422 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



The words too eager to unricldle, 



The poet felt a strange disorder — 

 Transparent birdlime formed the middle, 



And chains invisible the border. 



***** 



The godhead would have backed his quarrel, 



But, with a blush on recollection. 

 Owned that his quiver and his laurel 



"Gainst four such eyes was no protection. 



Each of these stanzas contains thirty-six syllables. In the 



first all the vowels are short except five ; in the second, all 



escept one ! And the loose swing of the measure is quite in 



keeping. 



Let us quote Cowper :- — 



Would I had fall'n upon those happier days 

 That poets celebrate, those golden times. 

 And those Arcadian scenes, that ]\Iaro sings, 

 And Sidnej-, warbler of poetic prose. 



Winter Evening. 



Here, again, the long vowels have the great predominance ; 

 but turn to any stanza of " John Gilpin," by the same writer, 

 and the short vowels will be found to characterize the whole 

 composition. 



It is scarcely necessary further to multiply examples ; but 

 I cannot refrain from noting two of the finest of modern 

 hjTuns — Lyte's 



Abide with me, — fast falls the eventide, 

 and Newman's 



Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom. 



Tennyson's poem of "The Brook," already referred to, is 

 a marvel of imitative language. The dash and ripple of the 

 measui-e is unparalleled in English verse. Sustained notes 

 would be out of keeping with the character of the piece, and 

 accordingly we find a most surprising preponderance of short 

 vowels. At the same time they are managed with such con- 

 summate skill that the effect of pettiness and triviality, so 

 noticeable in the examples already quoted, is nowhere to be 

 found throughout the poem. 



By thirt}' hills I hurry down. 



Or slip between the ridges. 

 By twenty thorps, a little town. 



And half a hundred bridges. 



Till last by Philip's farm I flow 



To join the brimming river — 

 For men may come and men may go. 



But I go on for ever. 



In these two stanzas there is scarcely a long vowel. Con- 

 trast with this the same writer's 



Home they brought her warrior dead, 

 and his 



