19
Now in gay Lyrics trip, and now more slow,
Linger in steps of Elegiac woe.
Now in Heroics sweep with grand array,
And now in rapid Dactyls speed away[1].
Linger in steps of Elegiac woe.
Now in Heroics sweep with grand array,
And now in rapid Dactyls speed away[1].
Hail too advent'rous Bard, whose freeborn soul
Bids the wild numbers rove without controul,
Whose verse nor rhyme, nor time, nor measure knows;
An untaught ear would deem it lofty prose;
And prose it were, unless, now short now long,
Th' unequal lines proclaim'd the pomp of song.[2]
Bids the wild numbers rove without controul,
Whose verse nor rhyme, nor time, nor measure knows;
An untaught ear would deem it lofty prose;
And prose it were, unless, now short now long,
Th' unequal lines proclaim'd the pomp of song.[2]
- ↑ The specimens are before every reader in the "Lay of the last Minstrel," "Curse of Kehama," &c. &c.
- ↑ Although Thalaba the Destroyer is pretty generally known, I shall produce an illustration of the above rule, taken at random from that singular work: premising, how