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THE
RHYMESTER:
OR,
THE RULES OF RHYME.
A GUIDE TO ENGLISH VERSIFICATION.
WITH
A DICTIONARY OF RHYMES,
AN EXAMINATION OF CLASSICAL MEASURES, AND
COMMENTS UPON BURLESQUE, COMIC VERSE.
AND SONG-WRITING.
By the late TOM HOOD.
EDITED, W rr H ADDITIONS, BY
ARTHUR PENN.
NEW YORK:
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
I, 3, AND s BOND STREET,
1882.
COPYRIGHT BV
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
1882.
1517
nr
H
y
NOTE
BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.
T T is now ten or a dozen years since there ap-
oc peared in London a little volume called " The
"^ Rules of Rhyme," and signed by Tom Hood.
■ ^ The author of this manual of versification was
c the only son of the Thomas Hood who sang the
■^ " Song of the Shirt " and wrote " Whims and
uil Oddities," who mingled smiles and tears all his
life long, making a brave fight against disease
and death, until at last the latter won the vic-
tory, snatching him from the bed whereon he lay
** spitting blood and puns." Named after his
father, Thomas Hood the younger took to his
father's trade, and led the laborious life of a
working journalist all his days. Proud of his
father's name, he chose always to sign himself
"Tom Hood," that he might not be accused of
47.'J??8
^ THE RHYMESTER.
trying to trade on his father's reputation. He
was born in 1835, and he died toward the end
of 1874. He began life as a clerk in the War
Office, a position he gave up in 1865, when he
became editor of "Fun." In the course of his
literary career he wrote four or five novels, of
which at least one — " For Valor " — was repub-
lished in this country ; and he edited as many
Christmas annuals. In 1868 he published his
first " Comic Annual," in imitation of his father,
and so popular did he make it that it continues
to appear even now, seven years after his death.
He also wrote and illustrated many books for
children. As editor of " Fun," he showed that
he was also the author of " Rules of Rhyme " ;
he practiced what he preached, and he neither
Avrote nor tolerated slipshod rhyme and halting
rhythm. While he edited "Fun," its verse —
comic or serious, pathetic or satiric — had always
a high degree of technical merit. He could not
make poets of all those who wrote verse for the
paper; but he could and did make them mend
their paces and mind their stops. He was only
a minor poet himself, but he had a keen under-
NOTE BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.
5
standing of verse and great metrical facility, as
any one may see who considers the posthumous
volume of his poems edited by his sister, Frances
Freeling Broderip.
In the present edition the American editor
has dealt very freely with the English author's
text, treating Tom Hood's " Rules of Rhyme "
very much as he treated the "Young Poet's
Guide " when he reprinted it as a supplement to
his own treatise. He has made occasional alter-
ations, a few omissions, and more frequent in-
sertions. The most of the added matter is indi-
cated by brackets, [thus]. It has been deemed
inadvisable to point out in detail all the minor
changes, and it is hoped that a general ac-
knowledgment here will suffice. Three whole
chapters have been added — one on the sonnet,
another on the rondeau arid the ballade, and a
third on the other fixed forms of verse. The
brief dictionary of rhymes has been revised, sim-
plified, rearranged, and somewhat enlarged ; and
to it have been prefixed a few lines of Ben Jon-
son's on the difficulties and dangers of rhyme,
which seemed pertinent. A. P.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
NOTE BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR . . 3
INTRODUCTION (bY TOM HOOD) . Q
CHAP. I. — VERSE GENERALLY . . . -17
II. — CLASSIC VERSIFICATION . . 25
III. — GUIDES AND HAND-BOOKS . . -34
IV. — OF FEET AND C^SURA . . . 42
V. — METER AND RHYTHM . . 46
VI. — OF RHYME .... 65
VII. — OF FIGURES . . . . . 71
VIII. — OF BURLESQUE AND COMIC VERSE, AND
VERS DE SOCIETE . . . 76
IX. — OF SONG-WRITING ... 83
X. — OF THE SONNET . . . .86
XI. — OF THE RONDEAU AND THE BALLADE QI
XII. — OF OTHER FIXED FORMS OF VERSE . 105
A FIT OF RHYME AGAINST RHYME (bY BEN
jonson) . . . .119
a dictionary of rhymes . . . 123
INTRODUCTION.
T AM anxious at the first outset that the ob-
ject of this work should not be misunder-
stood. It does not assume to be a hand-book
for poets, or a guide to poetry. The attempt
to compile such a book as is implied by either
of those titles would be as absurd as preten-
tious.
A poet, to paraphrase the Latin, is created,
not manufactured. Cicero's " nascimur poetse,
fimus oratores,"* is, with some modification,
even more to the point. In a word, poetical
genius is a gift, but education and persever-
ance will make almost any man a versifier.
All, therefore, that this book aims to teach
is the art of versification. That art, like logic,
is " ars instrumentalis, dirigens mentem inter
* " We are born poets ; we make ourselves orators."
lo THE RHYMESTER.
cognitionem rerum."* As logic does not sup-
ply you with arguments, but only defines the
mode in which they are to be expressed or
used, so versification does not teach you how
to write poetry, but how to construct verse.
It may be a means to the end, but it does not
pretend to assure its attainment. Versification
and logic are to poetry and reason what a
parapet is to a bridge : they do not convey
you across, but prevent you from falling over.
The difference is that which exists between
rexvi] and eTnar^j^Tj.f
This definition is rendered necessary by
the Dogberry spirit which is now abroad, and
which insists that " to be a well-favored man
is the gift of fortune " — fortune in the sense
of wealth, I presume — " but to write and read
comes by nature " ; in fact, that, to be " a
poet," a man needs to be advantageously
placed in the world, but that any one can
" write poetry."
* " An instrumental art, directing the mind to the knowl-
edge of things."
t "Art" and "science."
INTRODUCTION. 11
With this conviction, I have discarded the
title of a guide for " poets," feeling that there
is much real poetry that is not in verse, and
a vast deal of verse that is not poetry ; and
that, therefore, " a hard and fast line " was of
the first importance to mark the boundary of
my undertaking. Poetry is far less a question
of manner than of matter, whereas versification
is purely a question of form. I will even
venture to say that some of our noblest poems
are in prose ; and that many great poets have
been but inferior versifiers. But what these
last wrote has possessed qualities compared
with which the mere mechanism of their verse
is as nothing. The poet gives to the world
in his sublime thoughts diamonds of the pur-
est water. It would be idle to quibble about
minor points of the polishing and setting of
such gems— they would lose in the process !
But the writer of verse does not — and should
not — pretend to give us diamonds. He offers
paste brilliants ; and therefore it the more be-
hooves him to see to the perfection of the cut-
ting, on which their beauty depends.
12 THE RHYMESTER.
The thoughts presented by the poet may
be rough-hewn ; the fancies of the versifier
must be accurately finished, and becomingly
set. Poetry, therefore, abounds in licenses,
while versification boasts only of laws.
To enumerate, explain, and define these
laws is the object of this work. Nor is such
a task a waste of time, as those may be in-
clined to think vvho argue that, if one can not
write poetry, 'tis absurd to try to write verse.
Yet versification is an elegant accomplishment,
to say the least — " emoUit mores, nee sinit esse
feros."* But it is something more than an
elegant accomplishment — much more.
In the dead languages — leaving in abey-
ance the question of classical versus mathe-
matical education — nothing gives such schol-
arly finish as the practice of Greek and Latin
verse-writing, nothing such an intimate knowl-
edge and understanding of the genius of either
language.
Were English versification taught in our
schools, I believe the boys would acquire a
* " It softens the manners and forbids their roughness."
INTRODUCTION. 13
better understanding and appreciation of their
own tongue. With such training, a lad would
shrink from a mispronunciation as he does •
from a false quantity in Latin or Greek. He
would not fall into the slipshod way of pro-
nouncing "doing" as if it were spelled "doin'/'
and "written and spoken" as if " writtun and
spokun." He would not make dissyllables of
words like "fire" and "mire," or of the tri-
syllable "really." Nor would he make another
mistake (very common now, as revealed in
magazine verse where such words are put to
rhyme, " before " and " more ") of pronouncing
"ure" as " ore "—" shore " and " asshore " for
" sure " and " assure," of which, of course, the
correct pronunciation is "shewre," "ashewre."*
The purging of our pronunciation would be
of general benefit. At present it is shifting
and uncertain, because it is never taught.
Surely the deterioration of our language is not
* The derivation of this vulgarism is ancient, and not very
dignified. "Sewer" and "shore," meaning a drain, are, of
course, the same word. It seems absurd, when we have so few
vowels, to allow the distinctive sound of any of them to be lost,
as it would be in this case, by the " o " and " u " becoming in-
terchanged.— (T. H.)
H
THE RHYMESTER.
a minor matter, and when it can be removed
by the encouragement of verse-writing at our
schools, strictly and clearly taught, it seems
astonishing that no effort has been made in
that direction.*
However, whether, by establishing a system
of English versifying at our schools, we shall
ever endeavor to give fixity to our pronuncia-
tion, is a question hardly likely, I fear, to be
brought to the test yet awhile. That English
versifying is a strong educational power, I do
not doubt, and, in that belief, have endeavored
to render this hand-book as complete as possible.
I have therefore laid down the most stringent
rules and the clearest formulae in my power.
Verse is but the A B C of poetry, and the
student must learn his alphabet correctly. We
should not allow a child to arrange the letters
as he chose — " A, Z, B, G, C " — nor must the
* There is one decided advantage to the public which would
accrue from the teaching of versification in schools. We should
be saved the infliction of much nonsense, published under the
name of poetry. For it is to be hoped that no man, who had
been well-grounded in the mechanism of verse as a lad, would
think of publishing in mature age what he would know were but
school-exercises only, and not poems. — (T. H.)
IN TROD UCTION. 1 5
beginner in verse dream of using any licenses
of a similar kind. I should fail in my duty if
I admitted anything of the kind ; for, while it
would be presumption to lay down laws for
poets, it would be incapacity to frame licenses
for versifiers.
I therefore conclude these prefatory re-
marks by adducing the two chief regulations
for the student :
First. That he must use such rhymes only
as are perfect to the ear, when correctly
pronounced.
Second. That he must never write a line
which will not sooner or later in the
stanza have a line to correspond with a
rhyme.
To these I may add, as a rider, this piece
of advice (somewhat in the style of the whist
maxim, "When in doubt, play a trump"): If
you have reason to choose between tv/o styles
of versification, select the more difficult.
It is only by sustaining your verse at the
highest elevation that you can hope even to
approach poetry.
l6 THE RHYMESTER.
" Be bold— be bold— but not too bold ! "
And bear in mind the words of Sir Philip
Sidney : " Who shootes at the midday Sonne,
though he be sure he shall neuer hit the
marke ; yet as sure he is, he shall shoote
higher than who aymes but at a bush."
T. H.
CHAPTER I.
VERSE GENERALLY.
THERE is no better text for this chapter than some
Hnes from Pope's " Essay on Criticism " :
" But most by numbers judge a poet's song,
And smooth or rough, with them, is right or wrong :
These equal syllables alone require,
Tho' oft the ear the open vowels tire ;
5 While expletives their feeble aid do join ;
And ten low words oft creep in one dull line :
While they ring round the same unvaried chimes,
With sure returns of still recurring rhymes ;
Where'er you find ' the cooling western breeze,'
10 In the next line it ' whispers through the trees ' :
If crystal streams ' with pleasing murmurs creep,'
The reader's threaten'd — not in vain — with ' sleep.'
Then at the last and only couplet, fraught
With some unmeaning thing they call a thought,
15 A needless Alexandrine ends the song,
That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.
Leave such to tune their own dull rhymes, to know
What's roundly smooth, or languishingly slow ;
And praise the easy vigor of a line
20 Where Denham's strength and Waller's sweetness join.
l8 THE RHYMESTER.
True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learned to dance.
'Tis not enough no harshness gives offence,
The sound must seem an echo to the sense.
25 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 roar ;
When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,
30 The line, too, labors, and the words move slow.
Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain,
Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main."
Johnson sneers somewhat at the attempt at what he
styles "representative meter." He quotes "one of the
most successful attempts " —
" With many a weary step, and many a groan.
Up a high hill he heaves a huge round stone ;
The huge round stone, resulting with a bound.
Thunders impetuous down and smokes along the ground."
After admitting that he sees the stone move slowly
upward, and roll violently back, he says, " try the same
numbers to another sense —
" While many a merry tale and many a song
Cheer'd the rough road, we wish'd the rough road long.
The rough road then returning in a round
Mock'd our impatient steps, for all was fairy ground."
"We have now," says the Doctor, "lost much of
the delay and much of the rapidity." Truly so !—
but why ? The choice of words has really altered the
measure, though not the number of syllables. If we
VERSE GENERALLY. 19
look at the second line of the first extract, we see how
the frequent use of the aspirate, with a long sound
after it, gives the labor of the ascent. There is
nothing of this in the corresponding line, where the
" r " gives a run rather than a halt to the measure.
But Johnson more decidedly shows how he was mis-
taken when he finds fault with Pope's —
" The varying verse, the full resounding line,
The long majestic march, and energy divine."
His objection to this is, that the same sequence of
syllables gives " the rapid race " and " the march of
slow-paced majesty " ; and he adds, " the exact pro-
sodist will find the line of swiftness by one time longer
than that of tardiness." By this it is to be presumed
he alludes to the trisyllabic nature of the first foot of
the first line — "varying." But it is just that which
gives the rapidity. The other half of the line is not
meant to give rapidity, but " resounding." The second
line, by the repetition of the "a" in "march" and
" majesty," gives the tramp of the march to admira-
tion.
So much for Johnson's objections. We will now
see how far the lines of Pope can guide us in the con-
struction of verse.
Line Third indicates the necessity — which Pope
himself, even, did not adequately recognize — the neces-
sity of varying the fall of the \-erse on the ear. Pope
did this by graduating his accents. The line should
scan with an accented syllable following an unaccented
one —
2
20 THE RHYMESTER.
" And smooth' or rough', with them', is right' or wrong'."
Pope varied this by a sort of compromise —
" And the' smooth stream' in smoother' numbers' flows',"
would be the right scansion. But the accent passes in
a subdued form from " the " to " smooth," which pleas-
antly modulates the line, and gives the flow required
for the figure treated of.*
But there was another means of varying the verse
which was not in those days adopted. It was not
then recognized that there were some cases in which
the unaccented syllable might have two " beats."
Pope wrote,
" The gen'rous pleasure to be charm'd with wit."
Had he written " generous," it might have stood, and
would have given a variety. And this would have
saved the eyesore of such lines as —
" T' admire superior sense and doubt our own."
Line Fourth does not exactly describe the fault
it commits. " The open vowel " is no offense, but
rather a beauty, though like all beauty it must not be
too lavishly displayed. The fault of the line really lies
in the repetition of the same broad sound — " o." The
* An instance of the contrary effect will be found in Tenny-
son's line —
" Long lines of cliff brealcing had left a chasm."
Here the proper stress should be " break'ing-," according to
scansion, but the accent thrown back on the first syllable gives
a sudden sort of halt suggestive of the fall of the cliff. — (T. H.)
VERSE GENERALLY. 21
same vowel-sounds should not be repeated in a line.*
This especially holds good where they are so associated
with consonants as to form a rhyme, or anything ap-
proaching to it.
Line Fifth points out an inelegance which no one
with any ear could be guilty of — the use of " do " and
" did," to eke out a line or help a rhyme.
Line Sixth indicates a practice which those who
have studied Latin versification would avoid without
such a hint, since the nature of the caesura compels
the avoidance of monosyllables.
Line Ninth, with the following three lines, warns
against an error which naturally becomes the more
frequent the longer English verse is written, since
rhymes become more and more hackneyed every day.
Line Sixteenth. The Alexandrine will come
under discussion in its place among meters.
Line Twenty-first might well serve for a motto
for this little treatise. If a poet said 1,his of poetiy,
how much more does it apply to versification !
Line Twenty-fifth. Here, and in the following
line, by delicate manipulation of the accent. Pope gets
the desired effect. Instead of "So soft' the strain',"
he attracts the ear with " Soft' is," and the unexpected
word gives the key-note of the line.
Line Twenty-seventh. It is almost needless
* Yet this is not all that is requisite to make music. Brown-
ing, I think I may say, never repeats the same sound ; Tenny-
son frequently does ; yet the latter's verse has a better flow than
the former's. But this may be the result of other arts employed
by the Laureate. — (T. H.)
22 THE RHYMESTER.
to point out how in this, and the next line, the poet,
by artful management of accent and careful selection
of onomatopoetic words, gives the required assonance
to the lines.
Line Twenty-ninth. The broad vowels here
give the requisite pause and " deliberation " to the
verse. In the following line, the introduction of " too "
— (under some circumstances it might well come under
the condemnation of Line Fifth) — makes the line labor,
and the open " o " at the end of the line " tires the
ear."
Line Thirty-first. Here the poet gets the slide
of the " s " to give the idea of motion. In the follow-
ing line, by the elision and the apt introduction of short
syllables, he repeats the notion. In my opinion the
artistic skill of Pope is peculiarly obsen-able in the last
few couplets. In the first line in each instance the
effect is produced by the use of a different artifice
from that employed in the second.
These rules were of course intended by Pope to
apply only to the measure called " heroic," i. e., deca-
syllabic verse. But, mutatis mutandis, they will be
equally applicable to general verse.
Coleridge, in his " Christabel," struck out what he
considered a new meter, which he describes as "not,
properly speaking, irregular, though it may seem so
from its being founded on a new principle : namely,
that of counting in each line the accents, not the sylla-
bles. Though the latter may vary from seven to
twelve, yet in each line the accents will be found to be
only four." This was a decided step in the right direc-
VERSE GENERALLY. 23
tion, being in truth a recognition of the principle that
measure in English was not exhausted — was, indeed,
hardly satisfied — by the old rule of thumb; that, in
short, it needed a compromise between accetit and
quatittty.
Southey, in his " Thalaba," essayed a new style of
versification, of which he writes as follows :
" It were easy to make a parade of learning by enu-
merating the various feet which it admits ; it is only
needful to observe that no two lines are employed in
sequence which can be read into one. Two six-
syllable lines (it will perhaps be answered) compose
an Alexandrine; the truth is, that the Alexandrine,
when harmonious, is composed of two six-syllable
lines. One advantage this meter assuredly possesses ;
the dullest reader can not distort it into discord. . . .
I do not wish the improvisatore time, but something
that denotes the sense of harmony; something like
the accent of feeling ; like the tone which every poet
necessarily gives to poetry." Of course, by "six syl-
lables " Southey means " six feet." He was evidently
struggling for emancipation from the old rule of thumb.
[After Southey and Coleridge came Edgar Allen
Poe, who went a step further, and in his essay on the
" Rationale of Verse " pointed out the path of true
progress and indicated the only way in which we could
hope to get light on the meters and rhythms of the
past. Poe's essay should be attentively studied by all
who wish to understand the mechanism of verse.]
Of late many eccentricities of versification have
been attempted after the manner of Mr. Whitman, but
24 THE RHYMESTER.
for these, like the Biblical echo of Mr. Tupper's muse,
there seem to be no perceptible rules, even should it
be desirable to imitate them.
I would here add a few words of advice to those
who, by the study of our greatest writers, would en-
deavor to improve their own style. For smoothness I
should say Waller, in preference even to Pope, because
the former wrote in far more various measures, and
may challenge comparison with Pope, on Pope's own
ground, with " The Ode to the Lord Protector," in
decasyllabic verse. For music — " lilt " is an expressive
word that exactly conveys what I mean — they can not
do better than choose Herrick. Add to these two
George Herbert, and I think the student will have a
valuable guide in small space. [Add, also, Longfellow,
who is a master of meters and whose verse has a sing-
ing simplicity equaled only by Heine's— if by his.]
CHAPTER II.
CLASSIC VERSIFICATION.
IT was once thought that the best and easiest way of
learning Enghsh grammar was through the Latin.
That English versification can not be similarly acquired
through the Latin is due to the fact that the Latin sys-
tem depends on quantity, and the English chiefly on
accent and rhyme. Nevertheless, a slight acquaintance
with the classic measures will prove useful to the stu-
dent of English verse. In the absence of all teaching
of English versification at our schools, they have done
good service in giving our boys some insight into the
structure of verse.
The structure of Latin and Greek verse depends on
the quantity — the length or shortness expressed by the
forms — v^. A long syllable is equal in duration to two
short syllables, which may therefore take its place (as
it may take theirs) in certain positions. The combina-
tions of syllables are called feet, of which there are
about nine-and-twenty. Seven of the most common
are here given :
Spondee
Trochee — ^
Iambus ^ —
Dactyl — v^ v^
Amphibrach v_/ —
Anapsest v^ w —
Amphimaccr — w —
26 THE RHYMESTER.
[In a " Lesson for a Boy," written for his son Der-
went, Coleridge has described and exemplified these
feet in English :
" Trochee trips from long to short ;
From long to long in solemn sort
Slow Spondee stalks ; strong foot ! yet ill able
Ever to come up with Dactyl trisyllable ;
Iambics march from short to long ;
With a leap and a bound the swift Anapests throng ;
One syllable long, with a short at each side,
Amphibrachy hastes with a stately stride ;
First and last being long, middle short, Amphimacer
Strikes his thundering hoofs, like a proud high-bred
racer."]
Of the styles of verse produced by combinations of
these feet the most important are the Heroic, or Hexa-
meter ; the Elegiac, alternate Hexameters and Pen-
tameters ; and the Dramatic or Iambic. All others
may be classed as Lyrics.
The Caesura (division) is the separation of each
verse into two parts by the ending of a word in the
middle of a certain foot.* It may be here noted that
this principle (the ending of a word in the middle
of a foot) applies generally to the verse, it being
an inelegance to construct lines of words of which
each constitutes a foot. The well-known line of Vir-
gil, marked to show the feet, will explain this at a
glance —
" Arma vi|rumque ca|no || Trojjse qui | primus ab | oris."
* The cassura in some cases falls at the end of the foot. — (T. H.)
CLASSIC VERSIFICATION.
27
In this the csesura occurs in the third foot, between
ca7io and Trojce. But in no case is one foot composed
of one word only.
The Hexameter line consists of, practically, five
dactyls and a spondee or trochee. A spondee may
take the place of each of the first four dactyls — and
sometimes, but very rarely, of the fifth. The caesura
falls in the third foot at the end of the first — and some-
times at the end of the second — syllable of the dactyl.
In some cases it is in the fourth foot, after the first syl-
lable. The last word in the line should be either a
dissyllable or trisyllable.
The Pentameter is never used alone, but, with an
Hexameter preceding it in the distich, forms Elegiac
Verse. It consists of two parts, divided by a cssura,
each part composed of two dactyls (interchangeable
with spondees) and a long syllable.* The last place in
the line should be occupied by a dissyllabic word— at
least it should not be a monosyllable or trisyllable.
The Iambic is most commonly used in a six-foot
line of iambics (the trimeter iambic ; see the note on
last paragraph). In the first, third, and fifth place a
spondee may be substituted, and there are other li-
censes which we need not here enter upon, as the
measure is not of much importance for our purposes.
The caesura occurs in the third or fourth foot.
* The name Pentameter {five-ioot) is derived from the long
syllables being incomplete feet, and counting together as one, so
as to make five with the four dactyls. In anapsestics and iam-
bics the meter is a dipod, i. e., it includes two feet, so that cin
iambic dimeter, contains not two but four iambics. — (T. H.)
28 THE RHYMESTER.
The Lyrics are, as a rule, compound verses ; differ-
ent sorts of feet enter into the formation of the lines ;
and the stanzas consist of lines of different kinds, and
are styled strophes.
The chief of the lyric measures are the Sapphic
and Alcaic.
The Sapphic is a combination of three Sapphic
verses with an Adonic.
Lines 1,2, 3, — v^| |_||v_,^|_^j_i=i
Line 4, — ww |
The double line represents the caesura, which in rare
instances falls a syllable later.
The Alcaic is, like the Sapphic, a four-line stanza.
Its scheme is :
Lines i and 2, — — | ^ — | —
Lines, ^-1 ^-1-
Line 4, — v^v^|— v^^|— v_/|— ^
That is to say, it consists of two eleven-syllable, one
nine-syllable, and one ten-syllable Alcaic lines (Alcaici
hendeka-, ennea-, and deka-syllabici). Much of the
success of the stanza depends on the f^ow of the third
line, which, according to the best models, should con-
sist of three trisyllables (or equivalent combinations,
e. g., a dissyllable noun with its monosyllabic preposi-
tion).
When it is stated that Horace wrote in four- or
five-and-twenty lyric measures, it will be obvious that
I can not exhaust, or attempt to exhaust, the list of
measures in a work like this. The reader will have
acquired some notion of the nature of classic versifica-
CLASSIC VERSIFICATION.
29
tion, from what I have stated of Latin composition ap-
plying with unimportant differences to Greek. Those
who have the leisure or the inclination might do worse
than study Greek and Latin poetiy, if only to see if
they can suggest no novelties of meter. I can recall
no English verse that reproduces Horace's musical
measure :
" Miserar' est | nequ' amorl dare ludum | neqiie dulci
Mala vino — laver' aut exjaniman | metuentes
PatruSe veribera linguie."
[Poe rebelled against accepted principles of classic
prosody. In his essay on the " Rationale of Verse "
he declared that " employing from among the numerous
ancient feet the spondee, the trochee, the iambus, the
anapaest, the dactyl, and the csesura alone," he engaged
" to scan correctly any of the Horatian rhythms, or any
true rhythm that human ingenuity can conceive." He
denounces all the classic feet save those just named,
and even denies their existence " except in the brains
of the scholiasts.]
Greek verse seems a less promising field than Latin
at a first glance. But one of the choruses in Aristo-
phanes's " Plutus " has an exact echo in English verse-
" Sj'Spes (^(\o( KOI Srifidrai /cit tov trovfiv ipacrrdi,"
may fairly run in a curricle with
" A captain bold of Halifax who lived in country quarters."
The great difficulty of finding a corresponding
measure in English for Latin or Greek verse, on the
accepted theory that the English acute accent answers
to the Latin long quantity, and the grave accent to the
30 THE RHYMESTER.
short, will be found in the spondee. We have no means
of replacing the two longs in juxtaposition, and are
compelled to find refuge in what, according to the ac-
cent-quantity theory, is either an iamb or a trochee.
I subjoin the following attempts to render a few
Latin meters, commencing with a translation of the
Horatian measure just alluded to :
" Hapless lasses who in glasses may not drown those pangs
of passion,
Or disclose its bitter woes, it's— so they tell you— not the
fashion."
Yet this, in spite of the sub-rhymes which give the
swing of the lonicus ( w v^ -'- ) may well be read as a
succession of trochees— that is to say, according to the
quantity-accent system.
Here is an attempt at the Sapphic :
' * Never — ah me — now, as in days aforetime
Rises o'ervvhelming memory — 't is banish'd !
