fcM H H H a a H n 
 
 »>ift^a M*>flj»aaiftXOjc\>.i. 
 
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 In same series: 
 
 THE VERBALIST: 
 
 A Manual devoted to Brief Discussions of the Right and 
 the Wrong Use of Words, and to some other Matters 
 of Interest to those who would Speak and Write with 
 Fropriety, including a Treatise on Punctuation. ' By 
 Alfred Avkes. i8mo, cloth, extra. I'rice, $i.oo. 
 
 THE ORTHOEPIST: 
 
 A Pronouncing; Manual, containing about 'I'hree Thou- 
 sand Five Hundred Words, including a Considerable 
 Number of the Names of Foreign Authors, Artists, 
 etc., that are often mispronounced. By Alkred Ayises, 
 author of • I'he Verbalist. " i8mo, cloth, extra. Price, 
 $i.oo. 
 
 
 C t t « t 
 
 t c t C C I 
 
 c «. c c t 
 tec c t 
 
 t t *^ t C t 
 
 eft ttt ttt
 
 THE 
 
 RHYMESTER: 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE RULES OF RHYME. 
 
 A GUIDE TO ENGLISH VERSIFICATION. 
 
 WITH 
 
 A DICTIONARY OF RHYMES, 
 
 AN EXAMINATION OF CLASSICAL MEASURES, AND 
 
 COMMENTS UPON BURLESQUE, COMIC VERSE. 
 
 AND SONG-WRITING. 
 
 By the late TOM HOOD. 
 
 EDITED, W rr H ADDITIONS, BY 
 ARTHUR PENN. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 
 
 I, 3, AND s BOND STREET, 
 1882.
 
 COPYRIGHT BV 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 
 1882.
 
 1517 
 
 nr 
 
 H 
 
 y 
 
 NOTE 
 
 BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. 
 
 T T is now ten or a dozen years since there ap- 
 oc peared in London a little volume called " The 
 
 "^ Rules of Rhyme," and signed by Tom Hood. 
   ^ The author of this manual of versification was 
 c the only son of the Thomas Hood who sang the 
 ■^ " Song of the Shirt " and wrote " Whims and 
 uil Oddities," who mingled smiles and tears all his 
 life long, making a brave fight against disease 
 and death, until at last the latter won the vic- 
 tory, snatching him from the bed whereon he lay 
 ** spitting blood and puns." Named after his 
 father, Thomas Hood the younger took to his 
 father's trade, and led the laborious life of a 
 working journalist all his days. Proud of his 
 father's name, he chose always to sign himself 
 "Tom Hood," that he might not be accused of 
 
 47.'J??8
 
 ^ THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 trying to trade on his father's reputation. He 
 was born in 1835, and he died toward the end 
 of 1874. He began life as a clerk in the War 
 Office, a position he gave up in 1865, when he 
 became editor of "Fun." In the course of his 
 literary career he wrote four or five novels, of 
 which at least one — " For Valor " — was repub- 
 lished in this country ; and he edited as many 
 Christmas annuals. In 1868 he published his 
 first " Comic Annual," in imitation of his father, 
 and so popular did he make it that it continues 
 to appear even now, seven years after his death. 
 He also wrote and illustrated many books for 
 children. As editor of " Fun," he showed that 
 he was also the author of " Rules of Rhyme " ; 
 he practiced what he preached, and he neither 
 Avrote nor tolerated slipshod rhyme and halting 
 rhythm. While he edited "Fun," its verse — 
 comic or serious, pathetic or satiric — had always 
 a high degree of technical merit. He could not 
 make poets of all those who wrote verse for the 
 paper; but he could and did make them mend 
 their paces and mind their stops. He was only 
 a minor poet himself, but he had a keen under-
 
 NOTE BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. 
 
 5 
 
 standing of verse and great metrical facility, as 
 any one may see who considers the posthumous 
 volume of his poems edited by his sister, Frances 
 Freeling Broderip. 
 
 In the present edition the American editor 
 has dealt very freely with the English author's 
 text, treating Tom Hood's " Rules of Rhyme " 
 very much as he treated the "Young Poet's 
 Guide " when he reprinted it as a supplement to 
 his own treatise. He has made occasional alter- 
 ations, a few omissions, and more frequent in- 
 sertions. The most of the added matter is indi- 
 cated by brackets, [thus]. It has been deemed 
 inadvisable to point out in detail all the minor 
 changes, and it is hoped that a general ac- 
 knowledgment here will suffice. Three whole 
 chapters have been added — one on the sonnet, 
 another on the rondeau arid the ballade, and a 
 third on the other fixed forms of verse. The 
 brief dictionary of rhymes has been revised, sim- 
 plified, rearranged, and somewhat enlarged ; and 
 to it have been prefixed a few lines of Ben Jon- 
 son's on the difficulties and dangers of rhyme, 
 which seemed pertinent. A. P.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 NOTE BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR . . 3 
 
 INTRODUCTION (bY TOM HOOD) . Q 
 
 CHAP. I. — VERSE GENERALLY . . . -17 
 
 II. — CLASSIC VERSIFICATION . . 25 
 
 III. — GUIDES AND HAND-BOOKS . . -34 
 
 IV. — OF FEET AND C^SURA . . . 42 
 
 V. — METER AND RHYTHM . . 46 
 
 VI. — OF RHYME .... 65 
 
 VII. — OF FIGURES . . . . . 71 
 
 VIII. — OF BURLESQUE AND COMIC VERSE, AND 
 
 VERS DE SOCIETE . . . 76 
 
 IX. — OF SONG-WRITING ... 83 
 
 X. — OF THE SONNET . . . .86 
 
 XI. — OF THE RONDEAU AND THE BALLADE QI 
 
 XII. — OF OTHER FIXED FORMS OF VERSE . 105 
 
 A FIT OF RHYME AGAINST RHYME (bY BEN 
 
 jonson) . . . .119 
 
 a dictionary of rhymes . . . 123
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 T AM anxious at the first outset that the ob- 
 ject of this work should not be misunder- 
 stood. It does not assume to be a hand-book 
 for poets, or a guide to poetry. The attempt 
 to compile such a book as is implied by either 
 of those titles would be as absurd as preten- 
 tious. 
 
 A poet, to paraphrase the Latin, is created, 
 not manufactured. Cicero's " nascimur poetse, 
 fimus oratores,"* is, with some modification, 
 even more to the point. In a word, poetical 
 genius is a gift, but education and persever- 
 ance will make almost any man a versifier. 
 
 All, therefore, that this book aims to teach 
 is the art of versification. That art, like logic, 
 is " ars instrumentalis, dirigens mentem inter 
 
 * " We are born poets ; we make ourselves orators."
 
 lo THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 cognitionem rerum."* As logic does not sup- 
 ply you with arguments, but only defines the 
 mode in which they are to be expressed or 
 used, so versification does not teach you how 
 to write poetry, but how to construct verse. 
 It may be a means to the end, but it does not 
 pretend to assure its attainment. Versification 
 and logic are to poetry and reason what a 
 parapet is to a bridge : they do not convey 
 you across, but prevent you from falling over. 
 The difference is that which exists between 
 rexvi] and eTnar^j^Tj.f 
 
 This definition is rendered necessary by 
 the Dogberry spirit which is now abroad, and 
 which insists that " to be a well-favored man 
 is the gift of fortune " — fortune in the sense 
 of wealth, I presume — " but to write and read 
 comes by nature " ; in fact, that, to be " a 
 poet," a man needs to be advantageously 
 placed in the world, but that any one can 
 " write poetry." 
 
 * " An instrumental art, directing the mind to the knowl- 
 edge of things." 
 
 t "Art" and "science."
 
 INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 With this conviction, I have discarded the 
 title of a guide for " poets," feeling that there 
 is much real poetry that is not in verse, and 
 a vast deal of verse that is not poetry ; and 
 that, therefore, " a hard and fast line " was of 
 the first importance to mark the boundary of 
 my undertaking. Poetry is far less a question 
 of manner than of matter, whereas versification 
 is purely a question of form. I will even 
 venture to say that some of our noblest poems 
 are in prose ; and that many great poets have 
 been but inferior versifiers. But what these 
 last wrote has possessed qualities compared 
 with which the mere mechanism of their verse 
 is as nothing. The poet gives to the world 
 in his sublime thoughts diamonds of the pur- 
 est water. It would be idle to quibble about 
 minor points of the polishing and setting of 
 such gems— they would lose in the process ! 
 But the writer of verse does not — and should 
 not — pretend to give us diamonds. He offers 
 paste brilliants ; and therefore it the more be- 
 hooves him to see to the perfection of the cut- 
 ting, on which their beauty depends.
 
 12 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 The thoughts presented by the poet may 
 be rough-hewn ; the fancies of the versifier 
 must be accurately finished, and becomingly 
 set. Poetry, therefore, abounds in licenses, 
 while versification boasts only of laws. 
 
 To enumerate, explain, and define these 
 laws is the object of this work. Nor is such 
 a task a waste of time, as those may be in- 
 clined to think vvho argue that, if one can not 
 write poetry, 'tis absurd to try to write verse. 
 Yet versification is an elegant accomplishment, 
 to say the least — " emoUit mores, nee sinit esse 
 feros."* But it is something more than an 
 elegant accomplishment — much more. 
 
 In the dead languages — leaving in abey- 
 ance the question of classical versus mathe- 
 matical education — nothing gives such schol- 
 arly finish as the practice of Greek and Latin 
 verse-writing, nothing such an intimate knowl- 
 edge and understanding of the genius of either 
 language. 
 
 Were English versification taught in our 
 schools, I believe the boys would acquire a 
 
 * " It softens the manners and forbids their roughness."
 
 INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 better understanding and appreciation of their 
 own tongue. With such training, a lad would 
 shrink from a mispronunciation as he does • 
 from a false quantity in Latin or Greek. He 
 would not fall into the slipshod way of pro- 
 nouncing "doing" as if it were spelled "doin'/' 
 and "written and spoken" as if " writtun and 
 spokun." He would not make dissyllables of 
 words like "fire" and "mire," or of the tri- 
 syllable "really." Nor would he make another 
 mistake (very common now, as revealed in 
 magazine verse where such words are put to 
 rhyme, " before " and " more ") of pronouncing 
 "ure" as " ore "—" shore " and " asshore " for 
 " sure " and " assure," of which, of course, the 
 correct pronunciation is "shewre," "ashewre."* 
 The purging of our pronunciation would be 
 of general benefit. At present it is shifting 
 and uncertain, because it is never taught. 
 Surely the deterioration of our language is not 
 
 * The derivation of this vulgarism is ancient, and not very 
 dignified. "Sewer" and "shore," meaning a drain, are, of 
 course, the same word. It seems absurd, when we have so few 
 vowels, to allow the distinctive sound of any of them to be lost, 
 as it would be in this case, by the " o " and " u " becoming in- 
 terchanged. — (T. H.)
 
 H 
 
 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 a minor matter, and when it can be removed 
 by the encouragement of verse-writing at our 
 schools, strictly and clearly taught, it seems 
 astonishing that no effort has been made in 
 that direction.* 
 
 However, whether, by establishing a system 
 of English versifying at our schools, we shall 
 ever endeavor to give fixity to our pronuncia- 
 tion, is a question hardly likely, I fear, to be 
 brought to the test yet awhile. That English 
 versifying is a strong educational power, I do 
 not doubt, and, in that belief, have endeavored 
 to render this hand-book as complete as possible. 
 I have therefore laid down the most stringent 
 rules and the clearest formulae in my power. 
 
 Verse is but the A B C of poetry, and the 
 student must learn his alphabet correctly. We 
 should not allow a child to arrange the letters 
 as he chose — " A, Z, B, G, C " — nor must the 
 
 * There is one decided advantage to the public which would 
 accrue from the teaching of versification in schools. We should 
 be saved the infliction of much nonsense, published under the 
 name of poetry. For it is to be hoped that no man, who had 
 been well-grounded in the mechanism of verse as a lad, would 
 think of publishing in mature age what he would know were but 
 school-exercises only, and not poems. — (T. H.)
 
 IN TROD UCTION. 1 5 
 
 beginner in verse dream of using any licenses 
 of a similar kind. I should fail in my duty if 
 I admitted anything of the kind ; for, while it 
 would be presumption to lay down laws for 
 poets, it would be incapacity to frame licenses 
 for versifiers. 
 
 I therefore conclude these prefatory re- 
 marks by adducing the two chief regulations 
 for the student : 
 
 First. That he must use such rhymes only 
 as are perfect to the ear, when correctly 
 pronounced. 
 Second. That he must never write a line 
 which will not sooner or later in the 
 stanza have a line to correspond with a 
 rhyme. 
 To these I may add, as a rider, this piece 
 of advice (somewhat in the style of the whist 
 maxim, "When in doubt, play a trump"): If 
 you have reason to choose between tv/o styles 
 of versification, select the more difficult. 
 
 It is only by sustaining your verse at the 
 highest elevation that you can hope even to 
 approach poetry.
 
 l6 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 " Be bold— be bold— but not too bold ! " 
 
 And bear in mind the words of Sir Philip 
 Sidney : " Who shootes at the midday Sonne, 
 though he be sure he shall neuer hit the 
 marke ; yet as sure he is, he shall shoote 
 higher than who aymes but at a bush." 
 
 T. H.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 VERSE GENERALLY. 
 
 THERE is no better text for this chapter than some 
 Hnes from Pope's " Essay on Criticism " : 
 
 " But most by numbers judge a poet's song, 
 And smooth or rough, with them, is right or wrong : 
 These equal syllables alone require, 
 Tho' oft the ear the open vowels tire ; 
 5 While expletives their feeble aid do join ; 
 And ten low words oft creep in one dull line : 
 While they ring round the same unvaried chimes, 
 With sure returns of still recurring rhymes ; 
 Where'er you find ' the cooling western breeze,' 
 
 10 In the next line it ' whispers through the trees ' : 
 If crystal streams ' with pleasing murmurs creep,' 
 The reader's threaten'd — not in vain — with ' sleep.' 
 Then at the last and only couplet, fraught 
 With some unmeaning thing they call a thought, 
 
 15 A needless Alexandrine ends the song, 
 
 That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along. 
 Leave such to tune their own dull rhymes, to know 
 What's roundly smooth, or languishingly slow ; 
 And praise the easy vigor of a line 
 
 20 Where Denham's strength and Waller's sweetness join.
 
 l8 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, 
 As those move easiest who have learned to dance. 
 'Tis not enough no harshness gives offence, 
 The sound must seem an echo to the sense. 
 
 25 Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows, 
 
 And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows ; 
 But when loud surges lash the sounding shore, 
 The hoarse rough verse should like the torrent roar ; 
 When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, 
 
 30 The line, too, labors, and the words move slow. 
 Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain, 
 Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main." 
 
 Johnson sneers somewhat at the attempt at what he 
 styles "representative meter." He quotes "one of the 
 most successful attempts " — 
 
 " With many a weary step, and many a groan. 
 Up a high hill he heaves a huge round stone ; 
 The huge round stone, resulting with a bound. 
 Thunders impetuous down and smokes along the ground." 
 
 After admitting that he sees the stone move slowly 
 upward, and roll violently back, he says, " try the same 
 numbers to another sense — 
 
 " While many a merry tale and many a song 
 Cheer'd the rough road, we wish'd the rough road long. 
 The rough road then returning in a round 
 Mock'd our impatient steps, for all was fairy ground." 
 
 "We have now," says the Doctor, "lost much of 
 the delay and much of the rapidity." Truly so !— 
 but why ? The choice of words has really altered the 
 measure, though not the number of syllables. If we
 
 VERSE GENERALLY. 19 
 
 look at the second line of the first extract, we see how 
 the frequent use of the aspirate, with a long sound 
 after it, gives the labor of the ascent. There is 
 nothing of this in the corresponding line, where the 
 " r " gives a run rather than a halt to the measure. 
 But Johnson more decidedly shows how he was mis- 
 taken when he finds fault with Pope's — 
 
 " The varying verse, the full resounding line, 
 The long majestic march, and energy divine." 
 
 His objection to this is, that the same sequence of 
 syllables gives " the rapid race " and " the march of 
 slow-paced majesty " ; and he adds, " the exact pro- 
 sodist will find the line of swiftness by one time longer 
 than that of tardiness." By this it is to be presumed 
 he alludes to the trisyllabic nature of the first foot of 
 the first line — "varying." But it is just that which 
 gives the rapidity. The other half of the line is not 
 meant to give rapidity, but " resounding." The second 
 line, by the repetition of the "a" in "march" and 
 " majesty," gives the tramp of the march to admira- 
 tion. 
 
 So much for Johnson's objections. We will now 
 see how far the lines of Pope can guide us in the con- 
 struction of verse. 
 
 Line Third indicates the necessity — which Pope 
 himself, even, did not adequately recognize — the neces- 
 sity of varying the fall of the \-erse on the ear. Pope 
 did this by graduating his accents. The line should 
 scan with an accented syllable following an unaccented 
 one — 
 
 2
 
 20 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 " And smooth' or rough', with them', is right' or wrong'." 
 
 Pope varied this by a sort of compromise — 
 
 " And the' smooth stream' in smoother' numbers' flows'," 
 
 would be the right scansion. But the accent passes in 
 a subdued form from " the " to " smooth," which pleas- 
 antly modulates the line, and gives the flow required 
 for the figure treated of.* 
 
 But there was another means of varying the verse 
 which was not in those days adopted. It was not 
 then recognized that there were some cases in which 
 the unaccented syllable might have two " beats." 
 Pope wrote, 
 
 " The gen'rous pleasure to be charm'd with wit." 
 
 Had he written " generous," it might have stood, and 
 would have given a variety. And this would have 
 saved the eyesore of such lines as — 
 
 " T' admire superior sense and doubt our own." 
 
 Line Fourth does not exactly describe the fault 
 it commits. " The open vowel " is no offense, but 
 rather a beauty, though like all beauty it must not be 
 too lavishly displayed. The fault of the line really lies 
 in the repetition of the same broad sound — " o." The 
 
 * An instance of the contrary effect will be found in Tenny- 
 son's line — 
 
 " Long lines of cliff brealcing had left a chasm." 
 
 Here the proper stress should be " break'ing-," according to 
 scansion, but the accent thrown back on the first syllable gives 
 a sudden sort of halt suggestive of the fall of the cliff. — (T. H.)
 
 VERSE GENERALLY. 21 
 
 same vowel-sounds should not be repeated in a line.* 
 This especially holds good where they are so associated 
 with consonants as to form a rhyme, or anything ap- 
 proaching to it. 
 
 Line Fifth points out an inelegance which no one 
 with any ear could be guilty of — the use of " do " and 
 " did," to eke out a line or help a rhyme. 
 
 Line Sixth indicates a practice which those who 
 have studied Latin versification would avoid without 
 such a hint, since the nature of the caesura compels 
 the avoidance of monosyllables. 
 
 Line Ninth, with the following three lines, warns 
 against an error which naturally becomes the more 
 frequent the longer English verse is written, since 
 rhymes become more and more hackneyed every day. 
 
 Line Sixteenth. The Alexandrine will come 
 under discussion in its place among meters. 
 
 Line Twenty-first might well serve for a motto 
 for this little treatise. If a poet said 1,his of poetiy, 
 how much more does it apply to versification ! 
 
 Line Twenty-fifth. Here, and in the following 
 line, by delicate manipulation of the accent. Pope gets 
 the desired effect. Instead of "So soft' the strain'," 
 he attracts the ear with " Soft' is," and the unexpected 
 word gives the key-note of the line. 
 
 Line Twenty-seventh. It is almost needless 
 
 * Yet this is not all that is requisite to make music. Brown- 
 ing, I think I may say, never repeats the same sound ; Tenny- 
 son frequently does ; yet the latter's verse has a better flow than 
 the former's. But this may be the result of other arts employed 
 by the Laureate. — (T. H.)
 
 22 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 to point out how in this, and the next line, the poet, 
 by artful management of accent and careful selection 
 of onomatopoetic words, gives the required assonance 
 to the lines. 
 
 Line Twenty-ninth. The broad vowels here 
 give the requisite pause and " deliberation " to the 
 verse. In the following line, the introduction of " too " 
 — (under some circumstances it might well come under 
 the condemnation of Line Fifth) — makes the line labor, 
 and the open " o " at the end of the line " tires the 
 ear." 
 
 Line Thirty-first. Here the poet gets the slide 
 of the " s " to give the idea of motion. In the follow- 
 ing line, by the elision and the apt introduction of short 
 syllables, he repeats the notion. In my opinion the 
 artistic skill of Pope is peculiarly obsen-able in the last 
 few couplets. In the first line in each instance the 
 effect is produced by the use of a different artifice 
 from that employed in the second. 
 
 These rules were of course intended by Pope to 
 apply only to the measure called " heroic," i. e., deca- 
 syllabic verse. But, mutatis mutandis, they will be 
 equally applicable to general verse. 
 
 Coleridge, in his " Christabel," struck out what he 
 considered a new meter, which he describes as "not, 
 properly speaking, irregular, though it may seem so 
 from its being founded on a new principle : namely, 
 that of counting in each line the accents, not the sylla- 
 bles. Though the latter may vary from seven to 
 twelve, yet in each line the accents will be found to be 
 only four." This was a decided step in the right direc-
 
 VERSE GENERALLY. 23 
 
 tion, being in truth a recognition of the principle that 
 measure in English was not exhausted — was, indeed, 
 hardly satisfied — by the old rule of thumb; that, in 
 short, it needed a compromise between accetit and 
 quatittty. 
 
 Southey, in his " Thalaba," essayed a new style of 
 versification, of which he writes as follows : 
 
 " It were easy to make a parade of learning by enu- 
 merating the various feet which it admits ; it is only 
 needful to observe that no two lines are employed in 
 sequence which can be read into one. Two six- 
 syllable lines (it will perhaps be answered) compose 
 an Alexandrine; the truth is, that the Alexandrine, 
 when harmonious, is composed of two six-syllable 
 lines. One advantage this meter assuredly possesses ; 
 the dullest reader can not distort it into discord. . . . 
 I do not wish the improvisatore time, but something 
 that denotes the sense of harmony; something like 
 the accent of feeling ; like the tone which every poet 
 necessarily gives to poetry." Of course, by "six syl- 
 lables " Southey means " six feet." He was evidently 
 struggling for emancipation from the old rule of thumb. 
 
 [After Southey and Coleridge came Edgar Allen 
 Poe, who went a step further, and in his essay on the 
 " Rationale of Verse " pointed out the path of true 
 progress and indicated the only way in which we could 
 hope to get light on the meters and rhythms of the 
 past. Poe's essay should be attentively studied by all 
 who wish to understand the mechanism of verse.] 
 
 Of late many eccentricities of versification have 
 been attempted after the manner of Mr. Whitman, but
 
 24 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 for these, like the Biblical echo of Mr. Tupper's muse, 
 there seem to be no perceptible rules, even should it 
 be desirable to imitate them. 
 
 I would here add a few words of advice to those 
 who, by the study of our greatest writers, would en- 
 deavor to improve their own style. For smoothness I 
 should say Waller, in preference even to Pope, because 
 the former wrote in far more various measures, and 
 may challenge comparison with Pope, on Pope's own 
 ground, with " The Ode to the Lord Protector," in 
 decasyllabic verse. For music — " lilt " is an expressive 
 word that exactly conveys what I mean — they can not 
 do better than choose Herrick. Add to these two 
 George Herbert, and I think the student will have a 
 valuable guide in small space. [Add, also, Longfellow, 
 who is a master of meters and whose verse has a sing- 
 ing simplicity equaled only by Heine's— if by his.]
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 CLASSIC VERSIFICATION. 
 
