E 15-11 mmw mm %mmmmmm^^^~*-'^mm*+xmBmmmmmm Hollinger pH 8.5 Mill Run F03-2193 i MIMES OF ENGLISH POETS OF THE Xixra CENTUBY. DI8ERTATIO QUAM SCRIPSIT ET PRO SUMIS I PBILOSOPHIA HOKORIBUS OBTINENDIS AMPLISSIMO PHILOSOPHORUM ORDINI IN UNIVERSITATE LITERARUM ROSTOCHIENSI PROPOSUIT GUSTAVUS BARTLING GUESTPHALUS. ^ Z. - : BARMENAE 1874. TYPIS WAKDT. A & V .V ^ „Because it also suits my rhymes." Byron. The poet of times past long ago, complaining, to make use of his own expression, of that „dira necessitas metri* intends to hint at all those difficulties, arising to him from the quantity of the vowels in each particular word, and increasing from the fluctuation of this particular word itself (produced by declension for instance), as well as from the influence exerted over the last syllable of this word by the consonants or vowels beginning the following one. As to the poets of many nations of modern times, there has come out by and by another difficulty, which, if not of equal importance , yet , when not sufficiently looked too, may greatly contribute to derogate enormously from the beauties aimed at in composing a poetical pro- duction. The difficulty alluded to consists, since rhymes have become almost an indispensable accessory to poesy, in the correctness of the rhyme itself. Ehymes have become an indispensable accessory to poesy we repeat; for they are to be met with in every kind of poetical compositions, not even excepting dramatical ones; in maintaining, however, that the very rhymes form part of the essence of poetry, we of course do not intend to deny, that there may be, and that there is really plenty of poesy without rhymes, and on the contrary, that there are litterary productions enough with the most accomplished rhymes without the least claim to the name of poesy at all. But as it is not our task to inquire, how far poetry 'stands in need of rhymes, we cannot be expected here to expose, what beauties may be got, what effects may be brought about by them, but must to get nearer the point, examine what there is to be understood by a good, a correct, a sonorous rhyme. Considering the word rhyme in its universal meaning we agree it to represent the consonance existing between the last word or the last words of two ore more verses. This consonance, however, rests not upon an absolute con- formity or rather identity of those words, but requires that a certain difference exists, that both these words must not be the same, let the likeness be ever so great between them. The conformity between the words which represent a rhyme, must be thus, that the vowels together with the following consonants in both verses are the same or nearly the same, while the difference exists for the con- sonants preceeding the first rhyming vowels. Notwith- standing this diversity of the preceeding consonants, the consonance of the rhyming words is harmonic and can be harmonic only, if especially the vowels in their sound, their quantity and accentuation are reconciled in such a manner as to offer a likeness agreeable to the ear. The harmony required is not gained, when the rhyming syllables are only similar or assonant, when the vowels are of unequal quantity or have a different accentuation, when the consonants, connected with these vowels differ materially in their pronouncing. Now, in the English language of the present century, there manifests itself the bias for rhyming those words which, though sometimes resemblent to one another in spelling, differ greatly in their pronouncing. This fact is to be imputed to the circumstance, thath both the spelling and pronouncing of these words must have been and have been the same or nearly the same some centuries ago. But while the pronunciation of such words has undergone in the course of times various changes, these changes have not been the same ; circumstances have given to one word a pronunciation quite different from that of another word which, in those times gone by, was agreeing with the first; so far that two words, which, in the sixteenth cen- tury perhaps, were apt to form a rhyme, from the likeness of their pronunciation, have become so different that we hardly would believe them to be able to do so now-a-days. However, the consciousness of the former likeness in the pronunciation of those words has continued steady, and has outlived