Scenes of loved childhood, can not ye restore time,
Though it has vanish'd ? "
The Alcaic measure is essayed in the following :
" Ah woe ! the men who gallantly sallying
Strode forth undaunted, rapidly rallying —
No longer advancing attack-ward,
Rush'd a disorderly tumult backward."
In these, again, the difficulty of exactly replacing quan-
tity by accident is great— if not insurmountable. Hence
it is that, as a rule, the attempts at giving the exact
reproductions of Latin measures have failed. Never-
theless, I believe that corresponding measures, suitable
CLASSIC VERSIFICATION. 31
to the genius of our language, may be suggested by a
study of the classics.
The often-quoted lines of Coleridge on the hexame-
ter and pentameter appear to me faulty :
" In the hex|ameter | rises || the | fountain's | silvery | col-
umn—
In the pen|tameter ] aye || falling in | melody | back."
The first feet of both lines are less dactyls than ana-
psests. The caesura of the first line is not the " worth-
ier" caesura. In the second line the monosyllable is
inadmissible in the last place. [Better are the lines of
Coleridge in which the Homeric hexameter is described
and exemplified :
" Strongly it bears us along in swelling and limitless bil-
lows—
Nothing before and nothing behind but the sky and the
ocean."]
Here I may as well point out what seems to me to
be a difficulty of English versification which has given
much trouble. The substitution of accent for quantity
is not all that is required to make the best verse.
Quantity enters into the consideration too. A com-
bination of consonants, giving an almost imperceptible
weight to the vowel preceding them, goes far to dis-
qualify it for a place as an unaccented syllable. To
my thinking " rises a " would be a better English dac-
tyl than "rises the," and "falls it in" than "'falling
in." But no agglomeration of consonants can make
such a syllable accented. Two lines from Coleridge's
" Mahomet " will evidence this :
32 THE RHYMESTER.
" Huge wasteful 1 empires | founded and | hallowed | slow
perselcution,
Soul-wither I ing but | crush'd the | blasphemous | rites of
the I Pagan."
" Huge wasteful " is not a dactyl, and " ing but " is
certainly not a spondee — nor is " crushed the." " Hal-
lowed," by force of the broad " o," is almost perfect as
a spondee, on the other hand; as is " empires " also.
Longfellow, in his " Evangeline," has, perhaps, done
the best that can be done to give an exact rendering of
the Latin hexameter ; but Tennyson, in portions of
" Maud," has caught its spirit, and transfused it into
an English form. No poet, indeed, has done so much
as the Laureate to introduce new or revive old forms
of versification, and enrich the language with musical
measure.
It may be well to note here that the classic poets
did not forget the use of the maxim which Pope ex-
presses in the line —
" The sound must seem an echo to the sense."
In this they were greatly assisted by the use of the
quantity, which enabled them the more readily to give
rapidity or weight to their lines. Nothing could more
admirably represent a horse's gallop than the beat of
the words —
" Quadrupedante putrem sonittu quatit ungula campum."
The unwieldiness of the Cyclops is splendidly shad-
owed in the line —
" Monstrum, horrendum, informe, ingens cui lumen ademp-
tum."
CLASSIC VERSIFICATION. 33
And again the beat of the Cyclopean hammers is well
imitated in the verse —
" lUi inter sese magna vi brachia tollunt."
Too much stress may easily be laid on this adornment,
and some poets have carried it to excess. But the be-
ginner in verse will do well not to overlook it.
Note. — The Poet Laureate, whose mastery of meter is re-
markable, has given us alcaics in his lines to Milton —
" Oh, mightj'-mouth'd inventor of harmonies.
Oh, skill'd to sing of time and eternity,
God-gifted organ-voice of England —
Milton, a name to resound for ages."
I would especially commend to those whom these remarks have
interested in any way the perusal, with a view to this particular
object, of "Father Prout's Reliques."— (T. H.)
CHAPTER III.
GUIDES AND HAND-BOOKS.
THE earliest hand-book of verse appears to be that
of Bysshe, who is, by the way, described in the
British Museum Catalogue as " the Poet." The entry
is the only ground I can find for so describing him.
He is, however, amusingly hard on simple versifiers :
" Such Debasers of Rhyme, and Dablers in Poetry
would do well to consider that a Man would justly de-
serve a higher Esteem in the World by being a good
Mason or Shoe-Maker, than by being an indifferent or
second-Rate Poet." Furthermore, with touching mod-
esty, he says, " I pretend not by the following sheets
to teach a man to be a Poet in Spight of Fate and
Nature."
His dictionary of rhymes is better than those of his
successors— perhaps I should say " that " of his suc-
cessors, for Walker's has been repeated with all its
errors, or nearly all, in every subsequent hand-book.
Bysshe is to be praised for setting his face against what
Walker styles " allowable " rhymes, such as " haste "
and " feast." He, however, seems to have been curi-
ously ignorant of the ever-changing nature of English
GUIDES AND HAND-BOOKS. 35
pronunciation. When Pope rhymed " line " and "join,"
and " obey " and " tea," it was the fashion to pronounce
"join" as "jine" and "tea" as "tay."
Bysshe's theory of verse was " the seat of the ac-
cent, and the pause," as distinguished from quantity —
that is, it depended on the number of syllables. As a
result of this undivided devotion, he misses much of
the power to be attained by making the sound the echo
of the sense, as Pope puts it. He proposes to alter a
line of Dryden's from
" But forced, harsh, and uneasy unto all,"
into
" But forced and harsh, uneasy unto all."
One would fancy the merest tyro would see the inten-
tional harshness of the line as Drj'den wrote it, and its
utter emasculation as Bysshe re-forms it.
Bysshe is strongly in favor of clipping syllables, a
veiy pitiable error, for the chief drawback of English
as a poetical language is the preponderance of conso-
nants. He prefers to make " beauteous " dissyllabic
and " victorious " trisyllabic. He recommends the eli-
sion which makes " bower," " Heaven," "Prayer," and
" higher," monosyllables, and advises the use of such
abortions as " temp'rance," " fab'lous," " med'cine,"
" cov'nant," and even " wall'wing " for wallowing ! To
compensate for these clippings, however, he considers
" ism " a dissyllable !
As a consequence of his narrowing verse to a ques-
tion of syllable and accent only, he vulgarizes many
words unnecessarily. The student of verse who con-
3
2 6 THE RHYMESTER.
siders quantity as well as accent will find no difficulty in
reading the following lines without eliding any vowels :
" From diamond quarries hewn, and rocks of gold." — Mil-
ton.
"A violet by a mossy stone." — Wordsworth.
"With vain but violent force their darts they threvir." —
Cowley.
" His ephod, mitre, well-cut diadem on."— Cowley.
" My blushing hyacinth and my bays I keep." — Dryden.
Bysshe cuts down to " di'mond," " vi'let," " vi'lent,"
" di'dem," " hy'cinth," words which need no such de-
basing elision. As in music two short sharp beats are
equivalent to one long one (two minims = one semi-
breve), so in verse two brief vowels, or syllables even,
are,admissible— indeed, at times desirable for the sake
of variety in lieu of one.
Among less questionable maxims of Bysshe's is
one, " avoid a concourse of vowels," instanced by —
" Sould th_y /ambics swell into a book."
This means, it is to be presumed, " avoid a concourse
of repetitions of one sound," a very necessary rule.
Some poets are careful not to get the same vowel
sound twice in any line. " Avoid ending a verse with
an adjective whose substantive follows in the next line "
is another sound precept, instanced by —
" Some lost their quiet rivals, some their kind
Parents."
GUIDES AND HAND-BOOKS.
37
The same rule applies to the separation of a preposition
from the case which it governs, as exemplified in —
" The daily lessening of our life shows by
A little dying," etc.
With less reason Bysshe condemns alliteration. It is
an artifice that can be overdone, as is often the case in
Poe's poems, and those of Mr. Swinburne. Allitera-
tion is a means, not an end. So long as alliterative
verse pleases the ear, and yet does not betray to its
reader the cause of the pleasant sensation, it is an ad-
mirable addition to the beauty of the verse. But as
soon as it attracts the reader's attention, as a tour de
force, it is a blot, because it inflicts an injury on the
poem by engaging the mind on the machinery instead
of the matter. Instead of thinking how exquisite the
poem is, we are wondering how often that clever con-
tortionist, the poet, will fling his somersault of allitera-
tion.
Following the example of the old " Gradus ad Par-
nassum," Bysshe gives an anthology with his guide.
An anthology in a g^ide to English verse is worse
than useless, for it sers^es no purpose save to provoke
plagiarism and imitation. Any one who wishes to
write verse will do little unless he has a fair acquaint-
ance with English poetry — an acquaintance for which
an anthology can never be a substitute ; while it will
but cripple and hamper his fancy and originality by
supplying him with quotations on any given subject,
from " April " to " Woman."
Walker's " Rhyming Dictionary " has greater faults.
38
THE RHYMESTER.
but also greater merits, than Bysshe's " Art of Poetry."
Walker admits and defends " allowable " rhymes, " It
may be objected," he says, "that a work of this kind
contributes to extend poetical blemishes, by furnishing
imperfect materials and apologies for using them. But
it may be answered that, if these imperfect rhymes
were allowed to be blemishes, it would still be better
to tolerate them than cramp the imagination by the
too narrow boundaries of exactly similar sounds." Now,
it is perfectly true, of course, that a poet may well be
allowed to effect the compromise of sacrificing a rhyme
for a thought ; but the versifier (for whom Walker's
book is meant) must have no such license. He must
learn to walk before he runs. Yet apart from this.
Walker's argument is singularly illogical; there can
be no need to catalogue the blemishes, even on the
ground he urges, since the imagination would suggest
the license, not the license stimulate the imagination.
Walker's book, being simply mechanical, should have
been confined to the correct machinery of verse, and
imagination should have been allowed to frame for it-
self the hcenses, which it would not dream of seeking
in a hand-book.
[And here occasion serves to declare with emphasis
that any theory of " allowable " rhymes is a rank
heresy to which no one should give in now that the art
of rhyming has been carried to its most varied per-
fection at the hands of yet living poets. Either two
words rhyme together or they do not. The linking to-
gether in a couplet of " ever " and " river," of " shadow "
and " meadow," of " heaven " and " driven," seen only
■GUIDES AND HAND-BOOKS. 39
too often, is without excuse. Identity of sound is the
only test of rhyme, and the " e " in " ever " is not pro-
nounced like the "i" in "river," any more than the
" a " in " shadow " sounds like the " ea " in " meadow,"]
The absurdity of talking of perfect and imperfect
rhymes is only equaled by that of speaking of good
grammar and bad grammar. A shilling is a shilling —
what the vulgar call "a bad shilling" is no shilling
at all.
But for this defect. Walker's Dictionary would be
the best book of the sort possible. It contains, besides
an index in which rhymes are arranged under various
terminations, as in Bysshe's work, a terminational dic-
tionary of three hundred pages ; a dictionary, that is,
in which the words are arranged as in ordinary dic-
tionaries, save that the last and not the first letter of
the word is that under which it is ranged.
Of the recent books published, there are but two
of any note or importance in England. One claims to
be a " complete practical guide to the whole subject of
English versification" — "an exhaustive treatise," in
which the writer, by way of simplifying matters, pro-
poses to supersede the old titles of spondee, dactyl,
etc., by the titles of "march," "trip," "quick," and
" revert," and makes accents intelligible by calling
them " backward " and " forward," with such further
lucidities as "hover," "main," "midabout," and other
technicalities afford. Its chief characteristic, however,
is a decided condemnation of rhyme altogether, and a
suggestion of the substitution of "assonance," under
which " path " and " ways," and " pride " and " wife,"
40
THE RHYMESTER.
would do duty for rhyme ! The treatise, though spoiled
by pedantic aiming after novelties of nomenclature,
and too assertive language, is worth perusal. But as
"a practical guide" it is at present useless, and will
remain so until English rhyme is disestablished and
disendowed by act of Parliament. Although its author
modestly describes it as " the first treatise of the kind
ever completed," and considers it "will in no mean
degree serve to advance " the study of English verse,
it is to be feared that there is little danger of its set-
ting the Pierian spring on fire.
A more practical " Handbook of Poetry " is the
best work of the kind I have met with, but it is full of
grave errors. It begins with a definition of " Poetry,"
which makes it identical with " Verse," and it tends
too much to the side of license in consequence, from
the fact of permitting to the versifier freedoms which
poets only can claim. On rhyme it is singularly in-
consistent. It pronounces as no rhyme " heart " and
"art," which to any but a cockney ear are perfect
rhymes. Yet, a few paragraphs farther on, its only
objection to the coupling of " childhood " and " wild-
wood " as a double rhyme, is that it is hackneyed ;
whereas it is not a double rhyme at all ! In a chapter
on " Imagery," though " metaphor " is catalogued,
" simile " is omitted, and both together reappear under
the needless subdivision " tropes." An anthology is
added, and a dictionary of double and treble rhymes —
as if it were possible to give anything like an exhaust-
ive list of them in twenty pages !
Such being the imperfections, whether of short-
GUIDES AND HAND-BOOKS.
41
coming or excess, of the various existing hand-books,
I venture to hope that this little treatise may plead
some excuse for its appearance. It does not pretend
to be an exhaustively complete practical gijide or hand-
book to poetry. It is simply an attempt to set forth
simply but strictly the Rules of Rhyme.
[Tv^fQ American books, published since the English
author wrote, demand notice here. The first is " A
Vocabulary of English Rhymes," by the Rev. Samuel
W. Barnum (D. Appleton & Co., 1876). This is by
far the most elaborate, logical, and exact of rhyming
dictionaries. Its only defect is that it is perhaps a
little severe in the arrangement by vowel-sounds, and
that it gives in to the heresy of allowable rhymes. But
it is a useful book for the student. The second is the
late Sidney Lanier's " Science of English Verse "
(Charles Scribner's Sons, 1880), in which he lays the
foundations of verse on the physical laws of sound.
The " Science of Verse " is not easy reading, but it
will well repay careful study ; in it, for the time, verse
is examined from the proper and scientific point of
view. It is emphatically a book for the student to
ponder after he has read Poe's essay.]
CHAPTER IV.
OF FEET AND C^SURA.
'T^HE feet most often met with in English verse are
-■- those corresponding with the trochee and iambus,*
that is approximately. The iambic is most common,
perhaps, represented by two syllables with the accent
on the last syllable. The trochee has two syllables,
with the accent on the first. An example of a line in
each meter will show the difference :
Four Foot Iambic.
" To fair' Fide'le's gras'sy tomb'."
Four Foot Trochaic.
•' Not' a sin'gle man' depart'ed."
Dactyls (an accented followed by two unaccented
syllables) and anapaests (two unaccented syllables fol-
lowed by an accented one) are most frequently used
in combination with the other feet :
Anapcestic.
" O'er the world' | from the hour' | of her birth'."
* The spondee (two long syllables) can have no equivalent
in accent, as it would need two accented syllables next to each
other, which can only be used very exceptionally. — (T. H.)
OF FEET AND C^SURA. 43
Dactylic.
" Make' no deep | scru'tiny
In'to her | mu'tiny."
It appears to me preferable to retain the classic names
for these feet, rather than to try and invent new titles
for them. One writer on versification has attempted
to do this, and calls the iambic " march " measure,
and the trochaic " trip," This seems to me to render
the nature of the measure liable to misconstruction, as
if the former only suited elevated themes, and the lat-
ter light ones ; whereas the meter of Hudibras is
iambic, and Aytoun's ballad of the " Battle of Flodden "
is trochaiCi The truth is, that the form of the foot
has little to do with the "march" or "trip" of the
verse, for " The Bridge of Sighs " is written in a
dactylic form ; and, according to the authority just
alluded to, if the trochee be a " trip," the dactyl must
be a " jig " !
By the combinations of these feet in certain num-
bers a line is constituted. Those in which two, three,
and four feet occur — dimeters, trimeters, and tetra-
meters— are not so general as lines of more feet, and
in these latter a new feature has to be recognized and
provided for — the caesura or pause. Strictly, the
caesura causes poetry to be written in lines, the end
of each being a caesura ; but there are other csesuras
in the line, one or more according to its length. In
the best verse they correspond with a natural pause in
the sense of the words. When they do not, the arti-
ficial punctuation injures the harmony with which the
44 THE RHYMESTER. .
sound and the sense should flow together. It is by
varying the fall of the csesura that the best writers of
blank decasyllabic verse contrive to divest it of mo-
notony. In some of the more irregular forms of verse,
especially when it is unrhymed, the caesura is all-
important, giving to the lines their rise and fall — a
structure not altogether unlike what has been termed
the parallelism of Hebrew versification.
It is scarcely possible to lay down rules for the use
of the cassura, or pause, in English verse. It differs
from the classic cassura in falling at the end of both
foot and word. Of its possible varieties we may gain
some idea when we note that, in the decasyllabic line,
for instance, it may fall after each foot, and it is by the
shifting of its place that in this, as in blank verse, mo-
notony is avoided. In shorter measures, especially of
a lyric nature, it generally falls midway in the line.
The plan of giving to our accentual feet the titles
given to the classical quantitative feet has been strong-
ly condemned by some writers. I venture to think they
have hardly considered the matter sufficiently. It must
be better to use these meaningless terms (as we use
the gibberish of Baroko and Bramantip in logic) than
to apply new names which, by aiming at being express-
ive, may be misleading. But there is something more
than this to be considered. There is in accent this, in
common with quantity, that just as two shorts make a
long, and can be substituted for it, so two unaccented
syllables may take the place of one rather more ac-
cented ; or perhaps it will be found that the substitution
is due less to the correspondence in accent alone than
OF FEET AND CyESURA.
45
to correspondence of quantity as well as accent. To
put it briefly, these resolutions of the foot into more
syllables are — like similar resolutions in music — a ques-
tion of time, and time means quantity rather than ac-
cent. As an instance of this, I may give the much-
quoted, often-discussed line :
" Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes."
The ordinary method of scanning this is to make a
dissyllable of " tired," as if it were " ti-erd," a vulgar-
ism of which its author would never have been guilty.
The truth is, that the long " i " and the roll of the " r "
correspond in time to a dissyllable, and, by changing
the run of the line, carry out perfectly Pope's notion of
the sound echoing the sense.
These resolutions, therefore, need a most accurate
ear, and no slight experience. The versifier will do
well, as a beginner, to refrain from attempting them.
When he has gone on writing verse by rule of thumb
until he begins to discover a formality in them that
would be the better for variation, he may fairly try his
hand at it — but not until then. Before that, his redun-
dancy of syllables would be the result of faulty or un-
finished expression, not the studied cause of a change
in run.
CHAPTER V.
METER AND RHYTHM.
IT was scarcely possible to explain what the feet in
verse are without assuming the existence of lines,
in order to give intelligible examples of the various
feet. But the consideration of the construction of
lines really belongs to this chapter.
A line is composed of a certain number of feet,
from two to almost any number short of ten or so— if
indeed we may limit the number exactly, for there is
nothing to prevent a man from writing a line of twenty
feet if he have ingenuity enough to maintain the har-
mony and beat necessary to constitute verse. As a
rule, we seldom meet with more than eight feet in a
line.
A line may consist of feet of the same description,
or of a combination of various feet. And this combi-
nation may be exactly repeated in the corresponding
line or lines, or one or more of the feet may be replaced
by another corresponding in time or quantity. Here is
an instance :
" I knew I by the smoke that so gracefully curled . . .
And I said | ' if there's peace to be found in the world.' "
METER AND RHYTHM.
47
Here the iambic " I knew' " is resolved into the ana-
paest, " and I said'," * — or rather (as the measure is
anapsestic) the iambic takes the place of the anapsest.
When only two feet go to a line, it is a dimeter.
Three form a trimeter, four a tetrameter, five a penta-
meter, six a hexameter, seven a heptameter, eight an
octameter, which, however, is usually resolved into two
tetrameters. If the feet be iambics or trochees, of
course the number of syllables will be double that of
the feet — thus a pentameter will be decasyllabic. When
dactyls or anapaests are used, of course the number of
syllables exceeds the double of the feet. But there is
no necessity for enlarging on this point : I have given
enough to explain terms, with which the student may
perhaps meet while reading up the subject of versifica-
tion. As he may also meet with the terms " catalec-
tic " and " acatalectic," it may be as well to give a
brief explanation of them also. A catalectic line is
one in which the last foot is not completed. An acata-
lectic is one in which the line and the foot terminate
together. An extract from the " Bridge of Sighs," a
dactylic poem, will illustrate this :
" Make no deep | scrutiny
Into her ( mutiny ;
* In the classic measures a long ( - ) is equivalent to two
short ( v^ ) quantities, in the English feet it is the unaccented
syllables (which we may rudely consider the shorts) which are
capable of resolution. In spite of this difference, however, it
seems most simple to keep the old terms, and use the old for-
mula.—(T. H.)
48 THE RHYMESTER.
Rash and un | dutiful,
Past all dis | honor ;
Death has left | on her
Only the | beautiful.
Take her up | tenderly,
Lift her with | care ;
Fashion'd so | slenderly,
Young and so | fair."
Here the fourth and fifth, the eighth and tenth lines
are catalectic. In the first two the last foot needs one
syllable, in the others it requires two. It is scarcely
necessary to point out how such variations improve and
invigorate the nneasure, by checking the gallop of the
verse.
We have now seen that the line may be composed
of various numbers of the different feet. The next
step to consider is the combination of lines into stan-
zas.
Stanzas are formed of Iwo or more lines. Two
lines are styled a couplet, three a triplet, and four a
quatrain, while other combinations owe their titles to
those who have used them first or most, as in the case
of the Spenserian stanza.
The reader will see at once that, each of these kinds
of stanzas being constructible of any of the styles of
line before enumerated, each style of line being in its
turn constructible of any of the sorts of feet described
in a previous chapter, to make any attempt to give an
exhaustive list of stanzas would be to enter upon an
METER AND RHYTHM. 49
arithmetical progression alarming to think of.* I shall
therefore only enumerate a few, giving, as seems most
useful for my purpose, examples of the most common
form of a peculiar stanza, as in the case of the deca-
syllabic couplet of Pope, and the nine-line stanza of
Spenser, or the least common, as when, in the quatrain,
it appears preferable to give, instead of the alternate-
rhymed octosyllabic tetrameters which have been re-
peated ad nauseam, such fresh forms as will be found
in the extracts from " The Haunted House," or Brown-
ing's " Pretty Woman."
EXAMPLES.
THE COUPLET OR DISTICH.f
Dimeter (four-syllabled).
" Here, here I live
And somewhat give."
— Herrick, Hesperides.
Tetrameter (eight-syllabled),
"His tawny beard was th' equal grace
Both of his wisdom and his face."
— Butler, Hiidibras.
* Various forms of stanza may be combined in one poem
(though most usually in the ode only), provided regard be had
to harmony and unity, so that the meters be not varied unsuit-
ably or violently.— (T. H.) '
+ In couplets, the two lines, in triplets (with two exceptional
forms) the three, rhyme together. In quatrains usually the al-
ternate lines rhyme. As the lines of the stanza increase in num-
ber, the methods of rhyming of course vary. — (T. H.)
so
THE RHYMESTER.
Tetrameter (seven-syllabled).
" As it fell upon a day
In the merry month of May."
— Shakespeare.
Pentameter (ten-syllabled, " Pope's decasyllable ").
" Truth from his lips prevail'd with double sway,
And fools who came to scoff remained to pray."
— Golds??tiih, Deserted Village.
Hexameter (twelve-syllabled).
" Doth beat the brooks and ponds for sweet refreshing
soil :
That serving not — then proves if he his scent may foil."
— Drayton^ Polyolbion.
Heptameter (fourteen-syllabled).
" Now glory to the Lord of Hosts, from whom all glories
are ;
And glory to our sovereign liege, King Henry of Na-
varre." — Macaulay, Battle of Ivry,
The couplet may also be formed of two lines of
irregular length :
" Beloved, O men's mother, O men's queen !
Arise, appear, be seen."
— Swinburne, Ode to Italy.
" Where the quiet-colored end of evening smiles
Miles on miles."
— Browning, Love among the Ruins.
" Morning, evening, noon, and night,
' Praise God,' sang Theocrite."
— Browning, The Boy and the Angel,
METER AND RHYTHM. 51
" Take the cloak from his face and at first
Let the corpse do its worst."
— Browning, After.
" Or for a time we'll lie
As robes laid by."
— Hertick, Hesperidcs.
" Give me a cell
To dwell."
— Henick, Hespe^ides.
Two couplets are at times linked together into a
quatrain. More often they are formed into six-line
stanzas — that is, a couplet followed by a line which has
its rhyme in another line following the second couplet.
But, indeed, the combination of stanzas is almost inex-
haustible.
TRIPLETS.
Trimeter (six-syllabled).
" And teach me how to sing
Unto the lyric string
^ly measures ravishing."
— Herrick, Hesperidcs.
Tetrameter (seven-syllabled).
" O, thou child of many prayers,
Life hath quicksands, life hath snares.
Care and age come unawares."
— Lottgfellow, Maidenhood.
Octameter (fifteen-syllabled).
" Was a lady such a lady, cheeks so round and lips so red —
On her neck the small face buoyant, like a bell-flower
o'er its bed,
4
52 THE RHYMESTER.
O'er the breast's superb abundance where a man might
base his head."
— Browning, A Toccata.
The triplet pure and simple is not a very- common
form ; it is most frequently combined with other forms
to make longer stanzas. At times the second line, in-
stead of rhyming with the first or third, finds an echo
in the next triplet — sometimes in the second, but more
often in the first and third hnes :
" Make me a face on the window there,
Waiting, as ever mute the while,
My love to pass below in the square.
" And let me think that it may beguile
Dreary days, which the dead must spend
Down in their darkness under the aisle."
— Broioning, The Statue and the Bust.
Another species of triplet occurs in the Pope meas-
ure (pentameter-decasyllabic). It is formed by the
introduction, after an ordinary couplet, of a third line,
repeating the rhyme, and consisting of eleven syllables
and six feet. Dryden, however, and some other writ-
ers, gave an occasional triplet without the extra foot.
The Alexandrine — i. e., the six-foot line — ought to close
the sense, and conclude with a full stop.
THE QUATRAIN.
Of this form of stanza the name is legion. Of the
most common styles, the reader's memory will supply
numerous examples. I shall merely give a few of the
METER AND RHYTHM. 53
rarer kinds. The quatrain may consist practically of
two couplets, or of a couplet divided by a couplet, as in
Tennyson's " In Memoriam." But the usual rule is to
rhyme the first and third, and second and fourth. The
laxity which leaves the two former unrhymed is a prac-
tice which can not be too strongly condemned. Qua-
trains so formed should in honesty be written as coup-
lets ; but such a condensation would possibly not suit
the views of the mob of magazine versifiers, who have
inflicted this injurj^ with many others, upon English
versification.
It may be well to note here that the rhyme of the
first and third lines should be as dissimilar as possible
in sound to that of the second and fourth. This is, in
fact, a part of the rule which forbids repetitions of the
same vowel-sounds in a line — chief of all, a repetition
of the particular vowel-sound of the rhyme. The
rhymes recurring give a beat which is something like a
csesura, and when, therefore, the rhyme sound occurs
elsewhere than at its correct post, it mars the flow.