 IT was once thought that the best and easiest way of 
 learning Enghsh grammar was through the Latin. 
 That English versification can not be similarly acquired 
 through the Latin is due to the fact that the Latin sys- 
 tem depends on quantity, and the English chiefly on 
 accent and rhyme. Nevertheless, a slight acquaintance 
 with the classic measures will prove useful to the stu- 
 dent of English verse. In the absence of all teaching 
 of English versification at our schools, they have done 
 good service in giving our boys some insight into the 
 structure of verse. 
 
 The structure of Latin and Greek verse depends on 
 the quantity — the length or shortness expressed by the 
 forms — v^. A long syllable is equal in duration to two 
 short syllables, which may therefore take its place (as 
 it may take theirs) in certain positions. The combina- 
 tions of syllables are called feet, of which there are 
 about nine-and-twenty. Seven of the most common 
 are here given : 
 
 Spondee 
 
 Trochee — ^ 
 
 Iambus ^ — 
 Dactyl — v^ v^ 
 Amphibrach v_/ — 
 
 Anapsest v^ w — 
 Amphimaccr — w —
 
 26 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 [In a " Lesson for a Boy," written for his son Der- 
 went, Coleridge has described and exemplified these 
 feet in English : 
 
 " Trochee trips from long to short ; 
 From long to long in solemn sort 
 Slow Spondee stalks ; strong foot ! yet ill able 
 Ever to come up with Dactyl trisyllable ; 
 Iambics march from short to long ; 
 With a leap and a bound the swift Anapests throng ; 
 One syllable long, with a short at each side, 
 Amphibrachy hastes with a stately stride ; 
 First and last being long, middle short, Amphimacer 
 Strikes his thundering hoofs, like a proud high-bred 
 racer."] 
 
 Of the styles of verse produced by combinations of 
 these feet the most important are the Heroic, or Hexa- 
 meter ; the Elegiac, alternate Hexameters and Pen- 
 tameters ; and the Dramatic or Iambic. All others 
 may be classed as Lyrics. 
 
 The Caesura (division) is the separation of each 
 verse into two parts by the ending of a word in the 
 middle of a certain foot.* It may be here noted that 
 this principle (the ending of a word in the middle 
 of a foot) applies generally to the verse, it being 
 an inelegance to construct lines of words of which 
 each constitutes a foot. The well-known line of Vir- 
 gil, marked to show the feet, will explain this at a 
 glance — 
 
 " Arma vi|rumque ca|no || Trojjse qui | primus ab | oris." 
 * The cassura in some cases falls at the end of the foot. — (T. H.)
 
 CLASSIC VERSIFICATION. 
 
 27 
 
 In this the csesura occurs in the third foot, between 
 ca7io and Trojce. But in no case is one foot composed 
 of one word only. 
 
 The Hexameter line consists of, practically, five 
 dactyls and a spondee or trochee. A spondee may 
 take the place of each of the first four dactyls — and 
 sometimes, but very rarely, of the fifth. The caesura 
 falls in the third foot at the end of the first — and some- 
 times at the end of the second — syllable of the dactyl. 
 In some cases it is in the fourth foot, after the first syl- 
 lable. The last word in the line should be either a 
 dissyllable or trisyllable. 
 
 The Pentameter is never used alone, but, with an 
 Hexameter preceding it in the distich, forms Elegiac 
 Verse. It consists of two parts, divided by a cssura, 
 each part composed of two dactyls (interchangeable 
 with spondees) and a long syllable.* The last place in 
 the line should be occupied by a dissyllabic word— at 
 least it should not be a monosyllable or trisyllable. 
 
 The Iambic is most commonly used in a six-foot 
 line of iambics (the trimeter iambic ; see the note on 
 last paragraph). In the first, third, and fifth place a 
 spondee may be substituted, and there are other li- 
 censes which we need not here enter upon, as the 
 measure is not of much importance for our purposes. 
 The caesura occurs in the third or fourth foot. 
 
 * The name Pentameter {five-ioot) is derived from the long 
 syllables being incomplete feet, and counting together as one, so 
 as to make five with the four dactyls. In anapsestics and iam- 
 bics the meter is a dipod, i. e., it includes two feet, so that cin 
 iambic dimeter, contains not two but four iambics. — (T. H.)
 
 28 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 The Lyrics are, as a rule, compound verses ; differ- 
 ent sorts of feet enter into the formation of the lines ; 
 and the stanzas consist of lines of different kinds, and 
 are styled strophes. 
 
 The chief of the lyric measures are the Sapphic 
 and Alcaic. 
 
 The Sapphic is a combination of three Sapphic 
 verses with an Adonic. 
 
 Lines 1,2, 3, — v^| |_||v_,^|_^j_i=i 
 
 Line 4, — ww | 
 
 The double line represents the caesura, which in rare 
 instances falls a syllable later. 
 
 The Alcaic is, like the Sapphic, a four-line stanza. 
 Its scheme is : 
 
 
 Lines i and 2, — — | ^ — | — 
 Lines, ^-1 ^-1- 
 
 Line 4, — v^v^|— v^^|— v_/|— ^ 
 
 That is to say, it consists of two eleven-syllable, one 
 nine-syllable, and one ten-syllable Alcaic lines (Alcaici 
 hendeka-, ennea-, and deka-syllabici). Much of the 
 success of the stanza depends on the f^ow of the third 
 line, which, according to the best models, should con- 
 sist of three trisyllables (or equivalent combinations, 
 e. g., a dissyllable noun with its monosyllabic preposi- 
 tion). 
 
 When it is stated that Horace wrote in four- or 
 five-and-twenty lyric measures, it will be obvious that 
 I can not exhaust, or attempt to exhaust, the list of 
 measures in a work like this. The reader will have 
 acquired some notion of the nature of classic versifica-
 
 CLASSIC VERSIFICATION. 
 
 29 
 
 tion, from what I have stated of Latin composition ap- 
 plying with unimportant differences to Greek. Those 
 who have the leisure or the inclination might do worse 
 than study Greek and Latin poetiy, if only to see if 
 they can suggest no novelties of meter. I can recall 
 no English verse that reproduces Horace's musical 
 measure : 
 
 " Miserar' est | nequ' amorl dare ludum | neqiie dulci 
 Mala vino — laver' aut exjaniman | metuentes 
 PatruSe veribera linguie." 
 
 [Poe rebelled against accepted principles of classic 
 prosody. In his essay on the " Rationale of Verse " 
 he declared that " employing from among the numerous 
 ancient feet the spondee, the trochee, the iambus, the 
 anapaest, the dactyl, and the csesura alone," he engaged 
 " to scan correctly any of the Horatian rhythms, or any 
 true rhythm that human ingenuity can conceive." He 
 denounces all the classic feet save those just named, 
 and even denies their existence " except in the brains 
 of the scholiasts.] 
 
 Greek verse seems a less promising field than Latin 
 at a first glance. But one of the choruses in Aristo- 
 phanes's " Plutus " has an exact echo in English verse- 
 
 " Sj'Spes (^(\o( KOI Srifidrai /cit tov trovfiv ipacrrdi," 
 may fairly run in a curricle with 
 " A captain bold of Halifax who lived in country quarters." 
 
 The great difficulty of finding a corresponding 
 measure in English for Latin or Greek verse, on the 
 accepted theory that the English acute accent answers 
 to the Latin long quantity, and the grave accent to the
 
 30 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 short, will be found in the spondee. We have no means 
 of replacing the two longs in juxtaposition, and are 
 compelled to find refuge in what, according to the ac- 
 cent-quantity theory, is either an iamb or a trochee. 
 
 I subjoin the following attempts to render a few 
 Latin meters, commencing with a translation of the 
 Horatian measure just alluded to : 
 " Hapless lasses who in glasses may not drown those pangs 
 
 of passion, 
 Or disclose its bitter woes, it's— so they tell you— not the 
 
 fashion." 
 
 Yet this, in spite of the sub-rhymes which give the 
 swing of the lonicus ( w v^ -'- ) may well be read as a 
 succession of trochees— that is to say, according to the 
 quantity-accent system. 
 
 Here is an attempt at the Sapphic : 
 ' * Never — ah me — now, as in days aforetime 
 Rises o'ervvhelming memory — 't is banish'd ! 
 Scenes of loved childhood, can not ye restore time, 
 Though it has vanish'd ? " 
 
 The Alcaic measure is essayed in the following : 
 " Ah woe ! the men who gallantly sallying 
 Strode forth undaunted, rapidly rallying — 
 No longer advancing attack-ward, 
 Rush'd a disorderly tumult backward." 
 
 In these, again, the difficulty of exactly replacing quan- 
 tity by accident is great— if not insurmountable. Hence 
 it is that, as a rule, the attempts at giving the exact 
 reproductions of Latin measures have failed. Never- 
 theless, I believe that corresponding measures, suitable
 
 CLASSIC VERSIFICATION. 31 
 
 to the genius of our language, may be suggested by a 
 study of the classics. 
 
 The often-quoted lines of Coleridge on the hexame- 
 ter and pentameter appear to me faulty : 
 " In the hex|ameter | rises || the | fountain's | silvery | col- 
 umn — 
 In the pen|tameter ] aye || falling in | melody | back." 
 
 The first feet of both lines are less dactyls than ana- 
 psests. The caesura of the first line is not the " worth- 
 ier" caesura. In the second line the monosyllable is 
 inadmissible in the last place. [Better are the lines of 
 Coleridge in which the Homeric hexameter is described 
 and exemplified : 
 
 " Strongly it bears us along in swelling and limitless bil- 
 lows — 
 Nothing before and nothing behind but the sky and the 
 ocean."] 
 
 Here I may as well point out what seems to me to 
 be a difficulty of English versification which has given 
 much trouble. The substitution of accent for quantity 
 is not all that is required to make the best verse. 
 Quantity enters into the consideration too. A com- 
 bination of consonants, giving an almost imperceptible 
 weight to the vowel preceding them, goes far to dis- 
 qualify it for a place as an unaccented syllable. To 
 my thinking " rises a " would be a better English dac- 
 tyl than "rises the," and "falls it in" than "'falling 
 in." But no agglomeration of consonants can make 
 such a syllable accented. Two lines from Coleridge's 
 " Mahomet " will evidence this :
 
 32 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 " Huge wasteful 1 empires | founded and | hallowed | slow 
 perselcution, 
 Soul-wither I ing but | crush'd the | blasphemous | rites of 
 the I Pagan." 
 
 " Huge wasteful " is not a dactyl, and " ing but " is 
 certainly not a spondee — nor is " crushed the." " Hal- 
 lowed," by force of the broad " o," is almost perfect as 
 a spondee, on the other hand; as is " empires " also. 
 Longfellow, in his " Evangeline," has, perhaps, done 
 the best that can be done to give an exact rendering of 
 the Latin hexameter ; but Tennyson, in portions of 
 " Maud," has caught its spirit, and transfused it into 
 an English form. No poet, indeed, has done so much 
 as the Laureate to introduce new or revive old forms 
 of versification, and enrich the language with musical 
 measure. 
 
 It may be well to note here that the classic poets 
 did not forget the use of the maxim which Pope ex- 
 presses in the line — 
 
 " The sound must seem an echo to the sense." 
 
 In this they were greatly assisted by the use of the 
 quantity, which enabled them the more readily to give 
 rapidity or weight to their lines. Nothing could more 
 admirably represent a horse's gallop than the beat of 
 the words — 
 " Quadrupedante putrem sonittu quatit ungula campum." 
 
 The unwieldiness of the Cyclops is splendidly shad- 
 owed in the line — 
 
 " Monstrum, horrendum, informe, ingens cui lumen ademp- 
 tum."
 
 CLASSIC VERSIFICATION. 33 
 
 And again the beat of the Cyclopean hammers is well 
 imitated in the verse — 
 
 " lUi inter sese magna vi brachia tollunt." 
 
 Too much stress may easily be laid on this adornment, 
 and some poets have carried it to excess. But the be- 
 ginner in verse will do well not to overlook it. 
 
 Note. — The Poet Laureate, whose mastery of meter is re- 
 markable, has given us alcaics in his lines to Milton — 
 
 " Oh, mightj'-mouth'd inventor of harmonies. 
 Oh, skill'd to sing of time and eternity, 
 God-gifted organ-voice of England — 
 Milton, a name to resound for ages." 
 
 I would especially commend to those whom these remarks have 
 interested in any way the perusal, with a view to this particular 
 object, of "Father Prout's Reliques."— (T. H.)
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 GUIDES AND HAND-BOOKS. 
 
 THE earliest hand-book of verse appears to be that 
 of Bysshe, who is, by the way, described in the 
 British Museum Catalogue as " the Poet." The entry 
 is the only ground I can find for so describing him. 
 He is, however, amusingly hard on simple versifiers : 
 " Such Debasers of Rhyme, and Dablers in Poetry 
 would do well to consider that a Man would justly de- 
 serve a higher Esteem in the World by being a good 
 Mason or Shoe-Maker, than by being an indifferent or 
 second-Rate Poet." Furthermore, with touching mod- 
 esty, he says, " I pretend not by the following sheets 
 to teach a man to be a Poet in Spight of Fate and 
 Nature." 
 
 His dictionary of rhymes is better than those of his 
 successors— perhaps I should say " that " of his suc- 
 cessors, for Walker's has been repeated with all its 
 errors, or nearly all, in every subsequent hand-book. 
 Bysshe is to be praised for setting his face against what 
 Walker styles " allowable " rhymes, such as " haste " 
 and " feast." He, however, seems to have been curi- 
 ously ignorant of the ever-changing nature of English
 
 GUIDES AND HAND-BOOKS. 35 
 
 pronunciation. When Pope rhymed " line " and "join," 
 and " obey " and " tea," it was the fashion to pronounce 
 "join" as "jine" and "tea" as "tay." 
 
 Bysshe's theory of verse was " the seat of the ac- 
 cent, and the pause," as distinguished from quantity — 
 that is, it depended on the number of syllables. As a 
 result of this undivided devotion, he misses much of 
 the power to be attained by making the sound the echo 
 of the sense, as Pope puts it. He proposes to alter a 
 line of Dryden's from 
 
 " But forced, harsh, and uneasy unto all," 
 into 
 
 " But forced and harsh, uneasy unto all." 
 
 One would fancy the merest tyro would see the inten- 
 tional harshness of the line as Drj'den wrote it, and its 
 utter emasculation as Bysshe re-forms it. 
 
 Bysshe is strongly in favor of clipping syllables, a 
 veiy pitiable error, for the chief drawback of English 
 as a poetical language is the preponderance of conso- 
 nants. He prefers to make " beauteous " dissyllabic 
 and " victorious " trisyllabic. He recommends the eli- 
 sion which makes " bower," " Heaven," "Prayer," and 
 " higher," monosyllables, and advises the use of such 
 abortions as " temp'rance," " fab'lous," " med'cine," 
 " cov'nant," and even " wall'wing " for wallowing ! To 
 compensate for these clippings, however, he considers 
 " ism " a dissyllable ! 
 
 As a consequence of his narrowing verse to a ques- 
 tion of syllable and accent only, he vulgarizes many 
 words unnecessarily. The student of verse who con- 
 3
 
 2 6 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 siders quantity as well as accent will find no difficulty in 
 reading the following lines without eliding any vowels : 
 
 " From diamond quarries hewn, and rocks of gold." — Mil- 
 ton. 
 
 "A violet by a mossy stone." — Wordsworth. 
 
 "With vain but violent force their darts they threvir." — 
 Cowley. 
 
 " His ephod, mitre, well-cut diadem on."— Cowley. 
 
 " My blushing hyacinth and my bays I keep." — Dryden. 
 
 Bysshe cuts down to " di'mond," " vi'let," " vi'lent," 
 " di'dem," " hy'cinth," words which need no such de- 
 basing elision. As in music two short sharp beats are 
 equivalent to one long one (two minims = one semi- 
 breve), so in verse two brief vowels, or syllables even, 
 are,admissible— indeed, at times desirable for the sake 
 of variety in lieu of one. 
 
 Among less questionable maxims of Bysshe's is 
 one, " avoid a concourse of vowels," instanced by — 
 
 " Sould th_y /ambics swell into a book." 
 
 This means, it is to be presumed, " avoid a concourse 
 of repetitions of one sound," a very necessary rule. 
 Some poets are careful not to get the same vowel 
 sound twice in any line. " Avoid ending a verse with 
 an adjective whose substantive follows in the next line " 
 is another sound precept, instanced by — 
 
 " Some lost their quiet rivals, some their kind 
 Parents."
 
 GUIDES AND HAND-BOOKS. 
 
 37 
 
 The same rule applies to the separation of a preposition 
 from the case which it governs, as exemplified in — 
 
 " The daily lessening of our life shows by 
 A little dying," etc. 
 
 With less reason Bysshe condemns alliteration. It is 
 an artifice that can be overdone, as is often the case in 
 Poe's poems, and those of Mr. Swinburne. Allitera- 
 tion is a means, not an end. So long as alliterative 
 verse pleases the ear, and yet does not betray to its 
 reader the cause of the pleasant sensation, it is an ad- 
 mirable addition to the beauty of the verse. But as 
 soon as it attracts the reader's attention, as a tour de 
 force, it is a blot, because it inflicts an injury on the 
 poem by engaging the mind on the machinery instead 
 of the matter. Instead of thinking how exquisite the 
 poem is, we are wondering how often that clever con- 
 tortionist, the poet, will fling his somersault of allitera- 
 tion. 
 
 Following the example of the old " Gradus ad Par- 
 nassum," Bysshe gives an anthology with his guide. 
 An anthology in a g^ide to English verse is worse 
 than useless, for it sers^es no purpose save to provoke 
 plagiarism and imitation. Any one who wishes to 
 write verse will do little unless he has a fair acquaint- 
 ance with English poetry — an acquaintance for which 
 an anthology can never be a substitute ; while it will 
 but cripple and hamper his fancy and originality by 
 supplying him with quotations on any given subject, 
 from " April " to " Woman." 
 
 Walker's " Rhyming Dictionary " has greater faults.
 
 38 
 
 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 but also greater merits, than Bysshe's " Art of Poetry." 
 Walker admits and defends " allowable " rhymes, " It 
 may be objected," he says, "that a work of this kind 
 contributes to extend poetical blemishes, by furnishing 
 imperfect materials and apologies for using them. But 
 it may be answered that, if these imperfect rhymes 
 were allowed to be blemishes, it would still be better 
 to tolerate them than cramp the imagination by the 
 too narrow boundaries of exactly similar sounds." Now, 
 it is perfectly true, of course, that a poet may well be 
 allowed to effect the compromise of sacrificing a rhyme 
 for a thought ; but the versifier (for whom Walker's 
 book is meant) must have no such license. He must 
 learn to walk before he runs. Yet apart from this. 
 Walker's argument is singularly illogical; there can 
 be no need to catalogue the blemishes, even on the 
 ground he urges, since the imagination would suggest 
 the license, not the license stimulate the imagination. 
 Walker's book, being simply mechanical, should have 
 been confined to the correct machinery of verse, and 
 imagination should have been allowed to frame for it- 
 self the hcenses, which it would not dream of seeking 
 in a hand-book. 
 
 [And here occasion serves to declare with emphasis 
 that any theory of " allowable " rhymes is a rank 
 heresy to which no one should give in now that the art 
 of rhyming has been carried to its most varied per- 
 fection at the hands of yet living poets. Either two 
 words rhyme together or they do not. The linking to- 
 gether in a couplet of " ever " and " river," of " shadow " 
 and " meadow," of " heaven " and " driven," seen only
 
 ■GUIDES AND HAND-BOOKS. 39 
 
 too often, is without excuse. Identity of sound is the 
 only test of rhyme, and the " e " in " ever " is not pro- 
 nounced like the "i" in "river," any more than the 
 " a " in " shadow " sounds like the " ea " in " meadow,"] 
 The absurdity of talking of perfect and imperfect 
 rhymes is only equaled by that of speaking of good 
 grammar and bad grammar. A shilling is a shilling — 
 what the vulgar call "a bad shilling" is no shilling 
 at all. 
 
 But for this defect. Walker's Dictionary would be 
 the best book of the sort possible. It contains, besides 
 an index in which rhymes are arranged under various 
 terminations, as in Bysshe's work, a terminational dic- 
 tionary of three hundred pages ; a dictionary, that is, 
 in which the words are arranged as in ordinary dic- 
 tionaries, save that the last and not the first letter of 
 the word is that under which it is ranged. 
 
 Of the recent books published, there are but two 
 of any note or importance in England. One claims to 
 be a " complete practical guide to the whole subject of 
 English versification" — "an exhaustive treatise," in 
 which the writer, by way of simplifying matters, pro- 
 poses to supersede the old titles of spondee, dactyl, 
 etc., by the titles of "march," "trip," "quick," and 
 " revert," and makes accents intelligible by calling 
 them " backward " and " forward," with such further 
 lucidities as "hover," "main," "midabout," and other 
 technicalities afford. Its chief characteristic, however, 
 is a decided condemnation of rhyme altogether, and a 
 suggestion of the substitution of "assonance," under 
 which " path " and " ways," and " pride " and " wife,"
 
 40 
 
 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 would do duty for rhyme ! The treatise, though spoiled 
 by pedantic aiming after novelties of nomenclature, 
 and too assertive language, is worth perusal. But as 
 "a practical guide" it is at present useless, and will 
 remain so until English rhyme is disestablished and 
 disendowed by act of Parliament. Although its author 
 modestly describes it as " the first treatise of the kind 
 ever completed," and considers it "will in no mean 
 degree serve to advance " the study of English verse, 
 it is to be feared that there is little danger of its set- 
 ting the Pierian spring on fire. 
 
 A more practical " Handbook of Poetry " is the 
 best work of the kind I have met with, but it is full of 
 grave errors. It begins with a definition of " Poetry," 
 which makes it identical with " Verse," and it tends 
 too much to the side of license in consequence, from 
 the fact of permitting to the versifier freedoms which 
 poets only can claim. On rhyme it is singularly in- 
 consistent. It pronounces as no rhyme " heart " and 
 "art," which to any but a cockney ear are perfect 
 rhymes. Yet, a few paragraphs farther on, its only 
 objection to the coupling of " childhood " and " wild- 
 wood " as a double rhyme, is that it is hackneyed ; 
 whereas it is not a double rhyme at all ! In a chapter 
 on " Imagery," though " metaphor " is catalogued, 
 " simile " is omitted, and both together reappear under 
 the needless subdivision " tropes." An anthology is 
 added, and a dictionary of double and treble rhymes — 
 as if it were possible to give anything like an exhaust- 
 ive list of them in twenty pages ! 
 
 Such being the imperfections, whether of short-
 
 GUIDES AND HAND-BOOKS. 
 
 41 
 
 coming or excess, of the various existing hand-books, 
 I venture to hope that this little treatise may plead 
 some excuse for its appearance. It does not pretend 
 to be an exhaustively complete practical gijide or hand- 
 book to poetry. It is simply an attempt to set forth 
 simply but strictly the Rules of Rhyme. 
 