the former pronunciation itself by the memory of, and the close acquaintance with the immortal poems of ancient authors as well as by the endeavours of modern poets, not to commit to oblivion anything which might be able to give larger scope to the expression of the poetical thought. For to prove, that this last circumstance has not been insignificant with regard to the retaining of all rhymes of this kind, we need only say that, the greater the difference is in pronouncing one and the same vowel, or the more divers sounds are existant of one 6 vowel, the less we are able to find a sufficient series of words of quite the same sound. Especially for the English language this motive must have been of importance, since the difference of the same vowel in its pronouncing in sundry words has reached a degree not to be surpassed in any other modern language. We may, therefore, pretend that the motive of retaining such rhymes must be attributed if not to the inclination of imitating the ancient poets, at least to the necessity of enlarging the limits, which would be drawn too nariow by a strict observation and clinging to those words which, in consequence of the like- ness of their sound, alone would be able to form a rhyme. In the subsequeut a sufficient number of examples will be produced in order to prove how far these principles, with regard to the rhyming of words, whose vowels differ in pronunciation, have been carried through. To begin with the vowel a. The first sound of this vowel, to be represented by a 1 — adopting the usual manner of printing — is found to form the rhyme with almost all other sounds of the same vowel and the sounds of the vowel e. To the words waste, place, embrace, haste, chase, safe and to the participles and imperfect tenses ivasted, placed, embraced, chased are the corresponding rhymes of Lord Byron: cast, overcast, last, blast, pass, fast, half, blasted, passed with the sound a 2 . (Childe Harold III, 44, Don Juan III, 63, IV, 54, VII, 36, VIII, 7, X, 48, XII, 69, XVI, 48.) Scott rhymes in the same manner haste with cast (Lady of the Lake VI), Elisabeth Browning haste and ivaste with last and fast (Rhyme of the Duchess May). In Shelley's poems are the rhymes to be found waste: cast (Revolt of Islam III, 12), placed: last (ibid. IV, 2), embraced: cast (ibid. VI, 54), taste and haste: past (Epipsychidion). Wordsworth has similar rhymes; even Keats in whose poems such poetical licenses are to be met with comparatively seldom, rhymes chaste with last. (St. Agnes' Eve XXI.) Tennyson avoids such rhymes, at least to our knowledge, entirely. Rarely, on the contrary, this sound a 1 is to be found to form the rhyme to a*, and not excepting even some few rhymes as for instance place : teas, in a poem of Elis. Browning (The lost bower) and scathe: wrath (Byron, Parisiua), we may conclude, that the difference of those sounds appears even to the English to be too great, as to encourage a poet to make use of such a rhyme. Innumerable instances further prove, that a 4 must be regarded appropriate for rhyming with a 1 . Even Keats rhymes pains with fans (Enclymion). The word have, both infinitive and present tense, is hardly anywhere else to be found but rhyming with words, whose vowel is a 1 . In Wordsworth's poems it rhymes with grave and ivave; in Shelley's with slave and grave (Prince Athanase), in Elis. Browning's with wave, brave, and oftentimes with grave (Romount of the Page, Rhyme on the Duch. May, Bertha in the Lane). — Thomas Moore too has grave, crave and slave rhyming with have (Irish Melodies II nd - Nr. ibid. Rhymes on the Road Ext. II and ibid. Ext. VIII); Scott and Byron brave, gave, grave (Scott, Lady of the Lake III and IV; Harold the Dauntl. I. — Byron, Childe Har. Ill, 48, IV, 89, Don Juan IX, 19, Lament of Tasso, Prophecy of Dante) and even Tennyson does not disdain 8 the last word as a rhyme to have. The participle having rhymes with enslaving (Th. Moore, Little's Poems, Love and Marriage) and in Lord Byron's poems with ivaving and raving (Don Juan III, 30). Other examples of a 1 rhyming with a 4 are the following: shape: lap (Shelley, Eevolt of Islam III, 31), made: had (ibid. II, 25). Face: grass (Elis. Browning, Komance of the swan's nest), face: glass (ibid. Khyme of the Duchess May), place : grass (ibid. Bertha in the Lane). Byron