Here follow a few examples of the quatrain. I have
not specified the syllables or feet, as the reader by this
time will have learned to scan for himself ; and, owing
to the varieties of measure, such a specification would
be cumbrous :
" The woodlouse dropp'd and roll'd into a ball,
Touch'd by some impulse, occult or mechanic,
And nameless beetles ran along the wall
In universal panic."
— Hood, Haunted House.
54 THE RHYMESTER.
" That fawn-skin-dappled hair of hers,
And the blue eye,
Dear and dewy.
And that infantine fresh air of hers."
— Browning, A Fair Woman.
" All thoughts, all passions, all delights,
Whatever stirs this mortal frame ;
All are but ministers of love.
And feed his sacred flame."
— Coleridge, Love,
0
" What constitutes a state ?
Not high-raised battlement or labor'd mound,
Thick wall, or moated gate.
Nor cities proud with spires and turrets crown'd."
— Jones, Ode.
" Whither, midst falling dew.
While glow the heavens with the last steps of day,
Far through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue
Thy solitary way."
— Bryant, To a Waterfowl.
" Sweet day, so calm, so cool, so bright,
The bridal of the earth and sky,
The dews shall weep thy fall to-night,
For thou must die."
— J/erdert, Virtue.
THE FIVE-LINE STANZA.
I am inclined to think this one of the most musical
forms of the stanza we possess. It is capable of almost
endless variety, and the proportions of rhymes, three
METER AND RHYTHM. 55
and two, seem to be especially conducive to harmony.
It would be curious to go into the question how many
popular poems are in this form. Here are two exam-
ples— both of them from favorite pieces :
" Go, lovely rose.
Tell her that wastes her time and me,
That now she knows
When I resemble her to thee.
How sweet and fair she seems to be."
— Waller, To a Rose.
" Higher still and higher
From the earth thou springest ;
Like a cloud of fire,
The blue deep thou wingest,
And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest."
—Shelley, The Skylark.
[A third may be added, from a dashing American
poem :
" Hark ! the jingle
Of the sleigh-bells' song !
Earth and air in snowy sheen commingle ;
Swiftly throng
Norseland fancies, as we sail along."
— Stedman, The Sleigh-Ride.']
Mr. Browning frequently uses this stanza, and with
admirable effect. Although he has been accused of
ruggedness by some critics, there is no modem poet
who has a greater acquaintance with the various forms
of verse, or can handle them more ably. The follow-
ing are examples of his treatment :
56 THE RHYMESTER.
" Is it your moral of life ?
Such a web, simple and subtle,
Weave we on earth here, in impotent strife
Backward and forward each throwing his shuttle —
Death ending all with a knife ? "
— Master Hugues.
" And yonder at foot of the fronting ridge.
That takes the turn to a range beyond.
Is the chapel, reach'd by the one-arch'd bridge.
Where the water is stopp'd in a stagnant pond.
Danced over by the midge."
— By the Fireside.
" Stand still, true poet that you are !
I know you ; let me try and draw you.
Some night you'll fail us ; when afar
You rise, remember one man saw you —
Knew you — and named a star."
— Popularity.
" Not a twinkle from the fly,
Not a glimmer from the worm.
When the crickets stopp'd their cry.
When the owls forbore a term,
You heard music — that was I ! "
— A Serenade.
" When the spider to serve his ends,
By a sudden thread.
Arms and legs outspread,
On the table's midst descends —
Comes to find God knows what friends ! "
— Mesmerism.
METER AND RHYTHM.
THE SIX-LINE STANZA.
57
With the increasing number of lines comes an in-
creasing number of combinations of rhymes. There is
the combination of three couplets, and there is that of
two couplets, with another pair of rhymes, one line
after the first, the other after the second couplet. Then
there is a quatrain of alternate rhymes, and a final
couplet — to mention no others :
" Fear no more the heat o' the sun,
Nor the furious winter's rages ;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages —
Golden lads and girls all must
Like chimney-sweepers come to dust."
— Shakespeare.
" One day, it matters not to know
How many hundred years ago,
A Spaniard stopt at a posada door ;
The landlord came to welcome him and chat
Of this and that,
For he had seen the traveller here before."
— Southey, St. Romuald.
" And wash'd by my cosmetic bnish,
How Beauty's cheeks began to blush
With locks of auburn stain —
Not Goldsmith's Auburn, nut-brown hair
That made her loveliest of the fair.
Not loveliest of the plain."
— Hood, Progress of Art.
58 THE RHYMESTER.
" Some watch, some call, some see her head emerge
Wherever a brown weed falls through the foam ;
Some point to white eruptions of the surge —
But she is vanish'd to her shady home.
Under the deep inscrutable, and there
Weeps in a midnight made of her own hair."
— Hood, Hero and Leander.
" Ever drifting, drifting, drifting,
On the shifting
Currents of the restless heart —
Till at length in books recorded.
They like hoarded
Household words no more depart."
— Lo7igfellow, Seaweed.
" Before me rose an avenue
Of tall and sombrous pines ;
Abroad their fanlike branches grew,
And where the sunshine darted through,
Spread a vapor, soft and blue.
In long and sloping lines."
— Longfellow, Prelude.
[" Might we but hear
The hovering angels' high imagined chorus,
Or catch betimes, with wakeful eyes and clear,
One radiant vista of the realm before us —
With one rapt moment given to see and hear,
Ah ! who would fear? "
— Stedman, The Undiscovered Country^
The following form may be looked upon as Burns's
exclusively :
METER AND RHYTHM. 59
" Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flower —
Thou'st met me in an evil hour.
For I maun crush among the stour
Thy slender stem ;
To spare thee now is past my power,
Thou bonnie gem."
• — To a Mountain Daisy.
THE SEVEN-LINE STANZA.
This form is not very common. It may be formed
of a quatrain and triplet ; of a quatrain, a line rhyming
the last of the quatrain, and a couplet ; of a quatrain,
a couplet, and a line rhyming the fourth line. Or these
may be reversed.
THE EIGHT-LINE STANZA.
This is susceptible of endless variety, commencing
with two quatrains, or a six-line stanza and a couplet,
or two triplets with a brace of rhyming lines, one after
each triplet.
" Thus lived — thus died she ; nevennore on her
Shall sorrow light or shame. She was not made
Through years or moons the inner weight to bear,
Which colder hearts endure till they are laid
By age in earth ; her days and pleasures were
Brief but delightful ; such as had not staid
Long with her destiny. But she sleeps well
By the sea-shore whereon she loved to dwell."
— Byron, Don Juan.
6o THE RHYMESTER.
THE NINE-LINE STANZA,
Of this form the most generally used is the Spen-
serian, or the following variation of it :
" A little, sorrowful, deserted thing,
Begot of love and yet no love begetting ;
Guiltless of shame, and yet for shame to wring ;
And too soon banish'd from a mother's petting
To churlish nature and the wide world's fretting,
For alien pity and unnatural care ;
Alas ! to see how the cold dew kept wetting
His childish coats, and dabbled all his hair
Like gossamers across his forehead fair."
— Hood, Midsummer Fairies.
The Spenserian has the same arrangement of the
rhymes, but has an extra foot' in the last line. The
two last lines of a stanza from " Childe Harold " will
illustrate this :
" To mingle with the universe and feel
What I can ne'er express, yet can not all conceal."
— By7vn.
The formation of the ten, eleven, twelve, etc., line
stanzas is but an adaptation of those already described.
A single fourteen-line stanza of a certain arrangement
of rhyme is a sonnet [which is considered in a special
chapter]. I am almost inclined to omit discussion of
blank verse, but will give a brief summary of its varie-
ties. The ordinary form of blank verse is the deca-
syllabic in which Milton's " Paradise Lost " is written :
METER AND RHYTHM. 6l
" Of man's first disobedience and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world and all our woe."
. This consists of ten syllables with an accented fol-
lowing an unaccented syllable. It is presented from
monotony by the varying fall of the caesura or pause.
It occurs but rarely after the first foot or the eighth
foot, and not often after the third and seventh. Eli-
sions and the substitution of a trisyllable, equivalent in
time for a dissyllable, are met with, and at times the
accent is shifted, when by the change the sense of the
line gains in vigor of expression, as in ,
" Once found, which yet unfound, most would have thought
Impossible."
According to scansion " most would','' but by the
throwing back of the accent strengthened and distin-
guished into " jnost would have thought." In addition
to this, in the blank verse of the stage, we find occa-
sionally additional syllables, as
" Or to take aims against a sea of troub(les)."
Other forms of blank verse follow :
1. " If aught of oaten stop or pastoral song
May hope, chaste Eve, to soothe thy modest ear,
Like thy own solemn springs,
Thy springs and dying gales."
— Collins, Ode to Evening.
2. " But never could I tune my reed
At mom, or noon, or eve, so sweet,
62 THE RHYMESTER.
As when upon the ocean shore
I hail'd thy star-beam mild."
— Kirke White, Shipwrecked Solitary's Song.
3. " Who at this untimely hour
Wanders o'er the desert sands ?
No station is in view,
No palm-grove islanded amidst the waste —
The mother and her child,
The widow'd mother and the fatherless boy,
They at this untimely hour
Wander o'er the desert sands."*
— Sotithcy, Thalaba.
4. " Friend of my bosom, thou more than a brother,
Why wast not thou born in my father's dwelling ?
So might we talk of the old familiar faces."
— Lamb,
5. " See how he scorns all human arguments
So that no oar he wants, nor other sail
Than his own wings between so distant shores." f
— Longfellow, Translation of Dante.
6. " Yet dost thou recall
Days departed, half-forgotten.
When in dreamy youth I wander'd
By the Baltic."
— Longfellow, To a Danish Song-Book.
7. " All things in earth and air
Bound were by magic spell
* See also Shelley's " Queen Mab."— (T. H.)
t This is the simple decasyllable, the peculiarity being a divi-
sion into stanzas of three lines. — (T. H.)
METER AND RHYTHM. 63
Never to do him harm ;
Even the plants and stones,
All save the mistletoe,
The sacred mistletoe."
— Longfellow, Tegner's Drapa.
8. " Give me of your bark, O birch-tree !
Of your yellow bark, O birch-tree !
Growing by the rushing river,
Tall and stately in the valley."
— Longfellow, Hiawatha.
9. " Heard he that cry of pain ; and through the hush
that succeeded
Whisper'd a gentle voice, in accents tender and
saintlike,
' Gabriel, oh, my beloved ! ' and died away into si-
lence."
— Longfellow, Evangeline.
An extremely musical form of blank verse, the
trochaic, will be found in Browning's " One Word
More " :
" I shall never in the years remaining.
Paint you pictures, no, nor carve you statues.
Make you music that should all-express me ;
So it seems ; I stand on my attainment :
This of verse alone one life allows me ;
Verse and nothing else have I to give you.
Other heights in other loves, God willing —
All the gifts from all the heights, your own, love ! "
This by no means exhausts the varieties of blank
verse ; but, as I have already said, blank verse is, on
64
THE RHYMESTER.
the whole, scarcely to be commended to the student
for practice, because it is, while apparently the easiest,
in reality the most difficult form he could attempt. It
is in fact particularly easy to attain the blankness — but
the verse is another matter. The absence of rhymes
necessitates the most perfect melody and harmony, if
the lines are to be anything beyond prose chopped- up
into lengths.
There are, I should mention before closing this
chapter, many more styles of stanza than I have
named, and many varieties of them. The ode is of
somewhat irregular construction, but it is, I consider,
beyond the scope of those for whom this book is in-
tended, and it needs not to be considered on that ac-
count.
[Those who seek a discussion of its origin and
form may be referred to the excellent volume of " Eng-
lish Odes," selected and edited by Mr. Edmund W.
Gosse. This volume is included in the series of " Eng-
lish Classics," now appearing at irregular intervals.
It contains a preface, all too brief, wherein the ode is
described and criticised with the erudition of a scholar
and the sympathy of a poet.]
CHAPTER VI.
OF RHYME.
A RHYME must commence on an accented syl-
lable. From the accented vowel of that syllable
to the end, the two or more words intended to rhyme
must be identical in sound ; but the letters preceding
the accented vowel must in each case be dissimilar in
sound. Thus "learn," "fern," "discern," are rhymes,
with the common sound of " ern " preceded by the
dissimilar sounds of "l,""f," "sc." "Possess" and
" recess " do not rhyme, having besides the common
" ess " the similar pronunciation of the " c " and the
double " s " preceding it. The letters " r " and " 1,"
when preceded by other consonants, so as practically
to form new letters, can be rhymed to the simple "r"
and " 1 " respectively, thus " track " and " rack,"
" blame " and " lame," are rhymes. The same rule
applies to letters preceded by "s," "smile" being a
rhyme to " mile." Similarly " h " and its compound
rhyme, e. g., " shows," " those," " chose," and any word
ending in " phose " with " hose."
The aspirate to any but a Cockney would, of course,
pass as constituting the needful difference at the be-
66 THE RHYMESTER.
ginning of a rhyme, as in " heart " and " art," " hair "
and " air," *
Rhymes are single, double, or treble — or more
properly one-syllabled, two-syllabled, and three-syl-
labled. Rhymes of four or more syllables are peculiar
to burlesque or comic verse. Indeed, Dryden declared
that only one-syllabled rhymes were suitable for grave
subjects : but every one must have at his fingers' ends
scores of proofs to the contrary, of which I will in-
stance but one—" The Bridge of Sighs." [Perhaps an
even better example is the magnificent mediccval hymn,
the "Dies Irae," which owes much of its might to the
skillful employment of double rhymes.]
Monosyllables or polysyllables accented on the last
syllable are " single " rhymes. Words accented on the
penultimate or last syllable but one supply "double"
rhymes ; e. g., agitat'ed, elat'ed. When the accent is
thrown another syllable back, and falls on the ante-
penultimate as in " ar'rogate," it is in the first place a
" triple " rhyme. But, as in English there is a tendency
to alternate the acute and grave accent, the trisyllable
* It is a curious confirmation of my theory about the Cock-
ney grounds for objection to this rhyme, that the author of a
hand-book, who condemns " heart " and "art " as a rhyme, fails
to see any fault in "dawn" and "mom," or in "applaud"
and " aboard " as rhymes. Of course, where the " h " is mute,
as in "hour," it can not rhyme with the simple vowel as in
" our," sound being the test of rhyme, and the ear the only
judge. A " rhyme to the eye " is an impossibility. [And else-
where the author aptly remarked that "the union of sound
alone constitutes rhyme. You do not match colors by the nose,
or sounds by the eye."]
OF RHYME.
(>!
has practically two rhymes, a three-syllabled and a
one-syllabled — thus " arrogate " and " Harrogate "
rhyme, but " arrogate " may also pair off with " mate."
Nevertheless, it is necessary to be cautious in the use
of words with this spurious accent — it is perhaps
better still to avoid them. Such words as " merri-
ly," "beautiful," "purity," ought never to be used as
single-syllabled rhymes ; even such words as " meri-
ted " and " happiness " have a forced sound when so
used.
Elisions should be avoided, though " bow'r " and
" flow'r " may pass muster, with some others. " Ta'en,"
"e'er," "e'en," and such contractions may, of course,
be used. The articles, prepositions, and such, can not
in serious verse stand as rhymes, under the same rule
which condemns the separation of the adjective from
its substantive in the next line.
It is scarcely necessary to premise that to write
verse decently the student must have a thorough
knowledge of grammar. From ignorance on that
score arise naturally blemishes enough to destroy
verse, as they would poetry, almost. I have seen
verses which, beginning by apostrophizing some one
as "thou," slipped in a few lines into "yours" and
" you " — or, worse still, have said " thou doeth," or
"thou, who is."
Expletives and mean expressions also must be ex-
cluded. The verse should never soar to " highfalutin,"
or sink to commonplace language. Simplicity is not
commonplace, and nobility is not " highfalutin," and
they should be aimed at accordingly ; when you have
5
68 THE RHYMESTER.
acquired the one, you will as a rule find the other in
its company.
When three or more lines are intended to rhyme
together, the common base or accented vowel in each
instance must be preceded by a different sound. For
example, " born," " corn," and " borne," will not serve
for a triplet, because, though the first and third are
both rhymes to the second, they are not rhymes to
each other.
It is as well, unless you are thoroughly acquainted
with the pronunciation of foreign languages, to abstain
from using them in verse, especially in rhymes. I met
with the following instance of the folly of such rhyming
in a magazine, not long ago :
" Prim Monsieurs fresh from Boulogne's Bois . . .
For these the Row's a certain draw."
This is about as elegant as rhyming " Boulogne " and
" Song."
It is wise — on the principle of rhyme, the difference
of sounds preceding the common base — to avoid any
similarity by combination. For example, " is " is a
good rhyme for " 'tis," but you should be careful not
to let " it " immediately precede the " is," as it mars
the necessary dissimilarity of the opening sound of the
two rhymes.
Let the beginner remember one thing : rhyme is a
fetter, undoubtedly. Let him therefore refrain from
attempting measures with frequent rhymes, for experi-
ence alone can give ease in such essays. Only the
skilled can dance gracefully in fetters. Moreover, a
OF RHYME.
69
too frequent repetition of rhyme at short intervals gives
a jigginess to the verse. It is on this account that the
use in a Hne of a sound similar to the rhyme should
be avoided. This does not apply to the generous use
of a rhyme at the half-line to mark the csesural pause,
as in this line :
" 'Twas in the prime of summer time."
Nor is there any objection — but rather the contrary —
to the use of two rhyming words in a line, provided
they are not identical with the final rhymes, as for
example :
" That thrice the human span
Through gale and hail and fiery bolt
Had stood erect as man."
[There is a more unexpected and dehghtful use of
this internal rhyme in one of Mr. Frederick Locker's
charming " London Lyrics " :
" Arise then, and lazy
Regrets from thee fling.
For sorrows that hazy
To-morrows may bring ! "]
As a final warning, let me entreat the writer of
verses to examine his rhymes carefully, and see that
they chime to an educated ear. Such atrocities as
" mom " and " dawn," " more " and " sure," " light
in " and " writing," " fought " and " sort," are fatal to
the success of verse. They stamp it with vulgarity, as
surely as the dropping of the " h " stamps a speaker.
Furthermore, do not make a trisyllabic of a dissyl-
THE RHYMESTER.
lable — as, for instance, by pronouncing "ticklish"
" tick-el-ish," and if you have cause to rhyme "iron,"
try "environ" or "Byron," not "my urn," because
only the vulgar pronounce it " iern," or " apron "
" apern," etc.
[And as a final note it may be well to give a list
of a few of the English words that have no rhyme :
Bilge,
Gulf,
Rhomb,
Chimney,
Have,
Scarce,
Coif,
Kiln,
Scarf,
Crimson,
Microcosm,
Silver,
Culm,
Month,
Widow,
Cusp,
Mouth (verb),
Window.]
Fugue,
Oblige.
CHAPTER VII.
OF FIGURES.
THE figures most commonly used in verse are simi-
les and metaphors. A simile is a figure whereby
one thing is likened to another. It is ushered in by a
" like " or an " as."
" Like sportive deer they coursed about."
— Hood, Eugene Aram.
" Such a brow
His eyes had to live under, clear as flint."
— Brotuning, A Contemporary.
" Resembles sorrow only
As the mist resembles rain."
— Longfellow, The Day is Done.
" Look how a man is lower'd to his grave . . .
So is he sunk into the yawning wave."
— Hood, Hero and Leander.
A metaphor is a figure whereby the one thing, in-
stead of being likened to the other, is, as it were, trans-
formed into it, and is described as doing what it (the
other) does.
72 THE RHYMESTER.
" Poetry is
The grandest chariot wherein king-thoughts ride."
— Smith, Life Drama.
" The anchor, whose giant hand
Would reach down and grapple with the land."
— Longfellow, Building of the Ship.
Sometimes the two are united in one passage, as
in —
" The darkness
Falls from the wings of night,
As a feather is wafted downward."
— Longfellow, The Day is Done.
The last line is a simile, but " the wings of night "
is metaphorical. " A simile," says Johnson, " to be
perfect, must both illustrate and ennoble the subject ;
but either of these qualities may be sufficient to recom-
mend it."
Alliteration, when not overdone, is an exquisite ad-
dition to the charm of verse. The Poet Laureate thor-
oughly understands its value. Mr. Swinburne allows
it too frequently to run riot. Edgar Allan Poe carried
it to extravagance. I select an example from each :
" The moan of doves in immemorial elms,
And murmur of innumerable bees."
— Tennyson.
" The lilies and languors of virtue,
For the raptures and roses of vice."
— Swinburne, Dolores.
OF FIGURES.
73
" Come up through the lair of the lion
With love in her luminous eyes."
— Poe, Ulaliime.
The instance from the Poet Laureate is a strong
one — the repetition of the " m " is to express the sound
of the bees and the elms. The alternation in the others
is only pleasing to the ear, and the artifice in the last
instance certainly is too obvious. In the Poet Laure-
ate's lines the alliteration is so ingeniously contrived
that one scarcely would suppose there are as many as
seven repetitions of the "m." In Poe's, one is sur-
prised to find the apparent excess of alliteration is due
to but four repetitions. But the " I's " are identical
with the strongest beats in the hne, whereas the "m's"
in Tennyson's line are interspersed with other letters at
the beats. He uses this artifice more frequently than
those would suspect who have not closely examined
his poems, for he thoroughly appreciates the truth of
the maxim, ars est celare artem* A few lines from
" The Princess " will illustrate this :
" The baby that by us,
Half-lapt in glowing gauze and golden brede,
Lay like a new-fall'n meteor on the grass.
Uncared-for, spied its mother and began
A blind and babbling laughter, and to dance
Its body, and reach its falling innocent arms
And lazy ling'ring fingers."
* " 'Tis the highest art to hide all art."
74 THE RHYMESTER.
Here a careful study will reveal alliteration within
alliteration, and yet the effect is perfect, for there is no
sign of labor.
Elision must be used with a sparing hand. Gener-
ally speaking, a vowel that is so slightly pronounced
that it can be elided, as in "temperance" — "tem-
p'rance," may just as well be left in, and accounted
for by managing to get the "quantity" to cover it.
Where it is too strongly pronounced, to cut it out is to
disfigure and injure the line, as in the substitution of
" wall'wing " for " wallowing." That elision is often
used unnecessarily may be seen in the frequency with
which, in reading verse, we — according to most au-
thorities— ehde the " y " of " many " :
" Full many a flower is doom'd to blush unseen." — Gray.
Here we are told we elide the "y" of "many," and
some would replace " flower " by " fllow'r." Yet to the
most sensitive ear these may receive, in reading, their
share of pronunciation, without damage to the flow of
the line, if the reader understands quantity. " To " is
often similarly "ehded," as in —
" Can he to a friend — to a son so bloody grow ? " — Cowley.
On the other hand, it is as well not to make too
frequent use of the accented "ed," as in "amazed."
In "beloved" and a few more words it is commonly
used, and does not, therefore, sound strange. In others
it gives a forced and botched air to the verse.
In verse some latitude is allowed in arranging the
order of words in a sentence, but it must not be in-
OF FIGURES.
75
dulged in too freely. A study of the style of our best
poets is the only means of learning what is allowable
and what is not ; it is impossible to explain it within the
limits of this treatise. It may, however, be laid down,
as a first principle, that no change in the order of words
is admissible, if it gives rise to any doubt as to their
real meaning — for example, if you wish to say, " the
dog bit the cat," although such an inversion of con-
struction as putting the objective before and the nomi-
native after the verb is allowed in verse, it is scarcely
advisable to adopt it, and say, " the cat bit the dog. "
[In vers de societe inversion is forbidden, as that kind
of v'erse is supposed to be a rhyming of the clever talk
of clever people — in which, of course, the cart would
never be put before the horse. An inversion always
gives a sense of constraint and conscious effort. Note
how few inversions there are in Mr. Austin Dobson's
" Vignettes in Rhyme."]
CHAPTER VIII.
OF BURLESQUE AND COMIC VERSE, AND
VERS DE SOCIETE.
T T will be as well for the reader to divest himself at
-*- once of the notion that verse of this class is the
lowest and easiest form he can essay, or that the rules
which govern it are more lax than those which sway
serious composition. The exact contrary is the case.
Comic or burlesque verse is ordinary verse phis some-
thing. Ordinary verse may pass muster if its manner
be finished, but comic verse must have some matter as
well. Yet it does not on that account claim any license
in rhyme, for it lacks the gravity and importance of
theme which may at times, in serious poetry, be plead-
ed as outweighing a faulty rhyme.
This style of writing needs skill in devising novel
and startling turns of rhyme, rhythm, or construction,
and can hardly be employed by those who do not possess
some articulate wit or humor — that is to say, the power
of expressing, not merely of appreciating those qualities,
A defective rhyme is a fault in serious verse — it is a
crime in comic. It is no sin to be ignorant of Greek
or Latin, but it is worse than a blunder, under such
OF BURLESQUE AND COMIC VERSE. 77
circumstances, to quote them, and quote them incor-
rectly. In the same way, one is not compelled to write
comic verse ; but if he does write it, and can not do so
correctly, he deserves severe handling.
One of the leading characteristics of this style is
dexterous rhyming — and- the legerdemain must be ef-
fected with genuine coin, not dumps. In the very de-
gree that clever composite rhyming assists in making
the verse sparkling and effective, it must bear the closest
scrutiny and analyzation — must be real Moet, not goose-
berry.
All, then, that has been said with regard to serious
verse applies with double force to the lighter form of
vers de socu^tt'. According to the definition of Mr.
Frederick Locker, no mean authority, vers de sociiti
should be " short, elegant, refined, and fanciful, not
seldom distinguished by chastened sentiment, and often
playful. The tone should not be pitched high; it
should be idiomatic, and rather in the conversational
key ; the rhythm should be crisp and sparkling, and
the rhyme frequent, and never forced, while the entire
poem should be marked by tasteful moderation, high
finish, and completeness : for, however trivial the sub-
ject-matter may be — indeed, rather in proportion to its
triviality — subordination to the rules of composition,
and perfection of executiofi, should be strictly etiforced."
Let me entreat the reader to bear that italicized sen-
tence in memory when writing any style of verse, but
most especially when he essays the comic or burlesque.
No precedent for laxity can be pleaded because the
poets who have at times indulged in such trifling have
78 THE RHYMESTER.
therein availed themselves of the licenses which they
originally took out for loftier writing. Noti se77iper
arcwn tendit Apollo, * and the poet may be excused
for striking his lyre with careless fingers. But we, who
do not pretend to possess lyres, must be careful about
the fingering of our kits. Apollo's slackened bow
offers no precedent for the popgun of the poetaster.
As I have already said, much of the merit of this
style depends on the scintillations, so to speak, of its
rhymes. They must therefore be perfect. When But-
ler wrote the much-quoted couplet :
" When pulpit, drum ecclesiastick,
Was beat with fist instead of a stick,"
he was guilty of coupling " astick " and " a stick " to-
gether as a rhyme, which they do not constitute. But
he who on that account claims privilege to commit a
similar offense, not only is guilty of the vanity of de-
manding to be judged on the same level as Butler, but
is illogical. Two wrongs can not constitute a right,
and all the bad rhyming in the world can be no extenu-
ation of a repetition of the offense.