 [Tv^fQ American books, published since the English 
 author wrote, demand notice here. The first is " A 
 Vocabulary of English Rhymes," by the Rev. Samuel 
 W. Barnum (D. Appleton & Co., 1876). This is by 
 far the most elaborate, logical, and exact of rhyming 
 dictionaries. Its only defect is that it is perhaps a 
 little severe in the arrangement by vowel-sounds, and 
 that it gives in to the heresy of allowable rhymes. But 
 it is a useful book for the student. The second is the 
 late Sidney Lanier's " Science of English Verse " 
 (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1880), in which he lays the 
 foundations of verse on the physical laws of sound. 
 The " Science of Verse " is not easy reading, but it 
 will well repay careful study ; in it, for the time, verse 
 is examined from the proper and scientific point of 
 view. It is emphatically a book for the student to 
 ponder after he has read Poe's essay.]
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 OF FEET AND C^SURA. 
 
 'T^HE feet most often met with in English verse are 
 
 -■- those corresponding with the trochee and iambus,* 
 
 that is approximately. The iambic is most common, 
 
 perhaps, represented by two syllables with the accent 
 
 on the last syllable. The trochee has two syllables, 
 
 with the accent on the first. An example of a line in 
 
 each meter will show the difference : 
 
 Four Foot Iambic. 
 
 " To fair' Fide'le's gras'sy tomb'." 
 
 Four Foot Trochaic. 
 •' Not' a sin'gle man' depart'ed." 
 
 Dactyls (an accented followed by two unaccented 
 syllables) and anapaests (two unaccented syllables fol- 
 lowed by an accented one) are most frequently used 
 in combination with the other feet : 
 
 Anapcestic. 
 " O'er the world' | from the hour' | of her birth'." 
 
 * The spondee (two long syllables) can have no equivalent 
 in accent, as it would need two accented syllables next to each 
 other, which can only be used very exceptionally. — (T. H.)
 
 OF FEET AND C^SURA. 43 
 
 Dactylic. 
 
 " Make' no deep | scru'tiny 
 In'to her | mu'tiny." 
 
 It appears to me preferable to retain the classic names 
 for these feet, rather than to try and invent new titles 
 for them. One writer on versification has attempted 
 to do this, and calls the iambic " march " measure, 
 and the trochaic " trip," This seems to me to render 
 the nature of the measure liable to misconstruction, as 
 if the former only suited elevated themes, and the lat- 
 ter light ones ; whereas the meter of Hudibras is 
 iambic, and Aytoun's ballad of the " Battle of Flodden " 
 is trochaiCi The truth is, that the form of the foot 
 has little to do with the "march" or "trip" of the 
 verse, for " The Bridge of Sighs " is written in a 
 dactylic form ; and, according to the authority just 
 alluded to, if the trochee be a " trip," the dactyl must 
 be a " jig " ! 
 
 By the combinations of these feet in certain num- 
 bers a line is constituted. Those in which two, three, 
 and four feet occur — dimeters, trimeters, and tetra- 
 meters — are not so general as lines of more feet, and 
 in these latter a new feature has to be recognized and 
 provided for — the caesura or pause. Strictly, the 
 caesura causes poetry to be written in lines, the end 
 of each being a caesura ; but there are other csesuras 
 in the line, one or more according to its length. In 
 the best verse they correspond with a natural pause in 
 the sense of the words. When they do not, the arti- 
 ficial punctuation injures the harmony with which the
 
 44 THE RHYMESTER. . 
 
 sound and the sense should flow together. It is by 
 varying the fall of the csesura that the best writers of 
 blank decasyllabic verse contrive to divest it of mo- 
 notony. In some of the more irregular forms of verse, 
 especially when it is unrhymed, the caesura is all- 
 important, giving to the lines their rise and fall — a 
 structure not altogether unlike what has been termed 
 the parallelism of Hebrew versification. 
 
 It is scarcely possible to lay down rules for the use 
 of the cassura, or pause, in English verse. It differs 
 from the classic cassura in falling at the end of both 
 foot and word. Of its possible varieties we may gain 
 some idea when we note that, in the decasyllabic line, 
 for instance, it may fall after each foot, and it is by the 
 shifting of its place that in this, as in blank verse, mo- 
 notony is avoided. In shorter measures, especially of 
 a lyric nature, it generally falls midway in the line. 
 
 The plan of giving to our accentual feet the titles 
 given to the classical quantitative feet has been strong- 
 ly condemned by some writers. I venture to think they 
 have hardly considered the matter sufficiently. It must 
 be better to use these meaningless terms (as we use 
 the gibberish of Baroko and Bramantip in logic) than 
 to apply new names which, by aiming at being express- 
 ive, may be misleading. But there is something more 
 than this to be considered. There is in accent this, in 
 common with quantity, that just as two shorts make a 
 long, and can be substituted for it, so two unaccented 
 syllables may take the place of one rather more ac- 
 cented ; or perhaps it will be found that the substitution 
 is due less to the correspondence in accent alone than
 
 OF FEET AND CyESURA. 
 
 45 
 
 to correspondence of quantity as well as accent. To 
 put it briefly, these resolutions of the foot into more 
 syllables are — like similar resolutions in music — a ques- 
 tion of time, and time means quantity rather than ac- 
 cent. As an instance of this, I may give the much- 
 quoted, often-discussed line : 
 
 " Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes." 
 
 The ordinary method of scanning this is to make a 
 dissyllable of " tired," as if it were " ti-erd," a vulgar- 
 ism of which its author would never have been guilty. 
 The truth is, that the long " i " and the roll of the " r " 
 correspond in time to a dissyllable, and, by changing 
 the run of the line, carry out perfectly Pope's notion of 
 the sound echoing the sense. 
 
 These resolutions, therefore, need a most accurate 
 ear, and no slight experience. The versifier will do 
 well, as a beginner, to refrain from attempting them. 
 When he has gone on writing verse by rule of thumb 
 until he begins to discover a formality in them that 
 would be the better for variation, he may fairly try his 
 hand at it — but not until then. Before that, his redun- 
 dancy of syllables would be the result of faulty or un- 
 finished expression, not the studied cause of a change 
 in run.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 METER AND RHYTHM. 
 
 IT was scarcely possible to explain what the feet in 
 verse are without assuming the existence of lines, 
 in order to give intelligible examples of the various 
 feet. But the consideration of the construction of 
 lines really belongs to this chapter. 
 
 A line is composed of a certain number of feet, 
 from two to almost any number short of ten or so— if 
 indeed we may limit the number exactly, for there is 
 nothing to prevent a man from writing a line of twenty 
 feet if he have ingenuity enough to maintain the har- 
 mony and beat necessary to constitute verse. As a 
 rule, we seldom meet with more than eight feet in a 
 line. 
 
 A line may consist of feet of the same description, 
 or of a combination of various feet. And this combi- 
 nation may be exactly repeated in the corresponding 
 line or lines, or one or more of the feet may be replaced 
 by another corresponding in time or quantity. Here is 
 an instance : 
 
 " I knew I by the smoke that so gracefully curled . . . 
 And I said | ' if there's peace to be found in the world.' "
 
 METER AND RHYTHM. 
 
 47 
 
 Here the iambic " I knew' " is resolved into the ana- 
 paest, " and I said'," * — or rather (as the measure is 
 anapsestic) the iambic takes the place of the anapsest. 
 
 When only two feet go to a line, it is a dimeter. 
 Three form a trimeter, four a tetrameter, five a penta- 
 meter, six a hexameter, seven a heptameter, eight an 
 octameter, which, however, is usually resolved into two 
 tetrameters. If the feet be iambics or trochees, of 
 course the number of syllables will be double that of 
 the feet — thus a pentameter will be decasyllabic. When 
 dactyls or anapaests are used, of course the number of 
 syllables exceeds the double of the feet. But there is 
 no necessity for enlarging on this point : I have given 
 enough to explain terms, with which the student may 
 perhaps meet while reading up the subject of versifica- 
 tion. As he may also meet with the terms " catalec- 
 tic " and " acatalectic," it may be as well to give a 
 brief explanation of them also. A catalectic line is 
 one in which the last foot is not completed. An acata- 
 lectic is one in which the line and the foot terminate 
 together. An extract from the " Bridge of Sighs," a 
 dactylic poem, will illustrate this : 
 
 " Make no deep | scrutiny 
 Into her ( mutiny ; 
 
 * In the classic measures a long ( - ) is equivalent to two 
 short ( v^ ) quantities, in the English feet it is the unaccented 
 syllables (which we may rudely consider the shorts) which are 
 capable of resolution. In spite of this difference, however, it 
 seems most simple to keep the old terms, and use the old for- 
 mula.— (T. H.)
 
 48 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 Rash and un | dutiful, 
 Past all dis | honor ; 
 Death has left | on her 
 
 Only the | beautiful. 
 
 Take her up | tenderly, 
 
 Lift her with | care ; 
 Fashion'd so | slenderly, 
 
 Young and so | fair." 
 
 Here the fourth and fifth, the eighth and tenth lines 
 are catalectic. In the first two the last foot needs one 
 syllable, in the others it requires two. It is scarcely 
 necessary to point out how such variations improve and 
 invigorate the nneasure, by checking the gallop of the 
 verse. 
 
 We have now seen that the line may be composed 
 of various numbers of the different feet. The next 
 step to consider is the combination of lines into stan- 
 zas. 
 
 Stanzas are formed of Iwo or more lines. Two 
 lines are styled a couplet, three a triplet, and four a 
 quatrain, while other combinations owe their titles to 
 those who have used them first or most, as in the case 
 of the Spenserian stanza. 
 
 The reader will see at once that, each of these kinds 
 of stanzas being constructible of any of the styles of 
 line before enumerated, each style of line being in its 
 turn constructible of any of the sorts of feet described 
 in a previous chapter, to make any attempt to give an 
 exhaustive list of stanzas would be to enter upon an
 
 METER AND RHYTHM. 49 
 
 arithmetical progression alarming to think of.* I shall 
 therefore only enumerate a few, giving, as seems most 
 useful for my purpose, examples of the most common 
 form of a peculiar stanza, as in the case of the deca- 
 syllabic couplet of Pope, and the nine-line stanza of 
 Spenser, or the least common, as when, in the quatrain, 
 it appears preferable to give, instead of the alternate- 
 rhymed octosyllabic tetrameters which have been re- 
 peated ad nauseam, such fresh forms as will be found 
 in the extracts from " The Haunted House," or Brown- 
 ing's " Pretty Woman." 
 
 EXAMPLES. 
 
 THE COUPLET OR DISTICH.f 
 
 Dimeter (four-syllabled). 
 
 " Here, here I live 
 And somewhat give." 
 
 — Herrick, Hesperides. 
 
 Tetrameter (eight-syllabled), 
 
 "His tawny beard was th' equal grace 
 Both of his wisdom and his face." 
 
 — Butler, Hiidibras. 
 
 * Various forms of stanza may be combined in one poem 
 (though most usually in the ode only), provided regard be had 
 to harmony and unity, so that the meters be not varied unsuit- 
 ably or violently.— (T. H.) ' 
 
 + In couplets, the two lines, in triplets (with two exceptional 
 forms) the three, rhyme together. In quatrains usually the al- 
 ternate lines rhyme. As the lines of the stanza increase in num- 
 ber, the methods of rhyming of course vary. — (T. H.)
 
 so 
 
 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 Tetrameter (seven-syllabled). 
 " As it fell upon a day 
 In the merry month of May." 
 
 — Shakespeare. 
 
 Pentameter (ten-syllabled, " Pope's decasyllable "). 
 
 " Truth from his lips prevail'd with double sway, 
 And fools who came to scoff remained to pray." 
 
 — Golds??tiih, Deserted Village. 
 
 Hexameter (twelve-syllabled). 
 
 " Doth beat the brooks and ponds for sweet refreshing 
 soil : 
 That serving not — then proves if he his scent may foil." 
 
 — Drayton^ Polyolbion. 
 
 Heptameter (fourteen-syllabled). 
 
 " Now glory to the Lord of Hosts, from whom all glories 
 are ; 
 And glory to our sovereign liege, King Henry of Na- 
 varre." — Macaulay, Battle of Ivry, 
 
 The couplet may also be formed of two lines of 
 irregular length : 
 
 " Beloved, O men's mother, O men's queen ! 
 Arise, appear, be seen." 
 
 — Swinburne, Ode to Italy. 
 
 " Where the quiet-colored end of evening smiles 
 Miles on miles." 
 
 — Browning, Love among the Ruins. 
 
 " Morning, evening, noon, and night, 
 ' Praise God,' sang Theocrite." 
 
 — Browning, The Boy and the Angel,
 
 METER AND RHYTHM. 51 
 
 " Take the cloak from his face and at first 
 
 Let the corpse do its worst." 
 
 — Browning, After. 
 
 " Or for a time we'll lie 
 As robes laid by." 
 
 — Hertick, Hesperidcs. 
 
 " Give me a cell 
 To dwell." 
 
 — Henick, Hespe^ides. 
 
 Two couplets are at times linked together into a 
 quatrain. More often they are formed into six-line 
 stanzas — that is, a couplet followed by a line which has 
 its rhyme in another line following the second couplet. 
 But, indeed, the combination of stanzas is almost inex- 
 haustible. 
 
 TRIPLETS. 
 
 Trimeter (six-syllabled). 
 
 " And teach me how to sing 
 Unto the lyric string 
 ^ly measures ravishing." 
 
 — Herrick, Hesperidcs. 
 
 Tetrameter (seven-syllabled). 
 
 " O, thou child of many prayers, 
 Life hath quicksands, life hath snares. 
 Care and age come unawares." 
 
 — Lottgfellow, Maidenhood. 
 
 Octameter (fifteen-syllabled). 
 
 " Was a lady such a lady, cheeks so round and lips so red — 
 On her neck the small face buoyant, like a bell-flower 
 o'er its bed, 
 4
 
 52 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 O'er the breast's superb abundance where a man might 
 base his head." 
 
 — Browning, A Toccata. 
 
 The triplet pure and simple is not a very- common 
 form ; it is most frequently combined with other forms 
 to make longer stanzas. At times the second line, in- 
 stead of rhyming with the first or third, finds an echo 
 in the next triplet — sometimes in the second, but more 
 often in the first and third hnes : 
 
 " Make me a face on the window there, 
 Waiting, as ever mute the while, 
 My love to pass below in the square. 
 
 " And let me think that it may beguile 
 Dreary days, which the dead must spend 
 Down in their darkness under the aisle." 
 
 — Broioning, The Statue and the Bust. 
 
 Another species of triplet occurs in the Pope meas- 
 ure (pentameter-decasyllabic). It is formed by the 
 introduction, after an ordinary couplet, of a third line, 
 repeating the rhyme, and consisting of eleven syllables 
 and six feet. Dryden, however, and some other writ- 
 ers, gave an occasional triplet without the extra foot. 
 The Alexandrine — i. e., the six-foot line — ought to close 
 the sense, and conclude with a full stop. 
 
 THE QUATRAIN. 
 
 Of this form of stanza the name is legion. Of the 
 most common styles, the reader's memory will supply 
 numerous examples. I shall merely give a few of the
 
 METER AND RHYTHM. 53 
 
 rarer kinds. The quatrain may consist practically of 
 two couplets, or of a couplet divided by a couplet, as in 
 Tennyson's " In Memoriam." But the usual rule is to 
 rhyme the first and third, and second and fourth. The 
 laxity which leaves the two former unrhymed is a prac- 
 tice which can not be too strongly condemned. Qua- 
 trains so formed should in honesty be written as coup- 
 lets ; but such a condensation would possibly not suit 
 the views of the mob of magazine versifiers, who have 
 inflicted this injurj^ with many others, upon English 
 versification. 
 
 It may be well to note here that the rhyme of the 
 first and third lines should be as dissimilar as possible 
 in sound to that of the second and fourth. This is, in 
 fact, a part of the rule which forbids repetitions of the 
 same vowel-sounds in a line — chief of all, a repetition 
 of the particular vowel-sound of the rhyme. The 
 rhymes recurring give a beat which is something like a 
 csesura, and when, therefore, the rhyme sound occurs 
 elsewhere than at its correct post, it mars the flow. 
 Here follow a few examples of the quatrain. I have 
 not specified the syllables or feet, as the reader by this 
 time will have learned to scan for himself ; and, owing 
 to the varieties of measure, such a specification would 
 be cumbrous : 
 
 " The woodlouse dropp'd and roll'd into a ball, 
 Touch'd by some impulse, occult or mechanic, 
 And nameless beetles ran along the wall 
 In universal panic." 
 
 — Hood, Haunted House.
 
 54 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 " That fawn-skin-dappled hair of hers, 
 And the blue eye, 
 Dear and dewy. 
 And that infantine fresh air of hers." 
 
 — Browning, A Fair Woman. 
 
 " All thoughts, all passions, all delights, 
 Whatever stirs this mortal frame ; 
 All are but ministers of love. 
 And feed his sacred flame." 
 
 — Coleridge, Love, 
 
 
 
 " What constitutes a state ? 
 Not high-raised battlement or labor'd mound, 
 
 Thick wall, or moated gate. 
 Nor cities proud with spires and turrets crown'd." 
 
 — Jones, Ode. 
 
 " Whither, midst falling dew. 
 While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, 
 Far through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue 
 Thy solitary way." 
 
 — Bryant, To a Waterfowl. 
 
 " Sweet day, so calm, so cool, so bright, 
 The bridal of the earth and sky, 
 The dews shall weep thy fall to-night, 
 For thou must die." 
 
 — J/erdert, Virtue. 
 
 THE FIVE-LINE STANZA. 
 
 I am inclined to think this one of the most musical 
 forms of the stanza we possess. It is capable of almost 
 endless variety, and the proportions of rhymes, three
 
 METER AND RHYTHM. 55 
 
 and two, seem to be especially conducive to harmony. 
 It would be curious to go into the question how many 
 popular poems are in this form. Here are two exam- 
 ples — both of them from favorite pieces : 
 
 " Go, lovely rose. 
 Tell her that wastes her time and me, 
 
 That now she knows 
 When I resemble her to thee. 
 How sweet and fair she seems to be." 
 
 — Waller, To a Rose. 
 
 " Higher still and higher 
 
 From the earth thou springest ; 
 Like a cloud of fire, 
 
 The blue deep thou wingest, 
 And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest." 
 
 —Shelley, The Skylark. 
 
 [A third may be added, from a dashing American 
 poem : 
 
 " Hark ! the jingle 
 Of the sleigh-bells' song ! 
 Earth and air in snowy sheen commingle ; 
 
 Swiftly throng 
 Norseland fancies, as we sail along." 
 
 — Stedman, The Sleigh-Ride.'] 
 
 Mr. Browning frequently uses this stanza, and with 
 admirable effect. Although he has been accused of 
 ruggedness by some critics, there is no modem poet 
 who has a greater acquaintance with the various forms 
 of verse, or can handle them more ably. The follow- 
 ing are examples of his treatment :
 
 56 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 " Is it your moral of life ? 
 
 Such a web, simple and subtle, 
 Weave we on earth here, in impotent strife 
 
 Backward and forward each throwing his shuttle — 
 Death ending all with a knife ? " 
 
 — Master Hugues. 
 
 " And yonder at foot of the fronting ridge. 
 That takes the turn to a range beyond. 
 Is the chapel, reach'd by the one-arch'd bridge. 
 
 Where the water is stopp'd in a stagnant pond. 
 Danced over by the midge." 
 
 — By the Fireside. 
 
 " Stand still, true poet that you are ! 
 
 I know you ; let me try and draw you. 
 Some night you'll fail us ; when afar 
 
 You rise, remember one man saw you — 
 Knew you — and named a star." 
 
 — Popularity. 
 
 " Not a twinkle from the fly, 
 
 Not a glimmer from the worm. 
 When the crickets stopp'd their cry. 
 
 When the owls forbore a term, 
 You heard music — that was I ! " 
 
 — A Serenade. 
 
 " When the spider to serve his ends, 
 By a sudden thread. 
 Arms and legs outspread, 
 On the table's midst descends — 
 Comes to find God knows what friends ! " 
 
 — Mesmerism.
 
 METER AND RHYTHM. 
 
 THE SIX-LINE STANZA. 
 
 57 
 
 With the increasing number of lines comes an in- 
 creasing number of combinations of rhymes. There is 
 the combination of three couplets, and there is that of 
 two couplets, with another pair of rhymes, one line 
 after the first, the other after the second couplet. Then 
 there is a quatrain of alternate rhymes, and a final 
 couplet — to mention no others : 
 
 " Fear no more the heat o' the sun, 
 
 Nor the furious winter's rages ; 
 
 Thou thy worldly task hast done, 
 
 Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages — 
 Golden lads and girls all must 
 Like chimney-sweepers come to dust." 
 
 — Shakespeare. 
 
 " One day, it matters not to know 
 How many hundred years ago, 
 A Spaniard stopt at a posada door ; 
 
 The landlord came to welcome him and chat 
 Of this and that, 
 For he had seen the traveller here before." 
 
 — Southey, St. Romuald. 
 
 " And wash'd by my cosmetic bnish, 
 How Beauty's cheeks began to blush 
 With locks of auburn stain — 
 Not Goldsmith's Auburn, nut-brown hair 
 That made her loveliest of the fair. 
 Not loveliest of the plain." 
 
 — Hood, Progress of Art.
 
 58 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 " Some watch, some call, some see her head emerge 
 Wherever a brown weed falls through the foam ; 
 Some point to white eruptions of the surge — 
 But she is vanish'd to her shady home. 
 Under the deep inscrutable, and there 
 Weeps in a midnight made of her own hair." 
 
 — Hood, Hero and Leander. 
 
 " Ever drifting, drifting, drifting, 
 On the shifting 
 Currents of the restless heart — 
 Till at length in books recorded. 
 
 They like hoarded 
 Household words no more depart." 
 
 — Lo7igfellow, Seaweed. 
 
 " Before me rose an avenue 
 
 Of tall and sombrous pines ; 
 Abroad their fanlike branches grew, 
 And where the sunshine darted through, 
 Spread a vapor, soft and blue. 
 In long and sloping lines." 
 
 — Longfellow, Prelude. 
 
 [" Might we but hear 
 The hovering angels' high imagined chorus, 
 
 Or catch betimes, with wakeful eyes and clear, 
 One radiant vista of the realm before us — 
 With one rapt moment given to see and hear, 
 Ah ! who would fear? " 
 — Stedman, The Undiscovered Country^ 
 
 The following form may be looked upon as Burns's 
 exclusively :
 
 METER AND RHYTHM. 59 
 
 " Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flower — 
 Thou'st met me in an evil hour. 
 For I maun crush among the stour 
 Thy slender stem ; 
 To spare thee now is past my power, 
 Thou bonnie gem." 
 • — To a Mountain Daisy. 
 
 THE SEVEN-LINE STANZA. 
 
 This form is not very common. It may be formed 
 of a quatrain and triplet ; of a quatrain, a line rhyming 
 the last of the quatrain, and a couplet ; of a quatrain, 
 a couplet, and a line rhyming the fourth line. Or these 
 may be reversed. 
 
 THE EIGHT-LINE STANZA. 
 
 This is susceptible of endless variety, commencing 
 with two quatrains, or a six-line stanza and a couplet, 
 or two triplets with a brace of rhyming lines, one after 
 each triplet. 
 
 " Thus lived — thus died she ; nevennore on her 
 Shall sorrow light or shame. She was not made 
 Through years or moons the inner weight to bear, 
 
 Which colder hearts endure till they are laid 
 By age in earth ; her days and pleasures were 
 Brief but delightful ; such as had not staid 
 Long with her destiny. But she sleeps well 
 By the sea-shore whereon she loved to dwell." 
 