rhymes overtaken with slacken (Deformed trans- formed), places: masses (Morg. Magg.), undertake with black and slack (ibid.), state and date with that (Proph. of Dante IV), base and place with as (Vision of Judgm.), decorate : hat (Don Juan VI, 14), tame : lamb (ibid. Ill, 32), faint: pant (Deform. Transform.). Longfellow rhymes the words space and face with bass (The Occupation of Orion, The Golden Legend). Not less nnmerous than the preceeding are the rhymes in which a 1 corresponds to the vowel, which is represented by the signe e 2 . Tennyson, for instance, rhymes age with hedge (Amphion), strain with men, haste and waste with jest (Death of the old Year) ; made and shade with said, spread, dread, head, dead (The two voices). Byron rhymes the words change, exchange, strange, range with revenge (Lara 11, 8, Prophecy of Dante, Vis. of Judgm., Morg. Magg.), changed with avenged (Siege of Corinth 21), chaste with best (Don Juan 1, 67), made with spread (ibid. Ill, 69), taste with confess d (ibid. VI, 17), main with again and men (ibid. Vll, 31), quaint and saint with spent (Juan Xlll, 65), pain with den and men (Proph. of Dante) ; graven with heaven (ibid.); saints with contents (Yis. of Judgm.); unveil' d with beheld (Bride of Abydos) ; faith with breath (Corsair 111, 17); the same word with death (Juan 11, 76, and ibid. IV, 42) ; page and age with allege (Vis. of Juclgm.). — Scott uses to the words made, shade, blade the corresponding rhymes head, dead, spread (for inst. : Last Minstr. Introd., Marmion V? VI, Lord of the Isles IV); to saint: bent (Last Minstr. Ill), to haste: guest (Marmion VI), to misplaced: guest (Lady of the L.), to gale: threat (Bridal), and so on. Elisabeth Browning proves the same by the rhyme reck to saJce (Rhyme of the Duch. May), Shelley by the word neck rhyming with shake (Revolt of Islam 1, 8), Bryant by the same word neck rhyming with spake (The African chief); Burns offers among others taste to blest (Despondency). At last, and not at all scarcely, there occur to the reader rhymes, in which the sound a 1 corresponds to the sound e 1 . With the word break rhymes streak (Words- worth, Evening walk), weak, cheek and speak (Eelic. Hemans, Forest Sanct. X, ibid. LX1, ibid. Last Con- st antine L1V). The same rhymes are to be found in Byron (Proph. of Dante), Shelley (Marianne's Dream), Scott (Last Minstr., Marmion, Lady of the Lake). Shelley has moreover wake: speak (Revolt of Isl. Vll, 2), haste: feast (Ginevra). Byron rhymes enibrace with peace (Hours of Idleness, to Emma), escapes with heaps (Juan 1, CXX1V). — In a poem of Coleridge, inscribed Lewti, heave rhymes with tvave. — Scott affords the examples: great: defeat (Lord of the Isles IV), gate: seat (Rockeby 11), and (Last 10 Minstr. IV) gait: seat, mate: feat (Rockeby 111), sake: tveak (Harold the Dauntless 1), lake: weak (Lady of the Lake). Moore rhymes veil with steal (Little's Poems, to Rosa), veiVd with conceal' d (ibid., Nature's Labels) and veil with conceal (Odes of Anacr. XVI). If any, the above cited words, streak, tveak, speak, feast, peace, heap, defeat, seat, conceal, a. so o. used as rhymes to break, tvaJce, haste, embrace, mate, eseape, great, gate, sake, lake, prove that this vowel e 1 , if represented by the characters ea, is still to be regarded as entirely apt for rhyming with a 1 , re- presented by a and ea, since the eye of the reader is satisfied by the likeness of the characters, which in other words, as for instance : great, break, are really pronounced ike a 1 . This fact is corroborated by the circumstance that of other words, with the sound e 1 but of an other spelling and origin there are hardly any to be found rhyming with a 1 . The only instance of this last kind we have been able to hit upou, affords Burns in the poem: The cotter's Saturday night, in which theme rhymes with name. A 2 which we have seen already to correspond to a 1 , rhymes further with that long a which is modified by a following r (the French e ouvert). Coleridge rhymes are with care (Lewti), fair (Od to the rain), air (Ancient Mariner V), there (ibid., VII), where (ibid. The pains of sleep); heart with desert (ibid. Happy Husband). Elisabeth Browning: star: fair (Lady Geraldine's Courtship. Shelley: heart: wert (Revolt of Islam, Introd. 