The results of carelessness in such matters are but
too apparent ! The slipshod that has been for so long
suffered to pass for comic verse, has brought the art
into disrepute. In the case of burlesque, this is even
more plainly discernible. It is held in so small esteem
that people have come to forget that it boasts Aris-
tophanes as its founder ! Halting measures, cockney
rhymes, and mere play on sound, instead of sense, in
* " Apollo does not always bend the bow."
OF BURLESQUE AND COMIC VERSE. 79
punning, have gone near to being the death of what at
its worst was an amusing pastime, at its best was
healthy satire.
The purchase of half a dozen modern burlesques
will account for the declining popularity of burlesque.
All of them will be found defaced by defective rhymes,
and cockneyisms too common to provoke a smile. In
the majority of them the decasyllabic meter will be
found to range from six or eight syllables to twelve or
fourteen ! Most bear the same relation to real bur-
lesque-writing that the school-boy's picture of his mas-
ter—a circle for head and four scratches for arms and
legs — bears to genuine caricature. [Much of the suc-
cess of Mr. W. S. Gilbert's comic operas is due to the
variety of his verse, to the unexpectedness of his
rhymes, and to the apt choice of musical rhythms.]
The most telling form of rhyme in comic versifica-
tion is the polysyllabic, and the greater the number of
assonant syllables in such rhymes the more effective
they prove. The excellence is co-extensive, however,
with the unexpectedness and novelty, and there is
therefore but small merit in such a polysyllabic rhyme
as —
" From Scotland's mountains down he came.
And straightway up to town he came."
This merely consists of the single rhymes " down "
and "town," with "he came" as a common affix.
Such polysyllabics may be admitted here and there in
a long piece, but, when they constitute the whole or
even a majority of the rhymes, the writer is imposing
on his readers. He is swelling his balance at his bank-
8o THE RHYMESTER.
er's by adding noughts on the right hand of the pounds'
figure without paying in the cash.
Another feature of this style of verse is the repeti-
tion of rhymes. Open the " Ingoldsby Legends," *
which may be taken as the foundation of one school of
comic verse, and you will scarcely fail to light upon a
succession of rhymes, coming one aftet" the other, like
a string of boys at leap-frog, as if the well-spring of
rhyme were inexhaustible.
Although punning scarcely comes within the scope
of this treatise, it may not be amiss to remind those
who may desire to essay comic verse, that a pun is a
^ov^X^-meaning . It is not sufficient to get two words
that clink alike, or to torture by mispronunciation a re-
semblance in sound between words or combinations of
words. There must be an echo in the sense — " a like-
ness in unlikeness " in the idea.
Proper names should not be used as rhymes. The
only exception is in the case of any real individual of
note — a statesman, author, or actor, when to find a
telling rhyme to the name, a rhyme suggestive of the
habits or pursuits of the owner of that name, has some
merit, especially if the name be long and peculiar. But
to introduce an imaginary name for the sake of a rhyme,
is work that is too cheap to be good. A child can
write such rhyme as —
" A man of strict veracity
Was Peter James M'Assity."
* I would, however, warn the beginner not to adopt the
license of loose rhyming, which in Barham is lost sight of amid
the brightness of the wit. — (T. H.)
OF BURLESQUE AND COMIC VERSE. 8l
In composite rhyming the greatest care should be
taken to see that each syllable after the first is identical
in sound in each line. In " use he was " and " juicy
was," the " h " destroys the rhyme, and the difference
in sound in the last syllable (however carelessly pro-
nounced) between such words as " oakum " and " smoke
'em " has a similar disqualifying power. It is scarcely
necessary to refer to such inadmissible couples as
" protector " and " neglect her," " birching " and " ur-
chin," " oracle " and " historical."
One trick in rhyming is often very effective, but it
must not be put into force too often. In some in-
stances, however, it tells with great comical effect, by
affording a rhyme to a word which at first glance the
reader thinks it is impossible to rhyme. Canning, in
the " Anti-Jacobin," used it with ludicrous effect in
Rogero's song, and a few lines from that will illustrate
and explain the trick I allude to :
" Here doom'd to starve on water gru-
-el, never shall I see the U-
-niversity of Gottingen ! "
Here the division of the words " gruel " and " Uni-
versity " has an extremely absurd effect. But the arti-
fice must be used sparingly, and those who employ it
must beware of one pitfall. The moiety of the word
which is carried over to begin the next line must be
considered as a fresh word occupying the first foot.
There is a tendency to overlook it, and count it as part
of the previous Une, and that of course is a fatal
error.
82 THE RHYMESTER.
Parody may be considered as a form of comic versi-
fication. It is not enough that a parody should be in
the same meter as the original poem it imitates. Nor
is it sufficient that the first hne or so has such a simi-
larity as to suggest the original. In the best parodies
each line of the original has an echo in the parody, and
the words of the former are retained as far as possible
in the latter, or replaced by others very similar.
Another form of parody is the parody of style,
w^hen, instead of selecting a particular poem to para-
phrase, we imitate, in verse modeled on the form he
usually adopts, the mannerisms of thought or expres-
sion for which any particular writer is distinguished.
Examples of both kinds of parody will be found in
the " Rejected Addresses " of James and Horace Smith,
which should be studied together with Hood, Barham,
Wolcot, and Thackeray, by those who would read the
best models of humorous, comic, or burlesque writing.
I may add here that vers de socicti will be best studied
in the writings of Praed, Prior, and Moore. From liv-
ing writers it would be invidious to single out any, either
as models or warnings. [Thus far had the author
written eight years ago : to-day the editor feels he
would be derelict to his duty did he not advise the stu-
dent of vers de societi — which are something more
than mere " society verse " — of Dr. Holmes, Mr. E. C.
Stedman, and Mr. Austin Dobson. More broadly
comic verse is to be found in Mr. W. S. Gilbert's " Bab
Ballads " and Mr. C. S. Calverley's " Fly Leaves." Nor
should the poetry of Mr. Bret Harte be neglected.]
CHAPTER IX.
OF SONG- WRITING.
A LTHOUGH song-writing is one of the most diffi-
■^^ cult styles of versification, it is now held in but
little repute, owing to the unfortunate condition of the
musical world in England. " Any rubbish will do for
music " is the maxim of the music shop-keeper, who is
practically the arbiter of the art nowadays, and who
has the interests he is supposed to represent so little
at heart that he would not scruple to publish songs,
consisting of " nonsense verses " — as school-boys call
them — set to music, if he thought that the usual artifice
of paying singers a royalty on the sale for singing a
song would prevail on the public to buy them.
Another reason why " any rubbish will do for
music " has passed into a proverb is, that few amateur
singers — and not too many professionals — understand
" phrasing." How rarely can one hear what the words
of a song are ! Go to a " musical evening " and take
note, and you will see that, in nine cases out of ten,
when a new song has been sung, people take the piece
of music and look over the words. A song is like a
cherry, and ought not to require us to make two bites
at it.
6
84 THE RHYMESTER.
Nor is the injury inflicted on music due only to the
amount of rubbish which is made to do duty for songs.
The writings of our poets are ransacked for "words,"
and accompaniments are manufactured to poems which
were never intended, and are absolutely unfitted, for
musical treatment. Then, because it is found that
poems are not to be converted into songs so easily as
people think, the cry is not merely that " any rubbish
will do for songs," but that ''only rubbish will do " — a
cry that is vigorously taken up by interested persons.
The truth lies between the two extremes. A pecu-
liar style of verse is required, marked by such charac-
teristics and so difficult of attainment that some of
our greatest poets — Byron for one — have failed as song-
writers. English literature reckons but few really good
song-writers. When you have named Moore, Lover,
Burns, and Barry Cornwall, you have almost exhausted
the list.
There is in the last edition of the works of the
lamented writer I have just named — Samuel Lover — a
preface in which he enters very minutely into the sub-
ject of song-writing. The sum of what he says is,
that " the song being necessarily of brief compass, the
writer must have powers of condensation. He must
possess ingenuity in the management of meter. He
must frame it of open vowels, with as few guttural or
hissing sounds as possible, and he must be content
sometimes to sacrifice grandeur or vigor to the neces-
sity of selecting singing words and not reading ones."
He adds that " the simplest words best suit song, but
simplicity must not descend to baldness. There must
OF SONG-WRITING. 85
be a thought in the song, gracefully expressed, and it
must appeal either to the fancy or feelings, or both,
but rather by suggestion than direct appeal ; and phi-
losophy and didactics must be eschewed."
He adduces Shelley, with his intense poetry and
exquisite sensitiveness to sweet sounds, as an instance
of a poet who failed to see the exact necessities of
song-writing, and giv'es a quotation from one of Shel-
ley's " songs " to prove this. The line is :
" The fresh earth in new leaves drest,"
and he says verj^ pertinently, " It is a sweet line, and a
pleasant image — but I defy any one to sing it : nearly
every word shuts up the mouth instead of opening it."
That last sentence is the key to song-writing. I use
the word song-writing in preference to " lyrical writ-
ing," because " lyrical " has been warped from its strict
meaning, and applied to verse which was not intended
for music. It is not absolutely necessary that a song-
writer should have a practical knowledge of music,
but it is all the better if he have : beyond doubt, Moore
owed much of his success to his possession of musical
knowledge.
CHAPTER X.
OF THE SONNET,
ANY discussion of the sonnet is handling- a burning
question. We are not at the threshold of the
discussion by the query, What is a sonnet ? And on
the answer to this the whole discussion turns. A son-
net is a poem containing one, and only one, idea, thought,
or sentiment, and consisting of fourteen lines of equal
length — so much is admitted by all. There are those
who consider any poem of fourteen lines a sonnet.
There are others who declare that to be a true sonnet
the poem must not only have fourteen lines of equal
length, but its construction and the arrangement of its
rhymes must conform to a prescribed pattern, called
after Petrarch. Sonnets written in the Petrarchan or
Guittonian form are " regular " or " correct " ; all others
are " irregular " and " incorrect." A regular sonnet
consists of two quatrains (in which the ist, 4th, 5th,
and 8th lines rhyme together, and likewise the 2d, 3d,
6th, and 7th), followed by two tercets (in which the
9th, nth, and 13th Hues rhyme together, and likewise
the loth, 1 2th, and 14th), thus:
OF THE SONNET.
FREDERICKSBURG.
87
" The increasing moonlight drifts across my. bed,
And on the churchyard by the road, I know,
It falls as white and noiselessly as snow.
'Twas such a night two weary summers fled ;
The stars as now were waning overhead.
Listen ! Again the shrill-lipped bugles blow
Where the swift currents of the river flow
Past Fredericksburg ; far off the heavens are red
With sudden conflagration : on yon height,
Linstock in hand, the gunners hold their breath ;
A signal-rocket pierces the dense night,
Flings its spent stars upon the town beneath ;
Hark ! — the artillery massing on the right,
Hark ! — the black squadrons wheeling down to death."
— T. B. Aldtich, Fredericksburg.
Mr. Waddington, in a " Note on the Sonnet," at the
end of his collection of " English Sonnets by Living
Writers " (London, 1881), tells us that about one third
of Petrarch's sonnets are written in this form, and most
of Ariosto's. But the arrangement most often adopted
by the Italian poets has been to employ a fifth rhyme
in the sestet, so that the 9th and 12th lines rhyme to-
gether, the loth and 13th, and the nth and 14th. Here
is an admirable example :
" What is a sonnet? 'Tis a pearly shell
That murmurs of the far-off" murmuring sea ;
A precious jewel carved most curiously ;
It is a Httle picture painted well.
88 THE RHYMESTER.
What is a sonnet ? 'Tis the tear that fell
From a great poet's hidden ecstasy ;
A two-edged sword, a star, a song — ah me !
Sometimes a heavy-tolling funeral bell.
This was the flame that shook with Dante's breath,
The solemn organ whereon Milton played.
And the clear glass where Shakespeare's shadow
falls :
A sea this is — beware who ventureth !
For like a fiord the narrow floor is laid
Deep as mid-ocean to sheer mountain walls."
—R. W. Gilder.
Strictly, these two forms only are entitled to be
called " correct " and " regular." But even the purists
are willing generally to allow variety in the sequence
of rhymes in the sestet. It is the octave in which there
must be no variation. So long as the sestet contains
two or three rhymes, and does not end with a couplet,
the sonnet is tolerated. In the following fine son-
net the divergence from the accepted form is so slight
that it is forgiven :
" HOMER'S ODYSSEY.
" As one that for a weary space has lain
Lulled by the song of Circe and her wine
In gardens near the pale of Proserpine,
Where that ^gean isle forgets the main.
And only the low lutes of love complain.
And only shadows of wan lovers pine.
As such an one were glad to know the brine
Salt on his lips, and the large air again,
OF THE SONNET. 89
So gladly from the songs of modern speech
Men turn and see the stars, and feel the free
Shrill wind beyond the close of heavy flowers,
And through the music of the languid hours
They hear, like ocean on a western beach,
The surge and thunder of the Odyssey."
— A. Lang.
As soon, however, as we abandon the arrangement
of an octave turning on two rhymes and a sestet turn-
ing on two or three rhymes at will, we must give up
all claim to regularity or correctness. To a purist
Shakespeare's sonnets are not sonnets at all, however
beautiful they may be as poems. They are " quator-
zains," if you will — poems of fourteen lines, or, as Charles
Lamb called them, " fourteeners " — but they are not
" sonnets." Howe\'er irregular the form, and however
inferior to the true Guittonian arrangement, it has been
sanctified by genius. What Shakespeare found fit for
his use, no meaner man may deem inadequate. Yet
we may agree with Mr. Waddington that the " Guit-
tonian variation is the best, and few poets, after once
having become accustomed to it, ever return to the
looser construction and less frequent rhymes of the
other forms." It is perhaps not hazardous to say that
the strict sonnet is driving out the mere " fourteener."
Most of the younger poets are purists, and it is well
that this is so ; but many of the elder American poets —
notably Lowell and Mrs. Kemble — claim the utmost
license; and even a poet as finished in form as Mr.
Frederick Locker has written a lovely sonnet on the
Shakespearean model :
90
THE RHYMESTER.
" LOVE, TIME, AND DEATH.
" Ah me, dread friends of mine — Love, Time, and Death !
Sweet Love, who came to me on sheeny wing.
And gave her to my arms — ^her lips, her breath.
And all her golden ringlets clustering ;
And Time, who gathers in the flying years.
He gave me all — but where is all he gave ?
He took my love and left me barren tears ;
Weary and lone I follow to the grave.
There Death will end this vision halfdivine,
Wan Death, who waits in shadow evermore.
And silent, ere he gave the sudden sign ;
Oh, gently lead me through thy narrow door,
Thou gentle Death, thou trustiest friend of mine.
Ah me, for Love will Death my love restore ? "
— Frederick Locker.
For any further discussion of this pregnant subject,
reference must be made to Leigh Hunt's volumes, to
Mr. Tomlinson's book, to the two collections of Mr.
Waddington, and to the full " Treasury of English
Sonnets," by Mr. David M. Main.
CHAPTER XI.
OF THE RONDEAU AND THE BALLADE.
TT is curious to note that the only fixed and rigid
-*■ form of verse which we EngHsh-speaking peoples
have until lately been willing to adopt is the sonnet.
It is almost equally curious to note that the first im-
petus toward the introduction of new forms came to us
from France, a country where, until within the last
half-century, verse has been as prim and precise, as
empty and as soulless, as metrical prose by any possi-
bility may be. But, under the inspiration of the ro-
mantic revival which marked the dying days and final
downfall of the elder branch of the house of Bourbon,
and especially under the influence of the extraordinary
vigor and vitality of Victor Hugo's earlier verse and
prose, the fresh young blood of France began to course
through more poetic channels, inventing new forms to
vent its new-found feeling, and filling old forms again
with the current of new life. The young poets went
back to the verses of the troubadours and trouveres,
and to the metrical forms of the fourteenth century ;
they went, indeed, wherever they hoped to find a fonn
or a suggestion of style suitable and worthy of mod-
92
THE RHYMESTER.
em reproduction and resuscitation ; the stranger, the
more exotic, the better. The ballade and the ron-
deau were brought again into favor. The English
ballad, with its wealth of suggestiveness and lyric pos-
sibility, was fit, indeed, to the minds of young writers
fresh from the first reading of " Notre-Dame de Paris."
Hugo called one collection of his poems " Odes et Bal-
lades " — though, as a critic objected, it contained
neither odes nor ballades — for the French ballade is
radically different from the English ballad ; and it was
the English lyric which Hugo had in mind, not the
French form of verse. In spite of the tendency toward
the Gothic, none of the involved meters of the German
Minnesingers were, as far as we find on record, at any
time imitated. But English legends and lyrics, and
fashions of all kinds, found frequent copyists, even to
the verge of affectation — M. Auguste Maquet, the col-
laborator of Dumas, called himself for a while Augus-
tus MacKeat, and Th^ophile Dondee became for a
season Philoth^e O'Neddy ! These eccentricities slow-
ly , passed away, and the good they had clouded re-
mained. French poetry to-day is more like poetry and
less like Pope than it has been for several centuries.
Hugo's example has been followed — nay, even im-
proved, for " the master," as his followers affectionate-
ly call him, is, like other great geniuses, often careless,
and the art of Theophile Gautier, and of Baudelaire,
and of M. Theodore de Banville, is above all things fin-
ished and polished and perfect.
And to-day the inspiration which the French poets
caught from their study of the early forms of French
OF THE RONDEA U AND BALLADE.
93
verse is beginning to be transmitted across the Channel
to England, and we now and then see an English ron-
deau or villandle ; and the sight is ever welcome, for
nothing makes surer the poet's hold on the mechanism
of his art than the practice of new meters and the
study of foreign forms. The impulse in favor of the
rondeau and the ballade, and their less important rela-
tives, the rofidel and villanelle, given in France by M.
Theodore de Banville, was in England due to Mr.
Austin Dobson, who united to a precision and polish
and point, as fine as M. de Banville's, a poetic faculty
far superior. Although a scant attempt had been made
now and again to write a trinlet in English, it was not
until Mr. Dobson took up these French forms serious-
ly, and studied them and adapted them to the genius
of our language and of our versification, that they made
any impression on the public mind. Indeed, it was not
until the publication, in the " Cornhill Magazine " of
July, 1877, of Mr. E. W. Gosse's " Plea for Certain
Exotic Forms of Verse," and until the appearance of
Mr. Dobson's " Proverbs in Porcelain," a little later,
that even professed students of poetry began to under-
stand what a ballade was, and that it might be pre-
cisely the instrument for the expression of certain
moods of a poet. After Mr. Dobson had written his
first ballade, Mr. Swinburne wrote one, followed soon
by Mr. Andrew Lang, Mr. E, W. Gosse. and Mr. W.
E. Henley, in England, and by Mr. H. C. Bunner and
others in America.
In the course of the past four years a many rondeaux
and ballades have got themselves written, and the French
94
THE RHYMESTER.
forms are now fairly familiar to the public which cares
for poetry. In fact, the stage of experiment has passed ;
it has been shown that these forms can be used in Eng-
lish ; and the sole question now is whether they have
shown themselves worth using. I think it can be as-
serted fairly that at least two of them have proved their
case, and are entitled to a favorable verdict. These are
the rondeau and the ballade, which bid fair to take their
place in our poetic armory side by side with the sonnet.
Of course, it would be absurd to assert that there is
yet a rondeau or a ballade equal to the best English son-
net— whatever that may be. It is, perhaps, even claim-
ing too much to say that either form, as a form, is equal
to the sonnet. But the sonnet has been acclimated in
our language for three hundred years. As Mr. Austin
Dobson has admirably put it, in the apt and alluring
" Note on some Foreign Forms of Verse " which he
contributed to Mr. W. Davenport Adams's " Latter-day
Lyrics" (London, 1878), there were doubtless contem-
porary critics who, when the English sonnet was in
leading-strings, " regarded it as a merely new-fangled
Italian conceit, suitable enough for the fantastic gal-
lantries of Provengal courts of love, but affording little
or no room for earnest or serious effort. They could
not see 'Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughter 'd saints!' in
the primitive essays of Surrey and Wyatt." Mr. Dob-
son went on to concede that " the majority of the
forms now in question are not at present suited for, nor
are they intended to rival the more approved national
rhythms in, the treatment of grave and elevated themes.
What is modestly advanced for some of them (by the
OF THE RONDEAU AND BALLADE. 95
present writer at least) is that they may add a new
charm of buoyancy — a lyric freshness — to amatory and
familiar verse, already too much condemned to faded
measures and outworn cadences." A little further on,
Mr. Dobson has a remark which more than justifies
the space given to these forms in this new edition of a
technical manual : " They have also a humbler and
obscurer use. If, to quote the once-hackneyed but
now too-much-forgotten maxim of Pope —
" ' Those move easiest that have learned to dance,'
what better discipline, among others, could possibly be
devised for ' those about to versify ' than a course of
rondeaux, triolets, and ballades."
Oddly enough, the two forms which seem most
useful, and most likely to remain in use in our lan-
guage— the rondeau and the ballade — were both at-
tempted in England as early as was the sonnet. At
the coronation of King Henry IV, John Gower, the
author of the " Confessio Amantis," presented his Ma-
jesty with a collection of fifty ballades in the Provengal
manner " to entertain the court." Unfortunately, these
were in French, else might we trace an older pedigree
for the English ballade than for the English sonnet.
Sir Thomas Wyatt introduced the true sonnet into
England, and he also wrote rondeaux in English ;
whether he was the first to do so or not, we can not
tell at this late day'. In the next century, Charles Cot-
ton, friend of that compleat angler Isaak Walton, wrote
an ungallant rondeau, to be found in Dr. Guest's " His-
tory of English Rhythms." In the last century there
g6 THE RHYMESTER.
are a few squibs in rondeau form in the " RoUiad."
Then came Mr. Austin Dobson.
The word rondeau has been applied inaccurately in
English to any poem in which the first words of the
stanza were repeated at the end. The one specimen
of this sort, which all may remember, is Leigh Hunt's
brief and beautiful —
" Jenny kissed me when we met,
Jumping from the chair she sat in ;
Time, you thief, who love to get
Sweets upon your list, put that in —
Say I'm weary, say I'm sad.
Say that health and wealth have missed me,
Say I'm growing old ; hut add —
Jenny kissed me ! "
How far this is from the real form of the rondeau
can readily be seen by comparing it with this tran-
scription by Mr. Dobson of a French rondeau of Voi-
ture's :
" ' YOU BID ME TRY.'
" You bid me try, blue eyes, to write
A rondeau. What ! — forthwith ? — to-night ?
Reflect. Some skill I have, 'tis true ;
But thirteen lines — and rhymed on two —
' Refrain,' as well. Ah, hapless plight !
" Still, there are five lines — ranged aright.
These Gallic bonds, I feared, would fright
My easy Muse. They did till you —
You bid me try !
OF THE RONDEAU AND BALLADE. 97
" This makes them nine. The port's in sight ;
'Tis all because your eyes are bright !
Now, just a pair to end with ' 00 ' —
When maids command, what can't we do ?
Behold ! the rondeau — tasteful, light —
You bid me try ! "
Here the poet describes and exemplifies at once.
From this it is seen that the rondeau has thirteen lines
with but two rhymes, eight of one and five of the
other, in a rigidly prescribed order, and that the first
four syllables are repeated as an unrhymed refrain after
the eighth line and again at the end. Here is another
example :
" SLEEP.
" O happy Sleep ! that bear'st upon thy breast
The blood-red poppy of enchanting rest.
Draw near me through the stillness of this place
And let thy low breath move across my face.
As faint winds move above a poplar's crest.
" The broad seas darken slowly in the west ;
The wheeling sea-birds call from nest to nest ;
Draw near and touch me, leaning out of space,
O happy Sleep !
" There is no sorrow hidden or confess'd.
There is no passion uttered or suppress'd,
Thou canst not for a little while efface ;
Enfold me in thy mystical embrace,
Thou sovereign gift of God most sweet, most blest,
O happy Sleep ! "
— Ada Louise Martin.
98 THE RHYMESTER.
From these two examples the structure of the ron-
deau is made plain, and its difficulty also, which chiefly
lies in the handling of the refrain. To learn the inner
secret of the rondeau, said the writer of an anonymous
article whose author we can not but suspect, " to give
the refrain a new savor and fragrance at each repeti-
tion by some covert art of setting, and to make it seem
the mere bubbling over, as it were, of the eighth and
thirteenth lines — these are things which only the mas-
ters of the lyre can attain to." To give absolute vari-
ety to the refrain, a complete change of meaning at
each recurrence is enjoined, and the liberty of some-
thing very like punning is allowed.
There is another and slightly different form of the
rondeau, altogether less apt either for deep meaning or
sportive jest ; notwithstanding which it has been used
by Villon and by Alfred de Musset. Here is an Eng-
lish example :
" VIOLET.
" Violet delicate, sweet,
Down in the deep of the wood,
Hid in thy still retreat,
Far from the sound of the street,
Man and his merciless mood : —
" Safe from the storm and the heat.
Breathing of beauty and good
Fragrantly, under thy hood,
Violet.
" Beautiful maid discreet,
Where is the mate that is meet,
OF THE RONDEAU AND BALLADE. 99
Meet for thee — strive as he could —
Yet will I kneel at thy feet,
Fearing another one should,
Violet ! "
— W. Cosmo Monkhouse.
Plainly the rondeau lends itself readily to the exigen-
cies of the English language, yet it yields in power and
variety to the ballade, which is also based on the triple
use of a refrain. Perhaps example should always pre-
cede exposition. Villon, that " voice out of the slums
of Paris," wrote a rondeau now and then, but his great
love was the ballade ; and in his hands it is a wonderful
instrument. No English version can do justice to his
verse, but it is well to begin by quoting a ballade of his :
" BALLADE OF THINGS KNOWN AND UNKNOWN.
" Flies in the milk I know full well:
I know men by the clothes they wear :
I know the walnut by the shell :
I know the foul sky from the fair :
I know the pear-tree by the pear :
When things go well, to me is shown :
I know who work and who forbear :
I know all save myself alone.
" I know the pourpoint by the fell :
And by his gown I know the fr^rc :
Master from varlet can I tell :
And nuns that cover up their hair :
I know a swindler by his air,
And fools that fat on cates have grown :
Wines by the cask I can compare :
I know all save myself alone.
7
lOO THE RHYMESTER.
" I know how horse from mule to tell :
I know the load each one can bear :
I know both Beatrice and Bell :
I know the hazards, odd and pair :
I know of visions in the air :
I know the power of Peter's throne
And how misled Bohemians were :
I know all save myself alone.
" ENVOY.
" Prince, I know all things : fat and spare,
Ruddy and pale, to me are known ;
And Death that endeth all our care :
I know all save myself alone.
— John Payne, from Francois Villon.