 — Byron, Don Juan.
 
 6o THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 THE NINE-LINE STANZA, 
 
 Of this form the most generally used is the Spen- 
 serian, or the following variation of it : 
 
 " A little, sorrowful, deserted thing, 
 
 Begot of love and yet no love begetting ; 
 Guiltless of shame, and yet for shame to wring ; 
 And too soon banish'd from a mother's petting 
 To churlish nature and the wide world's fretting, 
 For alien pity and unnatural care ; 
 Alas ! to see how the cold dew kept wetting 
 His childish coats, and dabbled all his hair 
 Like gossamers across his forehead fair." 
 
 — Hood, Midsummer Fairies. 
 
 The Spenserian has the same arrangement of the 
 rhymes, but has an extra foot' in the last line. The 
 two last lines of a stanza from " Childe Harold " will 
 illustrate this : 
 
 " To mingle with the universe and feel 
 
 What I can ne'er express, yet can not all conceal." 
 
 — By7vn. 
 
 The formation of the ten, eleven, twelve, etc., line 
 stanzas is but an adaptation of those already described. 
 A single fourteen-line stanza of a certain arrangement 
 of rhyme is a sonnet [which is considered in a special 
 chapter]. I am almost inclined to omit discussion of 
 blank verse, but will give a brief summary of its varie- 
 ties. The ordinary form of blank verse is the deca- 
 syllabic in which Milton's " Paradise Lost " is written :
 
 METER AND RHYTHM. 6l 
 
 " Of man's first disobedience and the fruit 
 Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste 
 Brought death into the world and all our woe." 
 
 . This consists of ten syllables with an accented fol- 
 lowing an unaccented syllable. It is presented from 
 monotony by the varying fall of the caesura or pause. 
 It occurs but rarely after the first foot or the eighth 
 foot, and not often after the third and seventh. Eli- 
 sions and the substitution of a trisyllable, equivalent in 
 time for a dissyllable, are met with, and at times the 
 accent is shifted, when by the change the sense of the 
 line gains in vigor of expression, as in , 
 
 " Once found, which yet unfound, most would have thought 
 Impossible." 
 
 According to scansion " most would','' but by the 
 throwing back of the accent strengthened and distin- 
 guished into " jnost would have thought." In addition 
 to this, in the blank verse of the stage, we find occa- 
 sionally additional syllables, as 
 
 " Or to take aims against a sea of troub(les)." 
 
 Other forms of blank verse follow : 
 
 1. " If aught of oaten stop or pastoral song 
 
 May hope, chaste Eve, to soothe thy modest ear, 
 Like thy own solemn springs, 
 Thy springs and dying gales." 
 
 — Collins, Ode to Evening. 
 
 2. " But never could I tune my reed 
 
 At mom, or noon, or eve, so sweet,
 
 62 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 As when upon the ocean shore 
 
 I hail'd thy star-beam mild." 
 — Kirke White, Shipwrecked Solitary's Song. 
 
 3. " Who at this untimely hour 
 Wanders o'er the desert sands ? 
 
 No station is in view, 
 No palm-grove islanded amidst the waste — 
 
 The mother and her child, 
 The widow'd mother and the fatherless boy, 
 They at this untimely hour 
 Wander o'er the desert sands."* 
 
 — Sotithcy, Thalaba. 
 
 4. " Friend of my bosom, thou more than a brother, 
 
 Why wast not thou born in my father's dwelling ? 
 So might we talk of the old familiar faces." 
 
 — Lamb, 
 
 5. " See how he scorns all human arguments 
 
 So that no oar he wants, nor other sail 
 Than his own wings between so distant shores." f 
 — Longfellow, Translation of Dante. 
 
 6. " Yet dost thou recall 
 
 Days departed, half-forgotten. 
 When in dreamy youth I wander'd 
 By the Baltic." 
 
 — Longfellow, To a Danish Song-Book. 
 
 7. " All things in earth and air 
 
 Bound were by magic spell 
 
 * See also Shelley's " Queen Mab."— (T. H.) 
 t This is the simple decasyllable, the peculiarity being a divi- 
 sion into stanzas of three lines. — (T. H.)
 
 METER AND RHYTHM. 63 
 
 Never to do him harm ; 
 Even the plants and stones, 
 All save the mistletoe, 
 The sacred mistletoe." 
 
 — Longfellow, Tegner's Drapa. 
 
 8. " Give me of your bark, O birch-tree ! 
 
 Of your yellow bark, O birch-tree ! 
 Growing by the rushing river, 
 Tall and stately in the valley." 
 
 — Longfellow, Hiawatha. 
 
 9. " Heard he that cry of pain ; and through the hush 
 
 that succeeded 
 
 Whisper'd a gentle voice, in accents tender and 
 saintlike, 
 
 ' Gabriel, oh, my beloved ! ' and died away into si- 
 lence." 
 
 — Longfellow, Evangeline. 
 
 An extremely musical form of blank verse, the 
 trochaic, will be found in Browning's " One Word 
 More " : 
 
 " I shall never in the years remaining. 
 Paint you pictures, no, nor carve you statues. 
 Make you music that should all-express me ; 
 So it seems ; I stand on my attainment : 
 This of verse alone one life allows me ; 
 Verse and nothing else have I to give you. 
 Other heights in other loves, God willing — 
 All the gifts from all the heights, your own, love ! " 
 
 This by no means exhausts the varieties of blank 
 verse ; but, as I have already said, blank verse is, on
 
 64 
 
 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 the whole, scarcely to be commended to the student 
 for practice, because it is, while apparently the easiest, 
 in reality the most difficult form he could attempt. It 
 is in fact particularly easy to attain the blankness — but 
 the verse is another matter. The absence of rhymes 
 necessitates the most perfect melody and harmony, if 
 the lines are to be anything beyond prose chopped- up 
 into lengths. 
 
 There are, I should mention before closing this 
 chapter, many more styles of stanza than I have 
 named, and many varieties of them. The ode is of 
 somewhat irregular construction, but it is, I consider, 
 beyond the scope of those for whom this book is in- 
 tended, and it needs not to be considered on that ac- 
 count. 
 
 [Those who seek a discussion of its origin and 
 form may be referred to the excellent volume of " Eng- 
 lish Odes," selected and edited by Mr. Edmund W. 
 Gosse. This volume is included in the series of " Eng- 
 lish Classics," now appearing at irregular intervals. 
 It contains a preface, all too brief, wherein the ode is 
 described and criticised with the erudition of a scholar 
 and the sympathy of a poet.]
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 OF RHYME. 
 
 A RHYME must commence on an accented syl- 
 lable. From the accented vowel of that syllable 
 to the end, the two or more words intended to rhyme 
 must be identical in sound ; but the letters preceding 
 the accented vowel must in each case be dissimilar in 
 sound. Thus "learn," "fern," "discern," are rhymes, 
 with the common sound of " ern " preceded by the 
 dissimilar sounds of "l,""f," "sc." "Possess" and 
 " recess " do not rhyme, having besides the common 
 " ess " the similar pronunciation of the " c " and the 
 double " s " preceding it. The letters " r " and " 1," 
 when preceded by other consonants, so as practically 
 to form new letters, can be rhymed to the simple "r" 
 and " 1 " respectively, thus " track " and " rack," 
 " blame " and " lame," are rhymes. The same rule 
 applies to letters preceded by "s," "smile" being a 
 rhyme to " mile." Similarly " h " and its compound 
 rhyme, e. g., " shows," " those," " chose," and any word 
 ending in " phose " with " hose." 
 
 The aspirate to any but a Cockney would, of course, 
 pass as constituting the needful difference at the be-
 
 66 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 ginning of a rhyme, as in " heart " and " art," " hair " 
 and " air," * 
 
 Rhymes are single, double, or treble — or more 
 properly one-syllabled, two-syllabled, and three-syl- 
 labled. Rhymes of four or more syllables are peculiar 
 to burlesque or comic verse. Indeed, Dryden declared 
 that only one-syllabled rhymes were suitable for grave 
 subjects : but every one must have at his fingers' ends 
 scores of proofs to the contrary, of which I will in- 
 stance but one—" The Bridge of Sighs." [Perhaps an 
 even better example is the magnificent mediccval hymn, 
 the "Dies Irae," which owes much of its might to the 
 skillful employment of double rhymes.] 
 
 Monosyllables or polysyllables accented on the last 
 syllable are " single " rhymes. Words accented on the 
 penultimate or last syllable but one supply "double" 
 rhymes ; e. g., agitat'ed, elat'ed. When the accent is 
 thrown another syllable back, and falls on the ante- 
 penultimate as in " ar'rogate," it is in the first place a 
 " triple " rhyme. But, as in English there is a tendency 
 to alternate the acute and grave accent, the trisyllable 
 
 * It is a curious confirmation of my theory about the Cock- 
 ney grounds for objection to this rhyme, that the author of a 
 hand-book, who condemns " heart " and "art " as a rhyme, fails 
 to see any fault in "dawn" and "mom," or in "applaud" 
 and " aboard " as rhymes. Of course, where the " h " is mute, 
 as in "hour," it can not rhyme with the simple vowel as in 
 " our," sound being the test of rhyme, and the ear the only 
 judge. A " rhyme to the eye " is an impossibility. [And else- 
 where the author aptly remarked that "the union of sound 
 alone constitutes rhyme. You do not match colors by the nose, 
 or sounds by the eye."]
 
 OF RHYME. 
 
 (>! 
 
 has practically two rhymes, a three-syllabled and a 
 one-syllabled — thus " arrogate " and " Harrogate " 
 rhyme, but " arrogate " may also pair off with " mate." 
 Nevertheless, it is necessary to be cautious in the use 
 of words with this spurious accent — it is perhaps 
 better still to avoid them. Such words as " merri- 
 ly," "beautiful," "purity," ought never to be used as 
 single-syllabled rhymes ; even such words as " meri- 
 ted " and " happiness " have a forced sound when so 
 used. 
 
 Elisions should be avoided, though " bow'r " and 
 " flow'r " may pass muster, with some others. " Ta'en," 
 "e'er," "e'en," and such contractions may, of course, 
 be used. The articles, prepositions, and such, can not 
 in serious verse stand as rhymes, under the same rule 
 which condemns the separation of the adjective from 
 its substantive in the next line. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to premise that to write 
 verse decently the student must have a thorough 
 knowledge of grammar. From ignorance on that 
 score arise naturally blemishes enough to destroy 
 verse, as they would poetry, almost. I have seen 
 verses which, beginning by apostrophizing some one 
 as "thou," slipped in a few lines into "yours" and 
 " you " — or, worse still, have said " thou doeth," or 
 "thou, who is." 
 
 Expletives and mean expressions also must be ex- 
 cluded. The verse should never soar to " highfalutin," 
 or sink to commonplace language. Simplicity is not 
 commonplace, and nobility is not " highfalutin," and 
 they should be aimed at accordingly ; when you have 
 5
 
 68 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 acquired the one, you will as a rule find the other in 
 its company. 
 
 When three or more lines are intended to rhyme 
 together, the common base or accented vowel in each 
 instance must be preceded by a different sound. For 
 example, " born," " corn," and " borne," will not serve 
 for a triplet, because, though the first and third are 
 both rhymes to the second, they are not rhymes to 
 each other. 
 
 It is as well, unless you are thoroughly acquainted 
 with the pronunciation of foreign languages, to abstain 
 from using them in verse, especially in rhymes. I met 
 with the following instance of the folly of such rhyming 
 in a magazine, not long ago : 
 
 " Prim Monsieurs fresh from Boulogne's Bois . . . 
 For these the Row's a certain draw." 
 
 This is about as elegant as rhyming " Boulogne " and 
 " Song." 
 
 It is wise — on the principle of rhyme, the difference 
 of sounds preceding the common base — to avoid any 
 similarity by combination. For example, " is " is a 
 good rhyme for " 'tis," but you should be careful not 
 to let " it " immediately precede the " is," as it mars 
 the necessary dissimilarity of the opening sound of the 
 two rhymes. 
 
 Let the beginner remember one thing : rhyme is a 
 fetter, undoubtedly. Let him therefore refrain from 
 attempting measures with frequent rhymes, for experi- 
 ence alone can give ease in such essays. Only the 
 skilled can dance gracefully in fetters. Moreover, a
 
 OF RHYME. 
 
 69 
 
 too frequent repetition of rhyme at short intervals gives 
 a jigginess to the verse. It is on this account that the 
 use in a Hne of a sound similar to the rhyme should 
 be avoided. This does not apply to the generous use 
 of a rhyme at the half-line to mark the csesural pause, 
 as in this line : 
 
 " 'Twas in the prime of summer time." 
 
 Nor is there any objection — but rather the contrary — 
 to the use of two rhyming words in a line, provided 
 they are not identical with the final rhymes, as for 
 
 example : 
 
 " That thrice the human span 
 Through gale and hail and fiery bolt 
 Had stood erect as man." 
 
 [There is a more unexpected and dehghtful use of 
 this internal rhyme in one of Mr. Frederick Locker's 
 charming " London Lyrics " : 
 
 " Arise then, and lazy 
 
 Regrets from thee fling. 
 For sorrows that hazy 
 
 To-morrows may bring ! "] 
 
 As a final warning, let me entreat the writer of 
 verses to examine his rhymes carefully, and see that 
 they chime to an educated ear. Such atrocities as 
 " mom " and " dawn," " more " and " sure," " light 
 in " and " writing," " fought " and " sort," are fatal to 
 the success of verse. They stamp it with vulgarity, as 
 surely as the dropping of the " h " stamps a speaker. 
 Furthermore, do not make a trisyllabic of a dissyl-
 
 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 lable — as, for instance, by pronouncing "ticklish" 
 " tick-el-ish," and if you have cause to rhyme "iron," 
 try "environ" or "Byron," not "my urn," because 
 only the vulgar pronounce it " iern," or " apron " 
 " apern," etc. 
 
 [And as a final note it may be well to give a list 
 of a few of the English words that have no rhyme : 
 
 Bilge, 
 
 Gulf, 
 
 Rhomb, 
 
 Chimney, 
 
 Have, 
 
 Scarce, 
 
 Coif, 
 
 Kiln, 
 
 Scarf, 
 
 Crimson, 
 
 Microcosm, 
 
 Silver, 
 
 Culm, 
 
 Month, 
 
 Widow, 
 
 Cusp, 
 
 Mouth (verb), 
 
 Window.] 
 
 Fugue, 
 
 Oblige. 

 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 OF FIGURES. 
 
 THE figures most commonly used in verse are simi- 
 les and metaphors. A simile is a figure whereby 
 one thing is likened to another. It is ushered in by a 
 " like " or an " as." 
 
 " Like sportive deer they coursed about." 
 
 — Hood, Eugene Aram. 
 
 " Such a brow 
 His eyes had to live under, clear as flint." 
 
 — Brotuning, A Contemporary. 
 
 " Resembles sorrow only 
 As the mist resembles rain." 
 
 — Longfellow, The Day is Done. 
 
 " Look how a man is lower'd to his grave . . . 
 So is he sunk into the yawning wave." 
 
 — Hood, Hero and Leander. 
 
 A metaphor is a figure whereby the one thing, in- 
 stead of being likened to the other, is, as it were, trans- 
 formed into it, and is described as doing what it (the 
 other) does.
 
 72 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 " Poetry is 
 The grandest chariot wherein king-thoughts ride." 
 
 — Smith, Life Drama. 
 
 " The anchor, whose giant hand 
 Would reach down and grapple with the land." 
 
 — Longfellow, Building of the Ship. 
 
 Sometimes the two are united in one passage, as 
 in — 
 
 " The darkness 
 Falls from the wings of night, 
 As a feather is wafted downward." 
 
 — Longfellow, The Day is Done. 
 
 The last line is a simile, but " the wings of night " 
 is metaphorical. " A simile," says Johnson, " to be 
 perfect, must both illustrate and ennoble the subject ; 
 but either of these qualities may be sufficient to recom- 
 mend it." 
 
 Alliteration, when not overdone, is an exquisite ad- 
 dition to the charm of verse. The Poet Laureate thor- 
 oughly understands its value. Mr. Swinburne allows 
 it too frequently to run riot. Edgar Allan Poe carried 
 it to extravagance. I select an example from each : 
 
 " The moan of doves in immemorial elms, 
 And murmur of innumerable bees." 
 
 — Tennyson. 
 
 " The lilies and languors of virtue, 
 For the raptures and roses of vice." 
 
 — Swinburne, Dolores.
 
 OF FIGURES. 
 
 73 
 
 " Come up through the lair of the lion 
 With love in her luminous eyes." 
 
 — Poe, Ulaliime. 
 
 The instance from the Poet Laureate is a strong 
 one — the repetition of the " m " is to express the sound 
 of the bees and the elms. The alternation in the others 
 is only pleasing to the ear, and the artifice in the last 
 instance certainly is too obvious. In the Poet Laure- 
 ate's lines the alliteration is so ingeniously contrived 
 that one scarcely would suppose there are as many as 
 seven repetitions of the "m." In Poe's, one is sur- 
 prised to find the apparent excess of alliteration is due 
 to but four repetitions. But the " I's " are identical 
 with the strongest beats in the hne, whereas the "m's" 
 in Tennyson's line are interspersed with other letters at 
 the beats. He uses this artifice more frequently than 
 those would suspect who have not closely examined 
 his poems, for he thoroughly appreciates the truth of 
 the maxim, ars est celare artem* A few lines from 
 " The Princess " will illustrate this : 
 
 " The baby that by us, 
 Half-lapt in glowing gauze and golden brede, 
 Lay like a new-fall'n meteor on the grass. 
 Uncared-for, spied its mother and began 
 A blind and babbling laughter, and to dance 
 Its body, and reach its falling innocent arms 
 And lazy ling'ring fingers." 
 
 * " 'Tis the highest art to hide all art."
 
 74 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 Here a careful study will reveal alliteration within 
 alliteration, and yet the effect is perfect, for there is no 
 sign of labor. 
 
 Elision must be used with a sparing hand. Gener- 
 ally speaking, a vowel that is so slightly pronounced 
 that it can be elided, as in "temperance" — "tem- 
 p'rance," may just as well be left in, and accounted 
 for by managing to get the "quantity" to cover it. 
 Where it is too strongly pronounced, to cut it out is to 
 disfigure and injure the line, as in the substitution of 
 " wall'wing " for " wallowing." That elision is often 
 used unnecessarily may be seen in the frequency with 
 which, in reading verse, we — according to most au- 
 thorities — ehde the " y " of " many " : 
 
 " Full many a flower is doom'd to blush unseen." — Gray. 
 
 Here we are told we elide the "y" of "many," and 
 some would replace " flower " by " fllow'r." Yet to the 
 most sensitive ear these may receive, in reading, their 
 share of pronunciation, without damage to the flow of 
 the line, if the reader understands quantity. " To " is 
 often similarly "ehded," as in — 
 
 " Can he to a friend — to a son so bloody grow ? " — Cowley. 
 
 On the other hand, it is as well not to make too 
 frequent use of the accented "ed," as in "amazed." 
 In "beloved" and a few more words it is commonly 
 used, and does not, therefore, sound strange. In others 
 it gives a forced and botched air to the verse. 
 
 In verse some latitude is allowed in arranging the 
 order of words in a sentence, but it must not be in-
 
 OF FIGURES. 
 
 75 
 
 dulged in too freely. A study of the style of our best 
 poets is the only means of learning what is allowable 
 and what is not ; it is impossible to explain it within the 
 limits of this treatise. It may, however, be laid down, 
 as a first principle, that no change in the order of words 
 is admissible, if it gives rise to any doubt as to their 
 real meaning — for example, if you wish to say, " the 
 dog bit the cat," although such an inversion of con- 
 struction as putting the objective before and the nomi- 
 native after the verb is allowed in verse, it is scarcely 
 advisable to adopt it, and say, " the cat bit the dog. " 
 [In vers de societe inversion is forbidden, as that kind 
 of v'erse is supposed to be a rhyming of the clever talk 
 of clever people — in which, of course, the cart would 
 never be put before the horse. An inversion always 
 gives a sense of constraint and conscious effort. Note 
 how few inversions there are in Mr. Austin Dobson's 
 " Vignettes in Rhyme."]
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 OF BURLESQUE AND COMIC VERSE, AND 
 VERS DE SOCIETE. 
 
 T T will be as well for the reader to divest himself at 
 -*- once of the notion that verse of this class is the 
 lowest and easiest form he can essay, or that the rules 
 which govern it are more lax than those which sway 
 serious composition. The exact contrary is the case. 
 Comic or burlesque verse is ordinary verse phis some- 
 thing. Ordinary verse may pass muster if its manner 
 be finished, but comic verse must have some matter as 
 well. Yet it does not on that account claim any license 
 in rhyme, for it lacks the gravity and importance of 
 theme which may at times, in serious poetry, be plead- 
 ed as outweighing a faulty rhyme. 
 
 This style of writing needs skill in devising novel 
 and startling turns of rhyme, rhythm, or construction, 
 and can hardly be employed by those who do not possess 
 some articulate wit or humor — that is to say, the power 
 of expressing, not merely of appreciating those qualities, 
 
 A defective rhyme is a fault in serious verse — it is a 
 crime in comic. It is no sin to be ignorant of Greek 
 or Latin, but it is worse than a blunder, under such
 
 OF BURLESQUE AND COMIC VERSE. 77 
 
 circumstances, to quote them, and quote them incor- 
 rectly. In the same way, one is not compelled to write 
 comic verse ; but if he does write it, and can not do so 
 correctly, he deserves severe handling. 
 
 One of the leading characteristics of this style is 
 dexterous rhyming — and- the legerdemain must be ef- 
 fected with genuine coin, not dumps. In the very de- 
 gree that clever composite rhyming assists in making 
 the verse sparkling and effective, it must bear the closest 
 scrutiny and analyzation — must be real Moet, not goose- 
 berry. 
 
 All, then, that has been said with regard to serious 
 verse applies with double force to the lighter form of 
 vers de socu^tt'. According to the definition of Mr. 
 Frederick Locker, no mean authority, vers de sociiti 
 should be " short, elegant, refined, and fanciful, not 
 seldom distinguished by chastened sentiment, and often 
 playful. The tone should not be pitched high; it 
 should be idiomatic, and rather in the conversational 
 key ; the rhythm should be crisp and sparkling, and 
 the rhyme frequent, and never forced, while the entire 
 poem should be marked by tasteful moderation, high 
 finish, and completeness : for, however trivial the sub- 
 ject-matter may be — indeed, rather in proportion to its 
 triviality — subordination to the rules of composition, 
 and perfection of executiofi, should be strictly etiforced." 
 
 Let me entreat the reader to bear that italicized sen- 
 tence in memory when writing any style of verse, but 
 most especially when he essays the comic or burlesque. 
 
 No precedent for laxity can be pleaded because the 
 poets who have at times indulged in such trifling have
 
 78 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 therein availed themselves of the licenses which they 
 originally took out for loftier writing. Noti se77iper 
 arcwn tendit Apollo, * and the poet may be excused 
 for striking his lyre with careless fingers. But we, who 
 do not pretend to possess lyres, must be careful about 
 the fingering of our kits. Apollo's slackened bow 
 offers no precedent for the popgun of the poetaster. 
 