7, and: To a Skylark), star: were (Revolt of Islam I, XL). Scott exhibits guard: fared (Lady of 11 the Lake IV), guard: prepared (ibid. V), guard: shared (ibid. VI), heart and part: ivert and assert (Lord of the Isles IV, Rockeby IV, Bridal). Byron rhymes eard with conferrd (Don Juan IX, 46), bard, hard and guard with prepared often (for inst. : Don Juan 1, 21, ibid. Xll, 13, Childe Har. 11, 12, Corsair 1, 14), are with spare (Do- mestic pieces), march and arch with research (Don Juan XV, 25). — The same a 2 rhymes further with a 3 , for the words star, bar, far, are, scar, mar, pass, path continually correspond to war, was, wrath (Tennyson, L'envoy; Byron, Childe Harold 111, 25, 111, 47, 111, 84, IV, 16, IV, 51, IV, 101, IV, 147, Corsair 11, 6, Lara 11, 23, The Island IV, 12, Don Juan IV, 107), harm, arm and charm are in the same manner analogous to warm (Don Juan 11, 114, IV* 13, IV, 41), even o is not excluded, barb: absorb (Byron, Don Juan II, 6) and Tennyson, Campbell, Moore and Byron do not hesitate in rhyming charm and arm wiuh form, inform, ivorm, storm. Exceptional cases, however, are the following, in which a 2 rhymes with e 1 , as fast: east (Wordsworth, The Russian fugitive), path: wreath (ibid. Eccles. Son. Ill, 45). A 3 has been taken notice of already rhyming with a 1 and a 2 ; yet, when the employing of this sound in the said cases has been seen to be comparatively insignificant, the more are the instances in which the same sound rhymes with a 4 and e 2 . Shelley rhymes tvrath with death (Revolt of Islam Vlll, 6) and has (Triumph of Life), was with grass (Rev. of Islam 3); Elisab. Browning all with shall (Sonnets : Work) and call with shall (Calls on the Heart) ; Burns tvrath : death (A Prayer), all : fell (John 12 Barleyco n), want: lent (Grace before dinner). — The following, water: matter, hall: shall, want: grant, fall: shall, water: scatter and flatter, was: class, ivatches, matches, what: that, small: shall, ivas: as and has, tvhat: chat, watch: despatch, walk: attack, was, ass and mass, ivant: cant, tvhat: fat,ivatch: thatch and catch, are rhymes often occuring especially in poems of Lord Byron (Childe Harold 11, 51; 11, 37; 111, 32; 111,116; IV, 44. Lara 11, 6. Don Juan 11, 3; 11, 34; 11, 175; 111, 45; IV, 63; IV, 107 VI, 3; Vll, 8; Vll, 46 ; Vlll, 29; IX, 29; IX, 57; IX, 61 X, 52; X, 56; XI, 44; XI, 54; Xll, 1; XU, 51 Xll, 59; Xlll, 16; XIV, 30; XIV, 88; XV, 16 XV, 41; XV, 43; XVI, 6; XVI, 114, a. s. o.). That even the sound e 1 is not wholly excepted here, proves the rhyme war: ear (Shelley, Prince Athanase) and that a 3 without hesitancy corresponds to o is by the likeness of the sound a matter of course; rhymes, therefore, like was: cross, ivas: toss, what: forgot, ivar: shore, ivas: applause, wars: doors (Browning, Coleridge, Longfellow) a. s. o., contain nothing whereby to surprise the reader. Paying attention now to the sounds represented by the characters e 1 and i 2 there is in the first place to be remarked, that the difference in quantity is neglected in rhymes like the following: dream: him (Tennyson, In memor. LV), need: hid (Scott, Last Minstr. 11), field: kilVd (Byron, Don Juan XIII, 88), yield : huild (ibid, the Island), fields : guilds (ibid. Proph. of Dante). Then, remembering at the same time, that we have hit already upon this sound e 1 , rhyming with a 1 and, less frequently, to be sure, with other sounds of a, the fact is striking, how copious 13 the rhymes are in which e 1 (e, i, ea, ee, ie) is put together with e 2 (e, ea). To cite only part out of the vast number, Scott: feast: guest, priest: crest, hid: red, sheath: death, hiss cl: breast, heath: breath (all taken from The Last Minstr.), least: jest, beneath: death and breath (Marmion), beach: stretch (Lord of the Isles IV), wit: yet, undid: head (Rockeby), dippd: Jcept, list: press d, hid: thread (Bridal), need: the lead, resist: breast (Har. the Dauntl.), ridge: hedge (Field of Wat), — Robert Browning rhymes wreath with breath (Christmas-Eve and East. Day IV); Rogers least: rest (Human life), Words- worth least: breast (White Doe of R.), heath: breath (The Brownie's Cell); Shelley east: nest (Epipsych.), to lead: spread (Adonais), feet: yet a. s. o. Felicia Hemans sheath : death (Aiaric in Italy), wreath : breath (A Poet's dying hymn); Elisabeth Browning reed: head (The lost bower), steed: spread (Rhyme of the