We cannot see any reason why rhymes
should be terminal--they might be at one end of the line as well as at
the other. We might have--
"Early rose of Springs first dawn,
Pearly dewdrops gem thy breast,
Sweetest emblem of our hopes,
Meetest flower for Paradise."
But there are signs that all this pedantry, graceful as it is, will
gradually disappear. Blank verse is beginning to assert its sway, and
the sentiment in poetry is less under the domination of measure. No
doubt the advance to this freer atmosphere will be slow, music has
already adopted a wider harmony. Ballads are being superseded by part
singing, and airs by sonatas. The time will come when to produce a
jingle at the end of lines will seem as absurd as the rude harmonies of
Dryden and Butler now appear to us.
It would not be just to judge of the profanity of Byron by the standard
of the present day. We have seen that two centuries since parodies
which to us would seem distasteful, if not profane, were written and
enjoyed by eminent men. Probably Byron, a man of wide reading had seen
them, and thought that he too might tread on unforbidden ground and
still lay claim to innocence. The periodicals and collections of the
time frequently published objectionable imitations of the language of
Scripture and of the Liturgy, evidently ridiculing the peculiarities
inseparable from an old-fashioned style and translation.
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