310 MEMOIRS OP 



with his alliteration of the letter^ has 

 nobly conveyed to our ear the peculiar noifc 

 of the ocean- waves when they are loud on 



the beach ; thus, 



t 



Silent he wander'd by the founding main. 



The murmur of a calm fea has been well 

 exprefled by the alliteration of the follow- 

 ing line : 



Slow on the damp and fhelly (bore (lie flray'd. 



There is fomewhere a line, in which a 

 poetafter, mentioning the violet, fays, 



Where blue it blooms with balmy breath. 



He thought he had hammered out an im- 

 menfely fine verfe, though in facl it is to 

 the ear no whit more agreeable than, 



Three blue beans in one blue bladder. 



The letters b and p make miferable alli- 

 teration. Milton has ufed the harm letter 

 r, to very fine efFecl in the following lines : 



Vex'd 