Duch. May), teeth and sheath: death (Romount of the Page, and Rhyme of the Duch. May), cheek: neck (ibid.), reed: spread (A Reed). — With the words death and breath rhyme beneath, bequeath, breathe, heath, wreath, underneath, sheath more or less in the works of almost all the modern poets. Likewise is heaven, eleven, seven rhymed exclusively with riven, driven, given, forgiven, even, shriven, uneven, striven (Bryant, Moore, Scott, Burns, Byron, Tennyson, Poe, Longfellow). Coleridge rhymes river with sever, Poe and Longfellow with ever. To quiver, river, shiver, liver, deliver corresponds in the poems of Byron ever, clever, never; to feast : rest, seen : then, deem : them, beads : sheds, reveaVd : beheld, teat: yet, reach 1 d: strctclid, unseaTd: beheld, either: 14 together. The word evil rhymes with devil and level (also in the poems of Poe, Scott, Longfellow). Tennyson affords among other instances the rhymes feet: eoverlet, mist: breast. Frequent enough, though not in the least attaining to the abundance of the preceeding case are the rhymes in which e 1 corresponds to that sound of e, a, ai, ea, known by the French e ouvert. Tear (noun), year, ear rhyme with where, care, stair, bear (Keats, Lamia II, ibid. Isab. V, ibid. Eve of St. Agnes XVII), appear d: fared (ibid. Lamia I.) Rogers rhymes year, tear (noun), hear with wear and there (Captivity, Human Life), Wordsworth : clear: air (Poems of the Fancy XXII); fear: hair y there and rare, year: fair, sphere, here and near: bear occasionally. Byron, E. Browning, Longfellow, Tennyson exhibit the following rhymes: appear d: fared, years: theirs, to hear: wear, bear and were; near, sphere, fear, clear, compeer, here, dear, beard a. s. o. are opposite to bear, sivear, there, hair, care, dare, declare, forbear, spare, declared, spared. (Byron, Childe Harold I, 43 ; Giaur ; Don Juan IV, 41, V, 98; Bride of Abyd. II, 6. Elisab. Browning, Rhyme of the Duch. May. Longfellow, Sunrise on the Hills, The Golden Legend. Tennyson, The Miller's daughter.) Still less frequent, though regularly as to some words, are the rhymes, in which e 1 harmonizes to that souud of e and ea, which is modified by a following r. Shelley, for instance, rhymes heard with reared (R. of Islam IV, 34), Keats with endear d (Ode on a Grec. Urn), Byron with clear d (Ch. H. I, 72), appear d (Lara I, 14), disappear d 15 (Siege of Cor., 33) with feard and sneer d (Don Juan). Scott and Wordsworth rhyme the same word with appear 'd, beard, reard, feard, steered (Scott, Last Minstr. V, Lady of the Lake III, Rockeby III). Other examples of the same kind are fierce: universe (Moore, Lalla Jiookh), pierce: hearse (Scott, Marm.), dearly: early (Poe, To my mother). A number of poets further do not scruple at rhyming i 1 with the diphtong represented by oi and oy. Campbell rhymes shrine, tivine, mine, ivind with join and joind (Theodoric, Gertrude of Wyoming III, 21, Lines writ, at the req. of the Hightl, Society in Lond., Hallowed Ground) ; W T ordsworth smile with toil (Miscell. Sonnets III, 12), entivined, hind, mind with joined (At the grave of Burns ; Poems dedic. to National Independence, Part. II, 28 ; The white doe of Kylst. IV, ibid. VII); Keats aivhile with foil (Endymion II), smile with coil (The cap and bells LXIII), vile, isle, beguile and smile with toil (Endymion II, ibid. Ill, Miscell. poems: To the Nile, ibid. Written after visiting Fingars cave) ; Eogers line and devine with join (The Sailor; To a voice that had been lost), shine with sirloin (Human life). — Shelley, Felic. Hemans, Long- fellow, Bryant and Rob. Browning avoid, for aught we know at least, entirely rhymes of this kind. Elisabeth Browning has only once joined in rhyming with grinding (Song for the ragged schools of Lond.); Coleridge the two passages mind: joined (Poems, writ. i. early youth, Kisses) and eye: joy (ibid. Sonnet II). In the poems of Th. Moore also such rhymes are to be encountered seldom, however he does not wholly reject them, for the evidence of which the passages and J: enjoy (Little's Poems, An Argument) and eye: joy 16 (ibid. Song to . .). — Tennyson too affords the two rhymes tvind: joirid and high: boy. Byron, however, employs al- ready a larger number of such rhymes, as for instance : smile: toil (often), while: soil, defiled: soiled, shines: coins, vice: choice, aisle: