94 



Frigon h mafla ne le geKd' onde, 

 Indurando '1 rigor del ferro acuto ; 

 Onde rimbomba il cavernofo monte ; 

 E la Sicilia e la Calabria trema. 



Neverthelefs, this poem has not proved to me, that rhime is not the 

 genius of the Italian : and, from feveral incidental circumftances in the 

 poem itfeif, I am convinced its author found he had undertaken a for- 

 bidding and ungracious ta/k. Now, akhough the poem confifts of io6a 

 lines only, there appear, on a curfory infpeftion, not lefs than 290 verfes 

 that terminate in 0, thus forming confiderably more than one fourth of 

 the whole poem in that teleutic. It looks, indeed, as if the fubjeft had 

 invited thefe harmonies ; how elfe fliall we account for this fpecies of 

 clujiered mufic, in a poem that profeffes to take wing, and rife above 

 ihe correfpondent found? 



" Non temero cantare i voftri honori, 

 , " Con verfo Etrufco da le rime fciolto." 



F. £4. 



To ufe the language of a bard, whofe verfe has proved that rhime 

 is the true fource of harmony, thefe terminations conglobe, as he fays 

 of the Hivites that murmur round their queen, and cohere in every page of 

 the work, efpecially at verfe 972, where, in the fpace of only thirteen 

 lines, we have no lefs than ten of thefe terminative O's ; not to inlift 

 on the poliflied (but v^ith us, vulvar) rhimes of hnago and drago. 



" Cofi Tedrai multiplicar la imago 



" Dal concavo reflexo del metallo, 



" In guifa tal, che I'ape fembra un drago." 



Befide the numerous terminations in the letter Oj-We have, on the 

 fame hafty infpeftion, two hundred verfes, out of the remaining 972 

 lihat end in /, conglobing and cluftering after the fame bee-like man- 

 ner. 