From this we see that the ballade consists of three
stanzas and a half-stanza, called an envoy, and gener-
ally addressed directly to some prince or power ; that
the rhymes and arrangement of the first stanza are re-
peated in the others ; and that the refrain concludes all
three stanzas and the envoy. Eight-line stanzas with
only three rhymes, as above, are the most often seen ;
but ten-line stanzas using four rhymes are also per-
missible— as may be seen below :
" BALLADE OF THE MIDNIGHT FOREST.
" Still sing the mocking fairies as of old,
Beneath the shade of thorn and holly-tree ;
The west wind breathes upon them, pure and cold,
And wolves still dread Diana roaming free
In secret woodland with her company.
'Tis thought the peasant's hovels know her rite
OF THE RONDEAU AND BALLADE, loi
When now the wolds are bathed in silver light,
And first the moonrise breaks the dusky gray,
Then down the dells with blown soft hair and bright,
And through the dim wood Dian threads her way.
" With water-weeds twined in their locks of gold
The strange cold forest-fairies dance in glee,
Sylphs over-timorous and over-bold
Haunt the dark hollows where the dwarf may be,
The wild red dwarf, the nixies' enemy ;
Then 'mid their mirth and laughter, and affright.
The sudden Goddess enters, tall and white.
With one long sigh for summers passed away ;
The swift feet tear the ivy nets outright
And through the dim wood Dian threads her way.
" She gleans her silvan trophies ; down the wold
She hears the sobbing of the stags that flee
Mixed with the music of the hunting roll'd.
But her delight is all in archery.
And naught of ruth and pity wotteth she.
More than her hounds that follow on the flight :
The goddess draws a golden bow of night
And thick she rains the gentle shafts that slay.
She tosses loose her locks upon the night.
And through the dim wood Dian threads her way.
" ENVOY.
■' Prince, let us leave the din, the dust, the spite,
The gloom and glare of towns, the plague, the blight ;
Amid the forest leaves and fountain spray
There is the mystic house of our delight.
And through the dim wood Dian threads her way."
— Andrew Lang, after Theodore de Banville.
102 THE RHYMESTER.
Two other varieties are known. One is the double
ballade, which is simply a ballade with six stanzas (all
repeating the rhymes and arrangement of the first of
either eight lines or ten), and with or without an envoy,
as the poet pleases. And the other is the ballade
with a double refrain, in which the fourth line of the
first stanza (always of eight lines) is repeated in the
other stanzas, while the envoy consists of two couplets
in which both refrains occur in order. The typical
French example of the ballade with two refrains is
the " Frere Lubin " of Clement Marot, which has
been translated by both Longfellow and Bryant, nei-
ther of whom has presented the ballade form. Here
is the best attempt at the ballade with two refrains,
and one of the most bhthesome and debonair poems
of its author :
"THE BALLADE OF PROSE AND RHYME.
" When the ways are heavy with mire and rut,
In November fogs, in December snows,
When the north wind howls, and the doors are shut —
There is place and enough for the pains of prose ;
But whenever a scent from the whitethorn blows,
And the jasmine-stars to the lattice climb.
And a Rosalind-face to the casement shows —
Then hey ! — for the ripple of laughing rhyme !
' ' When the brain gets as dry as an empty nut,
When the reason stands on its squarest toes.
When the mind (like a beard) has a ' formal cut ' —
There is place and enough for the pains of prose ;
But whenever the May-blood stirs and glows.
And the young year draws to the ' golden prime,*
OF THE RONDEAU AND BALLADE. 103
And Sir Romeo sticks in his ear a rose —
Then hey ! — for the ripple of laughing rhyme !
" In a theme where the thoughts have a pendant strut,
In a changing quarrel of ' Ayes ' and ' Noes,'
In a starched procession of 'If and ' But ' —
There is place and enough for the pains of prose ;
But whenever a soft glance softer grows,
And the light hours dance to the trysting-time,
And the secret is told ' that no one knows ' —
Then hey ! — for the ripple of laughing rhyme !
" ENVOY.
" In the work-a-day world — for its needs and woes.
There is place and enough for the pains of prose ;
But whenever the May bells clash and chime,
Then hey ! — for the ripple of laughing rhyme ! "
— Austin Dobson.
The great secret of the ballade is the apt choice
and adroit use of the refrain. First catch your refrain.
Then tame it to do your bidding, until (as the anony-
mous writer already quoted says neatly) " it recur with-
out the tedium of importunity and return with the
certainty of welcome." The ballade with a double
refrain is doubly difficult, for it demands two good
refrains contrasting sharply, and setting each other off
to advantage. M. de Banville warns the ballade-maker
against making his stanzas four lines at a time, for the
two halves will never join imperceptibly ; they will
always be broken-backed. Each stanza should be
homogeneous, cast in one jet, welded at a white heat.
The thought of the ballade, the central and primary
104
THE RHYMESTER.
idea, should be brought out in each stanza and em-
phasized in the refrain ; and then packed compactly
into the final epigram of the envoy ; finally, by the fourth
repetition of the refrain, driven home to the head.
All of Mr. Dobson's ballades will repay study with
delight ; the most of them may be found in the Ameri-
can edition of his collected poems called " Vignettes
in Rhyme" (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1880).
In Mr. Andrew Lang's dainty and delightful little
volume of " XXXH Ballades in Blue China" (Lon-
don: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1881), are to be
found ballades of great variety and dexterity.
CHAPTER XII.
OF OTHER FIXED FORMS OF VERSE.
BEFORE taking up the other fixed forms of verse,
it may be well to digress for a moment to con-
sider the use of the refrain, upon the regular recurrence
of which the ballade and the rondeau and most of the
other forms are based. No artistic effect of verse, as
Poe says, has been so universally employed. It is to
be seen in the meaningless choruses of college and
convivial songs, in the recurrent catch-lines of the old
English and Scotch ballads, and in the quaint repeti-
tions of their modern imitations, like the " Sister Helen "
of Mr. Rossetti, and the other mediaevalisms which
Mr. C. S. Calverley has comically parodied :
" The farmer's daughter hath soft brown hair
{Btiitcr and eggs and a pound of cheese) ;
And I met with a ballad I can't say where,
Which wholly consisted of lines like these."
In these instances the refrain existed with but slight
usefulness. As Poe says, it is in a primitive condition ;
" as commonly used, the refrain, or burden, ... de-
pends for its impression upon the force of monotone —
both in sound and thought. The pleasure is deduced
lo6 THE RHYMESTER.
solely from the sense of identity — of repetition. I re-
solved to diversify, and so heighten, the effect, by ad-
hering, in general, to the monotone of sound, while I
continually varied that of thought ; that is to say, I
determined to produce continuously novel effects, by
the variation of the application of the refrain — the
refrain itself remaining, for the most part, unvaried."
Poe's success in the execution of this device, which is
not as novel as he declares, can be seen in " The Ra-
ven " and also in " The Bells." The same effect is pro-
duced in satiric verse in the " Biglow Papers," where
" John P
Robinson, he
Says he wont vote for Governor B,"
and in the virile and noble stanzas, in which Mr. Sted-
man tells us that
" John Brown,
Ossawotomie Brown,
Saw his sons fall dead beside him, and between them laid
him down."
In both of these, as in Poe's "Raven," the refrain
recurs at regular intervals, and almost unvaried in form,
but with great variety in the application. And this is
the principle of the ballade and the rondeau and the
ro7idel and their fellows. The words of the refrain
are as the laws of the Medes and Persians, which alter
not, but the meaning of these words admits of as
much variety as the poet can impart.
Closely allied to the rondeau are the triolet and the
rondel. Here is a triolet :
OF OTHER FIXED FORMS OF VERSE.
107
"A PITCHER OF MIGNONETTE.
" A pitcher of mignonette,
In a tenement's highest casement :
Queer sort of a flower-pot — yet
That pitcher of mignonette
Is a garden in heaven set,
To the little sick child in the basement —
The pitcher of mignonette.
In the tenement's highest casement.
— H. C. Bunner.
Thus we see that the triolet is a single stanza of
two rhymes and eight lines, of which the first is re-
peated as the fourth, and the first and second as the
seventh and eighth. " The triolet is, perhaps, best
adapted for epigram," says a writer from whom I have
already quoted ; " the weight of its raison d 'efre rests
on the fifth and sixth lines, while the perfection of its
execution lies in the skill with which the third line is
connected with the fourth, and the final couplet with
the one preceding it."
The rondel, of which the earliest English examples
were perhaps written by Charles of Orleans during his
residence in England, is also closely akin to the rondeau.
It is a poem of two rhymes and fourteen lines, with a
repetition of the first and second lines as the seventh
and eighth, and again as the thirteenth and fourteenth.
"READY FOR THE RIDE.
" Through the fresh fairness of the Spring to ride,
As in the old days when he rode with her,
With joy of Love that had fond Hope to bride,
One year ago had made her pulses stir.
lo8 THE RHYMESTER.
" Now shall no wish with any day recur
(For Love and Death part year and year full wide),
Through the fresh fairness of the Spring to ride,
As in the old days when he rode with her.
" No ghost there lingers of the smile that died
On the sweet pale lip where his kisses were —
. . . Yet still she turns her delicate head aside,
If she may hear him come, with jingling spur —
Through the fresh fairness of the Spring to ride.
As in the old days when he rode with her."
— H. C. Bunner.
It is, however, allowable at times to omit the four-
teenth line and to end with the repetition of the first line
as the thirteenth, thus :
"THE WANDERER.
" Love comes back to his vacant dwelling —
The old, old Love that we knew of yore !
We see him stand by the open door.
With his great eyes sad, and his bosom swelling.
" He makes as though in our arms repelling
He fain would lie, as he lay before ;
Love comes back to his vacant dwelling —
The old, old Love which we knew of yore !
" Ah, who shall help us from over-spelling
That sweet forgotten, forbidden Lore !
E'en as we doubt, in our heart once more.
With a rush of tears to our eyelids welling.
Love comes back to his vacant dwelling ! "
— Austin Dobson.
OF OTHER FIXED FORMS OF VERSE. 109
Just as the rondel and the triolet seem variations of
the rondeau, so is the chant-royal a development of
the ballade : it is to be defined roughly as a ballade of
five stanzas of eleven lines, with an envoy of five lines.
It is said that, according to the strict rule of the older
French writers, the chant-royal should be an allegory,
the solution of which is contained in the envoy. There
are but few English chattts-royals, for the making of
them is a hard and thankless task. Mr. Gosse has
written a splendidly sustained chant-royal to the
" Praise of Dionysus," and Mr. Dobson another sug-
gested by the " Death of Death." In America, so far
as I know, but one has been written ; and it is this one
which I quote, for it shows how readily even the most
difficult form lends itself to satire and humor :
" BEHOLD THE DEEDS !
[Being the Plaint of Adolphe Culpepper Ferguson, Salesman of
Fancy Notions, held in durance of his Landlady for a failure to connect
on Saturday night.]
I.
" I would that all men my hard case might know ;
How grievously I suffer for no sin :
I, Adolphe Culpepper Ferguson, for lo !
I of my landlady am locked in.
For being short on this sad Saturday,
Nor having shekels of silver wherewith to pay :
She has turned and is departed with my key ;
Wherefore, not even as other boarders free,
I sing (as prisoners to their dungeon-stones
When for ten days they expiate a spree) :
Behold the deeds that are done of Mrs. Jones !
no THE RHYMESTER.
II.
" One night and one day have I wept my woe ;
Nor wot I, when the morrow doth begin,
If I shall have to write to Briggs & Co.,
To pray them to advance the requisite tin
For ransom of their salesman, that he may
Go forth as other boarders go alway —
As those I hear now flocking from their tea,
Led by the daughter of my landlady
Piano-ward. This day, for all my moans,
Dry bread and water have been served me.
Behold the deeds that are done of Mrs. Jones !
III.
" Miss Amabel Jones is musical, and so
The heart of the young he-board^r doth win,
Playing ' The Maiden's Prayer,' adagio —
That fetcheth him, as fetcheth the banco skin
The innocent rustic. For my part, I pray :
That Badarjewska maid may wait for aye
Ere sits she with a lover, as did we
Once sit together, Amabel ! Can it be
That all that arduous wooing not atones
For Saturday shortness of trade dollars three ?
Behold the deeds that are done of Mrs. Jones !
IV.
" Yea ! she forgets the arm was wont to go
Around her waist. She wears a buckle, whose pin
Galleth the crook of the young man's elbow.
/ forget not, for I that youth have been.
Smith was aforetime the Lothario gay.
Yet once, I mind me. Smith was forced to stay
Close in his room. Not calm, as I, was he ;
OF OTHER FIXED FORMS OF VERSE, m
But his noise brought no pleasaunce, verily.
Small ease he gat of playing on the bones
Or hammering on his stove-pipe, that I see.
Behold the deeds that are done of Mrs. Jones !
V.
" Thou, for whose fear the figurative crow
I eat, accursed be thou and all thy kin !
Thee will I show up — yea, up will I show
Thy too thick buckwheats, and thy tea too thin.
Ay ! here I dare thee, ready for the fray :
Thou dost 7iot ' keep a first-class house,' I say !
It does not with the advertisements agree.
Thou lodgest a Briton with a puggaree.
And thou hast harbored Jacobses and Cohns,
Also a Mulligan. Thus denounce I thee !
Behold the deeds that are done of Mrs. Jones !
" ENVOY.
" Boarders ! the worst I have not told to ye :
She hath stolen my trowsers, that I may not flee
Privily by the window. Hence these groans.
There is no fleeing in a rode de nuit. *
Behold the deeds that are done of Mrs. Jones !
— //. C. Bunner.
The villafielle, like the rondel, rondeau, and triolet,
has but two rhymes ; its peculiarity is the alternation
of two refrains. It consists of five triplets, followed by
a quatrain. The opening line is repeated as the third
of the second and fourth triplets, and as the final line
of the concluding quatrain. The third line reappears
at the end of the third and fifth triplets, and as the
next to last of the poem. The first and third lines of
112 THE RHYMESTER.
each triplet all rhyme together ; and the second lines
rhyme with one another. The following graceful ex-
ample is not absolutely exact in form, as the poet has
willfully, and without warrant, varied the last line,
which ought to be absolutely identical with the third :
" There are roses white, there are roses red,
Shyly rosy, tenderly white ;
Which shall I choose to wreathe my head ?
" Which shall I cull from the garden-bed
To greet my love on this verj- night?
There are roses white, there are roses red.
" The red should say what I would have said ;
Ah ! how they blush in the evening light 1
Which shall I choose to wreathe my head ?
" The white are pale as the snow new spread,
Pure as young eyes and half as bright ;
There are roses white, there are roses red.
" Roses white, from the heaven dew-fed,
Roseared for a passion's plight,
Which shall I choose to wreathe my head?
" Summer twilight is almost fled.
Say, dear love ! have I chosen right ?
There are roses white, there are roses red.
All twined together to wreathe my head."
— L. S. Bevington, Roses.
It was supposed at one time that the villanelle.
might be of indefinite length, but the best authorities
now agree with M. Boulmier that, as Passerat devised
the form, it is fitting that his " J'ai perdu ma tourterelle "
OF OTHER FIXED FORMS OF VERSE.
113
should be followed, and that consists of five triplets
and a quatrain.
Something like the villanelle in its repetition of
two lines, but without any limitation on the number of
the stanzas, is the pantoum. Not content with merely-
French forms of verse, the French poets have even
adopted one Malayan form, the pantou7n, first brought
to their attention in the notes to Hugo's " Orientales,"
and afterward employed to advantage by Theophile
Gautier and M. Theodore de Banville. It is not at
first sight encouraging ; it consists of a series of four-
line stanzas, the second and fourth lines of each stanza
reappearing as the first and third of the next stanza,
and so on ad mfinitum, the first and third lines of the
first stanza appearing again in the final one. Mr. Dob-
son's pantoum is a little long, so only beginning and
end are here given :
" IN TOWN.
" ' The blue-fly sung in the pane.'' — Tennyson.
" June in the zenith is torrid
(There is that woman again !) ;
Here, with the sun on one's forehead,
Thought gets dry in the brain.
" There is that woman again ;
' Strawberries ! fourpence a pottle ' '
Thought gets dry in the brain ;
Ink gets dry in the bottle.
" ' Strawberries ! fourpence a pottle ! '
Oh, for the green of a lane !
Ink gets dry in the bottle ;
' Buzz ' goes a fly in the pane !
114 ^^^ RHYMESTER.
" Some muslin-clad Mabel or May
To dash one with eau de Cologne ;
Bluebottle's off and away,
And why should I stay here alone ?
" To dash one with eau de Cologne
All over one's talented forehead !
And why should I stay here alone ?
June in the zenith is torrid ! "
There are very few pantottms in English, and not
likely to be many more, for the writing of them is
merely a freak of literary ingenuity, and not likely to
have results of permanent value. There is an Ameri-
can pantotim, " En Route," in " Scribner's " for July,
1878, setting forth the misery of railroad travel in hot
weather. In both " In Town " and " En Route " there
is an attempt to make the constant repetitions not
merely tolerable, but subservient to the general effect
of monotonously recurrent sound — in the one case, the
buzzing of the fly, and in the other, the rattle and strain
of the cars.
The sestina is even more complicated and difficult
than iht pantoum or the chant-royal. It was invented
by Arnauld Daniel, a Provengal troubadour of the end
of the thirteenth century ; and from him it was copied
by various Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese poets. It
consists of six six-lined stanzas, each of which ends with
the same six words, not rhyming, but arranged in a
prescribed order, and it concludes with an envoy of
three lines, containing all six of the final words, three
OF OTHER FIXED FORMS OF VERSE.
115
at the end of the lines, and three in the body of the
lines. I know only one English example of this form :
" Fra tutti il pri7no A rnaldo Daniello
. Gran maestro d'amor?'' — Petrarch.
" In fair Provence, the land of lute and rose,
Arnaut, great master of the lore of love,
First wrought sestines to win his lady's heart,
For she was deaf when simpler staves he sang,
And for her sake he broke the bonds of rhyme.
And in this subtler measure hid his woe.
" ' Harsh be my lines,' cried Arnaut, ' harsh the woe.
My lady, that enthorn'd and cruel rose.
Inflicts on him that made her live in rhyme ! '
But through the meter spake the voice of Love,
And like a wild-wood nightingale he sang
Who thought in crabbed lays to ease his heart.
" It is not told if her untoward heart
Was melted by the poet's lyric woe.
Or if in vain so amorously he sang ;
Perchance through cloud of dark conceits he rose
To nobler heights of philosophic love,
And crowned his later years with sterner rhyme.
" This thing alone we know : the triple rhyme
Of him who bared his vast and passionate heart
To all the crossing flames of hate and love.
Wears in the midst of all its storm of woe —
As some loud morn of March may bear a rose —
The impress of a song that Arnaut sang.
" 'Smith of his mother-tongue,' the Frenchman sang
Of Launcelot and of Galahad, the rhyme
8
Il6 THE RHYMESTER.
That beat so blood-like at its core of rose,
It stirred the sweet Francesca's gentle heart
To take that kiss that brought her so much woe,
And sealed in fire her martyrdom of love.
" And Dante, full of her immortal love,
Stayed his dear song, and softly, fondly sang
As though his voice broke with that weight of woe ;
And to this day we think of Arnaut's rhyme
Whenever pity at the laboring heart
On fair Francesca's memory drops the rose.
" Ah ! sovereign Love, forgive this weaker rhyme !
The men of old who sang were great at heart.
Yet have we too known woe, and worn thy rose."
— E. W. Gosse, Sestina.
A contemporary French poet, M. de Gramont, has
adapted this Provengal form to more modem French
versification. He began by making the six final words
rhyme by threes, and he changed the rhythm from
hendecasyllabics to Alexandrines. The form he thus
modified he has used freely himself, and he has been
foUowred by a few French poets and by the one Eng-
lish poet who has shown the greatest power of con-
quering rebel rhythms.
" I saw my soul rest upon a day
As a bird sleeping in the nest of night.
Among soft leaves that give the starlight way,
To touch its wings but not its eyes with light ;
So that it knew as one in visions may.
And knew not as men waking of delight.
OF OTHER FIXED FORMS OF VERSE. 117
" This was the measure of my soul's delight ;
It has no power of joy to fly by day,
Nor part in the large lordship of the light,
But in a secret, moon-beholden way
Had all its will of dreams and pleasant night,
And all the love and life that sleepers may.
" But such life's triumph as men waking may
It might not have to feed its faint delight
Between the stars by night and sun by day,
Shut up with green leaves and a little light ;
Because its way was as a lost star's way,
A world's not wholly known of day or night.
*' All loves, and dreams, and sounds, and gleams, of night
Made it all music that such minstrels may.
And all they had they gave it of delight ;
But in the full face of the fire of day
What place shall be for any starry light.
What part of heaven in all the wide sun's way ?
" Yet the soul woke not, sleeping by the way,
Watched as a nursling of the large-eyed night.
And sought no strength nor knowledge of the day.
Nor closer touch conclusive of delight,
Nor mightier joy, nor timer than dreamers may.
Nor more of song than they nor more of light.
" For who sleeps once and sees the secret light
Whereby sleep shows the soul a fair way
Between the rise and rest of day and night.
Shall care no more to fare as all men may.
But be his place of pain or of delight,
There shall he dwell, beholding night as day.
Il8 THE RHYMESTER.
" Song, have thy day and take thy fill of light
Before the night be fallen across thy way ;
Sing while he may, man hath no long delight."
— A. C. Swinburne, Sestina.
In French " light " and " delight " are admirable
rhymes, but in English they are not rhymes at all.
Perhaps Mr. Swinburne, having taken a French form,
thought himself justified in following the French prac-
tice of rhyming. From Mr. Gosse's poem and from
Mr. Swinburne's the secret of the construction of the
sestina may be learned. The most obvious rule is that
each stanza has at the end of its first hne the final
word of the preceding stanza. Then the second line
terminates with the final word of the first line of the
preceding stanza. And so the final words are chosen
alternately from the last three hues and the first three
lines of the stanza preceding. The whole subject, and
indeed all the forms treated in this and the two chap-
ters before, can best be studied in M. de Gramont's
" Les Vers Frangais et leur Prosodie " (Paris : Hetzel),
and in M. de Banville's " Petit Traite de Poesie Fran-
?aise" (Paris, Charpentier, 1881).
A FIT OF RHYME AGAINST RHYME.
Rhyme, the rack of finest wits,
That expresseth but by fits
True conceit,
Spoiling senses of their treasure,
Cozening judgment with a measure.
But false weight ;
Wresting words from their true calling ;
Propping verse for fear of falling
To the ground ;
Jointing syllables, drowning letters.
Fastening vowels, as with fetters
They were bound !
Soon as lazy thou wert known.
All good poetry hence was flown.
And art banished ;
For a thousand years together,
All Parnassus green did wither.
And wit vanished.
120 THE RHYMESTER.
Pegasus did fly away ;
At the wells no Muse did stay,
But bewailed.
So I see the fountain dry,
And Apollo's music die,
All light failed.
Starveling rhymes did fill the stage —
Not a poet in an age,
Worthy crowning ;
Not a work deserving bays,
Nor a line deserving praise,
Pallas frowning.
Greek was free from rhyme's infection ;
Happy Greek, by this protection.
Was not spoiled ;
Whilst the Latin, queen of tongues,
Is not yet free from rhyme's wrongs.
But rests foiled.
Scarce the hill again does flourish.
Scarce the world a wit doth nourish,
To restore
Phoebus to his crown again.
And the Muses to their brain.
As before.
Vulgar languages that want
Words and sweetness and be scant
Of true measure.
A FIT OF RHYME AGAINST RHYME. 121
Tyrant rhyme hath so abused
That they long since have refused
Other censure.
He that first invented thee.
May his joints tormented be,
Cramped for ever ;
Still may syllables jar with time,
Still may reason war with rhyme,
Resting never !
May his sense, when it would meet
The cold tumor in his feet,
Grow unsounder ;
And his title be long Fool,
That in rearing such a school
Was the founder.
— Ben Jonson.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES.
A
AB, or ABB.
As in cab. Bab, cab, dab, Mab, gab, nab, blab,
crab, drab, scab, stab, slab, St. Abb.
As in squab. See Ob.
ABE.
Babe, astrolabe.
AC.
Zodiac, maniac, demoniac, ammoniac, almanac,
symposiac, hypochondriac, aphrodisiac, crack, lac,
brach, back, hack, bric-a-brac, jack, lack, pack, quack,
tack, sack, rack, black, clack, crack, knack, slack,
snack, stack, track, wrack, attack, smack, thwack,
arrack.
ACE.
Ace, dace, pace, face, lace, mace, race, brace, chace,
grace, place, Thrace, space, trace, apace, deface, efface,
disgrace, displace, misplace, embrace, grimace, inter-
lace, retrace, populace, carapace, base, case, abase,
debase, vase.
124 "^^^ RHYMESTER.
ACH.
See Atch.
ACHE.
See Ake.
ACS.
See Ax.
ACT.
Act, fact, fract, pact, tract, attract, abstract, extract,
tact, intact, contact, compact, contract, subact, co-act,
detract, distract, exact, protract, enact, infract, sub-
tract, transact, retract, re-act, cataract, counteract, the
preterites and participles of verbs in ACK.
AD. or ADD.
As in bad. Add, bad, dad, gad, fad, had, lad, mad,
pad, sad, brad, clad, glad, plaid (?), cad, chad, shad,
etc.
As in wad. See Od.
ADE.
Cade, fade, made, jade, lade, wade, blade, bade,
glade, shade, spade, trade, degrade, evade, dissuade,
invade, persuade, blockade, brigade, estrade, arcade,
esplanade, cavalcade, cascade, cockade, crusade, mas-
querade, renegade, retrograde, serenade, gambade, bro-
cade, ambuscade, cannonade, palisade, rhodomontade,
aid, maid, raid, braid, lemonade, staid, upbraid, afraid,
and the preterites and participles of verbs in Ay,
Ey, and ElGH. (The word pomade still retains the
French ade, and rhymes with huzzaed, psha'd, baad.)
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 125
ADGE.
Badge, cadge.
ADZE.
Adze, rhymes plural of nouns, or third person sin-
gular present of verbs, in Ad, Add.
AEN.
Ta'en. See AiN.
AFE.
Safe, chafe, vouchsafe, waif, Ralph.
AFF.
Gaff, chaff, draff, graff, quaff, staff, distaff, engraff,
epitaph, cenotaph, paragraph, photograph, telegraph,
behalf, laugh, half, calf.
AFT.
Aft, haft, raft, daft, waft, craft, shaft, abaft, graft,
draft, ingraft, handicraft, draught, and the preterites
and participles of verbs in Aff and AUGH, etc.
AG.
Bag, cag, fag, gag, hag, jag, lag, nag, quag, rag,
sag, tag, wag, brag, crag, drag, flag, knag, shag, snag,
stag, swag, scrag, Brobdingnag.
AGD.
Smaragd, preterites and participles of verbs in
AG.