soil, child: spoiTd, combined: joined, smiled : coiled, isle : spoil, unkind : rejoin d, replies : voice, hvice: voice. — The poets who most mate use of this kind of rhymes are Burns and Scott. The former has apart from most of the rhymes already mentioned, as follows: despise: joys, vile: toil, die: employ ; spy, eye, hie and sky: joy, child: foiVd (Despondency; Man was made to mourn; New year's day; Address to Edinburgh; To Clarinda ; John Barleycorn ; The Lass of Ballochm). With the latter are frequent: supplied: void, high: boy, smile: broil, mile and while: toil, emprize: boys, behind and assign d: joined, lines: joins, sky: toy, isle: boil, a. s. o. (Last Minstr. Introd., ibid. Ill, IV, Marmion 1, V, VI, Lord of the Isles VI, Bridal of Trierm. Introd., ibid. 11, Harold the Dauntl. Ill, Battle of Sempach). — A greater difference even than that, proved already to be reconciled between the long and short sounds of a is to be remarked with regard to the rhymes in which e 1 and i 2 corresponds to i\ With some words the pronouncing of i 2 like i 1 has become in rhymes quite a rule; we need only quote the noun the tvind, which without any exception rhymes with behind, mind, blind, a. s. o. From other such rhymes there are to be cited especially the verbs to live and to give, rhyming in the poems of Byron with revive, survive, contrive and strive (Proph. of Dante; Childe Harold 111, 30, and ibid. IV, 33) with alive (Scott, Bridal 11), with survive (Felic. 17 Hero an s, the Maremna), with strive (ibid. Arab. Stuart), with revive (ibid. Properzia Rossi), with contrive (Rob. Browning, Easter Day IV and ibid. Dr. Rom., A Gram, funeral), with drive (ibid. East. Day XI); with arrive (Shelley, Epipsych.), with shrive (Keats, Isab. Vlll.) But that this license is not considered as to be granted easily nor to be worth of being imitated in poetry is proved by the rareness of other rhymes of this kind, of which, having made strict scrutiny, we can only bring in the following passages, strife and life rhyming with grief (Shelley, Prince Athan.), price: edifice (Rob. Browning, Christm. Eve X), nice: precipice (Scott, Lady of the L.), ice: precipice (Byron, The Island IV and Don Juan X, 76), quite: favourite (ibid. Ill, 36). Tennyson, Burns, Longfellow, Poe, Moore, Coleridge, Rogers, Campbell, Bryant, Macaulay avoid these rhymes by all means. A particular notice now must be taken of the character y at the end of adverbs and nouns (abstracts). Here again the fact is plainly perspicuous that, though the sound in actual pronouncing has changed considerably, in comparison of the former, — and for the worse cer- tainly, since an almost unintelligible sound has been sub- stituted for the full emphatic one — still, for the sake of the same spelling, this insignificant sound lays claim to the right of rhyming with the euphonic i 1 on account of the identity of both characters as to the eye. — In the poems of Tennyson we chance upon the rhymes die: melody, shy: tenderly, eye: silently, shy: gallery, dry: melody, fly: mistery, by: chastity, I: sympathy, replies: mysteries (Claribel; The Miller's daughter ; Fatima ; Palace 18 of Art; Dream of Fair Women; Blackbird; The two voices, a. s. o.) In the works of Lord Byron the number of such rhymes surpasses expectation. Some of the most striking are the adverbs fervently, incessantly, warily, inglo- riously, fittingly, heavily, earnestly, silently, unpleasantly, furiously, probably, pitcously, a. s. o. corresponding to sigh, eye, sJcye, by, I, reply, nigh and other words with the sound i 1 ; the nouns — by far more frequently to be found — chivalry, victory, majesty, nobility, canopy, dignity, liberty, eternity, reality, deity, immortality, harmony, enemy, a. s. o. rhyming with the above quoted and other words of the same pronouncing like why, high, tie, vie deny, cry, espy, lie, try, supply. — The same rhymes now and others of a similar kind are made use of more or less by all poets, who have been taken notice of here, and there is not one who by avoiding such rhymes implies his disapproving of them. An abuse, however, and a trans- gression even of poetical license, must be termed the circumstance that the same liberty, usurped for the long sound of i 1 — viz. its rhyming with oi and oy — is vindicated also for this not accented y at the end of words. For, when Scott rhymes boy with merrily (Last Minstr. 