268 on Englijh poetry, — rhyme, Aug, li^ 



with a syllable having a similar sound, and this is 

 called rbime. 



All these things you yourself sufficiently know j 

 nor will it probably have escaped your observation, 

 that many writers, if they can tag together a certain 

 number of lines, with the necefsary apurtenance of 

 rhiming syllables at their end, conceive that they 

 are writing poetry; and immediately dub themselves 

 poets. But here, you v/ill perceive, that by mistak- 

 ging a part for the whole, and that part too the mean- 

 est of all the constituent parts of poetry, they are 

 guilty of a sad misnomer, and confound the making of 

 Oerses, with the writing of poetry. These are two 

 things extremely different ; for poetry may exist e- 

 ven without verse, and far more without rhime ; and 

 rhime may be very perfect without the smallest 

 spark of poetry. 



Let me therefore caution you to endeavour to 

 discriminate between these in the compositions of 

 ethers ; but above all things to guard against the too 

 common error of believing that you yourself are a 

 jjoet, in case you fhould at any time accidentally 

 discover that you have a knack at writing with to- 

 lerable facility a number of rhyming lines, — usually 

 called verses. I believe there is no person existing, 

 who has an ordinary fund of ideas, who cannot write 

 Verses. It is indeed a mere mechanical operation ; and 

 i!" a man has a natural ear for rhythmical arrange- 

 ments, he will be able to make the syllables follow 

 each other very smoothly. But if he has not a talent 

 f6r great and bald conceptions ; or for placing objects in 

 such positions, as to excite new and vivid ideas, that 



