stanzas vary in length and arrangement of lines, as commonly in the ode. Its peculiarity is that the following named stanzas repeat the same form and arrangement of lines; the first, fourth, and seventh stanzas are alike; also the second, fifth, and eighth; and the third, sixth, and ninth. A good example of this, in English, is "The Progress of Poesy," by the poet Gray.

16. The length of an ode renders it impracticable to give an example entire, and the following stanza from Wordsworth's "Immortality" must suffice:

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;

The Soul that rises with us, our life's star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,

And cometh from afar.

Not in entire forgetfulness,

And not in utter nakedness,

But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God who is our home.

Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
Shades of the prison house begin to close
Upon the growing boy;

But he beholds the light and whence it flows,

He sees it in his joy;

The youth, who daily farther from the East
Must travel, still is Nature's priest,

And by the vision splendid

Is on his way attended;

At length the man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of common day.

CHAPTER VI.

RHYME.

1. We have, thus far, treated of rhythm as the chief feature of English verse. We notice most the movement produced by the accents. But the quality of sounds also attracts attention. First of all, similarity of sounds strikes the ear. Syllables beginning alike or ending alike were early used to mark off the metre, as the accents mark off the rhythm. In AngloSaxon verse, the initial sounds of certain accented syllables were employed in this way. This was known as Rime. This form of rhyme is now called Alliteration, and will be described in Chapter VII.

2. The word, now commonly spelled Rhyme, is limited to similarity of vowel-sounds, most frequently used to mark the ends of lines, and thus to indicate the metre. To some minds, rhyme seems essential to verse. In French poetry, it is always used; in classical Greek and Latin, seldom, if ever. In English, it may or may not be employed, at the option of the poet. Verse without rhyme is called blank verse. Blank verse may be written in any kind of metre, but is mostly confined to iambic pentameter; as in epic poetry, by Milton, and in dramatic, by Shakespeare.

3. Proper rhymes require four conditions:

First, the vowel sounds must be alike; thus, now and plough rhyme together, but do and go do not.

Secondly, the sounds before the vowels must be unlike; light and bright are proper rhymes; but not right and write.

Thirdly, the sounds after the vowel sounds must be alike: thus, weak and pique; but not seen and team.

Fourthly, the syllables must be similarly accented; city and charity do not rhyme, though city and pity do, or chárity City and defý do not rhyme, as defý and

and párity. complý do.

4. But a syllable having a secondary accent is sometimes made to rhyme with one similarly situated, having a primary accent; as in the last syllable of the following words, found in Milton: begán and óceän, thróne and contemplátiőn.

5. Rhyme between final syllables is called single, or masculine rhyme; between penultimate syllables, double, or feminine; as holy, slowly. The rhyme may fall even farther back, on the antepenult, as importunate, unfortunate.

6. An identical rhyme is one in which the syllables coincide in sound throughout; as in pain and pane. Such rhymes are, in general, not regarded as allowable, but instances of them may be found in some of the best poets. Thus Lowell has wholly and holy, Milton Ruth and ruth, Tennyson eave and eve. Some authorities lay down a rule that the aspirate h at the beginning of a syllable is not enough to prevent two syllables from forming an identical rhyme; but this is generally disregarded. Thus Milton rhymes high and I, harms and

arms.

7. But, besides proper, or perfect, rhymes, others are sometimes found in good writers, in which the conditions are not wholly fulfilled; as in love and prove (Marlowe). Indeed, it is hard to determine the limit between rhymes that are allowable, and those that are unallowable, if we regard the usage of some of our most esteemed poets. Thus Pope has light, wit; Jove, love; good, blood; care, war. Gray, towers, adores;

bent, constraint; lost, coast. Burns, startle, mortal; censure, answer; sent you, memento. Coleridge, clasping, aspen. Longfellow, abroad and accord. The widest liberty, perhaps, which has been taken by any serious poet, may be found in the writings of Mrs. Browning; as, fringes, inches; human, common; turret, chariot; angels, candles; conquer, anchor; vigil, eagle; glory, doorway; Goethe, beauty.

Much

8. In humorous poetry there is still greater liberty. use is made of two-syllable and even three-syllable rhymes. Thus in "Hudibras," inclined to, mind to; disparage, plum porridge; drum beat, combat; ecclesiastic, a stick. In the "Ingoldsby Legends," paws off, he, philosophy; sully verse, Gulliver's; suffice at her, eyes at her; etc.

9. It must not be thought, however, that these double and triple rhymes are used exclusively in comic poetry. In Tennyson's "Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington,” the double rhyme is freely used; as wrought for, fought for. So in Hood's pathetic poem of the "Bridge of Sighs:" unfortunate, importunate; scrutiny, mutiny; evidence, eminence. To these, we may add the following from Mrs. Browning:

Let us sit on the thrones

In a purple sublimity,

And grind down men's bones

To a pale unanimity!

10. It is to be observed that in any but comic poetry, forced rhymes are objectionable; also, bringing into close proximity two pairs of rhymes which are nearly alike in vowel-sounds; as name, fame, contiguous to vain, stain. It is good practice, to seek, occasionally, for possible rhymes to certain words which are capable of but few rhymes.

11. A modified form of rhyme, borrowed from other languages, is called assonance. In this the similarity is wholly

in the vowel sounds, the beginning and end of the syllable being disregarded. Thus, in George Eliot's "Spanish Gypsy: "

Maiden crowned with glossy blackness,

Lithe as panther forest-roaming,
Long-armed naiad, when she dances,
On a stream of ether floating.

12. Having thus described the character of rhyme in general, the next point we have to consider is its place in the metre. Its first and simplest use is at the end of lines. For example:

In couplets:

Sweet was the sound when oft at evening's close,
Up yonder hill the village murmur rose.

In quatrains, the second and fourth lines alone may rhyme;

And now the storm-blast came, and he

Was tyrannous and strong;

He struck with his o'ertaking wings,

And chased us south along.

Or the first and third also:

- Coleridge.

Hast thou from the caves of Golconda, a gem

Pure as the ice-drop that froze on the mountain ?

Bright as the humming-bird's green diadem,

When it flutters in sunbeams that shine through a fountain?

- Keats.