 As I have already said, much of the merit of this 
 style depends on the scintillations, so to speak, of its 
 rhymes. They must therefore be perfect. When But- 
 ler wrote the much-quoted couplet : 
 
 " When pulpit, drum ecclesiastick, 
 Was beat with fist instead of a stick," 
 
 he was guilty of coupling " astick " and " a stick " to- 
 gether as a rhyme, which they do not constitute. But 
 he who on that account claims privilege to commit a 
 similar offense, not only is guilty of the vanity of de- 
 manding to be judged on the same level as Butler, but 
 is illogical. Two wrongs can not constitute a right, 
 and all the bad rhyming in the world can be no extenu- 
 ation of a repetition of the offense. 
 
 The results of carelessness in such matters are but 
 too apparent ! The slipshod that has been for so long 
 suffered to pass for comic verse, has brought the art 
 into disrepute. In the case of burlesque, this is even 
 more plainly discernible. It is held in so small esteem 
 that people have come to forget that it boasts Aris- 
 tophanes as its founder ! Halting measures, cockney 
 rhymes, and mere play on sound, instead of sense, in 
 
 * " Apollo does not always bend the bow."
 
 OF BURLESQUE AND COMIC VERSE. 79 
 
 punning, have gone near to being the death of what at 
 its worst was an amusing pastime, at its best was 
 healthy satire. 
 
 The purchase of half a dozen modern burlesques 
 will account for the declining popularity of burlesque. 
 All of them will be found defaced by defective rhymes, 
 and cockneyisms too common to provoke a smile. In 
 the majority of them the decasyllabic meter will be 
 found to range from six or eight syllables to twelve or 
 fourteen ! Most bear the same relation to real bur- 
 lesque-writing that the school-boy's picture of his mas- 
 ter—a circle for head and four scratches for arms and 
 legs — bears to genuine caricature. [Much of the suc- 
 cess of Mr. W. S. Gilbert's comic operas is due to the 
 variety of his verse, to the unexpectedness of his 
 rhymes, and to the apt choice of musical rhythms.] 
 
 The most telling form of rhyme in comic versifica- 
 tion is the polysyllabic, and the greater the number of 
 assonant syllables in such rhymes the more effective 
 they prove. The excellence is co-extensive, however, 
 with the unexpectedness and novelty, and there is 
 therefore but small merit in such a polysyllabic rhyme 
 
 as — 
 
 " From Scotland's mountains down he came. 
 And straightway up to town he came." 
 
 This merely consists of the single rhymes " down " 
 and "town," with "he came" as a common affix. 
 Such polysyllabics may be admitted here and there in 
 a long piece, but, when they constitute the whole or 
 even a majority of the rhymes, the writer is imposing 
 on his readers. He is swelling his balance at his bank-
 
 8o THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 er's by adding noughts on the right hand of the pounds' 
 figure without paying in the cash. 
 
 Another feature of this style of verse is the repeti- 
 tion of rhymes. Open the " Ingoldsby Legends," * 
 which may be taken as the foundation of one school of 
 comic verse, and you will scarcely fail to light upon a 
 succession of rhymes, coming one aftet" the other, like 
 a string of boys at leap-frog, as if the well-spring of 
 rhyme were inexhaustible. 
 
 Although punning scarcely comes within the scope 
 of this treatise, it may not be amiss to remind those 
 who may desire to essay comic verse, that a pun is a 
 ^ov^X^-meaning . It is not sufficient to get two words 
 that clink alike, or to torture by mispronunciation a re- 
 semblance in sound between words or combinations of 
 words. There must be an echo in the sense — " a like- 
 ness in unlikeness " in the idea. 
 
 Proper names should not be used as rhymes. The 
 only exception is in the case of any real individual of 
 note — a statesman, author, or actor, when to find a 
 telling rhyme to the name, a rhyme suggestive of the 
 habits or pursuits of the owner of that name, has some 
 merit, especially if the name be long and peculiar. But 
 to introduce an imaginary name for the sake of a rhyme, 
 is work that is too cheap to be good. A child can 
 write such rhyme as — 
 
 " A man of strict veracity 
 Was Peter James M'Assity." 
 
 * I would, however, warn the beginner not to adopt the 
 license of loose rhyming, which in Barham is lost sight of amid 
 the brightness of the wit. — (T. H.)
 
 OF BURLESQUE AND COMIC VERSE. 8l 
 
 In composite rhyming the greatest care should be 
 taken to see that each syllable after the first is identical 
 in sound in each line. In " use he was " and " juicy 
 was," the " h " destroys the rhyme, and the difference 
 in sound in the last syllable (however carelessly pro- 
 nounced) between such words as " oakum " and " smoke 
 'em " has a similar disqualifying power. It is scarcely 
 necessary to refer to such inadmissible couples as 
 " protector " and " neglect her," " birching " and " ur- 
 chin," " oracle " and " historical." 
 
 One trick in rhyming is often very effective, but it 
 must not be put into force too often. In some in- 
 stances, however, it tells with great comical effect, by 
 affording a rhyme to a word which at first glance the 
 reader thinks it is impossible to rhyme. Canning, in 
 the " Anti-Jacobin," used it with ludicrous effect in 
 Rogero's song, and a few lines from that will illustrate 
 and explain the trick I allude to : 
 
 " Here doom'd to starve on water gru- 
 -el, never shall I see the U- 
 
 -niversity of Gottingen ! " 
 
 Here the division of the words " gruel " and " Uni- 
 versity " has an extremely absurd effect. But the arti- 
 fice must be used sparingly, and those who employ it 
 must beware of one pitfall. The moiety of the word 
 which is carried over to begin the next line must be 
 considered as a fresh word occupying the first foot. 
 There is a tendency to overlook it, and count it as part 
 of the previous Une, and that of course is a fatal 
 error.
 
 82 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 Parody may be considered as a form of comic versi- 
 fication. It is not enough that a parody should be in 
 the same meter as the original poem it imitates. Nor 
 is it sufficient that the first hne or so has such a simi- 
 larity as to suggest the original. In the best parodies 
 each line of the original has an echo in the parody, and 
 the words of the former are retained as far as possible 
 in the latter, or replaced by others very similar. 
 
 Another form of parody is the parody of style, 
 w^hen, instead of selecting a particular poem to para- 
 phrase, we imitate, in verse modeled on the form he 
 usually adopts, the mannerisms of thought or expres- 
 sion for which any particular writer is distinguished. 
 
 Examples of both kinds of parody will be found in 
 the " Rejected Addresses " of James and Horace Smith, 
 which should be studied together with Hood, Barham, 
 Wolcot, and Thackeray, by those who would read the 
 best models of humorous, comic, or burlesque writing. 
 I may add here that vers de socicti will be best studied 
 in the writings of Praed, Prior, and Moore. From liv- 
 ing writers it would be invidious to single out any, either 
 as models or warnings. [Thus far had the author 
 written eight years ago : to-day the editor feels he 
 would be derelict to his duty did he not advise the stu- 
 dent of vers de societi — which are something more 
 than mere " society verse " — of Dr. Holmes, Mr. E. C. 
 Stedman, and Mr. Austin Dobson. More broadly 
 comic verse is to be found in Mr. W. S. Gilbert's " Bab 
 Ballads " and Mr. C. S. Calverley's " Fly Leaves." Nor 
 should the poetry of Mr. Bret Harte be neglected.]
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 OF SONG- WRITING. 
 
 A LTHOUGH song-writing is one of the most diffi- 
 ■^^ cult styles of versification, it is now held in but 
 little repute, owing to the unfortunate condition of the 
 musical world in England. " Any rubbish will do for 
 music " is the maxim of the music shop-keeper, who is 
 practically the arbiter of the art nowadays, and who 
 has the interests he is supposed to represent so little 
 at heart that he would not scruple to publish songs, 
 consisting of " nonsense verses " — as school-boys call 
 them — set to music, if he thought that the usual artifice 
 of paying singers a royalty on the sale for singing a 
 song would prevail on the public to buy them. 
 
 Another reason why " any rubbish will do for 
 music " has passed into a proverb is, that few amateur 
 singers — and not too many professionals — understand 
 " phrasing." How rarely can one hear what the words 
 of a song are ! Go to a " musical evening " and take 
 note, and you will see that, in nine cases out of ten, 
 when a new song has been sung, people take the piece 
 of music and look over the words. A song is like a 
 cherry, and ought not to require us to make two bites 
 at it. 
 
 6
 
 84 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 Nor is the injury inflicted on music due only to the 
 amount of rubbish which is made to do duty for songs. 
 The writings of our poets are ransacked for "words," 
 and accompaniments are manufactured to poems which 
 were never intended, and are absolutely unfitted, for 
 musical treatment. Then, because it is found that 
 poems are not to be converted into songs so easily as 
 people think, the cry is not merely that " any rubbish 
 will do for songs," but that ''only rubbish will do " — a 
 cry that is vigorously taken up by interested persons. 
 
 The truth lies between the two extremes. A pecu- 
 liar style of verse is required, marked by such charac- 
 teristics and so difficult of attainment that some of 
 our greatest poets — Byron for one — have failed as song- 
 writers. English literature reckons but few really good 
 song-writers. When you have named Moore, Lover, 
 Burns, and Barry Cornwall, you have almost exhausted 
 the list. 
 
 There is in the last edition of the works of the 
 lamented writer I have just named — Samuel Lover — a 
 preface in which he enters very minutely into the sub- 
 ject of song-writing. The sum of what he says is, 
 that " the song being necessarily of brief compass, the 
 writer must have powers of condensation. He must 
 possess ingenuity in the management of meter. He 
 must frame it of open vowels, with as few guttural or 
 hissing sounds as possible, and he must be content 
 sometimes to sacrifice grandeur or vigor to the neces- 
 sity of selecting singing words and not reading ones." 
 He adds that " the simplest words best suit song, but 
 simplicity must not descend to baldness. There must
 
 OF SONG-WRITING. 85 
 
 be a thought in the song, gracefully expressed, and it 
 must appeal either to the fancy or feelings, or both, 
 but rather by suggestion than direct appeal ; and phi- 
 losophy and didactics must be eschewed." 
 
 He adduces Shelley, with his intense poetry and 
 exquisite sensitiveness to sweet sounds, as an instance 
 of a poet who failed to see the exact necessities of 
 song-writing, and giv'es a quotation from one of Shel- 
 ley's " songs " to prove this. The line is : 
 
 " The fresh earth in new leaves drest," 
 
 and he says verj^ pertinently, " It is a sweet line, and a 
 pleasant image — but I defy any one to sing it : nearly 
 every word shuts up the mouth instead of opening it." 
 That last sentence is the key to song-writing. I use 
 the word song-writing in preference to " lyrical writ- 
 ing," because " lyrical " has been warped from its strict 
 meaning, and applied to verse which was not intended 
 for music. It is not absolutely necessary that a song- 
 writer should have a practical knowledge of music, 
 but it is all the better if he have : beyond doubt, Moore 
 owed much of his success to his possession of musical 
 knowledge.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 OF THE SONNET, 
 
 ANY discussion of the sonnet is handling- a burning 
 question. We are not at the threshold of the 
 discussion by the query, What is a sonnet ? And on 
 the answer to this the whole discussion turns. A son- 
 net is a poem containing one, and only one, idea, thought, 
 or sentiment, and consisting of fourteen lines of equal 
 length — so much is admitted by all. There are those 
 who consider any poem of fourteen lines a sonnet. 
 There are others who declare that to be a true sonnet 
 the poem must not only have fourteen lines of equal 
 length, but its construction and the arrangement of its 
 rhymes must conform to a prescribed pattern, called 
 after Petrarch. Sonnets written in the Petrarchan or 
 Guittonian form are " regular " or " correct " ; all others 
 are " irregular " and " incorrect." A regular sonnet 
 consists of two quatrains (in which the ist, 4th, 5th, 
 and 8th lines rhyme together, and likewise the 2d, 3d, 
 6th, and 7th), followed by two tercets (in which the 
 9th, nth, and 13th Hues rhyme together, and likewise 
 the loth, 1 2th, and 14th), thus:
 
 OF THE SONNET. 
 
 FREDERICKSBURG. 
 
 87 
 
 " The increasing moonlight drifts across my. bed, 
 And on the churchyard by the road, I know, 
 It falls as white and noiselessly as snow. 
 
 'Twas such a night two weary summers fled ; 
 
 The stars as now were waning overhead. 
 
 Listen ! Again the shrill-lipped bugles blow 
 Where the swift currents of the river flow 
 
 Past Fredericksburg ; far off the heavens are red 
 
 With sudden conflagration : on yon height, 
 
 Linstock in hand, the gunners hold their breath ; 
 
 A signal-rocket pierces the dense night, 
 
 Flings its spent stars upon the town beneath ; 
 
 Hark ! — the artillery massing on the right, 
 
 Hark ! — the black squadrons wheeling down to death." 
 — T. B. Aldtich, Fredericksburg. 
 
 Mr. Waddington, in a " Note on the Sonnet," at the 
 end of his collection of " English Sonnets by Living 
 Writers " (London, 1881), tells us that about one third 
 of Petrarch's sonnets are written in this form, and most 
 of Ariosto's. But the arrangement most often adopted 
 by the Italian poets has been to employ a fifth rhyme 
 in the sestet, so that the 9th and 12th lines rhyme to- 
 gether, the loth and 13th, and the nth and 14th. Here 
 is an admirable example : 
 
 " What is a sonnet? 'Tis a pearly shell 
 
 That murmurs of the far-off" murmuring sea ; 
 A precious jewel carved most curiously ; 
 It is a Httle picture painted well.
 
 88 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 What is a sonnet ? 'Tis the tear that fell 
 From a great poet's hidden ecstasy ; 
 A two-edged sword, a star, a song — ah me ! 
 Sometimes a heavy-tolling funeral bell. 
 This was the flame that shook with Dante's breath, 
 The solemn organ whereon Milton played. 
 
 And the clear glass where Shakespeare's shadow 
 falls : 
 A sea this is — beware who ventureth ! 
 For like a fiord the narrow floor is laid 
 
 Deep as mid-ocean to sheer mountain walls." 
 
 —R. W. Gilder. 
 
 Strictly, these two forms only are entitled to be 
 called " correct " and " regular." But even the purists 
 are willing generally to allow variety in the sequence 
 of rhymes in the sestet. It is the octave in which there 
 must be no variation. So long as the sestet contains 
 two or three rhymes, and does not end with a couplet, 
 the sonnet is tolerated. In the following fine son- 
 net the divergence from the accepted form is so slight 
 that it is forgiven : 
 
 " HOMER'S ODYSSEY. 
 
 " As one that for a weary space has lain 
 
 Lulled by the song of Circe and her wine 
 In gardens near the pale of Proserpine, 
 Where that ^gean isle forgets the main. 
 And only the low lutes of love complain. 
 And only shadows of wan lovers pine. 
 As such an one were glad to know the brine 
 Salt on his lips, and the large air again,
 
 OF THE SONNET. 89 
 
 So gladly from the songs of modern speech 
 Men turn and see the stars, and feel the free 
 Shrill wind beyond the close of heavy flowers, 
 And through the music of the languid hours 
 They hear, like ocean on a western beach, 
 The surge and thunder of the Odyssey." 
 
 — A. Lang. 
 
 As soon, however, as we abandon the arrangement 
 of an octave turning on two rhymes and a sestet turn- 
 ing on two or three rhymes at will, we must give up 
 all claim to regularity or correctness. To a purist 
 Shakespeare's sonnets are not sonnets at all, however 
 beautiful they may be as poems. They are " quator- 
 zains," if you will — poems of fourteen lines, or, as Charles 
 Lamb called them, " fourteeners " — but they are not 
 " sonnets." Howe\'er irregular the form, and however 
 inferior to the true Guittonian arrangement, it has been 
 sanctified by genius. What Shakespeare found fit for 
 his use, no meaner man may deem inadequate. Yet 
 we may agree with Mr. Waddington that the " Guit- 
 tonian variation is the best, and few poets, after once 
 having become accustomed to it, ever return to the 
 looser construction and less frequent rhymes of the 
 other forms." It is perhaps not hazardous to say that 
 the strict sonnet is driving out the mere " fourteener." 
 Most of the younger poets are purists, and it is well 
 that this is so ; but many of the elder American poets — 
 notably Lowell and Mrs. Kemble — claim the utmost 
 license; and even a poet as finished in form as Mr. 
 Frederick Locker has written a lovely sonnet on the 
 Shakespearean model :
 
 90 
 
 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 " LOVE, TIME, AND DEATH. 
 
 " Ah me, dread friends of mine — Love, Time, and Death ! 
 
 Sweet Love, who came to me on sheeny wing. 
 And gave her to my arms — ^her lips, her breath. 
 
 And all her golden ringlets clustering ; 
 And Time, who gathers in the flying years. 
 
 He gave me all — but where is all he gave ? 
 He took my love and left me barren tears ; 
 
 Weary and lone I follow to the grave. 
 There Death will end this vision halfdivine, 
 
 Wan Death, who waits in shadow evermore. 
 And silent, ere he gave the sudden sign ; 
 
 Oh, gently lead me through thy narrow door, 
 Thou gentle Death, thou trustiest friend of mine. 
 
 Ah me, for Love will Death my love restore ? " 
 
 — Frederick Locker. 
 
 For any further discussion of this pregnant subject, 
 reference must be made to Leigh Hunt's volumes, to 
 Mr. Tomlinson's book, to the two collections of Mr. 
 Waddington, and to the full " Treasury of English 
 Sonnets," by Mr. David M. Main.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 OF THE RONDEAU AND THE BALLADE. 
 
 TT is curious to note that the only fixed and rigid 
 -*■ form of verse which we EngHsh-speaking peoples 
 have until lately been willing to adopt is the sonnet. 
 It is almost equally curious to note that the first im- 
 petus toward the introduction of new forms came to us 
 from France, a country where, until within the last 
 half-century, verse has been as prim and precise, as 
 empty and as soulless, as metrical prose by any possi- 
 bility may be. But, under the inspiration of the ro- 
 mantic revival which marked the dying days and final 
 downfall of the elder branch of the house of Bourbon, 
 and especially under the influence of the extraordinary 
 vigor and vitality of Victor Hugo's earlier verse and 
 prose, the fresh young blood of France began to course 
 through more poetic channels, inventing new forms to 
 vent its new-found feeling, and filling old forms again 
 with the current of new life. The young poets went 
 back to the verses of the troubadours and trouveres, 
 and to the metrical forms of the fourteenth century ; 
 they went, indeed, wherever they hoped to find a fonn 
 or a suggestion of style suitable and worthy of mod-
 
 92 
 
 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 em reproduction and resuscitation ; the stranger, the 
 more exotic, the better. The ballade and the ron- 
 deau were brought again into favor. The English 
 ballad, with its wealth of suggestiveness and lyric pos- 
 sibility, was fit, indeed, to the minds of young writers 
 fresh from the first reading of " Notre-Dame de Paris." 
 Hugo called one collection of his poems " Odes et Bal- 
 lades " — though, as a critic objected, it contained 
 neither odes nor ballades — for the French ballade is 
 radically different from the English ballad ; and it was 
 the English lyric which Hugo had in mind, not the 
 French form of verse. In spite of the tendency toward 
 the Gothic, none of the involved meters of the German 
 Minnesingers were, as far as we find on record, at any 
 time imitated. But English legends and lyrics, and 
 fashions of all kinds, found frequent copyists, even to 
 the verge of affectation — M. Auguste Maquet, the col- 
 laborator of Dumas, called himself for a while Augus- 
 tus MacKeat, and Th^ophile Dondee became for a 
 season Philoth^e O'Neddy ! These eccentricities slow- 
 ly , passed away, and the good they had clouded re- 
 mained. French poetry to-day is more like poetry and 
 less like Pope than it has been for several centuries. 
 Hugo's example has been followed — nay, even im- 
 proved, for " the master," as his followers affectionate- 
 ly call him, is, like other great geniuses, often careless, 
 and the art of Theophile Gautier, and of Baudelaire, 
 and of M. Theodore de Banville, is above all things fin- 
 ished and polished and perfect. 
 
 And to-day the inspiration which the French poets 
 caught from their study of the early forms of French
 
 OF THE RONDEA U AND BALLADE. 
 
 93 
 
 verse is beginning to be transmitted across the Channel 
 to England, and we now and then see an English ron- 
 deau or villandle ; and the sight is ever welcome, for 
 nothing makes surer the poet's hold on the mechanism 
 of his art than the practice of new meters and the 
 study of foreign forms. The impulse in favor of the 
 rondeau and the ballade, and their less important rela- 
 tives, the rofidel and villanelle, given in France by M. 
 Theodore de Banville, was in England due to Mr. 
 Austin Dobson, who united to a precision and polish 
 and point, as fine as M. de Banville's, a poetic faculty 
 far superior. Although a scant attempt had been made 
 now and again to write a trinlet in English, it was not 
 until Mr. Dobson took up these French forms serious- 
 ly, and studied them and adapted them to the genius 
 of our language and of our versification, that they made 
 any impression on the public mind. Indeed, it was not 
 until the publication, in the " Cornhill Magazine " of 
 July, 1877, of Mr. E. W. Gosse's " Plea for Certain 
 Exotic Forms of Verse," and until the appearance of 
 Mr. Dobson's " Proverbs in Porcelain," a little later, 
 that even professed students of poetry began to under- 
 stand what a ballade was, and that it might be pre- 
 cisely the instrument for the expression of certain 
 moods of a poet. After Mr. Dobson had written his 
 first ballade, Mr. Swinburne wrote one, followed soon 
 by Mr. Andrew Lang, Mr. E, W. Gosse. and Mr. W. 
 E. Henley, in England, and by Mr. H. C. Bunner and 
 others in America. 
 
 In the course of the past four years a many rondeaux 
 and ballades have got themselves written, and the French
 
 94 
 
 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 forms are now fairly familiar to the public which cares 
 for poetry. In fact, the stage of experiment has passed ; 
 it has been shown that these forms can be used in Eng- 
 lish ; and the sole question now is whether they have 
 shown themselves worth using. I think it can be as- 
 serted fairly that at least two of them have proved their 
 case, and are entitled to a favorable verdict. These are 
 the rondeau and the ballade, which bid fair to take their 
 place in our poetic armory side by side with the sonnet. 
 Of course, it would be absurd to assert that there is 
 yet a rondeau or a ballade equal to the best English son- 
 net — whatever that may be. It is, perhaps, even claim- 
 ing too much to say that either form, as a form, is equal 
 to the sonnet. But the sonnet has been acclimated in 
 our language for three hundred years. As Mr. Austin 
 Dobson has admirably put it, in the apt and alluring 
 " Note on some Foreign Forms of Verse " which he 
 contributed to Mr. W. Davenport Adams's " Latter-day 
 Lyrics" (London, 1878), there were doubtless contem- 
 porary critics who, when the English sonnet was in 
 leading-strings, " regarded it as a merely new-fangled 
 Italian conceit, suitable enough for the fantastic gal- 
 lantries of Provengal courts of love, but affording little 
 or no room for earnest or serious effort. They could 
 not see 'Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughter 'd saints!' in 
 the primitive essays of Surrey and Wyatt." Mr. Dob- 
 son went on to concede that " the majority of the 
 forms now in question are not at present suited for, nor 
 are they intended to rival the more approved national 
 rhythms in, the treatment of grave and elevated themes. 
 What is modestly advanced for some of them (by the
 
 OF THE RONDEAU AND BALLADE. 95 
 
 present writer at least) is that they may add a new 
 charm of buoyancy — a lyric freshness — to amatory and 
 familiar verse, already too much condemned to faded 
 measures and outworn cadences." A little further on, 
 Mr. Dobson has a remark which more than justifies 
 the space given to these forms in this new edition of a 
 technical manual : " They have also a humbler and 
 obscurer use. If, to quote the once-hackneyed but 
 now too-much-forgotten maxim of Pope — 
 
 " ' Those move easiest that have learned to dance,' 
 
 what better discipline, among others, could possibly be 
 devised for ' those about to versify ' than a course of 
 rondeaux, triolets, and ballades." 
 