126 THE RHYMESTER.
AGE,
Age, cage, gage, mage, page, rage, sage, wage,
stage, swage, assuage, engage, disengage, enrage, pre-
sage, appanage, concubinage, heritage, hermitage, pa-
rentage, personage, parsonage, pasturage, patronage,
pilgrimage, villanage, equipage, and gauge.
AGM.
Diaphragm, rhymes Am.
AGNE.
Champagne.
See
Am.
Plague, vague.
AGUE.
Ah, bah, shah.
pah
AH.
AI.
Serai, almai, ai
, papai, ay.
See Ade.
AID.
See Ate.
AIGHT.
See Ane.
AIGN.
AIL.
Bail, brail, fail, grail, hail, jail, mail, nail, pail, quail,
rail, sail, shail, tail, wail, flail, frail, snail, trail, assail,
avail, detail, bewail, entail, prevail, aventail, wassail,
retail, countervail, curtail, Abigail, ale, bale, dale, gale.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 127
hale, male, pale, sale, tale, vale, wale, scale, shale, stale,
swale, whale, wale, impale, exhale, regale, veil, nightin-
gale.
AIM.
See Ame.
AIN.
Cain, blain, brain, chain, fain, gain, grain, lain, main,
pain, rain, vain, wain, drain, plain, slain, Spain, stain,
swain, train, twain, sprain, strain, abstain, amain, at-
tain, complain, contain, constrain, detain, disdain, dis-
train, enchain, entertain, explain, maintain, ordain, per-
tain, obtain, refrain, regain, remain, restrain, retain,
sustain, appertain, thane, Dane, bane, cane, crane, fane,
Jane, lane, mane, plane, vane, wane, profane, hurri-
cane, deign, arraign, campaign, feign, reign, vein, rein,
skein, thegn, champagne.
AINST.
Against, rhymes abbreviated second person singu-
lar present of verbs in Am, Ane, Ein, Eign, Aign.
AIQUE.
Caique, See Ake.
AINT.
Ain't, mayn't, faint, plaint, quaint, saint, taint, teint,
acquaint, attaint, complaint, constraint, restraint, dis-
traint, feint.
AIR and AIRE.
See Are.
128 THE RHYMESTER.
AIRD.
Laird rhymes preterites and participles of verbs in
Are.
AIRN.
Bairn, cairn.
AISE.
See AZE.
AISLE.
Aisle. See Ile.
AIT.
See Ate.
AITH.
Faith, wraith, rath, baith.
AIZE.
See AZE.
AK.
Dak rhymes Alk.
AKE.
Ake, bake, cake, hake, lake, make, quake, rake, sake,
take, wake, brake, drake, flake, shake, snake, stake,
strake, spake, awake, betake, forsake, mistake, partake,
overtake, undertake, bespake, mandrake, break, steak,
ache, alcaic, caique, opaque.
AL.
Shall, pal, mall, sal, gal, fal-lal, cabal, canal, animal,
admiral, cannibal, capital, cardinal, comical, conjugal.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES.
129
corporal, criminal, critical, festival, fineal, funeral, gen-
eral, hospital, interval, liberal, madrigal, literal, magical,
mineral, mystical, musical, natural, original, pastoral,
pedestal, personal, physical, poetical, political, princi-
pal, prodigal, prophetical, rational, satirical, reciprocal,
rhetorical, several, temporal, tragical, tyrannical, carni-
val, schismatical, whimsical, arsenal, and many others,
ALD.
Bald, scald, rhymes the preterites and participles
of verbs in ALL, AUL, and AwL.
ALE.
See Ail.
ALF.
See Aff.
ALK.
Balk, chalk, stalk, talk, walk, calk, dak, squauk,
baulk, caulk, catafalque, hawk, auk.
ALL.
All, ball, cajl, gall, caul, haul, Gaul, appal, enthral,
awl, bawl, brawl, crawl, scrawl, sprawl, shawl, squall,
hall, mawl, stall, fall, pall, tall, wall, install, forestall,
thrall.
ALM, ALMS.
Calm, balm, becalm, psalm, palm, embalm ; plu-
rals and third persons singular rhyme with Alms, as
alms, calms, becalms, etc.
130 THE RHYMESTER.
ALP.
Scalp, Alp.
ALOUE.
Catafalque. See Alk.
ALSE.
False, valse.
ALT.
As in halt. Halt, malt, exalt, salt, vault, assault,
default, and fault.
As in shalt. Asphalt, alt, shalt.
ALVE.
As in calve. Calve, halve, salve.
As in valve. Valve, alve.
AM and AMB.
Am, dam, ham, pam, ram, Sam, cram, dram, flam,
sham, swam, kam, clam, epigram, anagram, damn,
lamb, jam, jamb, oriflamb, ma'am, telegram, lamm.
AME.
Blame, came, dame, same, flame, farpe, frame,
game, lame, name, prame, same, tame, shame, inflame,
became, defame, misname, misbecame, overcame, aim,
claim, maim, acclaim, declaim, disclaim, exclaim, pro-
claim, reclaim.
AMM.
Lamm. See Am.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 131
AMME.
Oriflamme. See Am.
AMN.
Damn. See Am.
AMP.
As in camp. Camp, champ, cramp, damp, stamp,
vamp, lamp, clam.p, decamp, encamp.
As in swamp. Swamp, pomp. romp.
AN.
As in ban. Ban, can, Dan, fan, man, Nan, pan,
ran, tan, van, bran, clan, plan, scan, span, than, unman,
foreran, began, trepan, courtesan, partisan, artisan,
pelican, caravan, shandydan, barracan.
As in wan. Wan, swan. See On.
ANCE.
Chance, dance, glance, lance, trance, prance, in-
trance, romance, advance, mischance, complaisance,
circumstance, countenance, deliverance, consonance,
dissonance, extravagance, ignorance, inheritance, main-
tenance, temperance, intemperance, exorbitance, ordi-
nance, concordance, sufferance, sustenance, utterance,
arrogance, vigilance, expanse, enhance, France. [Here
the atice is pronounced differently by different people,
dnce and dnce^
ANCH.
Branch, staunch, launch, blanch, haunch, paunch,
ganch.
9
132
THE RHYMESTER.
AND.
As in band. And, band, hand, land, rand, sand,
brand, bland, grand, gland, stand, strand, command,
demand, countermand, disband, expand, withstand,
understand, reprimand, contraband, and preterites and
participles of verbs in An.
As in wand. Wand. See Ond.
ANE.
See Am.
ANG.
Bang, fang, gang, hang, pang, tang, twang, sang,
slang, rang, harangue, swang, stang, lang, chang, clang.
ANGE.
Change, grange, range, strange, estrange, arrange,
exchange, interchange.
ANGUE.
Harangue, rhymes Ang.
ANK.
Yank, bank, rank, blank, shank, clank, dank, drank,
slank, frank, spank, stank, brank, hank, lank, plank,
prank, rank, thank, disrank, mountebank.
ANSE.
See Ance.
ANT.
As in ant. Ant, cant, chant, grant, pant, plant,
rant, slant, aslant, complaisant, displant, enchant, gal-
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES.
133
lant, implant, recant, supplant, transplant, absonant,
adamant, arrogant, combatant, consonant, cormorant,
protestant, significant, visitant, covenant, dissonant,
disputant, elegant, elephant, exorbitant, conversant, ex-
travagant, ignorant, insignificant, inhabitant, militant,
predominant, sycophant, vigilant, petulant, can't, shan't,
aunt, haunt.
As in ivaitt. Want, upon't, font.
AP.
As in cap. Cap, dap, gap, hap, lap, map, nap, pap,
rap; sap, tap, chap, clap, trap, fap, flap, knap, slap,
snap, wrap, scrap, strap, enwrap, entrap, mishap, affrap,
mayhap.
As in swap. Swap. See Op.
APE.
Ape, cape, shape, grape, rape, scape, scrape, escape,
nape, chape, trape, jape, crape, tape, etc.
APH.
See Aff.
APSE.
Apse, lapse, elapse, relapse, perhaps, and the plurals
of nouns and third persons singular present tense of
verbs in A P.
APT.
Apt, adapt. Rhymes the preterites and participles
of verbs in Ap.
AQUE.
Opaque. See Ake.
134
THE RHYMESTER.
AR.
As in bar. Czar, bar, car, far, jar, mar, par, tar,
spar, scar, star, char, afar, debar, petar, unbar, catarrh,
particular, perpendicular, secular, angular, regular, pop-
ular, singular, titular, vinegar, scimetar, calendar, ava-
tar, cinnabar, caviare, are.
As in war. See Or.
ARB.
Barb, garb, rhubarb.
ARCE.
Farce, parse, sarse, sparse. {Scarce has no rhyme.)
ARCH.
As in march. Arch, march, larch, parch, starch,
countermarch.
As in hierarch. Hierarch, heresiarch. See Ark.
ARD.
As in bard. Bard, card, guard, hard, lard, nard,
shard, yard, bagilard, bombard, discard, regard, inter-
lard, retard, disregard, and the preterites and parti-
ciples of verbs in Ar.
As in ward. Ward, sward, afford, restored, etc.
ARE.
As in bare. Care, dare, fare, gare, hare, mare,
pare, tare, ware, flare, glare, scare, share, snare, spare,
square, stare, sware, yare, prepare, aware, beware.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 135
compare, declare, ensnare, air, vair, fair, hair, lair,
pair, chair, stair, affair, debonnair, despair, impair,
glaire, repair, etc. ; bear, pear, swear, tear, wear, for-
bear, forswear, etc. ; there, were, where, ere, e'er, ne'er,
elsewhere, whate'er, howe'er, howsoe'er, whene'er,
where'er ; heir, coheir, their.
As in are. Rhymes Ar.
ARES.
Unawares. Rhymes theirs, and the plurals of
nouns and third persons singular of verbs in are, air,
eir, ear.
ARF.
Dwarf, wharf. {Scarf has no rhyme.)
ARGE.
Barge, charge, large, marge, targe, discharge, o'er-
charge, surcharge, enlarge.
ARK.
Ark, bark, cark, dark, dark, lark, mark, park, chark,
shark, spark, stark, embark, remark, hierarch, heresi-
arch.
ARL.
Carl, gnarl, snarl, marl, harl, parle.
ARIVI.
As in arm. Arm, barm, charm, farm, harm, alarm,
disarm.
As in warm. Warm, swarm. See Orm.
136 THE RHYMESTER.
ARN.
As in bar7i. Barn, yarn, tarn, darn.
As in warn. Warn, forewarn. See Orn.
ARP.
As in caj'p. Carp, harp, sharp, counterscarp.
As in warp. Warp. See Orp.
ARRH.
Catarrh. See Ar.
ARSE.
See Arce.
ARSH.
Harsh, marsh.
ART.
As in art. Heart, art, cart, dart, hart, mart, part,
smart, tart, start, apart, depart, impart, dispart, coun-
terpart.
As in wart. See Ort.
ARTH.
Swarth, forth, north.
ARVE.
Carve, starve.
AS.
As in was. Was, 'cos, poz.
As \x\gas. Gas. See Ass.
As in has. Has, as.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 137
ASE.
As in base. See ACE.
As in phrase. See AZE.
ASH.
As in ash. Ash, cash, dash, clash, crash, flash,
gash, gnash, hash, lash, plash, bash, pash, brash, rash,
thrash, slash, trash, abash, sash, splash.
As in wash. Wash, bosh, squash, quash, swash.
ASK.
Ask, task, bask, cask, flask, mask, hask, casque.
ASM.
Chasm, spasm, miasm, enthusiasm, cataplasm,
phantasm.
ASP.
Asp, clasp, rasp, gasp, grasp, hasp, wasp (J).
ASQUE.
Casque. See Ask.
ASS.
Ass, brass, class, grass, lass, mass, pass, alas, amass,
cuirass, repass, surpass, morass, gas, alias.
AST.
Cast, last, blast, mast, past, vast, hast, fast, aghast,
avast, forecast, overcast, outcast, repast, the preterites
and participles of verbs in Ass.
138 THE RHYMESTER.
ASTE.
Baste, chaste, haste, paste, taste, waste, distaste,
waist, and the preterites and participles of verbs under
Ace.
AT.
As in at. At, bat, cat, hat, fat, mat, pat, rat, sat,
tat, vat, brat, chat, flat, lat, sprat, that, gnat.
As in what. See Ot.
ATCH.
As in catch. Catch, match, hatch, latch, patch,
scratch, smatch, snatch, dispatch, ratch, slatch, swatch,
attach, detach, thatch.
As in watch. Watch. See Otch.
ATE.
Bate, date, fate, gate, grate, hate, mate, pate, plate,
prate, rate, sate, state, scate, slate, abate, belate, col-
late, create, debate, elate, dilate, estate, ingrate, innate,
rebate, relate, sedate, translate, abdicate, abominate,
abrogate, accelerate, accommodate, accumulate, accu-
rate, adequate, affectionate, advocate, adulterate, ag-
gravate, agitate, alienate, animate, annihilate, antedate,
anticipate, antiquate, arbitrate, arrogate, articulate,
assassinate, calculate, capitulate, captivate, celebrate,
circulate, coagulate, commemorate, commiserate, com-
municate, compassionate, confederate, congratulate,
congregate, consecrate, contaminate, corroborate, cul-
tivate, candidate, co-operate, celibate, considerate,
consulate, capacitate, debilitate, dedicate, degenerate
delegate, deliberate, denominate, depopulate, dislocate,
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES.
139
deprecate, discriminate, derogate, dissipate, delicate,
disconsolate, desolate, desperate, educate, effeminate,
elevate, emulate, estimate, elaborate, equivocate, eradi-
cate, evaporate, exaggerate, exasperate, expostulate,
exterminate, extricate, facilitate, fortunate, generate,
gratulate, hesitate, illiterate, illuminate, irritate, imitate,
immoderate, impetrate, importunate, imprecate, inani-
mate, innovate, instigate, intemperate, intimate, intimi-
date, intoxicate, intricate, invalidate, inveterate, inviolate,
legitimate, magistrate, meditate, mitigate, moderate,
necessitate, nominate, obstinate, participate, passionate,
penetrate, perpetrate, personate, potentate, precipitate,
predestinate, predominate, premeditate, prevaricate, pro-
crastinate, profligate, prognosticate, propagate, recrimi-
nate, regenerate, regulate, reiterate, reprobate, reverber-
ate, ruminate, separate, sophisticate, stipulate, subju-
gate, subordinate, suffocate, terminate, titivate, tolerate,
vindicate, violate, unfortunate, bait, strait, waite, await, /
great, t^te-a-t^te, eight, weight, straight. 'njA\/:Y~c\^(x^
Ate (from ea(). Rhymes yet.
ATH.
As in bath. Bath, path, swath, wrath, hath, after-
math.
As in rath. See Aith.
ATHE.
Bathe, swathe, rathe, scathe.
AUB.
Daub, kebaub, Punjaub.
140 THE RHYMESTER.
AUD.
Fraud, laud, applaud, defraud, broad, abroad, and
the preterites and participles of verbs under Aw.
AUGH.
As in laugh. See Aff.
As in usquebaugh. See Aw.
AUGHT.
As in draught. Draught, quaffed, etc.
As in caught. See AUT.
AUK.
See Alk.
AULM.
Haulm, shawm.
AULK.
Caulk. See Alk.
AULT.
See Alt.
AUN.
See Awn.
AUNCH.
See Anch.
AUND.
Maund, preterites and participles of verbs in AwN.
AUNCE.
Askaunce, romance, glance, etc.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 141
AUNT.
Aunt, daunt, gaunt, haunt, jaunt, taunt, vaunt,
avaunt, shan't, can't.
AUR.
See Ore.
AUSE.
Cause, pause, clause, applause, gauze, because, the
plurals of nouns and third persons singular of verbs
in Aw.
AUST.
Holocaust. See OST.
AUT.
Taut, caught, ought, haught, sought, taught, fraught,
distraught, nought. , , o^.t
AUZE. ^
See AuSE.
AVE.
Cave, brave, gave, grave, crave, lave, nave, knave,
pave, rave, save, shave, slave, stave, wavT, behave,
deprave, engrave, outbrave, forgave, misgave, archi-
trave. {Have has no rhyme.)
AW.
Craw, daw, law, chaw, claw, draw, flaw, gnaw, jaw,
maw, paw, raw, saw, scraw, shaw, straw, thaw, with-
draw, foresaw, usquebaugh.
AWD.
See AUD.
1^2 THE RHYMESTER.
AWK.
See Alk.
AWL.
See All.
AWM.
Shawm. See Aulm.
AWN.
Dawn, brawn, fawn, pawn, spawn, drawn, yawn,
awn, withdrawn, aun, shaun, lawn, prawn.
AX.
Ax, tax, lax, pax, wax, relax, flax, knicknacks, the
plurals of nouns and third persons singular of verbs in
ACK.
AY.
Bray, clay, day, dray, tray, flay, fray, gay, hay, jay,
lay, may, nay, pay, play, ray, say, way, pray, spray,
slay, stay, stray, sway, tway, fay, affray, allay, array,
astray, away, belay, bewray, betray, decay, defray,
delay, disarray, display, dismay, essay, forelay, gain-
say, inlay, relay, repay, roundelay, virelay, neigh, weigh,
inveigh, shay, prey, they, convey, yea, obey, purvey,
survey, disobey, gray, aye, denay.
AZE.
Craze, draze, blaze, gaze, glaze, raze, maze, amaze,
graze, raise, praise, dispraise, phrase, paraphrase, and
the nouns plural and third persons singular of the
present tense of verbs in Ay, Eigh, and Ey.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 143
E
E.
See EE.
CRE, CHRE, TRE.
Sepulchre, massacre, theatre. See Er.
EA.
As in sea. See Ee.
As vayea. See Ay.
EACE.
See Ease.
EACH.
Beach, breach, bleach, each, peach, preach, teach,
impeach, beech, leech, speech, beseech.
EAD.
As in bread. See Ed.
As in read. See Eed.
EAF.
As in sheaf. See lEF.
As in deaf. See Ef.
EAGUE.
League, Teague, intrigue, fatigue.
EAK.
As in beak. Beak, speak, bleak, creak, freak, leak,
peak, sneak, squeak, streak, weak, tweak, wreak, be-
144
THE RHYMESTER.
speak, cheek, leek, eke, creek, meek, reek, seek, sleek,
pique, bezique, clique, critique, antique, oblique, week,
shriek.
As in break. See Ake.
EAL.
Deal, heal, reveal, meal, peal, seal, steal, teal, veal,
weal, squeal, leal, zeal, repeal, conceal, congeal, repeal,
anneal, appeal, wheal, eel, heel, feel, keel, kneel, peel,
reel, steal, wheel. (Real is a dissyllable, and therefore
does not count here.)
EALD.
Weald. See Ield.
EALM.
See Elm.
EALTH.
Health, wealth, stealth, commonwealth.
EAM.
Bream, cream, gleam, seam, scream, stream, team,
beam, dream, enseam, scheme, theme, blaspheme, ex-
treme, supreme, deem, teem, beseem, misdeem, esteem,
disesteem, redeem, seem, beteem.
EAMT.
Dreamt, exempt, attempt, empt.
EAN.
Bean, clean, dean, glean, lean, mean, wean, yean,
demean, unclean, convene, demesne, intervene, mien.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES.
^45
hyen, machine, keen, screen, seen, skean, green, spleen,
between, careen, teen, foreseen, serene, obscene, ter-
rene, queen, spleen, etc.
EANS.
Means, rhymes plural of nouns, and third persons
singular present of verbs, in Ean, Een, Ene.
EANSE.
Cleanse, plural of nouns, and third person singular
present of verbs, in En.
See Ent.
EANT.
See Eep.
EAP.
See Eer and AlR.
EAR.
EARCH.
Search, research.
See Urch
EARD.
As in heard. See Urd.
As in beard. Beard, feared, revered, weird, pre-
terites and participles of verbs in Ear, Ere, etc.
EARL.
Earl, pearl, girl, curl, churl, vyhirl, purl, furl, thirl,
twirl.
146
See Ern.
See Erse.
See Art.
THE RHYMESTER.
EARN.
EARSE.
EART.
EARTH.
Earth, dearth, birth, mirth, worth, Perth, berth.
EASE.
As in cease. Cease, lease, release, grease, decease,
decrease, increase, release, surcease, peace, piece, niece,
fleece, geese, frontispiece, apiece, etc.
As in disease. See Eeze.
EAST.
East, feast, least, beast, priest, the preterites and
participles of verbs in Ease, as in cease.
EAT.
As in bleat. Bleat, eat, feat, heat, meat, neat, seat,
effete, treat, wheat, beat, cheat, defeat, estreat, escheat,
entreat, retreat, obsolete, replete, concrete, complete,
feet, fleet, greet, meet, sheet, sleet, street, sweet, dis-
creet.
As in great. See Ate.
As in threat. See Et.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 147
EATH.
As in breath. Breath, death, saith, Elizabeth, etc.,
and antiquated third person singular present, accented
on the antepenult (e. g., " encountereth ").
As in heath. Heath, sheath, teeth, wreath, be-
neath.
EATHE.
Breathe, sheathe, wreathe, inwreathe, bequeathe,
seethe.
EAU.
See O.
EAVE.
Cleave, heave, interweave, leave, weave, bereave,
inweave, receive, conceive, deceive, perceive, eve,
grieve, sleeve, thieve, aggrieve, achieve, believe, dis-
believe, relieve, reprieve, retrieve.
EB, and EBB.
Web, neb, ebb, bleb.
ECK, and EC.
Beck, peck, neck, check, fleck, deck, speck, wreck,
hypothec, spec, geek.
EKS.
I'fecks, third person singular of verbs and plural of
nouns in ECK.
10
148 THE RHYMESTER.
ECT.
Sect, affect, correct, incorrect, collect, deject, detect,
direct, disrespect, disaffect, dissect, effect, elect, eject,
erect, expect, indirect, infect, inspect, neglect, object,
project, protect, recollect, reflect, reject, respect, select,
subject, suspect, architect, circumspect, direct, intel-
lect, the preterites and participles of verbs in ECK, etc.
ED.
Bed, bled, fed, fled, bred, Ted, red, shred, shed,
sped, wed, abed, imbred, misled, said, bread, dread,
dead, head, lead, read, spread, thread, tread, behead,
o'erspread, and the preterites and participles of verbs,
which, when the " ed " (pronounced) is added, have
the accent on the antepenultimate (e. g., vanished ;
but see Chapter VIII).
EDE.
See Eed.
EDGE.
Edge, wedge, fledge, hedge, ledge, pledge, sedge,
allege, kedge, privilege, sacrilege, sortilege.
EE.
Bee, free, glee, knee, see, three, thee, tree, agree,
decree, degree, disagree, flee, foresee, o'ersee, pedi-
gree, he, me, we, she, be, jubilee, lee, ne, sea, plea,
flea, tea, key, cap-i-pie, gree, dree, calipee.
EECE.
See Ease.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 149
EECH.
See Each.
EED.
Creed, deed, indeed, bleed, breed, feed, heed, meed,
need, reed, speed, seed, steed, weed, proceed, succeed,
exceed, knead, read, intercede, precede, recede, con-
cede, impede, supersede, glede, rede, bead, lead, mead,
read, plead, etc.
EEF.
See lEF.
See Eak.
EEK.
See Eal.
EEL.
See Eam.
EEM.
See Ean.
EEN,
EEP.
Creep, deep, sleep, keep, peep, sheep, steep, sweep,
weep, asleep, cheap, heap, neap.
EER.
As in beer. Beer, deer, fleer, geer, jeer, peer,
mere, leer, sheer, steer, sneer, cheer, veer, pickeer,
domineer, cannoneer, compeer, engineer, mutineer,
pioneer, privateer, charioteer, chanticleer, career,
mountaineer, fere, here, sphere, adhere, cohere, in-
terfere, persevere, revere, austere, severe, sincere.
150
THE RHYMESTER.
hemisphere, etc. ; ear, clear, dear, fear, near, sear,
hear, pier, bier, tier, smear, spear, tear, rear, year,
appear, besmear, bandolier, disappear, endear, auc-
tioneer.
As in eer. See Are.
EESE.
See Eeze.
EET.
See Eat.
EETH.
See Eath.
EETHE
See Eathe.
EEVE.
See Eave.
EEVES.
fieaves rhymes plural of nouns and third person
sin^lar present of verbs in Eeve, Ieve, etc.
EEZE.
Breeze, freeze, wheeze, sneeze, squeeze, and the
plurals of nouns and third persons singular present
tense of verbs in Ee, cheese, leese, these, ease, ap-
pease, disease, displease, tease, seize, and the plurals
of nouns in Ea, Ee, etc.
EF.
Clef, nef, semibref, kef, deaf.
L'ICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 151
EFT.
Cleft, left, theft, weft, bereft.
EG and EGG.
^SS' leg, beg, peg, Meg, keg, Winnepeg,
EGM.
See Em.
EGN.
Thegn. See AiN.
EH.
Eh ? See Ay.
EIGH.
See Ay.
EIGHT.
See Ate and Ite.
EIGN.
See AiN.
EIL.
See Eel and Ail.
EIN.
See Am.
EINT.
See AiNT.
EIR.
See Are.
EIRD.
Weird. See Eare
).
152
THE RHYMESTER.
EIT.
See Eat.
EIVE.
See Eave.
EIZE.
See Eeze.
EKE.
See Eak.
EL, and ELL.
Ell, dwell, fell, hell, knell, quell, sell, bell, cell, mell,
dispel, foretell, excel, compel, befell, yell, well, tell,
swell, spell, smell, shell, parallel, sentinel, infidel, cita-
del, refel, repel, rebel, impel, expel, asphodel, petronel,
calomel, muscatel.
ELD.
Held, geld, withheld, upheld, beheld, eld, etc., the
preterites and participles of verbs in El, Ell.
ELF.
Elf, delf, pelf, self, shelf, himself, Guelf, Guelph.
ELK.
Elk, kelk, whelk.
ELM.
Elm, helm, realm, whelm, overwhelm.
ELP.
Help, whelp, kelp, yelp.
4
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 153
ELT.
Belt, gelt, melt, felt, welt, smelt, pelt, dwelt, dealt.
ELVE.
Delve, helve, shelve, twelve.
ELVES.
Elves, themselves, the plurals of nouns and third
persons singular of verbs in Elve.
EM.
Gem, hem, stem, them, diadem, stratagem, anadem,
kemb, phlegm, condemn, contemn, parapegm, apo-
thegm.
EME.
See Eam.
EMN.
See Em.
EMPT.
Tempt, exempt, attempt, contempt, dreamt.
EN.
Den, hen, fen, ken, men, pen, ten, then, when, wren,
denizen. Hyen rhymes Een.
ENCE.
Fence, hence, pence, thence, whence, defence, ex-
pense, offence, pretence, commence, abstinence, circum-
ference, conference, confidence, consequence, continence,
154
THE RHYMESTER.
benevolence, concupiscence, difference, diffidence, dili-
gence, eloquence, eminence, evidence, excellence, im-
penitence, impertinence, impotence, impudence, im-
providence, incontinence, indifference, indigence, indo-
lence, inference, intelligence, innocence, magnificence,
munificence, negligence, omnipotence, penitence, pref-
erence, providence, recompense, reference, residence,
reverence, vehemence, violence, sense, dense, cense,
condense, immense, intense, prepense, dispense, sus-
pense, prepense, incense, frankincense.
