sweetness join. The anecdote given by Leigh Hunt of Moore's repeating with great gusto, the following lines by Dryden, remarkable for their easy vigour," pleasantly occurs to me at this moment : Let honour and preferment go for gold, But glorious beauty isn't to be sold. A comparison of a couplet of Dryden's with two of Doctor Johnson's, places the unaffected force and freedom of the former in a striking light. Let observation with extensive view Survey mankind from China to Peru, Remark each anxious toil, each eager strife, Then say, &c. Listen to Glorious John Dryden, and compare his directness with the pompous pleonasms of the author of the Rambler. Look round the habitable world, how few There are, however, many very fine monosyllabic lines in English Poetry. Hazlitt, I think, mentions that it was Wordsworth who first drew attention to these parallel passages. The modulation of the following lines from Dryden's "Theodore and Honoria" is in admirable keeping with the subject. The pauses are very happily arranged. While listening to the murmuring leaves he stood A sudden horror seized his giddy head, And his ears tingled and his colour fled. Here is another passage of a similar character from the same poet. The fanning wind upon her bosom blows; To meet the fanning wind her bosom rose; The fanning wind and purling stream continue her repose. In Dryden's Ode on St. Cecilia's Day (Alexander's Feast) there are numerous adaptations of sound to sense. The repetition of the word fallen in the following lines has a remarkably fine effect. He sung Darius great and good, By too severe a fate Fallen, fallen, fallen, fullen, Fallen, from his high estate And weltering in his blood. There is a similar beauty in the ensuing. The prince, unable to conceal his pain, Gazed on the fair Who caused his care, And sighed and looked, sighed and looked, The variation of the time in the following passage is extremely happy. Now strike the golden lyre again: A louder yet, and yet a louder strain ; Break his bands of sleep asunder, And rouse him like a rattling peal of thunder! Hark, hark, the horrid sound Has raised up his head, As awaked from his dead, And amazed he stares around! Dryden seems to have particularly enjoyed the effect of representative harmony. The following verse from a song in his King Arthur has a very martial sound. Come, if you dare, our trumpets sound; Says the double, double, double, beat of the thundering drum. This, however, is a repetition of some lines in the first of the author's two Odes for St. Cecilia's Day. 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. These noisy lines are perhaps not in the best taste, and remind me of Pope's description of Sir Richard Blackmore: What! like Sir Richard, rumbling rough and fierce, In Bonnell Thornton's burlesque Ode on St. Cecilia's Day, there is the following amusing specimen of imitative harmony. In strains more exalted the salt-box shall join, Though Pope's Ode on St. Cecilia's Day is generally admitted to be a failure, and to be in almost every respect greatly inferior to Dryden's Alexander's Feast, it is not utterly devoid of merit. Dr. Johnson highly commends the third stanza, in which he says "there are numbers, images, harmony and vigour, not unworthy the antagonist of Dryden." Dr. Aiken remarks of the first stanza (which I shall here quote), that it "seems to imitate happily the music it describes :" Descend ye Nine; descend and sing; And sweep the sounding lyre! In a sadly pleasing strain Let the warbling lute complain; Till the roofs all around The shrill echoes rebound; While in more lengthened notes and slow, The deep, majestic, solemn organs blow. Now louder, and yet louder rise, And fill with spreading sounds the skies; The strains decay, And melt away In a dying, dying fall. But though Dr. Johnson bestows a general approval on this poem (the least successful of all Pope's works), and though he |