 Oddly enough, the two forms which seem most 
 useful, and most likely to remain in use in our lan- 
 guage — the rondeau and the ballade — were both at- 
 tempted in England as early as was the sonnet. At 
 the coronation of King Henry IV, John Gower, the 
 author of the " Confessio Amantis," presented his Ma- 
 jesty with a collection of fifty ballades in the Provengal 
 manner " to entertain the court." Unfortunately, these 
 were in French, else might we trace an older pedigree 
 for the English ballade than for the English sonnet. 
 Sir Thomas Wyatt introduced the true sonnet into 
 England, and he also wrote rondeaux in English ; 
 whether he was the first to do so or not, we can not 
 tell at this late day'. In the next century, Charles Cot- 
 ton, friend of that compleat angler Isaak Walton, wrote 
 an ungallant rondeau, to be found in Dr. Guest's " His- 
 tory of English Rhythms." In the last century there
 
 g6 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 are a few squibs in rondeau form in the " RoUiad." 
 Then came Mr. Austin Dobson. 
 
 The word rondeau has been applied inaccurately in 
 English to any poem in which the first words of the 
 stanza were repeated at the end. The one specimen 
 of this sort, which all may remember, is Leigh Hunt's 
 brief and beautiful — 
 
 " Jenny kissed me when we met, 
 
 Jumping from the chair she sat in ; 
 Time, you thief, who love to get 
 
 Sweets upon your list, put that in — 
 Say I'm weary, say I'm sad. 
 
 Say that health and wealth have missed me, 
 Say I'm growing old ; hut add — 
 Jenny kissed me ! " 
 
 How far this is from the real form of the rondeau 
 can readily be seen by comparing it with this tran- 
 scription by Mr. Dobson of a French rondeau of Voi- 
 ture's : 
 
 " ' YOU BID ME TRY.' 
 
 " You bid me try, blue eyes, to write 
 A rondeau. What ! — forthwith ? — to-night ? 
 Reflect. Some skill I have, 'tis true ; 
 But thirteen lines — and rhymed on two — 
 ' Refrain,' as well. Ah, hapless plight ! 
 
 " Still, there are five lines — ranged aright. 
 These Gallic bonds, I feared, would fright 
 My easy Muse. They did till you — 
 You bid me try !
 
 OF THE RONDEAU AND BALLADE. 97 
 
 " This makes them nine. The port's in sight ; 
 'Tis all because your eyes are bright ! 
 Now, just a pair to end with ' 00 ' — 
 When maids command, what can't we do ? 
 Behold ! the rondeau — tasteful, light — 
 You bid me try ! " 
 
 Here the poet describes and exemplifies at once. 
 From this it is seen that the rondeau has thirteen lines 
 with but two rhymes, eight of one and five of the 
 other, in a rigidly prescribed order, and that the first 
 four syllables are repeated as an unrhymed refrain after 
 the eighth line and again at the end. Here is another 
 example : 
 
 " SLEEP. 
 
 " O happy Sleep ! that bear'st upon thy breast 
 The blood-red poppy of enchanting rest. 
 
 Draw near me through the stillness of this place 
 And let thy low breath move across my face. 
 As faint winds move above a poplar's crest. 
 
 " The broad seas darken slowly in the west ; 
 The wheeling sea-birds call from nest to nest ; 
 Draw near and touch me, leaning out of space, 
 O happy Sleep ! 
 
 " There is no sorrow hidden or confess'd. 
 There is no passion uttered or suppress'd, 
 Thou canst not for a little while efface ; 
 Enfold me in thy mystical embrace, 
 Thou sovereign gift of God most sweet, most blest, 
 O happy Sleep ! " 
 
 — Ada Louise Martin.
 
 98 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 From these two examples the structure of the ron- 
 deau is made plain, and its difficulty also, which chiefly 
 lies in the handling of the refrain. To learn the inner 
 secret of the rondeau, said the writer of an anonymous 
 article whose author we can not but suspect, " to give 
 the refrain a new savor and fragrance at each repeti- 
 tion by some covert art of setting, and to make it seem 
 the mere bubbling over, as it were, of the eighth and 
 thirteenth lines — these are things which only the mas- 
 ters of the lyre can attain to." To give absolute vari- 
 ety to the refrain, a complete change of meaning at 
 each recurrence is enjoined, and the liberty of some- 
 thing very like punning is allowed. 
 
 There is another and slightly different form of the 
 rondeau, altogether less apt either for deep meaning or 
 sportive jest ; notwithstanding which it has been used 
 by Villon and by Alfred de Musset. Here is an Eng- 
 lish example : 
 
 " VIOLET. 
 
 " Violet delicate, sweet, 
 
 Down in the deep of the wood, 
 Hid in thy still retreat, 
 Far from the sound of the street, 
 Man and his merciless mood : — 
 
 " Safe from the storm and the heat. 
 Breathing of beauty and good 
 Fragrantly, under thy hood, 
 Violet. 
 
 " Beautiful maid discreet, 
 
 Where is the mate that is meet,
 
 OF THE RONDEAU AND BALLADE. 99 
 
 Meet for thee — strive as he could — 
 Yet will I kneel at thy feet, 
 Fearing another one should, 
 Violet ! " 
 
 — W. Cosmo Monkhouse. 
 
 Plainly the rondeau lends itself readily to the exigen- 
 cies of the English language, yet it yields in power and 
 variety to the ballade, which is also based on the triple 
 use of a refrain. Perhaps example should always pre- 
 cede exposition. Villon, that " voice out of the slums 
 of Paris," wrote a rondeau now and then, but his great 
 love was the ballade ; and in his hands it is a wonderful 
 instrument. No English version can do justice to his 
 verse, but it is well to begin by quoting a ballade of his : 
 
 " BALLADE OF THINGS KNOWN AND UNKNOWN. 
 " Flies in the milk I know full well: 
 
 I know men by the clothes they wear : 
 I know the walnut by the shell : 
 I know the foul sky from the fair : 
 I know the pear-tree by the pear : 
 When things go well, to me is shown : 
 I know who work and who forbear : 
 I know all save myself alone. 
 
 " I know the pourpoint by the fell : 
 And by his gown I know the fr^rc : 
 Master from varlet can I tell : 
 
 And nuns that cover up their hair : 
 I know a swindler by his air, 
 And fools that fat on cates have grown : 
 
 Wines by the cask I can compare : 
 I know all save myself alone. 
 7
 
 lOO THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 " I know how horse from mule to tell : 
 
 I know the load each one can bear : 
 I know both Beatrice and Bell : 
 
 I know the hazards, odd and pair : 
 
 I know of visions in the air : 
 I know the power of Peter's throne 
 
 And how misled Bohemians were : 
 I know all save myself alone. 
 
 " ENVOY. 
 
 " Prince, I know all things : fat and spare, 
 Ruddy and pale, to me are known ; 
 And Death that endeth all our care : 
 I know all save myself alone. 
 
 — John Payne, from Francois Villon. 
 
 From this we see that the ballade consists of three 
 stanzas and a half-stanza, called an envoy, and gener- 
 ally addressed directly to some prince or power ; that 
 the rhymes and arrangement of the first stanza are re- 
 peated in the others ; and that the refrain concludes all 
 three stanzas and the envoy. Eight-line stanzas with 
 only three rhymes, as above, are the most often seen ; 
 but ten-line stanzas using four rhymes are also per- 
 missible — as may be seen below : 
 
 " BALLADE OF THE MIDNIGHT FOREST. 
 
 " Still sing the mocking fairies as of old, 
 
 Beneath the shade of thorn and holly-tree ; 
 The west wind breathes upon them, pure and cold, 
 And wolves still dread Diana roaming free 
 In secret woodland with her company. 
 'Tis thought the peasant's hovels know her rite
 
 OF THE RONDEAU AND BALLADE, loi 
 
 When now the wolds are bathed in silver light, 
 And first the moonrise breaks the dusky gray, 
 
 Then down the dells with blown soft hair and bright, 
 And through the dim wood Dian threads her way. 
 
 " With water-weeds twined in their locks of gold 
 The strange cold forest-fairies dance in glee, 
 
 Sylphs over-timorous and over-bold 
 
 Haunt the dark hollows where the dwarf may be, 
 The wild red dwarf, the nixies' enemy ; 
 Then 'mid their mirth and laughter, and affright. 
 The sudden Goddess enters, tall and white. 
 
 With one long sigh for summers passed away ; 
 The swift feet tear the ivy nets outright 
 
 And through the dim wood Dian threads her way. 
 
 " She gleans her silvan trophies ; down the wold 
 She hears the sobbing of the stags that flee 
 
 Mixed with the music of the hunting roll'd. 
 But her delight is all in archery. 
 And naught of ruth and pity wotteth she. 
 More than her hounds that follow on the flight : 
 The goddess draws a golden bow of night 
 
 And thick she rains the gentle shafts that slay. 
 She tosses loose her locks upon the night. 
 
 And through the dim wood Dian threads her way. 
 
 " ENVOY. 
 ■' Prince, let us leave the din, the dust, the spite, 
 
 The gloom and glare of towns, the plague, the blight ; 
 
 Amid the forest leaves and fountain spray 
 There is the mystic house of our delight. 
 
 And through the dim wood Dian threads her way." 
 — Andrew Lang, after Theodore de Banville.
 
 102 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 Two other varieties are known. One is the double 
 ballade, which is simply a ballade with six stanzas (all 
 repeating the rhymes and arrangement of the first of 
 either eight lines or ten), and with or without an envoy, 
 as the poet pleases. And the other is the ballade 
 with a double refrain, in which the fourth line of the 
 first stanza (always of eight lines) is repeated in the 
 other stanzas, while the envoy consists of two couplets 
 in which both refrains occur in order. The typical 
 French example of the ballade with two refrains is 
 the " Frere Lubin " of Clement Marot, which has 
 been translated by both Longfellow and Bryant, nei- 
 ther of whom has presented the ballade form. Here 
 is the best attempt at the ballade with two refrains, 
 and one of the most bhthesome and debonair poems 
 of its author : 
 
 "THE BALLADE OF PROSE AND RHYME. 
 " When the ways are heavy with mire and rut, 
 In November fogs, in December snows, 
 When the north wind howls, and the doors are shut — 
 There is place and enough for the pains of prose ; 
 But whenever a scent from the whitethorn blows, 
 And the jasmine-stars to the lattice climb. 
 
 And a Rosalind-face to the casement shows — 
 Then hey ! — for the ripple of laughing rhyme ! 
 
 ' ' When the brain gets as dry as an empty nut, 
 When the reason stands on its squarest toes. 
 
 When the mind (like a beard) has a ' formal cut ' — 
 There is place and enough for the pains of prose ; 
 But whenever the May-blood stirs and glows. 
 
 And the young year draws to the ' golden prime,*
 
 OF THE RONDEAU AND BALLADE. 103 
 
 And Sir Romeo sticks in his ear a rose — 
 Then hey ! — for the ripple of laughing rhyme ! 
 
 " In a theme where the thoughts have a pendant strut, 
 
 In a changing quarrel of ' Ayes ' and ' Noes,' 
 In a starched procession of 'If and ' But ' — 
 
 There is place and enough for the pains of prose ; 
 
 But whenever a soft glance softer grows, 
 And the light hours dance to the trysting-time, 
 
 And the secret is told ' that no one knows ' — 
 Then hey ! — for the ripple of laughing rhyme ! 
 
 " ENVOY. 
 
 " In the work-a-day world — for its needs and woes. 
 There is place and enough for the pains of prose ; 
 But whenever the May bells clash and chime, 
 Then hey ! — for the ripple of laughing rhyme ! " 
 
 — Austin Dobson. 
 
 The great secret of the ballade is the apt choice 
 and adroit use of the refrain. First catch your refrain. 
 Then tame it to do your bidding, until (as the anony- 
 mous writer already quoted says neatly) " it recur with- 
 out the tedium of importunity and return with the 
 certainty of welcome." The ballade with a double 
 refrain is doubly difficult, for it demands two good 
 refrains contrasting sharply, and setting each other off 
 to advantage. M. de Banville warns the ballade-maker 
 against making his stanzas four lines at a time, for the 
 two halves will never join imperceptibly ; they will 
 always be broken-backed. Each stanza should be 
 homogeneous, cast in one jet, welded at a white heat. 
 The thought of the ballade, the central and primary
 
 104 
 
 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 idea, should be brought out in each stanza and em- 
 phasized in the refrain ; and then packed compactly 
 into the final epigram of the envoy ; finally, by the fourth 
 repetition of the refrain, driven home to the head. 
 
 All of Mr. Dobson's ballades will repay study with 
 delight ; the most of them may be found in the Ameri- 
 can edition of his collected poems called " Vignettes 
 in Rhyme" (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1880). 
 In Mr. Andrew Lang's dainty and delightful little 
 volume of " XXXH Ballades in Blue China" (Lon- 
 don: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1881), are to be 
 found ballades of great variety and dexterity.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 OF OTHER FIXED FORMS OF VERSE. 
 
 BEFORE taking up the other fixed forms of verse, 
 it may be well to digress for a moment to con- 
 sider the use of the refrain, upon the regular recurrence 
 of which the ballade and the rondeau and most of the 
 other forms are based. No artistic effect of verse, as 
 Poe says, has been so universally employed. It is to 
 be seen in the meaningless choruses of college and 
 convivial songs, in the recurrent catch-lines of the old 
 English and Scotch ballads, and in the quaint repeti- 
 tions of their modern imitations, like the " Sister Helen " 
 of Mr. Rossetti, and the other mediaevalisms which 
 Mr. C. S. Calverley has comically parodied : 
 
 " The farmer's daughter hath soft brown hair 
 {Btiitcr and eggs and a pound of cheese) ; 
 And I met with a ballad I can't say where, 
 Which wholly consisted of lines like these." 
 
 In these instances the refrain existed with but slight 
 usefulness. As Poe says, it is in a primitive condition ; 
 " as commonly used, the refrain, or burden, ... de- 
 pends for its impression upon the force of monotone — 
 both in sound and thought. The pleasure is deduced
 
 lo6 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 solely from the sense of identity — of repetition. I re- 
 solved to diversify, and so heighten, the effect, by ad- 
 hering, in general, to the monotone of sound, while I 
 continually varied that of thought ; that is to say, I 
 determined to produce continuously novel effects, by 
 the variation of the application of the refrain — the 
 refrain itself remaining, for the most part, unvaried." 
 Poe's success in the execution of this device, which is 
 not as novel as he declares, can be seen in " The Ra- 
 ven " and also in " The Bells." The same effect is pro- 
 duced in satiric verse in the " Biglow Papers," where 
 
 " John P 
 Robinson, he 
 Says he wont vote for Governor B," 
 
 and in the virile and noble stanzas, in which Mr. Sted- 
 man tells us that 
 
 " John Brown, 
 Ossawotomie Brown, 
 Saw his sons fall dead beside him, and between them laid 
 him down." 
 
 In both of these, as in Poe's "Raven," the refrain 
 recurs at regular intervals, and almost unvaried in form, 
 but with great variety in the application. And this is 
 the principle of the ballade and the rondeau and the 
 ro7idel and their fellows. The words of the refrain 
 are as the laws of the Medes and Persians, which alter 
 not, but the meaning of these words admits of as 
 much variety as the poet can impart. 
 
 Closely allied to the rondeau are the triolet and the 
 rondel. Here is a triolet :
 
 OF OTHER FIXED FORMS OF VERSE. 
 
 107 
 
 "A PITCHER OF MIGNONETTE. 
 " A pitcher of mignonette, 
 
 In a tenement's highest casement : 
 Queer sort of a flower-pot — yet 
 That pitcher of mignonette 
 Is a garden in heaven set, 
 
 To the little sick child in the basement — 
 The pitcher of mignonette. 
 
 In the tenement's highest casement. 
 
 — H. C. Bunner. 
 
 Thus we see that the triolet is a single stanza of 
 two rhymes and eight lines, of which the first is re- 
 peated as the fourth, and the first and second as the 
 seventh and eighth. " The triolet is, perhaps, best 
 adapted for epigram," says a writer from whom I have 
 already quoted ; " the weight of its raison d 'efre rests 
 on the fifth and sixth lines, while the perfection of its 
 execution lies in the skill with which the third line is 
 connected with the fourth, and the final couplet with 
 the one preceding it." 
 
 The rondel, of which the earliest English examples 
 were perhaps written by Charles of Orleans during his 
 residence in England, is also closely akin to the rondeau. 
 It is a poem of two rhymes and fourteen lines, with a 
 repetition of the first and second lines as the seventh 
 and eighth, and again as the thirteenth and fourteenth. 
 
 "READY FOR THE RIDE. 
 " Through the fresh fairness of the Spring to ride, 
 As in the old days when he rode with her, 
 With joy of Love that had fond Hope to bride, 
 One year ago had made her pulses stir.
 
 lo8 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 " Now shall no wish with any day recur 
 
 (For Love and Death part year and year full wide), 
 Through the fresh fairness of the Spring to ride, 
 As in the old days when he rode with her. 
 
 " No ghost there lingers of the smile that died 
 On the sweet pale lip where his kisses were — 
 . . . Yet still she turns her delicate head aside, 
 
 If she may hear him come, with jingling spur — 
 Through the fresh fairness of the Spring to ride. 
 As in the old days when he rode with her." 
 
 — H. C. Bunner. 
 
 It is, however, allowable at times to omit the four- 
 teenth line and to end with the repetition of the first line 
 as the thirteenth, thus : 
 
 "THE WANDERER. 
 
 " Love comes back to his vacant dwelling — 
 The old, old Love that we knew of yore ! 
 We see him stand by the open door. 
 With his great eyes sad, and his bosom swelling. 
 
 " He makes as though in our arms repelling 
 He fain would lie, as he lay before ; 
 Love comes back to his vacant dwelling — 
 The old, old Love which we knew of yore ! 
 
 " Ah, who shall help us from over-spelling 
 That sweet forgotten, forbidden Lore ! 
 E'en as we doubt, in our heart once more. 
 With a rush of tears to our eyelids welling. 
 Love comes back to his vacant dwelling ! " 
 
 — Austin Dobson.
 
 OF OTHER FIXED FORMS OF VERSE. 109 
 
 Just as the rondel and the triolet seem variations of 
 the rondeau, so is the chant-royal a development of 
 the ballade : it is to be defined roughly as a ballade of 
 five stanzas of eleven lines, with an envoy of five lines. 
 It is said that, according to the strict rule of the older 
 French writers, the chant-royal should be an allegory, 
 the solution of which is contained in the envoy. There 
 are but few English chattts-royals, for the making of 
 them is a hard and thankless task. Mr. Gosse has 
 written a splendidly sustained chant-royal to the 
 " Praise of Dionysus," and Mr. Dobson another sug- 
 gested by the " Death of Death." In America, so far 
 as I know, but one has been written ; and it is this one 
 which I quote, for it shows how readily even the most 
 difficult form lends itself to satire and humor : 
 
 " BEHOLD THE DEEDS ! 
 [Being the Plaint of Adolphe Culpepper Ferguson, Salesman of 
 Fancy Notions, held in durance of his Landlady for a failure to connect 
 on Saturday night.] 
 
 I. 
 
 " I would that all men my hard case might know ; 
 How grievously I suffer for no sin : 
 I, Adolphe Culpepper Ferguson, for lo ! 
 I of my landlady am locked in. 
 For being short on this sad Saturday, 
 Nor having shekels of silver wherewith to pay : 
 She has turned and is departed with my key ; 
 Wherefore, not even as other boarders free, 
 
 I sing (as prisoners to their dungeon-stones 
 When for ten days they expiate a spree) : 
 
 Behold the deeds that are done of Mrs. Jones !
 
 no THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 II. 
 " One night and one day have I wept my woe ; 
 Nor wot I, when the morrow doth begin, 
 If I shall have to write to Briggs & Co., 
 To pray them to advance the requisite tin 
 For ransom of their salesman, that he may 
 Go forth as other boarders go alway — 
 
 As those I hear now flocking from their tea, 
 Led by the daughter of my landlady 
 
 Piano-ward. This day, for all my moans, 
 Dry bread and water have been served me. 
 
 Behold the deeds that are done of Mrs. Jones ! 
 
 III. 
 " Miss Amabel Jones is musical, and so 
 
 The heart of the young he-board^r doth win, 
 Playing ' The Maiden's Prayer,' adagio — 
 
 That fetcheth him, as fetcheth the banco skin 
 The innocent rustic. For my part, I pray : 
 That Badarjewska maid may wait for aye 
 Ere sits she with a lover, as did we 
 Once sit together, Amabel ! Can it be 
 
 That all that arduous wooing not atones 
 For Saturday shortness of trade dollars three ? 
 Behold the deeds that are done of Mrs. Jones ! 
 
 IV. 
 
 " Yea ! she forgets the arm was wont to go 
 
 Around her waist. She wears a buckle, whose pin 
 Galleth the crook of the young man's elbow. 
 / forget not, for I that youth have been. 
 Smith was aforetime the Lothario gay. 
 Yet once, I mind me. Smith was forced to stay 
 Close in his room. Not calm, as I, was he ;
 
 OF OTHER FIXED FORMS OF VERSE, m 
 
 But his noise brought no pleasaunce, verily. 
 
 Small ease he gat of playing on the bones 
 Or hammering on his stove-pipe, that I see. 
 
 Behold the deeds that are done of Mrs. Jones ! 
 
 V. 
 " Thou, for whose fear the figurative crow 
 I eat, accursed be thou and all thy kin ! 
 Thee will I show up — yea, up will I show 
 
 Thy too thick buckwheats, and thy tea too thin. 
 Ay ! here I dare thee, ready for the fray : 
 Thou dost 7iot ' keep a first-class house,' I say ! 
 It does not with the advertisements agree. 
 Thou lodgest a Briton with a puggaree. 
 
 And thou hast harbored Jacobses and Cohns, 
 Also a Mulligan. Thus denounce I thee ! 
 
 Behold the deeds that are done of Mrs. Jones ! 
 
 " ENVOY. 
 
 " Boarders ! the worst I have not told to ye : 
 She hath stolen my trowsers, that I may not flee 
 
 Privily by the window. Hence these groans. 
 There is no fleeing in a rode de nuit. * 
 
 Behold the deeds that are done of Mrs. Jones ! 
 
 — //. C. Bunner. 
 
 The villafielle, like the rondel, rondeau, and triolet, 
 has but two rhymes ; its peculiarity is the alternation 
 of two refrains. It consists of five triplets, followed by 
 a quatrain. The opening line is repeated as the third 
 of the second and fourth triplets, and as the final line 
 of the concluding quatrain. The third line reappears 
 at the end of the third and fifth triplets, and as the 
 next to last of the poem. The first and third lines of
 
 112 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 each triplet all rhyme together ; and the second lines 
 rhyme with one another. The following graceful ex- 
 ample is not absolutely exact in form, as the poet has 
 willfully, and without warrant, varied the last line, 
 which ought to be absolutely identical with the third : 
 
 " There are roses white, there are roses red, 
 Shyly rosy, tenderly white ; 
 Which shall I choose to wreathe my head ? 
 
