Lamb considered them to be a kind of punning, but
in one case the same position, in the other the same signification is
given to words of the same sound. The following couplet was written
humorously by Swift for a dog's collar--
"Pray steal me not: I'm Mrs. Dingley's
Whose heart in this four-footed thing lies."
Pope has the well known lines,
"Worth makes the man and want of it the fellow,
And all the rest is leather and prunella."
Miss Sinclair also, in her description of the Queen's visit to Scotland,
has adopted these irregular terminations with good effect--
"Our Queen looks far better in Scotland than England
No sight's been like this since I once saw the King land.
Edina! long thought by her neighbours in London
A poor country cousin by poverty undone;
The tailors with frantic speed, day and night cut on,
While scolded to death if they misplace a button.
And patties and truffles are better for Verrey's aid,
And cream tarts like those which once almost killed Scherezade."
The parallelism of poetry has undergone very many changes, but there has
generally been an inclination to assimilate it to the style of chants or
ballad music. The forms adopted may be regarded as arbitrary--the
rythmical tendency of the mind being largely influenced by established
use and surrounding circumstances.
Pages:
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225