ENCH.
Bench, drench, retrench, quench, clench, stench,
tench, trench, wench, wrench, intrench, blench.
END.
Bend, mend, blend, end, fend, lend, rend, send,
spend, tend, vend, amend, attend, ascend, commend,
contend, defend, depend, descend, distend, expend,
extend, forefend, impend, misspend, obtend, offend,
portend, pretend, protend, suspend, transcend, unbend,
apprehend, comprehend, condescend, discommend, rec-
ommend, reprehend, dividend, reverend, friend, be-
friend, and the preterites and participles of verbs in
En, etc.
ENDS.
Amends, the plurals of nouns and third persons
singular present tense of verbs in End.
ENE.
See Ean.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 155
ENGE.
Avenge, revenge, no rhyme.
ENGTH.
Length, strength.
ENS.
Lens, plural of nouns and third person singular
■present of verbs in En.
ENT.
Bent, lent, rent, pent, scent, sent, shent, spent, tent,
vent, went, blent, cement, brent, hent, absent, meant,
ascent, assent, attent, augment, cement, content, con-
sent, descent, dissent, event, extent, foment, frequent,
indent, intent, invent, lament, misspent, o'erspent, pre-
sent, prevent, relent, repent, resent, ostent, ferment,
outwent, under\vent, discontent, unbent, circumvent,
represent, abstinent, accident, accomplishment, admon-
ishment, acknowledgment, aliment, arbitrament, argu-
ment, banishment, battlement, blandishment, astonish-
ment, armipotent, bellipotent, benevolent, chastisement,
competent, complement, compliment, confident, conti-
nent, corpulent, detriment, different, diligent, disparage-
ment, document, element, eloquent, eminent, equivalent,
establishment, evident, excellent, excrement, exigent,
experiment, firmament, fraudulent, government, embel-
lishment, imminent, impenitent, impertinent, implement,
impotent, imprisonment, improvident, impudent, inci-
dent, incompetent, incontinent, indifferent, indigent.
156 • THE RHYMESTER.
innocent, insolent, instrument, irreverent, languishment,
ligament, lineament, magnificent, management, medica-
ment, malecontent, monument, negligent, nourishment,
nutriment, Occident, omnipotent, opulent, ornament,
parliament, penitent, permanent, pertinent, president,
precedent, prevalent, provident, punishment, ravish-
ment, regiment, resident, redolent, rudiment, sacra-
ment, sediment, sentiment, settlement, subsequent,
supplement, intelligent, tenement, temperament, testa-
ment, tournament, turbulent, vehement, violent, viru-
lent, reverent.
ENTS.
Accoutrements, the plurals of nouns and third per-
sons singular present tense of verbs in Ent.
EP.
Step, nep, skep, rep, demirep.
EPT.
Accept, adept, except, intercept, crept, sept, slept,
wept, kept.
ER, and ERR.
Her, sir, fir, burr, cur, err, aver, defer, infer, deter,
inter, refer, transfer, confer, prefer, whirr, administer,
wagoner, islander, arbiter, character, villager, cottager,
dowager, forager, pillager, voyager, massacre, gardener,
slanderer, flatterer, idolater, provender, theatre, amphi-
theatre, foreigner, lavender, messenger, passenger, sor-
cerer, interpreter, officer, mariner, harbinger, minister,
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 157
register, canister, chorister, sophister, presbyter, law-
giver, philosopher, astrologer, loiterer, prisoner, grass-
hopper, astronomer, sepulchre, thunderer, traveler,
murderer, usurer, myrrh, purr, stir, slur, fur, bur, spur,
concur, demur, incur, skirr.
See Earch. '
ERCH.
See Erse.
ERCE.
See Erse.
lERCE.
See Eard.
ERD.
See Eer.
ERE.
ERF.
Serf, turf, surf, scurf.
ERGE.
Verge, absterge, emerge, immerge, dirge, urge,
purge, surge.
ERGUE.
Exergue, burgh.
ERM.
Term, firm, worm, afifirm, confirm infirm, chirm,
turm.
ERN.
Fern, stern, discern, hern, concern, learn, earn,
yearn, quern, dern, burn, eterne, turn.
158 THE RHYMESTER,
ERNE.
Eterne. See Ern.
ERP.
Discerp. See Irp.
ERSE.
Verse, absterse, adverse, averse, converse, terse,
disperse, immerse, perverse, reverse, asperse, inter-
sperse, universe, amerce, coerce, hearse, purse, curse,
nurse, etc., accurse, disburse, imburse, reimburse,
worse.
ERT.
Wert, advert, assert, avert, concert, convert, con-
trovert, desert, divert, exert, expert, insert, invert, per-
vert, subvert, shirt, dirt, sqirt, flirt, blurt, hurt, spurt.
ERTH.
Berth, birth, mirth, earth, worth, dearth, girth,
perth.
ERVE.
Serve, nerve, swerve, preserve, deserve, conserve,
observe, reserve, disserve, subserve, curve.
ES, ESS, or ESSE.
Yes, bless, dress, cess, chess, guess, less, mess,
press, stress, acquiesce, access, address, assess, com-
press, confess, caress, depress, digress, dispossess, dis-
tress, excess, express, impress, oppress, possess, profess,
recess, repress, redress, success, transgress, adultress.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 159
bashfulness, bitterness, cheerfulness, comfortless, come-
liness, dizziness, diocess, drowsiness, eagerness, easi-
ness, ambassadress, emptiness, evenness, fatherless,
filthiness, foolishness, forgetfulness, forwardness, fro-
wardness, fruitfulness, fulsomeness, giddiness, greedi-
ness, gentleness, governess, happiness, haughtiness,
heaviness, idleness, heinousness, hoariness, hollowness,
holiness, lasciviousness, lawfulness, laziness, littleness,
liveliness, loftiness, lioness, lowliness, manliness, mas-
terless, mightiness, motherless, motionless, nakedness,
neediness, noisomeness, numberless, patroness, peev-
ishness, perfidiousness, pitiless, poetess, prophetess,
ransomless, readiness, righteousness, shepherdess, sor-
ceress, sordidness, spiritless, sprightliness, stubbornness,
sturdiness, surliness, steadiness, tenderness, thought-
fulness, ugliness, uneasiness, unhappiness, votaress,
usefulness, wakefulness, wantonness, weaponless, wari-'
ness, willingness, willfulness, weariness, wickedness,
wilderness, wretchedness, drunkenness, childishness,
duresse, cesse. -*^'^'-
ESE.
See Eeze.
ESH.
Flesh, fresh, refresh, thresh, afresh, nesh, mesh.
ESK, and ESQUE.
Desk, grotesque, burlesque, arabesque, picturesque,
moresque.
l6o THE RHYMESTER.
EST.
Best, chest, crest, guest, jest, nest, pest, quest, rest,
test, vest, lest, west, arrest, attest, bequest, contest,
detest, digest, divest, invest, palimpsest, alcahest, in-
fest, molest, obtest, protest, request, suggest, unrest,
interest, manifest, breast, abreast, and the preterites
and participles of verbs in Ess.
ET, and ETTE.
Bet, get, jet, fret, let, met, net, set, wet, whet, yet,
debt, abet, beget, beset, forget, regret, alphabet, amu-
let, anchoret, cabinet, epithet, parapet, rivulet, violet,
coronet, parroquet, basinet, wagonette, cadet, epau-
lette, piquette, sweat, threat, rosette, silhouette.
ETCH.
Fetch, stretch, wretch, sketch.
See Eat.
See Eath.
See Eave.
See Use.
See Ude.
See Ume.
ETE.
ETH.
EVE.
EUCE.
EUD.
EUM.
EUR.
Amateur, connoisseur, bon-viveur.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. i6i
EW.
Blew, chew, dew, brew, drew, flew, few, grew, new,
coo, woo, shoe, too, who, do, blue, stew, knew, hew,
Jew, mew, view, threw, yew, crew, slew, anew, askew,
bedew, eschew, renew, review, withdrew, screw, inter-
view, emmew, clue, due, cue, glue, hue, rue, sue,
true, accrue, ensue, endue, imbue, imbrue, pursue, sub-
due, adieu, purlieu, perdue, residue, ormolu, avenue,
revenue, retinue, through, pooh, you. (News takes
plural of nouns and third person singular present of
verbs of this class.)
EWD.
See Ude.
EWN.
See Une.
EX.
Sex, vex, annex, convex, complex, perplex, circum-
flex, and the plurals of nouns and third persons sin-
gular of verbs in Ec, ECK.
EXT.
Next, pretext, and the preterites and participles of
verbs in Ex.
EY.
As in prey. See Ay.
As in key. See Ee.
EYNE.
Eyne rhymes Ine.
162 THE RHYMESTER.
I
I.
See lE.
IB.
Bib, crib, squib, drib, glib, nib, rib.
IBE.
Bribe, tribe, kibe, scribe, ascribe, describe, super-
scribe, prescribe, proscribe, subscribe, transcribe, in-
scribe, imbibe, diatribe.
IC.
See ICK.
ICE.
Ice, dice, mice, nice, price, rice, spice, slice, thrice,
trice, splice, advice, entice, vice, device, concise, pre-
cise, paradise, sacrifice.
ICHE and ICH.
See Itch.
ICK.
Brick, sick, chick, kick, lick, nick, pick, quick, stick,
thick, trick, arithmetic, choleric, catholic, heretic, rhet-
oric, splenetic, lunatic, politic.
ICT.
Strict, addict, afflict, convict, inflict, contradict,
Pict, The preterites and participles of verbs in ICK.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 163
ID.
Bid, chid, hid, kid, lid, slid, rid, bestrid, pyramid,
forbid, quid, squid, katydid.
IDE.
Bide, chide, hide, gride, glide, pride, ride, slide,
side, nide, stride, tide, wide, bride, abide, guide, aside,
astride, beside, bestride, betide, confide, decide, de-
ride, divide, preside, provide, subside, misguide, subdi-
vide, the preterites and participles of verbs in lE, IGH,
and Y.
IDES.
Ides, besides, the plurals of nouns and third per-
sons singular of verbs in IDE.
IDGE.
Bridge, ridge, midge, fidge, abridge.
IDST.
Midst, amidst, didst, the second persons singular
of the present tense of verbs in Id.
IE, or Y.
By, buy, cry, die, dry, eye, fly, fry, fie, hie, lie, pie,
alibi, alkali, ply, pry, rye, shy, sly, spy, sky, sty, tie,
try, vie, why, ally, apply, awry, bely, comply, decry,
defy, descry, deny, imply, espy, outvie, outfly, rely,
reply, supply, untie, amplify, beautify, certify, crucify,
deify, dignify, edify, falsify, fortify, gratify, glorify, in-
II
164 THE RHYMESTER.
demnify, justify, magnify, modify, mollify, mortify,
pacify, petrify, purify, putrify, qualify, ratify, rectify,
sanctify, satisfy, scarify, signify, specify, stupefy, ter-
rify, testify, verify, vilify, vitrify, vivify, prophesy, high,
nigh, sigh, thigh. Such w^ords as lunacy, polygamy,
tyranny, can not well be used, as it is difficult to get
the y sound without ov^er-accentuating it.
lECE.
See Ease.
lED.
Pied, side, sighed, rhymes with preterites and par-
ticiples of verbs in Y or lE.
lEF.
Grief, chief, fief, thief, brief, belief, relief, reef, beef,
leaf, sheaf.
lEGE.
Liege, siege, assiege, besiege.
lELD.
Field, yield, shield, wield, afield, weald, and the
preterites and participles of verbs in Eal.
lEN.
See Een.
lEND.
As in fiend. Rhymes preterites and participles of
verbs in Ean, Een.
As in friend. Rhymes End.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 165
lER.
See Eer.
lERCE.
Fierce, pierce, tierce.
lEST.
Priest rhymes East. Dicst, second person sin-
gular present, at times pronounced as a monosyllable,
rhymes spiced, etc.
I EVE
As in sieve.
See IVE.
As in grieve.
See Eave.
lEU.
See Ew.
lEZE.
Frieze. See
Eeze.
IF, IFF.
If, skiff, stiff, whiff, cliff, sniff, tiff, hieroglyph.
IFE.
Rife, fife, knife, wife, strife, life.
IFT.
Gift, drift, shift, lift, rift, sift, thrift, adrift, and the
preterites and participles of verbs in Iff.
l66 THE RHYMESTER.
IG.
Big, dig, gig, fig, pig, rig, sprig, twig, swig, grig.
Whig, wig, jig, prig.
Oblige, no
rhyme.
IGE.
See IE.
IGH.
See ITE,
IGHT.
See Ime.
IGM.
See INE,
IGN.
See Eague.
IGUE.
IKE.
Dike, like, pike, spike, strike, alike, dislike, shrike,
glike.
IL, ILL.
Bill, chill, fill, drill, gill, hill, ill, kill, mill, pill, quill,
rill, shrill, fill, skill, spill, still, swill, thrill, till, trill,
will, distill, fulfill, instill, codicil, daffodil.
ILCH.
Filch, milch.
ILD.
As in child. Rhymes mild, wild, guild, etc., the
preterites and participles of verbs of one syllable in
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 167
ILE, or of more syllables, provided the accent be on
the last.
As in gild. Rhymes build, rebuild, etc., and the
preterites and participles of verbs in III.
ILE.
Bile, chyle, file, guile, isle, mile, pile, smile, stile,
style, tile, vile, while, awhile, compile, revile, defile,
exile, erewhile, reconcile, beguile, aisle. (There is also
the eel sound, as in imported words like bastile, pas-
tile, rhyming with Eal.)
ILGE.
Bilge, no rhyme.
ILK.
Milk, silk, bilk, whilk.
ILN.
Kiln, no rhyme.
ILT.
Gilt, jilt, built, quilt, hilt, guilt, spilt, stilt, tilt, milt.
ILTH.
Filth, tilth, spilth.
IM.
Brim, dim, grim, him, rim, skim, slim, trim, whim,
prim, limb, hymn, limn.
l68 THE RHYMESTER.
1MB.
As in limb. See Im.
As in clhnb. See Ime.
IME.
Chime, time, grime, climb, clime, crime, prime,
mime, rhyme, slime, thyme, lime, sublime, paradigm.
IMES.
Betimes, sometimes. Rhymes the plurals of nouns
and third persons singular present tense of verbs in
Ime.
IMN.
See IM.
IMP.
Imp, limp, pimp, gimp, jimp.
IMPSE.
Glimpse. Rhymes the plurals of nouns and third
persons singular present tense of verbs in Imp.
IN, INN.
Bin, chin, din, fin, gin, grin, in, inn, kin, pin, shin,
sin, spin, skin, linn, thin, twin, tin, win, within, javelin,
begin, whin, baldachin, cannikin, discipline.
INC.
See Ink.
INCE.
Mince, prince, since, quince, rinse, wince, convince,
evince.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 169
INCH.
Clinch, finch, winch, pinch, inch.
INCT.
Instinct, distinct, extinct, precinct, succinct, tinct,
etc., and the preterites and participles of certain verbs
in Ink, as linked, pinked, etc.
IND.
As in bind. Find, mind, blind, kind, grind, rind,
wind, behind, unkind, remind, etc., and the preterites
and participles of verbs in Ine, Ign, etc.
As in rescind. Preterites and participles of verbs in
In.
INE.
As in dine. Brine, mine, chine, fine, line, nine, pine,
shine, shrine, kine, thine, trine, twine, vine, wine, whine,
combine, confine, decline, define, incHne, enshrine, en-
twine, opine, recline, refine, repine, superfine, interline,
countermine, undermine, supine, concubine, porcupine,
Rhine, divine, sign, assign, consign, design, eyne, con-
dign, indign.
As in discipline. See In.
ING.
Bring, sing, cling, fling, king, ring, sling, spring,
sting, string, ging, swing, wing, wring, thing, etc., and
the participles of the present tense in iNG, with the
accent on the antepenultimate, as recovering.
lyo THE RHYMESTER.
INGE.
Cringe, fringe, hinge, singe, springe, swinge, tinge,
twinge, infringe.
INK and INQUE.
Ink, think, wink, drink, blink, brink, chink, clink,
link, pink, shrink, sink, slink, stink, bethink, forethink,
skink, swink, zinc, cinque, appropinque.
INSE.
Rinse. See Ince.
INT.
Dint, mint, hint, flint, lint, print, squint, asquint,
imprint, sprint, quint.
INTH.
Plinth, hyacinth, labyrinth.
INX.
Minx, sphinx, methinks, jinks, plural of nouns and
third person singular present of verb in Ink.
IP.
Chip, lip, hip, clip, dip, drip, lip, nip, sip, rip, scrip,
ship, skip, slip, snip, strip, tip, trip, whip, equip, elder-
ship, fellowship, workmanship, rivalship, and all words
in Ship with the accent on the antepenultimate.
IPE.
Gripe, pipe, ripe, snipe, type, stripe, wipe, archetype,
prototype.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 171
IPSE.
Eclipse. Rhymes the plurals of nouns and third
persons singular present tense in I P.
See Eak.
IQUE.
See Ur.
IR.
See Urch.
IRCH.
See Urd.
IRD.
IRE.
Fire, dire, hire, ire, lyre, mire, quire, sire, spire,
squire, wire, tire, attire, acquire, admire, aspire, con-
spire, desire, inquire, entire, expire, inspire, require,
retire, transpire, pyre, gipsire, gire.
IRGE.
See Erge.
IRK.
Dirk, firk, kirk, stirk, quirk, shirk, work, burke,
murk.
IRL.
See Earl.
IRM.
See Erm.
IRR.
See Er.
172 THE RHYMESTER.
IRP.
See Urp.
IRST.
See Urst
IRT.
See Urt.
IRTH.
See Erth.
IS.
Pronounced like is. Is, his, whiz.
ISS.
Bliss, miss, hiss, kiss, this, abyss, amiss, submiss,
dismiss, remiss, wis, Dis, spiss.
ISC.
Disc, whisk, risk. See ISK.
ISE.
See Ice and IZE.
ISH.
Dish, fish, wish, cuish, pish, squish.
ISK.
Brisk, frisk, disc, risk, whisk, basilisk, tamarisk.
ISM.
Chrism, solecism, anachronism, abysm, schism, syl-
logism, witticism, criticism, organism, heroism, prism,
egotism, cataclysm.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 173
ISP.
Crisp, wisp, lisp.
1ST.
Fist, list, mist, twist, wrist, assist, consist, desist,
exist, insist, persist, resist, subsist, alchemist, amethyst,
anatomist, antagonist, annalist, evangelist, eucharist,
exorcist, herbalist, humorist, oculist, organist, satirist,
etc., and the preterites and participles of verbs in Iss,
etc.
IT.
Bit, Cit, hit, fit, grit, flit, knit, pit, quit, sit, split,
twit, wit, chit, whit, writ, admit, acquit, commit, emit,
omit, outwit, permit, remit, submit, transmit, refit,
benefit, perquisite.
ITCH.
Ditch, pitch, rich, which, flitch, itch, stitch, switch,
twitch, witch, bewitch, niche, enrich, fitch.
ITE, and IGHT.
Bite, cite, kite, blite, mite, quite, rite, smite, spite,
trite, white, write, contrite, disunite, despite, indite, ex-
cite, incite, invite, polite, requite, recite, unite, reunite,
aconite, appetite, parasite, proselyte, expedite, blight,
benight, bright, fight, flight, fright, height, light, knight,
night, might, wight, plight, right, tight, slight, sight,
spright, wight, affright, alight, aright, foresight, delight,
despite, unsight, upright, benight, bedight,^ oversight,
height, accite, pight. •'?? / av- X"^^ 5 J^'U^
ITH.
Pith, smith, frith, sith. {With has strictly no
rhyme.)
174 ^^^ RHYMESTER.
ITHE.
Hithe, blithe, tithe, scythe, writhe, lithe.
ITS.
Quits rhymes plural of nouns and third person
singular present of verbs in It.
IVE.
As in five. Rhymes dive, alive, gyve, hive, drive,
rive, shrive, strive, thrive, arrive, connive, contrive, de-
prive, derive, revive, survive.
As in give. Rhymes live, sieve, fugitive, positive,
sensitive, etc.
IX.
Fix, six, mix, nix, affix, infix, prefix, transfix, inter-
mix, crucifix, etc., and the plurals of nouns and third
persons singular of verbs in ICK.
IXT.
Betwixt. Rhymes the preterites and participles of
verbs in Ix.
ISE, and IZE.
Prize, wise, rise, size, guise, disguise, advise, author-
ise, canonise, agonise, chastise, civilise, comprise, criti-
cise, despise, devise, enterprise, excise, exercise, idolise,
immortalise, premise, revise, signalise, solemnise, sur-
prise, surmise, suffice, sacrifice, symj)athise, tyrannise,
and the plurals of nouns and third persons singular
present tense of verbs in Ie or Y.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES.
75
O '^
O.
Mo', calico, bo, portico, go, ago, undergo, ho, though,
woe, adagio, seraglio, owe, beau, crow, lo, no, fro', so,
snow, show, slow, overthrow, overflow, foreshow, out-
grow, dough, foreknow, forego, undergo, below, bestow,
tho', hoe, ho, ago, strow, slow, mistletoe, sloe, toe, Co,
foe, doe, roe, oh, stow, bow, flow, glow, grow, know,
low, mow, sew.
OACH.
Broach, coach, poach, abroach, approach, encroach,
reproach, loach.
See Ode.
OAD.
Oaf, loaf.
OAF.
See Oke.
OAK.
See OLE.
OAL.
See Ome.
OAM.
See One.
OAN.
See Ope.
OAP.
176
THE
RHYMESTER.
See Ore.
OAR.
See Ord.
OARD,
See OST.
OAST.
See Ote.
OAT.
See 0th.
OATH.
OAVES.
Loaves, groves,
roves, cloves, etc.
OAX.
Hoax, coax, rhyme plural of nouns and third per-
son singular present of verbs in Oke.
OB.
Cob, fob, bob, lob, hob, nob, mob. knob. sob. rob,
throb, cabob, swab, squab.
OBE.
Globe, lobe, probe, robe, conglobe.
OCE.
See OSE.
OCH. •
See OcK.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 177
OCHE.
Caroche, gauche.
OCK.
Block, lock, cock, clock, crock, dock, frock, flock,
knock, mock, rock, shock, stock, sock, brock, hough,
loch, epoch.
OCT.
Concoct rhymes the preterites and participles of
verbs in OCK.
OD.
Cod, clod, God, rod, sod, trod, nod, plod, odd, shod,
quod, pod, wad, quad, odd, hod, tod.
ODE.
Bode, ode, code, mode, rode, abode, corrode, ex-
plode, forebode, commode, incommode, episode, a-la-
mode, road, toad, goad, load, etc., and the preterites
and participles of verbs in Ow, Owe.
ODGE.
Dodge, lodge, Hodge, podge, bodge.
OE.
As in shoe. See Oo.
As in toe. See O.
♦ OFF.
Doff, off, scoff, cough.
178 THE RHYMESTER.
OFT.
Oft, croft, soft, aloft, and the preterites and par-
ticiples of verbs in OFF.
OG.
Hog, bog, cog, dog, clog, fog, frog, log, jog, agog,
Gog, prog, quog, shog, tog, pollywog, dialogue, epi-
logue, synagogue, catalogue, pedagogue, Quogue.
OGE.
Gamboge, rouge.
OGUE.
As in rogue. Rhymes vogue, prorogue, collogue,
disembogue.
As in catalogue. See Og.
OH.
See O.
OICE.
Choice, voice, rejoice.
OID.
Void, avoid, devoid, asteroid, alkaloid, varioloid, and
the preterites and participles of verbs in Oy.
OIF.
Coif, no rhyme.
OIGN.
See OiN.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES.
179
OIL.
Oil, boil, coil, moil, soil, spoil, toil, despoil, embroil,
recoil, turmoil, disembroil.
OIN.
Coin, join, subjoin, groin, loin, adjoin, conjoin, dis-
join, enjoin, foin, proin, purloin, rejoin, coign.
OINT.
Oint, joint, point, disjoint, anoint, appoint, aroint,
disappoint, counterpoint.
OIR.
As in choir. See Ire, but the foreign sound, as in
devoir, reservoir, is nearer Ar, but must not be so
rhymed. Coir is a dissyllable.
OISE.
Poise, noise, counterpoise, equipoise, etc., and the
plurals of nouns and third persons singular present
tense of verbs in Oy.
OIST.
Hoist, moist, foist, the preterites and participles of
verbs in OlCE,
OIT.
Doit, exploit, adroit, quoit, etc.
12
i8o THE RHYMESTER.
OKE.
Broke, choke, smoke, spoke, stroke, yoke, bespoke,
invoke, provoke, revoke, cloak, oak, soak, joke, moke,
coke, equivoque.
OL.
Alcohol, loll, doll, extol, capitol, Moll, Poll.
OLD.
Old, bold, cold, gold, hold, mold, scold, sold, told,
behold, enfold, unfold, uphold, withhold, foretold,
manifold, marigold, preterites and participles of verbs
in Oll, Owl, Ole, and Oal.
OLE.
Bole, dole, jole, hole, mole, pole, sole, stole, whole,
shoal, cajole, girandole, condole, parole, patrole, pis-
tole, console, aureole, vole, coal, foal, goal, bowl, roll,
scroll, toll, troll, droll, poll, control, enrol, soul.
OLL.
As in loll. Rhymes Ol.
As in droll. See OLE.
OLN.
Stol'n, swoln.
OLP.
Holp, golpe.
OLT.
Bolt, colt, jolt, holt, dolt, revolt, thunderbolt, moult.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. i8i
OLVE.
Solve, absolve, resolve, convolve, involve, devolve,
dissolve, revolve.
CM.
Tom, from. But for whom, see OOM.
0MB.
As in tomb. See OoM.
As in co7nb. See Ome, clomb.
As in bomb. See Um. Rhomb has no rhyme.
OME.
Dome, home, mome, foam, roam, loam.
OMP.
Pomp, swamp, romp.
OMPT.
Prompt, preterite and participle of romp.
ON.
As in don. Rhymes on, con, upon, anon, shone.
As in won. See Un.
ONCE.
As in sconce. See Onse.
As in once. See Unce.
l82 THE RHYMESTER.
ONCH.
Conch, jonque.
OND.
Pond, bond, fond, beyond, abscond, correspond,
blonde, despond, diamond, vagabond, and the preterites
and participles of verbs in On.
ONE.
As in bone. Prone, drone, throne, alone, stone, tone,
lone, zone, atone, enthrone, dethrone, postpone, grown,
fiovvn, disown, thrown, sown, own, loan, shown, over-
thrown, groan, blown, moan, known, cone, loan.
As in done. See UN.
As \x\.gone. See Awn.-
As in shone. See On.
ONG.