 " Which shall I cull from the garden-bed 
 To greet my love on this verj- night? 
 There are roses white, there are roses red. 
 
 " The red should say what I would have said ; 
 Ah ! how they blush in the evening light 1 
 Which shall I choose to wreathe my head ? 
 
 " The white are pale as the snow new spread, 
 Pure as young eyes and half as bright ; 
 There are roses white, there are roses red. 
 
 " Roses white, from the heaven dew-fed, 
 Roseared for a passion's plight, 
 Which shall I choose to wreathe my head? 
 
 " Summer twilight is almost fled. 
 
 Say, dear love ! have I chosen right ? 
 There are roses white, there are roses red. 
 All twined together to wreathe my head." 
 
 — L. S. Bevington, Roses. 
 
 It was supposed at one time that the villanelle. 
 might be of indefinite length, but the best authorities 
 now agree with M. Boulmier that, as Passerat devised 
 the form, it is fitting that his " J'ai perdu ma tourterelle "
 
 OF OTHER FIXED FORMS OF VERSE. 
 
 113 
 
 should be followed, and that consists of five triplets 
 and a quatrain. 
 
 Something like the villanelle in its repetition of 
 two lines, but without any limitation on the number of 
 the stanzas, is the pantoum. Not content with merely- 
 French forms of verse, the French poets have even 
 adopted one Malayan form, the pantou7n, first brought 
 to their attention in the notes to Hugo's " Orientales," 
 and afterward employed to advantage by Theophile 
 Gautier and M. Theodore de Banville. It is not at 
 first sight encouraging ; it consists of a series of four- 
 line stanzas, the second and fourth lines of each stanza 
 reappearing as the first and third of the next stanza, 
 and so on ad mfinitum, the first and third lines of the 
 first stanza appearing again in the final one. Mr. Dob- 
 son's pantoum is a little long, so only beginning and 
 end are here given : 
 
 " IN TOWN. 
 " ' The blue-fly sung in the pane.'' — Tennyson. 
 
 " June in the zenith is torrid 
 
 (There is that woman again !) ; 
 Here, with the sun on one's forehead, 
 Thought gets dry in the brain. 
 
 " There is that woman again ; 
 
 ' Strawberries ! fourpence a pottle ' ' 
 Thought gets dry in the brain ; 
 Ink gets dry in the bottle. 
 
 " ' Strawberries ! fourpence a pottle ! ' 
 Oh, for the green of a lane ! 
 Ink gets dry in the bottle ; 
 ' Buzz ' goes a fly in the pane !
 
 114 ^^^ RHYMESTER. 
 
 " Some muslin-clad Mabel or May 
 
 To dash one with eau de Cologne ; 
 Bluebottle's off and away, 
 And why should I stay here alone ? 
 
 " To dash one with eau de Cologne 
 All over one's talented forehead ! 
 And why should I stay here alone ? 
 June in the zenith is torrid ! " 
 
 There are very few pantottms in English, and not 
 likely to be many more, for the writing of them is 
 merely a freak of literary ingenuity, and not likely to 
 have results of permanent value. There is an Ameri- 
 can pantotim, " En Route," in " Scribner's " for July, 
 1878, setting forth the misery of railroad travel in hot 
 weather. In both " In Town " and " En Route " there 
 is an attempt to make the constant repetitions not 
 merely tolerable, but subservient to the general effect 
 of monotonously recurrent sound — in the one case, the 
 buzzing of the fly, and in the other, the rattle and strain 
 of the cars. 
 
 The sestina is even more complicated and difficult 
 than iht pantoum or the chant-royal. It was invented 
 by Arnauld Daniel, a Provengal troubadour of the end 
 of the thirteenth century ; and from him it was copied 
 by various Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese poets. It 
 consists of six six-lined stanzas, each of which ends with 
 the same six words, not rhyming, but arranged in a 
 prescribed order, and it concludes with an envoy of 
 three lines, containing all six of the final words, three
 
 OF OTHER FIXED FORMS OF VERSE. 
 
 115 
 
 at the end of the lines, and three in the body of the 
 lines. I know only one English example of this form : 
 
 " Fra tutti il pri7no A rnaldo Daniello 
 . Gran maestro d'amor?'' — Petrarch. 
 
 " In fair Provence, the land of lute and rose, 
 Arnaut, great master of the lore of love, 
 First wrought sestines to win his lady's heart, 
 For she was deaf when simpler staves he sang, 
 And for her sake he broke the bonds of rhyme. 
 And in this subtler measure hid his woe. 
 
 " ' Harsh be my lines,' cried Arnaut, ' harsh the woe. 
 My lady, that enthorn'd and cruel rose. 
 Inflicts on him that made her live in rhyme ! ' 
 But through the meter spake the voice of Love, 
 And like a wild-wood nightingale he sang 
 Who thought in crabbed lays to ease his heart. 
 
 " It is not told if her untoward heart 
 Was melted by the poet's lyric woe. 
 Or if in vain so amorously he sang ; 
 Perchance through cloud of dark conceits he rose 
 To nobler heights of philosophic love, 
 And crowned his later years with sterner rhyme. 
 
 " This thing alone we know : the triple rhyme 
 Of him who bared his vast and passionate heart 
 To all the crossing flames of hate and love. 
 Wears in the midst of all its storm of woe — 
 As some loud morn of March may bear a rose — 
 The impress of a song that Arnaut sang. 
 
 " 'Smith of his mother-tongue,' the Frenchman sang 
 Of Launcelot and of Galahad, the rhyme 
 8
 
 Il6 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 That beat so blood-like at its core of rose, 
 It stirred the sweet Francesca's gentle heart 
 To take that kiss that brought her so much woe, 
 And sealed in fire her martyrdom of love. 
 
 " And Dante, full of her immortal love, 
 Stayed his dear song, and softly, fondly sang 
 As though his voice broke with that weight of woe ; 
 And to this day we think of Arnaut's rhyme 
 Whenever pity at the laboring heart 
 On fair Francesca's memory drops the rose. 
 
 " Ah ! sovereign Love, forgive this weaker rhyme ! 
 The men of old who sang were great at heart. 
 Yet have we too known woe, and worn thy rose." 
 
 — E. W. Gosse, Sestina. 
 
 A contemporary French poet, M. de Gramont, has 
 adapted this Provengal form to more modem French 
 versification. He began by making the six final words 
 rhyme by threes, and he changed the rhythm from 
 hendecasyllabics to Alexandrines. The form he thus 
 modified he has used freely himself, and he has been 
 foUowred by a few French poets and by the one Eng- 
 lish poet who has shown the greatest power of con- 
 quering rebel rhythms. 
 
 " I saw my soul rest upon a day 
 
 As a bird sleeping in the nest of night. 
 
 Among soft leaves that give the starlight way, 
 To touch its wings but not its eyes with light ; 
 
 So that it knew as one in visions may. 
 And knew not as men waking of delight.
 
 OF OTHER FIXED FORMS OF VERSE. 117 
 
 " This was the measure of my soul's delight ; 
 
 It has no power of joy to fly by day, 
 Nor part in the large lordship of the light, 
 
 But in a secret, moon-beholden way 
 Had all its will of dreams and pleasant night, 
 
 And all the love and life that sleepers may. 
 
 " But such life's triumph as men waking may 
 It might not have to feed its faint delight 
 
 Between the stars by night and sun by day, 
 Shut up with green leaves and a little light ; 
 
 Because its way was as a lost star's way, 
 A world's not wholly known of day or night. 
 
 *' All loves, and dreams, and sounds, and gleams, of night 
 Made it all music that such minstrels may. 
 
 And all they had they gave it of delight ; 
 But in the full face of the fire of day 
 
 What place shall be for any starry light. 
 What part of heaven in all the wide sun's way ? 
 
 " Yet the soul woke not, sleeping by the way, 
 
 Watched as a nursling of the large-eyed night. 
 
 And sought no strength nor knowledge of the day. 
 Nor closer touch conclusive of delight, 
 
 Nor mightier joy, nor timer than dreamers may. 
 Nor more of song than they nor more of light. 
 
 " For who sleeps once and sees the secret light 
 Whereby sleep shows the soul a fair way 
 Between the rise and rest of day and night. 
 
 Shall care no more to fare as all men may. 
 But be his place of pain or of delight, 
 
 There shall he dwell, beholding night as day.
 
 Il8 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 " Song, have thy day and take thy fill of light 
 Before the night be fallen across thy way ; 
 Sing while he may, man hath no long delight." 
 
 — A. C. Swinburne, Sestina. 
 
 In French " light " and " delight " are admirable 
 rhymes, but in English they are not rhymes at all. 
 Perhaps Mr. Swinburne, having taken a French form, 
 thought himself justified in following the French prac- 
 tice of rhyming. From Mr. Gosse's poem and from 
 Mr. Swinburne's the secret of the construction of the 
 sestina may be learned. The most obvious rule is that 
 each stanza has at the end of its first hne the final 
 word of the preceding stanza. Then the second line 
 terminates with the final word of the first line of the 
 preceding stanza. And so the final words are chosen 
 alternately from the last three hues and the first three 
 lines of the stanza preceding. The whole subject, and 
 indeed all the forms treated in this and the two chap- 
 ters before, can best be studied in M. de Gramont's 
 " Les Vers Frangais et leur Prosodie " (Paris : Hetzel), 
 and in M. de Banville's " Petit Traite de Poesie Fran- 
 ?aise" (Paris, Charpentier, 1881).
 
 A FIT OF RHYME AGAINST RHYME. 
 
 Rhyme, the rack of finest wits, 
 That expresseth but by fits 
 
 True conceit, 
 Spoiling senses of their treasure, 
 Cozening judgment with a measure. 
 
 But false weight ; 
 Wresting words from their true calling ; 
 Propping verse for fear of falling 
 
 To the ground ; 
 Jointing syllables, drowning letters. 
 Fastening vowels, as with fetters 
 
 They were bound ! 
 Soon as lazy thou wert known. 
 All good poetry hence was flown. 
 
 And art banished ; 
 For a thousand years together, 
 All Parnassus green did wither. 
 
 And wit vanished.
 
 120 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 Pegasus did fly away ; 
 
 At the wells no Muse did stay, 
 
 But bewailed. 
 So I see the fountain dry, 
 And Apollo's music die, 
 
 All light failed. 
 Starveling rhymes did fill the stage — 
 Not a poet in an age, 
 
 Worthy crowning ; 
 Not a work deserving bays, 
 Nor a line deserving praise, 
 
 Pallas frowning. 
 Greek was free from rhyme's infection ; 
 Happy Greek, by this protection. 
 
 Was not spoiled ; 
 Whilst the Latin, queen of tongues, 
 Is not yet free from rhyme's wrongs. 
 
 But rests foiled. 
 Scarce the hill again does flourish. 
 Scarce the world a wit doth nourish, 
 
 To restore 
 Phoebus to his crown again. 
 And the Muses to their brain. 
 
 As before. 
 Vulgar languages that want 
 Words and sweetness and be scant 
 
 Of true measure.
 
 A FIT OF RHYME AGAINST RHYME. 121 
 
 Tyrant rhyme hath so abused 
 That they long since have refused 
 
 Other censure. 
 He that first invented thee. 
 May his joints tormented be, 
 
 Cramped for ever ; 
 Still may syllables jar with time, 
 Still may reason war with rhyme, 
 
 Resting never ! 
 May his sense, when it would meet 
 The cold tumor in his feet, 
 
 Grow unsounder ; 
 And his title be long Fool, 
 That in rearing such a school 
 
 Was the founder. 
 
 — Ben Jonson.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 
 
 A 
 
 AB, or ABB. 
 As in cab. Bab, cab, dab, Mab, gab, nab, blab, 
 crab, drab, scab, stab, slab, St. Abb. 
 As in squab. See Ob. 
 
 ABE. 
 Babe, astrolabe. 
 
 AC. 
 
 Zodiac, maniac, demoniac, ammoniac, almanac, 
 
 symposiac, hypochondriac, aphrodisiac, crack, lac, 
 
 brach, back, hack, bric-a-brac, jack, lack, pack, quack, 
 
 tack, sack, rack, black, clack, crack, knack, slack, 
 
 snack, stack, track, wrack, attack, smack, thwack, 
 
 arrack. 
 
 ACE. 
 
 Ace, dace, pace, face, lace, mace, race, brace, chace, 
 grace, place, Thrace, space, trace, apace, deface, efface, 
 disgrace, displace, misplace, embrace, grimace, inter- 
 lace, retrace, populace, carapace, base, case, abase, 
 debase, vase.
 
 124 "^^^ RHYMESTER. 
 
 ACH. 
 See Atch. 
 
 ACHE. 
 See Ake. 
 
 ACS. 
 See Ax. 
 
 ACT. 
 
 Act, fact, fract, pact, tract, attract, abstract, extract, 
 tact, intact, contact, compact, contract, subact, co-act, 
 detract, distract, exact, protract, enact, infract, sub- 
 tract, transact, retract, re-act, cataract, counteract, the 
 preterites and participles of verbs in ACK. 
 
 AD. or ADD. 
 
 As in bad. Add, bad, dad, gad, fad, had, lad, mad, 
 pad, sad, brad, clad, glad, plaid (?), cad, chad, shad, 
 etc. 
 
 As in wad. See Od. 
 
 ADE. 
 
 Cade, fade, made, jade, lade, wade, blade, bade, 
 glade, shade, spade, trade, degrade, evade, dissuade, 
 invade, persuade, blockade, brigade, estrade, arcade, 
 esplanade, cavalcade, cascade, cockade, crusade, mas- 
 querade, renegade, retrograde, serenade, gambade, bro- 
 cade, ambuscade, cannonade, palisade, rhodomontade, 
 aid, maid, raid, braid, lemonade, staid, upbraid, afraid, 
 and the preterites and participles of verbs in Ay, 
 Ey, and ElGH. (The word pomade still retains the 
 French ade, and rhymes with huzzaed, psha'd, baad.)
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 125 
 
 ADGE. 
 Badge, cadge. 
 
 ADZE. 
 
 Adze, rhymes plural of nouns, or third person sin- 
 gular present of verbs, in Ad, Add. 
 
 AEN. 
 Ta'en. See AiN. 
 
 AFE. 
 
 Safe, chafe, vouchsafe, waif, Ralph. 
 
 AFF. 
 
 Gaff, chaff, draff, graff, quaff, staff, distaff, engraff, 
 epitaph, cenotaph, paragraph, photograph, telegraph, 
 behalf, laugh, half, calf. 
 
 AFT. 
 
 Aft, haft, raft, daft, waft, craft, shaft, abaft, graft, 
 draft, ingraft, handicraft, draught, and the preterites 
 and participles of verbs in Aff and AUGH, etc. 
 
 AG. 
 
 Bag, cag, fag, gag, hag, jag, lag, nag, quag, rag, 
 sag, tag, wag, brag, crag, drag, flag, knag, shag, snag, 
 stag, swag, scrag, Brobdingnag. 
 
 AGD. 
 
 Smaragd, preterites and participles of verbs in 
 AG.
 
 126 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 AGE, 
 
 Age, cage, gage, mage, page, rage, sage, wage, 
 stage, swage, assuage, engage, disengage, enrage, pre- 
 sage, appanage, concubinage, heritage, hermitage, pa- 
 rentage, personage, parsonage, pasturage, patronage, 
 pilgrimage, villanage, equipage, and gauge. 
 
 
 
 AGM. 
 
 Diaphragm, rhymes Am. 
 
 
 
 AGNE. 
 
 Champagne. 
 
 See 
 
 Am. 
 
 Plague, vague. 
 
 
 AGUE. 
 
 Ah, bah, shah. 
 
 pah 
 
 AH. 
 AI. 
 
 Serai, almai, ai 
 
 , papai, ay. 
 
 See Ade. 
 
 
 AID. 
 
 See Ate. 
 
 
 AIGHT. 
 
 See Ane. 
 
 
 AIGN. 
 
 AIL. 
 
 Bail, brail, fail, grail, hail, jail, mail, nail, pail, quail, 
 rail, sail, shail, tail, wail, flail, frail, snail, trail, assail, 
 avail, detail, bewail, entail, prevail, aventail, wassail, 
 retail, countervail, curtail, Abigail, ale, bale, dale, gale.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 127 
 
 hale, male, pale, sale, tale, vale, wale, scale, shale, stale, 
 swale, whale, wale, impale, exhale, regale, veil, nightin- 
 gale. 
 
 AIM. 
 See Ame. 
 
 AIN. 
 Cain, blain, brain, chain, fain, gain, grain, lain, main, 
 pain, rain, vain, wain, drain, plain, slain, Spain, stain, 
 swain, train, twain, sprain, strain, abstain, amain, at- 
 tain, complain, contain, constrain, detain, disdain, dis- 
 train, enchain, entertain, explain, maintain, ordain, per- 
 tain, obtain, refrain, regain, remain, restrain, retain, 
 sustain, appertain, thane, Dane, bane, cane, crane, fane, 
 Jane, lane, mane, plane, vane, wane, profane, hurri- 
 cane, deign, arraign, campaign, feign, reign, vein, rein, 
 skein, thegn, champagne. 
 
 AINST. 
 Against, rhymes abbreviated second person singu- 
 lar present of verbs in Am, Ane, Ein, Eign, Aign. 
 
 AIQUE. 
 Caique, See Ake. 
 
 AINT. 
 Ain't, mayn't, faint, plaint, quaint, saint, taint, teint, 
 acquaint, attaint, complaint, constraint, restraint, dis- 
 traint, feint. 
 
 AIR and AIRE. 
 See Are.
 
 128 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 AIRD. 
 
 Laird rhymes preterites and participles of verbs in 
 Are. 
 
 AIRN. 
 Bairn, cairn. 
 
 AISE. 
 See AZE. 
 
 AISLE. 
 Aisle. See Ile. 
 
 AIT. 
 See Ate. 
 
 AITH. 
 
 Faith, wraith, rath, baith. 
 
 AIZE. 
 See AZE. 
 
 AK. 
 Dak rhymes Alk. 
 
 AKE. 
 
 Ake, bake, cake, hake, lake, make, quake, rake, sake, 
 take, wake, brake, drake, flake, shake, snake, stake, 
 strake, spake, awake, betake, forsake, mistake, partake, 
 overtake, undertake, bespake, mandrake, break, steak, 
 ache, alcaic, caique, opaque. 
 
 AL. 
 Shall, pal, mall, sal, gal, fal-lal, cabal, canal, animal, 
 admiral, cannibal, capital, cardinal, comical, conjugal.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 
 
 129 
 
 corporal, criminal, critical, festival, fineal, funeral, gen- 
 eral, hospital, interval, liberal, madrigal, literal, magical, 
 mineral, mystical, musical, natural, original, pastoral, 
 pedestal, personal, physical, poetical, political, princi- 
 pal, prodigal, prophetical, rational, satirical, reciprocal, 
 rhetorical, several, temporal, tragical, tyrannical, carni- 
 val, schismatical, whimsical, arsenal, and many others, 
 
 ALD. 
 
 Bald, scald, rhymes the preterites and participles 
 of verbs in ALL, AUL, and AwL. 
 
 ALE. 
 See Ail. 
 
 ALF. 
 See Aff. 
 
 ALK. 
 
 Balk, chalk, stalk, talk, walk, calk, dak, squauk, 
 baulk, caulk, catafalque, hawk, auk. 
 
 ALL. 
 
 All, ball, cajl, gall, caul, haul, Gaul, appal, enthral, 
 awl, bawl, brawl, crawl, scrawl, sprawl, shawl, squall, 
 hall, mawl, stall, fall, pall, tall, wall, install, forestall, 
 thrall. 
 
 ALM, ALMS. 
 
 Calm, balm, becalm, psalm, palm, embalm ; plu- 
 rals and third persons singular rhyme with Alms, as 
 alms, calms, becalms, etc.
 
 130 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 ALP. 
 
 Scalp, Alp. 
 
 ALOUE. 
 Catafalque. See Alk. 
 
 ALSE. 
 False, valse. 
 
 ALT. 
 
 As in halt. Halt, malt, exalt, salt, vault, assault, 
 default, and fault. 
 
 As in shalt. Asphalt, alt, shalt. 
 
 ALVE. 
 
 As in calve. Calve, halve, salve. 
 As in valve. Valve, alve. 
 
 AM and AMB. 
 
 Am, dam, ham, pam, ram, Sam, cram, dram, flam, 
 sham, swam, kam, clam, epigram, anagram, damn, 
 lamb, jam, jamb, oriflamb, ma'am, telegram, lamm. 
 
 AME. 
 
 Blame, came, dame, same, flame, farpe, frame, 
 game, lame, name, prame, same, tame, shame, inflame, 
 became, defame, misname, misbecame, overcame, aim, 
 claim, maim, acclaim, declaim, disclaim, exclaim, pro- 
 claim, reclaim. 
 
 AMM. 
 
 Lamm. See Am.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 131 
 
 AMME. 
 Oriflamme. See Am. 
 
 AMN. 
 Damn. See Am. 
 
 AMP. 
 As in camp. Camp, champ, cramp, damp, stamp, 
 vamp, lamp, clam.p, decamp, encamp. 
 As in swamp. Swamp, pomp. romp. 
 
 AN. 
 
 As in ban. Ban, can, Dan, fan, man, Nan, pan, 
 ran, tan, van, bran, clan, plan, scan, span, than, unman, 
 foreran, began, trepan, courtesan, partisan, artisan, 
 pelican, caravan, shandydan, barracan. 
 
 As in wan. Wan, swan. See On. 
 
 ANCE. 
 
 Chance, dance, glance, lance, trance, prance, in- 
 trance, romance, advance, mischance, complaisance, 
 circumstance, countenance, deliverance, consonance, 
 dissonance, extravagance, ignorance, inheritance, main- 
 tenance, temperance, intemperance, exorbitance, ordi- 
 nance, concordance, sufferance, sustenance, utterance, 
 arrogance, vigilance, expanse, enhance, France. [Here 
 the atice is pronounced differently by different people, 
 dnce and dnce^ 
 
 ANCH. 
 
 Branch, staunch, launch, blanch, haunch, paunch, 
 ganch. 
 
 9
 
 132 
 
 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 AND. 
 
 As in band. And, band, hand, land, rand, sand, 
 brand, bland, grand, gland, stand, strand, command, 
 demand, countermand, disband, expand, withstand, 
 understand, reprimand, contraband, and preterites and 
 participles of verbs in An. 
 
 As in wand. Wand. See Ond. 
 
 ANE. 
 
 See Am. 
 
 ANG. 
 
 Bang, fang, gang, hang, pang, tang, twang, sang, 
 slang, rang, harangue, swang, stang, lang, chang, clang. 
 
 ANGE. 
 
 Change, grange, range, strange, estrange, arrange, 
 exchange, interchange. 
 
 ANGUE. 
 Harangue, rhymes Ang. 
 
 ANK. 
 
 Yank, bank, rank, blank, shank, clank, dank, drank, 
 slank, frank, spank, stank, brank, hank, lank, plank, 
 prank, rank, thank, disrank, mountebank. 
 
 ANSE. 
 See Ance. 
 
 ANT. 
 