1). or joy with victory and agony (Lord of the Isles V) ; no- body would be able of asserting, that the expression of a poetical idea could be improved by means of such a rhyme; an opinion, strengthened by the non-occurrance of the like passages in the works of almost all the poets hitherto cited. Turning now to .the various sounds of o and u, we discover in the first place a great many rhymes in which the short sound o 4 answers to the long sound o 1 and to 19 that sound of oa, ou and o\v drawing nearer to a 3 . Rogers rhymes tost with coast (Ode to supers!.); Wordsworth crost and tost with coast and boast (Ecclesiatic Sonnets, Part 1, 5 ; and ibid. Part 11, 25), trod with load (Poems compos, during a tour in the sum. of 1833, Vll), lot, cot and note with sought, brought and float (Eccles. Sonnets, Part 1, 18 ; and ibid. 40 ; Guilt and Sorrow 72 ; Miscellan Sonnets 111, 42); Bryant lost with coast Hymn to the N. Star) — the same rhyme in Fel. Hemans — spot and not with fought and wrought (The murd. travell., The African chief.) ; Macaulay host and post with coast (The Armada, Battle of the Lake Keg. XXIII) ; Coleridge groan : one (Anc. Mar. Ill), groan: shone (Ode to the dep. year IV). — Tennyson rhymes afloat: wot, soul: toll, coast: host and lost, boast: most, a. s. o. Longfellow: coast: host and post, boast: lost, road: abode (The Slave sing, at midn. — The w r arden of the cinq. p. — Copl. de Manriq.) As there is no great difficulty to be overcome in accomodating these sounds we shall be contented with citing only some few passages more, taken from the poems of Byron, Scott and Burns; lost: boast, alone: gone, abroad: god, boast: cost, soul: toll, road: trod, boat: shot, bowl: troll, bought: not, nought: shot, blown: won, moan: shone, load: abode, float: sot, broadly: godly, broke: rock, thrown: shone, goaded: boded, abroad: odd. — Though a greater constraint must be put on correct pronouncing in assimilating o (both short and long) to o 2 (u 3 ), yet rhymes, joining both these vowels, are employed not scarcely. Bryant rhymes flowed with wood (An Ind. at the bur. pi. of h. f.) ; Elis. Browning low with through (Romount of the Page) and god and road 20 with would (Bertha in the Lane). Longfellow presents the rhymes tvhole: cool (Black knight), home: bloom (The blind girl of C. C). Poe: more: sure (The conq. worm). Shelley: gloived: stood (Triumph of Life) Scott: showed: ivood (Rock. II), grove: move (Lord of the Isles IV). Tennyson offers the rhymes more: poor, grove: move, hopes: droops, alone: moon. By far the greatest number of passages as to others, to this license too, is offered by Byron. Rhymes like more : poor, home and from : room, bonds : the wounds, bestow 9 d: mood, groiv: through, shone: moon, ago and foe: who, hioiv: Uvo, home: whom, are in his poems to be encountered occasionally. With some words there manifests itself further a predilection for rhyming the sounds o 2 and u 2 . The most conspicuous among these are prove, move (moved, moving, proved, proving) and their compounds approve, improve, to be met with, rhyming with love, loved, loving, belove, above, in rather frequent a number. From other such rhymes we may cite womb and tomb corresponding to come, boometh: cometh, moon: one (Tennyson), gloom: come (Longfellow), doom and tomb: some (Byron). From all sounds of o and u there is in the whole none which in rhyming, is able to assimilate itself in so large an extension to other sounds as the sound u 2 . Come and become, for instance, rhyme with home, dome, roam, foam, gloom, ivhom, room, tomb in poems of almost all modern writers; love and above in the same manner rhyme with throve, dove, strove, ivove, glove, grove, rove, prove, move; trouble with noble (Byron, Deform. Transform, and Don Juan II, 73) ? drum: home (ibid. Don Juan XI, 26) ? 