As in long. Prong, song, thong, strong, throng,
wrong, along, belong, prolong.
As in among. See Ung.
ONGE.
See Unge.
ONGUE.
See Ung.
ONK.
As in fnonk. See Unk.
As in conk. Rhymes jonque.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 183
ONSE.
Response, sconce, ensconce.
ONT.
As mfofit. Rhymes want.
As in front. See Unt. (The abbreviated nega-
tives, won't, don't, rhyme together.)
00.
See Ew.
OOCH.
See Oach.
OOD.
As in brood. See Ude.
As in wood, , Rhymes good, hood, stood, withstood,
understood, could, would, brotherhood, livelihood, like-
lihood, neighborhood, widowhood. l^
As in blood. See Ud.
OOF.
Hoof, proof, roof, woof, aloof, disproof, reproof, be-
hoof.
OOH.
See Ew.
r
OOK.
Book, brook, cook, crook, hook, look, rook, shook,
took, mistook, undertook, forsook, stook, betook, caout-
chouc.
184 THE RHYMESTER.
OOL.
Cool, fool, pool, school, stool, tool, befool, spool,
buhl, pule, rule.
OOM.
Gloom, groom, loom, room, spoom, bloom, boom,
doom, tomb, entomb, whom, womb, plume, spume,
fume, consume, assume, presume, resume, perfume,
rheum.
OON.
See Une.
OOP.
Loop, poop, scoop, stoop, troop, droop, whoop,
coop, hoop, soup, group, dupe.
OOR.
As in boor. Rhymes poor, moor, tour, amour,
paramour, contour, pure, sure, your.
As in door. See Ore.
OOSE.
See Use.
OOT.
As in root. See Ute.
As in foot. Rhymes put. (It is difficult to say
whether soot should rhyme root or but, the pronuncia-
tion so varies.)
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 185
OOTH.
As in booth. Rhymes smooth, soothe.
As in tooth. Rhymes youth, uncouth, truth.
OOVE.
See OVE.
OOZE.
Ooze, noose, whose, choose, lose, use, abuse, the
plurals of nouns and third persons singular present
tense of verbs in Ew, Ue.
OP.
Chop, hop, drop, crop, fop, top, pop, prop, flop,
shop, slop, sop, stop, swop, underprop.
OPE.
Hope, cope, mope, grope, pope, rope, scope, slope,
trope, aslope, elope, interlope, telescope, heliotrope,
horoscope, antelope, etc., and ope, contracted in poetry
for open.
OPT.
Adopt rhymes with the preterites and participles
of verbs in Op, etc.
OQUE.
See Oke.
OR.
Or, for, creditor, counsellor, competitor, emperor,
ancestor, ambassador, progenitor, conspirator, con-
l86 THE RHYMESTER.
queror, governor, abhor, metaphor, bachelor, senator,
etc., and every word in Or having the accent on the
last, or last syllable but two, pour, bore, tore, boar,
hoar, war, corps, tor.
ORB.
Orb, sorb, corb.
ORCE.
See Orse.
ORCH.
Scorch, torch, porch.
ORD and ORDE.
As in cord. Rhymes lord, record, accord, abhorr'd,
hoard, horde, board, aboard, ford, afford, sword, and
the preterites and participles of verbs in Oar, Ore.
As in word. See Urd.
ORE.
Bore, core, gore, lore, more, ore, pore, score, shore,
snore, sore, store, swore, tore, wore, adore, afore,
ashore, deplore, explore, implore, restore, forebore,
foreswore, heretofore, hellebore, sycamore, albicore,
boar, oar, roar, soar, four, door, floor, o'er, orator, sena-
tor, abhor, corps, encore, Bucentaur.
r
ORGE.
George, gorge, disgorge, regorge, forge.
uO -
y J
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 187
ORK.
Ork, cork, fork, stork, pork, York.
ORLD.
World, rhymes with the preterites and participles
of verbs in Url and IRL.
ORM.
As inform. Rhymes storm, conform, deform, in-
form, perform, reform, misinform, uniform, multiform,
warm, swarm, chloroforrh, transform.
As in worm. See Erj^i.
ORN.
Born, corn, morn, horn, scorn, thorn, adorn, suborn,
unicorn, som, Capricorn, shorn, torn, worn, lorn, for-
lorn, lovelorn, sworn, foresworn, overborne, foreborne,
mourn, warn, forewarn.
ORP.
Thorp, warp.
ORPS.
Corps rhymes ORE.
ORPSE.
Corpse rhxTnes plurals of nouns and preterites and
participles of verbs in Arp.
i88 THE RHYMESTER.
ORSE.
Horse, endorse, unhorse, force, remorse, coarse,
course, torse, morse, corse.
ORST.
See Urst.
ORT.
Short, sort, exhort, consort, distort, extort, resort,
retort, snort, mort, wart, fort, port, court, report, morte,
wart, thwart, quart, swart. ^It-onJc
ORTS.
Orts, plural of nouns and third person singular
present of verbs in Ort.
ORTH.
As in north. Rhymes fourth.
As in worth. See Erth.
OSE.
As in jocose. Rhymes close, dose, morose, gross,
engross, verbose.
As in pose. Rhymes close, dose, hose, chose, glose,
froze, nose, prose, those, rose, compose, depose, dis-
close, dispose, discompose, expose, impose, enclose,
interpose7 oppose, propose, recompose, repose, sup-
pose, transpose, arose, presuppose, foreclose, gloze.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 189
etc., and the plurals of nouns and apostrophized pre-
terites and participles of verbs in Ow, Oe, O.
As in lose. See USE.
OSH.
Bosh, wash, swash.
OSM.
Microcosm, no rhyme.
OSQUE, OSK.
Mosque, kiosk.
OSS.
Boss, cross, dross, moss, loss, across, albatross,
doss, emboss.
OST.
As in cost. Rhymes frost, lost, accost, holocaust,
etc., and the preterites and participles of words in Oss.
As \Vi ghost. Rhymes post, most, coast, and second
person singular present of verbs in Ow, as ow'st.
As in dost. See UST.
OT.
Clot, cot, blot, got, hot, jot, lot, knot, not, plot, pot,
scot, shot, polyglot, sot, spot, apricot, trot, rot, g^ot,
begot, forgot, allot, complot, yacht, quat, melilot, coun-
terplot, what.
190
THE RHYMESTER.
OTCH.
Botch, notch, crotch, blotch, Scotch, watch.
OTE.
Note, vote, Iota, mote, quote, rote, wrote, smote,
denote, tote, promote, remote, devote, anecdote, anti-
dote, boat, coat, bloat, doat, float, gloat, goat, oat, over-
float, afloat, throat, moat.
OTH.
As in broth. Rhymes cloth, froth, troth, wrath.
As in both. Rhymes loth, sloth, oath, growth, both,
loath.
As in moth. Rhymes cloth.
OTHE.
Clothe, loathe (with s added rhymes oaths ; though
clothes, the noun, in comic verse may rhyme with snows,
being colloquially spoken do's).
OU.
As in thou. See Ow.
As myou. See Ew.
OUBT.
Doubt, see Out.
OUC.
See OOK.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 191
OUCH.
As in couch. Pouch, vouch, slouch, avouch, crouch.
As in touch. See Utch.
OUCHE.
Cartouche, buche.
OUD.
Shroud, cloud, loud, proud, aloud, crowd, o'er-
shroud, etc., and the preterites and participles of verbs
in Ow.
OUGH.
Has various pronunciations. See Off, Ow, Owe,
OCK, O, Ew, and Uff.
OUGE.
As in rouge. Rhymes gamboge.
OUGHT.
Bought, thought, ought, brought, forethought,
fought, nought, sought, wrought, besought, bethought,
methought, aught, naught, caught, taught.
OUL.
As \nfoul. See Owl.
As in soul. See OLE.
ig,2 THE RHYMESTER.
OULD.
Mould, fold, old, cold, and the preterites and par-
ticiples of verbs in Owl, Oll, and OLE.
OULT.
See Olt.
OUN.
See Own.
OUNCE.
Bounce, flounce, renounce, pounce, ounce, de-
nounce, pronounce.
OUND.
As in bound. Rhymes found, mound, ground,
hound, pound, round, sound, wound (verb), abound,
aground, around, confound, compound, expound, pro-
found, rebound, resound, propound, surround, etc., and
the preterites and participles of verbs in Own.
As in wound — the noun. Rhymes preterites and
participles of verbs in OON, Une.
OUNG.
See Ung.
OUNT.
Count, mount, fount, amount, dismount, remount,
surmount, account, discount, miscount, account.
OUP.
See OOP.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 193
OUPH, or OUPHE.
Ouphe, or ouph. See Oof.
OUQUE.
Chibouque. See Uke.
OUR.
As in hour. Rhymes lour, sour, our, scour, deflow'r,
devour, bow'r, tow'r, etc.
As in pour. See Ore.
As in tour. See Ure.
See Urge.
OURGE.
OURN.
As in adjotirn. See Urn.
As in mourn. See Orn.
OURNE.
Bourne, rhymes Orn.
OURS.
As in ours. Rhymes the plurals of nouns and
third persons singular present tense of verbs in OUR
and Ow'r.
As in yours. Rhymes the plurals of nouns and
third persons singular present tense of verbs in Ure,
OOR, etc.
194 ^^-^ RHYMESTER.
OURSE.
Course. See Orse.
OURT.
Court. See Ort.
OURTH,
Fourth. See Orth.
OUS.
Nous, house, mouse, chouse, douse.
OUSE.
As in house (noun). See Ous.
As in spouse. See OwzE.
OUST.
Joust, Faust.
OUT.
Bout, stout, out, clout, pout, gout, grout, rout, scout,
shout, tout, snout, spout, stout, sprout, trout, about,
devout, without, throughout, doubt, redoubt, misdoubt,
drought.
OUTH.
As in 7nouth (noun). Rhymes south, drouth.
As in youth. See Uth.
As in mouth (verb), no rhyme.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 195
OVE.
As in wove. Rhymes inwove, interwove, hove,
alcove, clove, grove, behove, rove, stove, strove, throve,
drove.
As in dove. Rhymes love, shove, glove, above.
As in move. Rhymes approve, disprove, disap-
prove, improve, groove, prove, reprove.
OW.
As in now. Rhymes bow, how, mow, cow, brow,
sow, vow, prow, avow, allow, trow, disallow, endow,
bough, plough, slough (mire), thou.
As in blow. See O.
OWD.
Crowd. See OuD.
OWE.
Owe. See Ow.
OWL.
As in co%ul. Rhymes growl, owl, fowl, howl, prowl,
scowl, etc.
As in boivL See Ole.
OWN.
As in brown. Rhymes town, clown, crown, down,
drowTi, frown, gown, adown, renown, embrown, noun.
As in thrown. See One.
OWSE.
Bowse, rouse. See OuSE.
13
196 THE RHYMESTER.
OWTH.
Growth. See 0th.
OWZE.
Blowze, browse, rouse, spouse, carouse, touse,
espouse, the verbs to house, mouse, etc., and the plu-
rals of nouns and third persons singular present tense
of verbs in Ow.
OX.
Ox, box, fox, equinox, orthodox, heterodox, the
plurals of nouns and third persons singular present
tense of verbs in OCK.
OY.
Boy, buoy, coy, employ, cloy, joy, toy, alloy, annoy,
convoy, decoy, destroy, enjoy, employ.
OYNT.
Aroynt. See Oint.
OYLE.
Scroyle. See Oil.
OYNE.
Royne. See OiN.
OZ.
As m poz. Rhymes was.
As in coz. See Uz.
OZE.
See OSE.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 197
U
u.
See Ew.
UB.
Cub, club, dub, chub, drub, grub, hub, rub, snub,
shrub, tub.
UBE.
Cube, tube.
UCE.
Truce, sluice, spruce, deuce, conduce, deduce, in-
duce, introduce, puce, produce, seduce, traduce, juice,
reduce, use, abuse, profuse, abstruse, disuse, excuse,
misuse, obtuse, recluse.
UCH.
See Utch.
UCK.
Buck, luck, pluck, suck, struck, tuck, truck, duck.
UCT.
Conduct, deduct, instruct, obstruct, aqueduct. The
preterites and participles of verbs in UCK.
UD.
Bud, scud, stud, mud, cud, blood, flood. \Stids
rhymes plurals of nouns and third person present sin-
gular of verbs in Ud.]
198 THE RHYMESTER.
UDE.
Rude, crude, prude, allude, conclude, delude, elude,
include, mood, food, rood, illude, exclude, exude, snood,
include, intrude, obtrude, seclude, altitude, fortitude,
gratitude, interlude, latitude, longitude, magnitude,
multitude, solicitude, solitude, vicissitude, aptitude,
habitude, ingratitude, inaptitude, lassitude, plenitude,
promptitude, servitude, similitude, lewd, feud, brood,
and the preterites and participles of verbs in Ew, Ue,
etc.
UDGE.
Judge, drudge, grudge, trudge, adjudge, prejudge,
fudge, smudge, nudge, budge, sludge.
UE.
See Ew.
UFF.
Buff, cuff, chuff, bluff, huff, gruff, luff, puff, snuff
stuff, ruff, rebuff, counterbuff, rough, tough, enough,
slough (cast skin), chough.
UFT.
Tuft rhymes the preterites and participles of verbs
in Uff.
UG.
Lug, bug, dug, drug, hug, jug, rug, slug, smug,
snug, mug, shrug, pug.
UGUE.
Fugue, no rhyme.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES.
*
See Ule.
UHL.
See Use.
UICE.
See IDE.
UIDE.
See Ild.
UILD.
See ILT.
UILT.
See Int.
UINT.
199
UISE.
As in guise. See ISE.
As in bruise. See Use.
UISH.
Cuish. See ISH.
UIT.
See Ute.
UKE.
Duke, puke, rebuke, fluke, chibouque.
UL, and ULL.
As in cull. RhjTnes dull, gull, hull, lull, mull, null,
trull, skull, annul, disannul.
As xnfull. Rhymes wool, bull, pull, bountiful, fan-
200 THE RHYMESTER.
ciful, sorrowful, dutiful, merciful, wonderful, worship-
rul, and every word ending in ful having the accent on
the ante-penultimate.
ULCH.
Mulch, gulch.
ULE.
Mule, pule. Yule, rule, overrule, ridicule, misrule,
fool, tool, buhl. (Gules, heraldic term, rh>-mes plural
of nouns and third person singular present of verbs in
Ule, etc.)
ULF.
Gulf, no rhyme.
ULGE.
Bulge, indulge, divulge, etc.
ULK.
Bulk, hulk, skulk, sulk.
ULM.
Culm, no rhyme.
ULP.
Gulp, sculp, pulp, ensculp.
ULSE.
Pulse, repulse, impulse, expulse, convulse, insulse.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 201
ULT.
Result, ad-ult, exult, consult, indult, occult, insult,
difficult, catapult, etc.
UM.
Crum, chum, drum, glum, gum, hum, mum, scum,
plum, sum, swum, thruni, thumb, dumb, succumb,
come, become, overcome, burdensome, cumbersome,
frolicsome, humorsome, quarrelsome, troublesome, en-
comium, opium, crumb.
UMB.
See ilM.
UME.
See OOM.
UMP.
Bump, pump, jump, lump, plump, rump, stump,
trump, thump, clump.
UN.
Dun, gun, nun, pun, run, sun, shun, tun, stun, spun,
begun, son, won, ton, done, one, none, undone, bun.
UNCE.
Dunce, once.
UNCH.
Bunch, punch, hunch, lunch, munch, scrunch,
crunch.
202 THE RHYMESTER.
UNCT.
Defunct, disjunct, rhyme preterites and participles
of verbs in Unk.
UND.
Fund, refund, preterites of verbs in UN.
UNE.
June, tune, untune, jejune, prune, croon, hewn,
swoon, moon, soon, boon, noon, spoon, buffoon, lam-
poon, poltroon, triune, 'coon, cocoon, raccoon, dune,
shalloon, dragoon.
UNG.
Bung, clung, dung, flung, hung, rung, strung, sung,
sprung, slung, stung, swung, wrung, unsung, young,
tongue, among.
UNGE.
Plunge, sponge, expunge.
UNK.
Drunk, bunk, hunk, sunk, shrunk, stunk, punk,
trunk, slunk, funk, chunk, monk. (Hunks rhymes
plural of nouns and third person singular present of
verbs in Unk.)
UNT.
Brunt, blunt, hunt, runt, grunt, front, etc., and (.'')
wont (to be accustomed).
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 203
UOR.
See Ore.
UP.
Cup, sup, pup, dup, up.
UPT.
Abrupt, corrupt, interrupt, the participles and pre-
terites of verbs in Up, etc.
UR.
See Er.
URB.
Curb, disturb, verb, herb.
URCH.
Church, lurch, birch, perch, search, smirch.
URD.
Curd, absurd, bird, gird, heard, herd, sherd, word,
and the preterites and participles of verbs in Er, Ur,
and Ir.
URE.
Cure, pure, dure, lure, sure, abjure, allure, assure,
demure, conjure, endure, manure, inure, insure, imma-
ture, immure, mature, obscure, procure, secure, adjure,
calenture, coverture, epicure, investiture, forfeiture, fur-
niture, miniature, nourriture, overture, portraiture, pri-
mogeniture, temperature, poor, moor, contour, amour,
your.
204 THE RHYMESTER.
URF.
Turf, scurf, serf, surf.
URGE.
Purge, urge, surge, scourge, thaumaturge, gurge,
verge, diverge.
URK.
Lurk, Turk, work, irk, jerk, perk, quirk, mirk.
URL.
Churl, curl, furl, hurl, purl, uncurl, unfurl, whirl,
earl, girl, twirl, pearl.
URM.
See Erm.
URN.
Burn, churn, spurn, turn, urn, return, overturn, tern,
discern, earn, sojourn, adjourn, rejourn.
URP.
Usurp, chirp, extirp, discerp,
URR.
Purr. See Ur.
URSE.
See Erse.
URST.
Burst, curst, durst, accurst, thirst, worst, first,
versed.
URT.
See Ert.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 205
US, or USS.
Pus, us, thus, buss, truss, discuss, incubus, over-
plus, arquebus, cuss, amorous, boisterous, clamorous,
credulous, dangerous, ungenerous, generous, emulous,
fabulous, frivolous, hazardous, idolatrous, infamous,
miraculous, mischievous, mountainous, mutinous, ne-
cessitous, numerous, ominous, perilous, poisonous, pop-
ulous, prosperous, ridiculous, riotous, ruinous, scanda-
lous, scrupulous, sedulous, traitorous, treacherous,
tyrannous, venomous, vigorous, villanous, adventurous,
adulterous, ambiguous, blasphemous, dolorous, fortu-
itous, gluttonous, gratuitous, incredulous, lecherous,
libidinous, magnanimous, obstreperous, odoriferous,
ponderous, ravenous, rigorous, slanderous, solicitous,
timorous, valorous, unanimous, calamitous.
USE.
As in the noun use. Rhymes disuse, abuse, deuce,
truce, sluice, juice, loose, goose, noose, moose.
As in 7nicse. Rhymes the verb use, abuse, lose,
choose, shoes, amuse, diffuse, excuse, infuse, misuse,
peruse, refuse, suffuse, transfuse, accuse, bruise, and
the plurals of nouns and third persons singular of verbs
in Ew and Ue, etc.
USH,
As in bbish. Rhymes brush, crush, gush, flush,
rush, lush, tush, frush, hush.
As in bush. Rhymes push.
USK.
Busk, tusk, dusk, husk, musk.
2o6 THE RHYMESTER.
USP.
Cusp, no rhyme.
UST.
Bust, crust, dust, just, must, lust, rust, thrust, trust,
adjust, disgust, distrust, intrust, mistrust, robust, un-
just, the preterites and participles of verbs in Us, Uss,
etc.
UT, or UTT.
But, butt, cut, hut, gut, glut, jut, nut, shut, strut,
englut, rut, scut, slut, smut, abut, and soot (?).
UTCH.
Hutch, crutch, Dutch, much, such, touch.
UTE.
Brute, lute, flute, mute, acute, compute, confute,
dispute, dilute, depute, impute, minute, pollute, refute,
salute, absolute, attribute, contribute, constitute, desti-
tute, dissolute, execute, institute, persecute, prosecute,
resolute, substitute, fruit, bruit, suit, recruit, boot, hoot,
coot, shoot, toot, soot (.?).
UTH.
As in azimuth. Rhymes doth.
As in truth. See Ooth.
UX.
Dux, crux, lux, flux, reflux. The plurals of nouns
and third persons singular of verbs in UCK.
DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 207
Y
Y.
See IE.
YB.
Syb. See Ib.
YM.
Sym. See Im.
YMN.
Hymn. See IM.
YMPH.
Nymph, lymph.
YN.
Baudekyn. See In.
YNE.
Anodyne. See INE
.
YNX.
Lynx rhymes plurals of nouns and third persons
present singular of verbs in Ink.
YP.
Gyp, hyp. See I P.
YPE.
Type. See Ipe.
YPH.
Hieroglyph. See Iff.
2o8 THE RHYMESTER.
YPSE.
Apocalypse.
See Ipse.
See Ire.
YRE.
See Ur.
YRRH.
See Ism.
YSM.
See 1st.
YST.
Gyve. See
IVE.
YVE.
YX.
Sardonyx, pyx, fix, rhyme plural of nouns and
third persons singular present of verbs in ICK.
YZE.
Analyze. See ISE.
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SELECTIONS FROM THE WORK.
ab-do'men, not ^b'do-men.
* .7 •
ac-crue', not -cm'.
The orthoepists agree that «, preceded by r iu the
same syllable, generally becomes simply oo, as in ruile^
rumoi\ rural, rule, ruhy.
al-l6p'a-tliy ; al-l6p'a-tliist.
Ar'a-bic, not A-ra'bic.
Asia — a'she-a, 7wt a'zba.
ay, or aye (meaning yes) — i.
aye (meaning alvmys) — a.
Bis'marck, not biz'-.
At the end of a syllable, s, in German, has invariably
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Cairo — in Egypt, ki'ro; in the United
States, ka'ro.
Courbet — kor'ba'.
dec'ade, not de-kad'.
[see kext page.]
THE OETHOEPTST.— {Continued.)
de-co'roiis.
' The authority is small, and is becoming less, for say-
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def'i-cit, 7iot de-fig'it.
di§-daiii', not dis-.
di2-li5n'or, not dis-.
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The first is the marking of a large majority of the
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The only authority for saying en'er-tdte is popuiar
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The latter is a Websterian pronunciation, which is
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fin-an-cier'.
This much-used word is rarely pronounced correctly.
Hei'ne, not hine.
Final c in German is never silent.
honest — 6n'est, not -ist, nor -ust.
"■Honest honest lago," is preferable to "honws^, hon-
vHt lago," some of our accidental Othellos to the con-
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i§'o-late, or is'o-late, not i'so-lat.
The first marking is Walker's, Worcester's, and
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" The information is all sound and good, and no such hand-book
has before been within the reach of the young stiident. Any one who
wishes to read Vergil mtelligently, and not merely to cram so many
books of the '^neid'foran examination, should buy Professor Nettle-
ship's scholarly monograph." — London Atheneeum.
EUmPIDES. By Professor Mahaffy.
" A better book on the sibjeot than has previously been written
in English. He is scholarly and not pedantic, appreciative and yet
jasX."— London Academy.
SOPHOCLES. By Professor L. Campbell.
"Wo can not close without again recommending the little book to
all lovers of Sophocles, as an able and eloquent picture ot the life and
work of one of the greatest dramatic writers the world has ever seen."
— London Athen<xum.
Other volumes to follow.
New York : D. APPLETON & CO., 1, 3, & 5 Bond Street.
APPLETONS^ READERS.
SOME DISTINGUISHING FEATURES.
Modern Methods made easy.— Education is a progressive sci-
ence. Aletlioils oftlie last century must be discarded. The question
" How shall we teach reading? " is fully answered in these boolis,
and teachers who have adopted and followed this method have
greatly improved their schools.
Word and Phonic Method.— By taking at first words with
whicii the clnld is quite familiar, and which contain sounds easily
distin','uislied and continually recuninj,', both teacher and pupil will
find the sounds a great help in reading new words as well as in
acquiring a distinct articulation.
Spelling.— Words selected from the lessons are given for spell-
ing witli each piece, thus affording the best opportunity for oral
and written spelling-lessons as well as for definitions. In the Third,
Fourth, and Fiftli Readers, graded exercises in spelling analysis,
together with daily lessons of words often misspelled or mispro-
nounced, are placed in the Appendix for constant study. With
these Readers no '• Speller" will be needed.
Illustrations.- The illustrations are beautiful and attractive,
and are well adapted to serve as a basis for the language and
thought lessons that are so prominent in these books.
Helps for Teachers.— Teachers will find in these books a simple
plan tiiat will trreatly aid them ; while the notes, questions, and
Buggestioiis will help the teacher to impart the most instruction and
the bi^st culture, which makes the reading-lesson something more
than a more naming of words.
Oral Reading.— Proper oral expression depends on the sense.
Get the sense ot each extract and the correct oral expression will be
an easy matter. This is the key-note to Professor Bailey"s excellent
lessons on accent, emphasis, inflection, and general vocal expres-
sion, that are placed as reading-lessons in the Third, Fourth, and
Fifth Readers.
Selections.- The selections embrace gems of literature from lead-
in^auihors. No other Keadera include such a wide ranire of thought,
showing from the simple stories for children in the earlier books, to
the extracts from the best authors in the Fourth and Fifth, unity of
design and a just appreciation of the needs of our schools.
Great Success.- Since the publication of these Renders, their
sale has averaged nearly a million a year, which is unprecedented in
the sale of schnol-bnoks.
Endorsements.— These Readers have received the endorsement
of nearly every educator of note in the United States, but the best
proof of "their merits is found in the great improvement manifested
everywhere they are used.
D. APPLETON & CO., Publishers,
New York, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco.
JUST PUBLISHED.
AI HISTORICAL EEADEE
FOR THE USE OF
Classes in Academies, High Schools, and
Grammar Schools.
By HENRY E. SHEPHERD, M. A.,
Superiuteudent of Public Instruction, Baltimore, Maryland.
This work consists of a collection of extracts representing the
purest historical literature that has been produced in the different
stages of our literary development, from the time of Clarendon to
the era of Macaulay and Prescott, its design being to present to the
minds of young pupils typical illustrations of classic historical style,
gathered mainly from English and American writers, and to create
and develop a fondness for historical study.
The book is totally devoid of sectarian or partisan tendencies, the
aim being simply to instill a love for historical reading, and not to
suggest opinions or inculcate views in regard to any of those great
civil and religious revolutions whose eflfects and whose influence
must remain open qusstious till the last act in the historical drama
shall be complsted.
The biographical and critical notes are jnst suflBcient to stimulate
inquiry and independent research. The intention of notes and com
merits is to suggest new lines of thought, and to develop a taste for
more extended investigation.
Price, post-paid, $1.S5.
New York : D. APFLETON & CO., 1, 3, & 5 Bond Street.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES
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