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pause, — the former in the middle, the latter at the close of 

 the line. The former does not always divide the line into 

 two equal parts, but may be varied according to the taste of 

 the writer ; and in one line may be several pauses, though 

 one is generally stronger than the rest. 



In Latin, the caesural pause is after the second foot ; but 

 in English, the taste of the poet is shown in changing its 

 place. Expression often requires a deviation from rule, but 

 care must be taken that the pause shall coincide with the 

 sense, or even help, — certainly not mar it. 



The difference between prose, verse, and poetry, is ex- 

 amined and explained at some length. They all consist of 

 long and short, accented or unaccented syllables. Dionysius 

 of Halicarnassus, and in our own day, Bishop W. Cleaver, 

 could find a certain order of feet in Demosthenes and Iso- 

 crates. The rythm of prose is unfettered, that of verse con- 

 fined within a certain number of feet. To this, poetry adds 

 poetical diction and figures. Verse, in the opinion of the 

 author, is essential to poetry. There may be verse without 

 poetry, but no poetry without verse ; and according to this 

 decision, neither Fenelon's Telemachus, nor Macpherson's 

 Ossiau is to be considered as genuine poetry. In this, 

 every thing should be animated and impassioned ; not a 

 single prosaic expression should be admitted into short 

 poems; and if in long epic and didactic poems some indul- 

 gence to such expressions be allowed, it should be compen- 

 sated by the greatest attention to melodious versification. . 

 With respect to the propriety of introducing the Alexan- 

 drine into heroic verse, there is a difference of opinion. 

 Johnson condemns the practice, as violating the principle of 

 verse ; but Dryden, who understood the subject better, says, 

 " Spencer gave me the boldness to use the Alexandrine. It 

 adds a certain majesty to the verse, and stops the sense from 

 overflowing into another line. I have frequently used the 

 triplet rhymes, because they bound the sense, and therefore 