21 return, .burn and urn with mourn and bourne (Scott, Burns, Byron), enough, with proof and roof (Byr, Morg. Magg.). One of the most striking words, and the most frequently occurrent too, is blood, which together with bud, mud, but, shut harmonizes with words of almost all the various sounds of o and u, so with rod and god (Tennyson), with good, wood, hood (hardihood, womanhood) stood (understood), food, flood, foot, should, wood, feud, rude, sued, brood, renew d and even with oived (Scott,. Lady of the Lake II). Not paying now closer attention to the less important diversities of pronunciation, as for instance offered by the heterogeneousness of u 1 and u 3 {duke: look, rebuke: brook r solitude: wood, mute: foot, a. s. o.) we needs must regard one license more, which as well by the greater difference of actual pronouncing as by its frequent occurrence greatly surprises the reader, viz: that license of rhyming the sounds of o and u with the diphtong o 3 u 3 . Out of the number of poets, whose rhymes have been taken into con- sideration in the foregoing, Campbell and Macaulay are the only ones in whose poems no rhyme is to be chanced upon, corroborating the correctness of this case. With great precaution too this license is indulged in by Bryant, Rogers, Rob. Browning, Poe and others. Bryant has only once bound rhyming with the ivound (The Alcayde of Mol.). Rogers affords only two instances, bowed: glotved (Ode to Superst. 11, 1), and broiv: below (Hum. Life). Rob. Browning and Poe have *also the word broiv, the former rhyming with grow (Dis alit. vis.), the latter with knoiv (Al Araaf). Longfellow offers the rhymes hour: to loiver 22 (The children's hour) and brow: gloiv (The child asleep.). Keats: adoim: sivoon (Endym ), house: muse, how: know (Lamia), hours: implores (St. Agn. Eve IX), howl and foul: soul (ibid. X). Wordsworth: already in a more frequent number: boiver: floor (An evening walk), town: own and unknown (Guilt and sorrow XXIX, and The Poet's dream); the ivound: profound, round and froivned (The idle shepherd - boys , The pass of Kirkstone 1 ; Miscell. Sonnets Part 11, 1); broivn: flown (Her eyes are wild Vll); floiver: four (To the same flower); plough: low (At the Grave of Burns) power : door (Eccles. Sonnets Part 1, 36). — Burns : power : devour (Third Epist. to Rob. Graham), down: own, (Mary, Powers celest.), croivn: disoivn (Mark yonder pomp), broivn: floivn (The lazy mist) bound: the wound (The bonnie banks of Ayr). Tennyson further does not appear at all to shun such rhymes, exhibiting to brow and noiv the corresponding rhymes lotv, snow, below, go, know, to flower: pour, to poiver: door, to toivn: flown, to croivn and,, renown : own-, nay even to flower: bore and to house: close. Scott, comparatively seldom rhymes round with ownd (Last Minstr. II) loud with stood (ibid.), down with own (Marm. 11) and with stroivn (Rockeby 11), goivn with knoivn, and the ivound with profound, ground and round, now and then. Thomas Moore rhymes down with grown, blown and won often; the wound with round, found, resound, around] shower with pour, brou) with below, show, snow. Pelicia Hem an s rhymes now and brow with glow, flow, blow, low, snoiv (Last Constant LXX, ibid. LXXVII; Coeur-de-Lion at the b. of h. fath.; The Suliote Mother; The Deserted House; The Summer's 23 Call.), down with overt hroivn (The Cavern of the three Tells), bozving with throwing (Forest Sanct. XI). Coleridge does not appear to be fond of these rhymes, representing only the three words broiv, poiver and sound, the first rhyming with below, glow and go (Monody on the death of Chatt. Songs of the Pixies XII ; To the auth. of po. publ. anonym.), the second with more (Tell's Birth, place), and the last with the wound (Dejection.) Freely, on' the contrary, this license is indulged in by Elisab. Browning, in whose poems we find the following rhymes, showers: doors ; brow and now harmonizing to through, blow and gloiv frequently; doivn rhyming with alone, sun, upon, boon, own, stone, thrown, own; doubt, out and ivithout rhyming with thought, throat, foot ; mouth with youth, truth, sooth, forsooth, hour and power with slower; gown with moon, noon, sewn; thou with the bow (33ogen) ; drown with groan. — Shelley now and Byron utterly carry the prize in exhibiting an astonishing number of passages, by means of which this license may be regarded to form rather the rule. The former rhymes now, plough, bough, to bow, thou, how with ivoe , flow, below, go, ago, knoiv. low, bestow, overthroiv, also, blow, a&d even with you; — frown, town, down and crown with hioivn, alone, disown, throne, hereon, on, none, — croivd, cloud, aloud with flood, understood, abroad, showed, abode, god; — poiver and tower with sivore, floor, devour, bore; — ground and around with moand