 As in ant. Ant, cant, chant, grant, pant, plant, 
 rant, slant, aslant, complaisant, displant, enchant, gal-
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 
 
 133 
 
 lant, implant, recant, supplant, transplant, absonant, 
 adamant, arrogant, combatant, consonant, cormorant, 
 protestant, significant, visitant, covenant, dissonant, 
 disputant, elegant, elephant, exorbitant, conversant, ex- 
 travagant, ignorant, insignificant, inhabitant, militant, 
 predominant, sycophant, vigilant, petulant, can't, shan't, 
 aunt, haunt. 
 
 As in ivaitt. Want, upon't, font. 
 
 AP. 
 
 As in cap. Cap, dap, gap, hap, lap, map, nap, pap, 
 rap; sap, tap, chap, clap, trap, fap, flap, knap, slap, 
 snap, wrap, scrap, strap, enwrap, entrap, mishap, affrap, 
 mayhap. 
 
 As in swap. Swap. See Op. 
 
 APE. 
 Ape, cape, shape, grape, rape, scape, scrape, escape, 
 nape, chape, trape, jape, crape, tape, etc. 
 
 APH. 
 See Aff. 
 
 APSE. 
 Apse, lapse, elapse, relapse, perhaps, and the plurals 
 of nouns and third persons singular present tense of 
 verbs in A P. 
 
 APT. 
 Apt, adapt. Rhymes the preterites and participles 
 of verbs in Ap. 
 
 AQUE. 
 Opaque. See Ake.
 
 134 
 
 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 AR. 
 
 As in bar. Czar, bar, car, far, jar, mar, par, tar, 
 spar, scar, star, char, afar, debar, petar, unbar, catarrh, 
 particular, perpendicular, secular, angular, regular, pop- 
 ular, singular, titular, vinegar, scimetar, calendar, ava- 
 tar, cinnabar, caviare, are. 
 
 As in war. See Or. 
 
 ARB. 
 Barb, garb, rhubarb. 
 
 ARCE. 
 Farce, parse, sarse, sparse. {Scarce has no rhyme.) 
 
 ARCH. 
 
 As in march. Arch, march, larch, parch, starch, 
 countermarch. 
 
 As in hierarch. Hierarch, heresiarch. See Ark. 
 
 ARD. 
 
 As in bard. Bard, card, guard, hard, lard, nard, 
 shard, yard, bagilard, bombard, discard, regard, inter- 
 lard, retard, disregard, and the preterites and parti- 
 ciples of verbs in Ar. 
 
 As in ward. Ward, sward, afford, restored, etc. 
 
 ARE. 
 As in bare. Care, dare, fare, gare, hare, mare, 
 pare, tare, ware, flare, glare, scare, share, snare, spare, 
 square, stare, sware, yare, prepare, aware, beware.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 135 
 
 compare, declare, ensnare, air, vair, fair, hair, lair, 
 pair, chair, stair, affair, debonnair, despair, impair, 
 glaire, repair, etc. ; bear, pear, swear, tear, wear, for- 
 bear, forswear, etc. ; there, were, where, ere, e'er, ne'er, 
 elsewhere, whate'er, howe'er, howsoe'er, whene'er, 
 where'er ; heir, coheir, their. 
 As in are. Rhymes Ar. 
 
 ARES. 
 
 Unawares. Rhymes theirs, and the plurals of 
 nouns and third persons singular of verbs in are, air, 
 eir, ear. 
 
 ARF. 
 
 Dwarf, wharf. {Scarf has no rhyme.) 
 
 ARGE. 
 
 Barge, charge, large, marge, targe, discharge, o'er- 
 charge, surcharge, enlarge. 
 
 ARK. 
 Ark, bark, cark, dark, dark, lark, mark, park, chark, 
 shark, spark, stark, embark, remark, hierarch, heresi- 
 arch. 
 
 ARL. 
 Carl, gnarl, snarl, marl, harl, parle. 
 
 ARIVI. 
 
 As in arm. Arm, barm, charm, farm, harm, alarm, 
 disarm. 
 
 As in warm. Warm, swarm. See Orm.
 
 136 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 ARN. 
 As in bar7i. Barn, yarn, tarn, darn. 
 As in warn. Warn, forewarn. See Orn. 
 
 ARP. 
 
 As in caj'p. Carp, harp, sharp, counterscarp. 
 As in warp. Warp. See Orp. 
 
 ARRH. 
 Catarrh. See Ar. 
 
 ARSE. 
 See Arce. 
 
 ARSH. 
 Harsh, marsh. 
 
 ART. 
 
 As in art. Heart, art, cart, dart, hart, mart, part, 
 smart, tart, start, apart, depart, impart, dispart, coun- 
 terpart. 
 
 As in wart. See Ort. 
 
 ARTH. 
 
 Swarth, forth, north. 
 
 ARVE. 
 Carve, starve. 
 
 AS. 
 
 As in was. Was, 'cos, poz. 
 As \x\gas. Gas. See Ass. 
 As in has. Has, as.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 137 
 
 ASE. 
 
 As in base. See ACE. 
 As in phrase. See AZE. 
 
 ASH. 
 
 As in ash. Ash, cash, dash, clash, crash, flash, 
 gash, gnash, hash, lash, plash, bash, pash, brash, rash, 
 thrash, slash, trash, abash, sash, splash. 
 
 As in wash. Wash, bosh, squash, quash, swash. 
 
 ASK. 
 Ask, task, bask, cask, flask, mask, hask, casque. 
 
 ASM. 
 
 Chasm, spasm, miasm, enthusiasm, cataplasm, 
 phantasm. 
 
 ASP. 
 
 Asp, clasp, rasp, gasp, grasp, hasp, wasp (J). 
 
 ASQUE. 
 Casque. See Ask. 
 
 ASS. 
 
 Ass, brass, class, grass, lass, mass, pass, alas, amass, 
 cuirass, repass, surpass, morass, gas, alias. 
 
 AST. 
 
 Cast, last, blast, mast, past, vast, hast, fast, aghast, 
 avast, forecast, overcast, outcast, repast, the preterites 
 and participles of verbs in Ass.
 
 138 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 ASTE. 
 Baste, chaste, haste, paste, taste, waste, distaste, 
 waist, and the preterites and participles of verbs under 
 Ace. 
 
 AT. 
 
 As in at. At, bat, cat, hat, fat, mat, pat, rat, sat, 
 tat, vat, brat, chat, flat, lat, sprat, that, gnat. 
 As in what. See Ot. 
 
 ATCH. 
 
 As in catch. Catch, match, hatch, latch, patch, 
 scratch, smatch, snatch, dispatch, ratch, slatch, swatch, 
 attach, detach, thatch. 
 
 As in watch. Watch. See Otch. 
 
 ATE. 
 
 Bate, date, fate, gate, grate, hate, mate, pate, plate, 
 prate, rate, sate, state, scate, slate, abate, belate, col- 
 late, create, debate, elate, dilate, estate, ingrate, innate, 
 rebate, relate, sedate, translate, abdicate, abominate, 
 abrogate, accelerate, accommodate, accumulate, accu- 
 rate, adequate, affectionate, advocate, adulterate, ag- 
 gravate, agitate, alienate, animate, annihilate, antedate, 
 anticipate, antiquate, arbitrate, arrogate, articulate, 
 assassinate, calculate, capitulate, captivate, celebrate, 
 circulate, coagulate, commemorate, commiserate, com- 
 municate, compassionate, confederate, congratulate, 
 congregate, consecrate, contaminate, corroborate, cul- 
 tivate, candidate, co-operate, celibate, considerate, 
 consulate, capacitate, debilitate, dedicate, degenerate 
 delegate, deliberate, denominate, depopulate, dislocate,
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 
 
 139 
 
 deprecate, discriminate, derogate, dissipate, delicate, 
 disconsolate, desolate, desperate, educate, effeminate, 
 elevate, emulate, estimate, elaborate, equivocate, eradi- 
 cate, evaporate, exaggerate, exasperate, expostulate, 
 exterminate, extricate, facilitate, fortunate, generate, 
 gratulate, hesitate, illiterate, illuminate, irritate, imitate, 
 immoderate, impetrate, importunate, imprecate, inani- 
 mate, innovate, instigate, intemperate, intimate, intimi- 
 date, intoxicate, intricate, invalidate, inveterate, inviolate, 
 legitimate, magistrate, meditate, mitigate, moderate, 
 necessitate, nominate, obstinate, participate, passionate, 
 penetrate, perpetrate, personate, potentate, precipitate, 
 predestinate, predominate, premeditate, prevaricate, pro- 
 crastinate, profligate, prognosticate, propagate, recrimi- 
 nate, regenerate, regulate, reiterate, reprobate, reverber- 
 ate, ruminate, separate, sophisticate, stipulate, subju- 
 gate, subordinate, suffocate, terminate, titivate, tolerate, 
 vindicate, violate, unfortunate, bait, strait, waite, await, / 
 great, t^te-a-t^te, eight, weight, straight. 'njA\/:Y~c\^(x^ 
 Ate (from ea(). Rhymes yet. 
 
 ATH. 
 
 As in bath. Bath, path, swath, wrath, hath, after- 
 math. 
 
 As in rath. See Aith. 
 
 ATHE. 
 
 Bathe, swathe, rathe, scathe. 
 
 AUB. 
 Daub, kebaub, Punjaub.
 
 140 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 AUD. 
 
 Fraud, laud, applaud, defraud, broad, abroad, and 
 the preterites and participles of verbs under Aw. 
 
 AUGH. 
 
 As in laugh. See Aff. 
 
 As in usquebaugh. See Aw. 
 
 AUGHT. 
 
 As in draught. Draught, quaffed, etc. 
 As in caught. See AUT. 
 
 
 AUK. 
 
 See Alk. 
 
 
 
 AULM. 
 
 Haulm, shawm. 
 
 
 
 AULK. 
 
 Caulk. See Alk. 
 
 
 
 AULT. 
 
 See Alt. 
 
 
 
 AUN. 
 
 See Awn. 
 
 
 
 AUNCH. 
 
 See Anch. 
 
 
 AUND. 
 Maund, preterites and participles of verbs in AwN. 
 
 AUNCE. 
 Askaunce, romance, glance, etc.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 141 
 
 AUNT. 
 
 Aunt, daunt, gaunt, haunt, jaunt, taunt, vaunt, 
 
 avaunt, shan't, can't. 
 
 AUR. 
 See Ore. 
 
 AUSE. 
 
 Cause, pause, clause, applause, gauze, because, the 
 plurals of nouns and third persons singular of verbs 
 in Aw. 
 
 AUST. 
 
 Holocaust. See OST. 
 
 AUT. 
 
 Taut, caught, ought, haught, sought, taught, fraught, 
 distraught, nought. , , o^.t 
 
 AUZE. ^ 
 
 See AuSE. 
 
 AVE. 
 
 Cave, brave, gave, grave, crave, lave, nave, knave, 
 pave, rave, save, shave, slave, stave, wavT, behave, 
 deprave, engrave, outbrave, forgave, misgave, archi- 
 trave. {Have has no rhyme.) 
 
 AW. 
 
 Craw, daw, law, chaw, claw, draw, flaw, gnaw, jaw, 
 maw, paw, raw, saw, scraw, shaw, straw, thaw, with- 
 draw, foresaw, usquebaugh. 
 
 AWD. 
 See AUD.
 
 1^2 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 AWK. 
 See Alk. 
 
 AWL. 
 See All. 
 
 AWM. 
 
 Shawm. See Aulm. 
 
 AWN. 
 Dawn, brawn, fawn, pawn, spawn, drawn, yawn, 
 awn, withdrawn, aun, shaun, lawn, prawn. 
 
 AX. 
 Ax, tax, lax, pax, wax, relax, flax, knicknacks, the 
 plurals of nouns and third persons singular of verbs in 
 ACK. 
 
 AY. 
 
 Bray, clay, day, dray, tray, flay, fray, gay, hay, jay, 
 lay, may, nay, pay, play, ray, say, way, pray, spray, 
 slay, stay, stray, sway, tway, fay, affray, allay, array, 
 astray, away, belay, bewray, betray, decay, defray, 
 delay, disarray, display, dismay, essay, forelay, gain- 
 say, inlay, relay, repay, roundelay, virelay, neigh, weigh, 
 inveigh, shay, prey, they, convey, yea, obey, purvey, 
 survey, disobey, gray, aye, denay. 
 
 AZE. 
 
 Craze, draze, blaze, gaze, glaze, raze, maze, amaze, 
 graze, raise, praise, dispraise, phrase, paraphrase, and 
 the nouns plural and third persons singular of the 
 present tense of verbs in Ay, Eigh, and Ey.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 143 
 
 E 
 
 E. 
 
 See EE. 
 
 CRE, CHRE, TRE. 
 Sepulchre, massacre, theatre. See Er. 
 
 EA. 
 As in sea. See Ee. 
 As vayea. See Ay. 
 
 EACE. 
 See Ease. 
 
 EACH. 
 
 Beach, breach, bleach, each, peach, preach, teach, 
 impeach, beech, leech, speech, beseech. 
 
 EAD. 
 
 As in bread. See Ed. 
 As in read. See Eed. 
 
 EAF. 
 
 As in sheaf. See lEF. 
 As in deaf. See Ef. 
 
 EAGUE. 
 League, Teague, intrigue, fatigue. 
 
 EAK. 
 As in beak. Beak, speak, bleak, creak, freak, leak, 
 peak, sneak, squeak, streak, weak, tweak, wreak, be-
 
 144 
 
 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 speak, cheek, leek, eke, creek, meek, reek, seek, sleek, 
 pique, bezique, clique, critique, antique, oblique, week, 
 shriek. 
 
 As in break. See Ake. 
 
 EAL. 
 
 Deal, heal, reveal, meal, peal, seal, steal, teal, veal, 
 weal, squeal, leal, zeal, repeal, conceal, congeal, repeal, 
 anneal, appeal, wheal, eel, heel, feel, keel, kneel, peel, 
 reel, steal, wheel. (Real is a dissyllable, and therefore 
 does not count here.) 
 
 EALD. 
 Weald. See Ield. 
 
 EALM. 
 See Elm. 
 
 EALTH. 
 
 Health, wealth, stealth, commonwealth. 
 
 EAM. 
 
 Bream, cream, gleam, seam, scream, stream, team, 
 beam, dream, enseam, scheme, theme, blaspheme, ex- 
 treme, supreme, deem, teem, beseem, misdeem, esteem, 
 disesteem, redeem, seem, beteem. 
 
 EAMT. 
 Dreamt, exempt, attempt, empt. 
 
 EAN. 
 
 Bean, clean, dean, glean, lean, mean, wean, yean, 
 demean, unclean, convene, demesne, intervene, mien.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 
 
 ^45 
 
 hyen, machine, keen, screen, seen, skean, green, spleen, 
 between, careen, teen, foreseen, serene, obscene, ter- 
 rene, queen, spleen, etc. 
 
 EANS. 
 
 Means, rhymes plural of nouns, and third persons 
 singular present of verbs, in Ean, Een, Ene. 
 
 EANSE. 
 
 Cleanse, plural of nouns, and third person singular 
 present of verbs, in En. 
 
 See Ent. 
 
 EANT. 
 
 See Eep. 
 
 EAP. 
 
 See Eer and AlR. 
 
 EAR. 
 
 
 EARCH. 
 
 Search, research. 
 
 See Urch 
 
 EARD. 
 
 As in heard. See Urd. 
 
 As in beard. Beard, feared, revered, weird, pre- 
 terites and participles of verbs in Ear, Ere, etc. 
 
 EARL. 
 Earl, pearl, girl, curl, churl, vyhirl, purl, furl, thirl, 
 twirl.
 
 146 
 
 See Ern. 
 See Erse. 
 See Art. 
 
 THE RHYMESTER. 
 EARN. 
 
 EARSE. 
 
 EART. 
 
 EARTH. 
 Earth, dearth, birth, mirth, worth, Perth, berth. 
 
 EASE. 
 
 As in cease. Cease, lease, release, grease, decease, 
 decrease, increase, release, surcease, peace, piece, niece, 
 fleece, geese, frontispiece, apiece, etc. 
 
 As in disease. See Eeze. 
 
 EAST. 
 
 East, feast, least, beast, priest, the preterites and 
 participles of verbs in Ease, as in cease. 
 
 EAT. 
 
 As in bleat. Bleat, eat, feat, heat, meat, neat, seat, 
 effete, treat, wheat, beat, cheat, defeat, estreat, escheat, 
 entreat, retreat, obsolete, replete, concrete, complete, 
 feet, fleet, greet, meet, sheet, sleet, street, sweet, dis- 
 creet. 
 
 As in great. See Ate. 
 
 As in threat. See Et.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 147 
 
 EATH. 
 
 As in breath. Breath, death, saith, Elizabeth, etc., 
 and antiquated third person singular present, accented 
 on the antepenult (e. g., " encountereth "). 
 
 As in heath. Heath, sheath, teeth, wreath, be- 
 neath. 
 
 EATHE. 
 Breathe, sheathe, wreathe, inwreathe, bequeathe, 
 seethe. 
 
 EAU. 
 See O. 
 
 EAVE. 
 
 Cleave, heave, interweave, leave, weave, bereave, 
 inweave, receive, conceive, deceive, perceive, eve, 
 grieve, sleeve, thieve, aggrieve, achieve, believe, dis- 
 believe, relieve, reprieve, retrieve. 
 
 EB, and EBB. 
 Web, neb, ebb, bleb. 
 
 ECK, and EC. 
 Beck, peck, neck, check, fleck, deck, speck, wreck, 
 hypothec, spec, geek. 
 
 EKS. 
 I'fecks, third person singular of verbs and plural of 
 nouns in ECK. 
 10
 
 148 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 ECT. 
 
 Sect, affect, correct, incorrect, collect, deject, detect, 
 direct, disrespect, disaffect, dissect, effect, elect, eject, 
 erect, expect, indirect, infect, inspect, neglect, object, 
 project, protect, recollect, reflect, reject, respect, select, 
 subject, suspect, architect, circumspect, direct, intel- 
 lect, the preterites and participles of verbs in ECK, etc. 
 
 ED. 
 
 Bed, bled, fed, fled, bred, Ted, red, shred, shed, 
 sped, wed, abed, imbred, misled, said, bread, dread, 
 dead, head, lead, read, spread, thread, tread, behead, 
 o'erspread, and the preterites and participles of verbs, 
 which, when the " ed " (pronounced) is added, have 
 the accent on the antepenultimate (e. g., vanished ; 
 but see Chapter VIII). 
 
 EDE. 
 See Eed. 
 
 EDGE. 
 
 Edge, wedge, fledge, hedge, ledge, pledge, sedge, 
 allege, kedge, privilege, sacrilege, sortilege. 
 
 EE. 
 
 Bee, free, glee, knee, see, three, thee, tree, agree, 
 decree, degree, disagree, flee, foresee, o'ersee, pedi- 
 gree, he, me, we, she, be, jubilee, lee, ne, sea, plea, 
 flea, tea, key, cap-i-pie, gree, dree, calipee. 
 
 EECE. 
 See Ease.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 149 
 
 EECH. 
 See Each. 
 
 EED. 
 
 Creed, deed, indeed, bleed, breed, feed, heed, meed, 
 need, reed, speed, seed, steed, weed, proceed, succeed, 
 exceed, knead, read, intercede, precede, recede, con- 
 cede, impede, supersede, glede, rede, bead, lead, mead, 
 read, plead, etc. 
 
 EEF. 
 
 See lEF. 
 
 
 See Eak. 
 
 EEK. 
 
 See Eal. 
 
 EEL. 
 
 See Eam. 
 
 EEM. 
 
 See Ean. 
 
 EEN, 
 
 EEP. 
 
 Creep, deep, sleep, keep, peep, sheep, steep, sweep, 
 weep, asleep, cheap, heap, neap. 
 
 EER. 
 
 As in beer. Beer, deer, fleer, geer, jeer, peer, 
 mere, leer, sheer, steer, sneer, cheer, veer, pickeer, 
 domineer, cannoneer, compeer, engineer, mutineer, 
 pioneer, privateer, charioteer, chanticleer, career, 
 mountaineer, fere, here, sphere, adhere, cohere, in- 
 terfere, persevere, revere, austere, severe, sincere.
 
 150 
 
 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 hemisphere, etc. ; ear, clear, dear, fear, near, sear, 
 hear, pier, bier, tier, smear, spear, tear, rear, year, 
 appear, besmear, bandolier, disappear, endear, auc- 
 tioneer. 
 
 As in eer. See Are. 
 
 
 EESE. 
 
 See Eeze. 
 
 
 
 EET. 
 
 See Eat. 
 
 
 
 EETH. 
 
 See Eath. 
 
 
 
 EETHE 
 
 See Eathe. 
 
 
 
 EEVE. 
 
 See Eave. 
 
 
 EEVES. 
 
 fieaves rhymes plural of nouns and third person 
 sin^lar present of verbs in Eeve, Ieve, etc. 
 
 EEZE. 
 Breeze, freeze, wheeze, sneeze, squeeze, and the 
 plurals of nouns and third persons singular present 
 tense of verbs in Ee, cheese, leese, these, ease, ap- 
 pease, disease, displease, tease, seize, and the plurals 
 of nouns in Ea, Ee, etc. 
 
 EF. 
 Clef, nef, semibref, kef, deaf.
 
 L'ICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 151 
 
 EFT. 
 Cleft, left, theft, weft, bereft. 
 
 EG and EGG. 
 ^SS' leg, beg, peg, Meg, keg, Winnepeg, 
 
 
 EGM. 
 
 See Em. 
 
 
 
 EGN. 
 
 Thegn. See AiN. 
 
 
 
 EH. 
 
 Eh ? See Ay. 
 
 
 
 EIGH. 
 
 See Ay. 
 
 
 
 EIGHT. 
 
 See Ate and Ite. 
 
 
 
 EIGN. 
 
 See AiN. 
 
 
 
 EIL. 
 
 See Eel and Ail. 
 
 
 
 EIN. 
 
 See Am. 
 
 
 
 EINT. 
 
 See AiNT. 
 
 
 
 EIR. 
 
 See Are. 
 
 
 
 EIRD. 
 
 Weird. See Eare 
 
 ).
 
 152 
 
 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 
 EIT. 
 
 See Eat. 
 
 
 
 EIVE. 
 
 See Eave. 
 
 
 
 EIZE. 
 
 See Eeze. 
 
 
 
 EKE. 
 
 See Eak. 
 
 
 EL, and ELL. 
 
 Ell, dwell, fell, hell, knell, quell, sell, bell, cell, mell, 
 dispel, foretell, excel, compel, befell, yell, well, tell, 
 swell, spell, smell, shell, parallel, sentinel, infidel, cita- 
 del, refel, repel, rebel, impel, expel, asphodel, petronel, 
 calomel, muscatel. 
 
 ELD. 
 
 Held, geld, withheld, upheld, beheld, eld, etc., the 
 preterites and participles of verbs in El, Ell. 
 
 ELF. 
 Elf, delf, pelf, self, shelf, himself, Guelf, Guelph. 
 
 ELK. 
 
 Elk, kelk, whelk. 
 
 ELM. 
 Elm, helm, realm, whelm, overwhelm. 
 
 ELP. 
 
 Help, whelp, kelp, yelp.
 
 4 
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 153 
 
 ELT. 
 Belt, gelt, melt, felt, welt, smelt, pelt, dwelt, dealt. 
 
 ELVE. 
 Delve, helve, shelve, twelve. 
 
 ELVES. 
 Elves, themselves, the plurals of nouns and third 
 persons singular of verbs in Elve. 
 
 EM. 
 Gem, hem, stem, them, diadem, stratagem, anadem, 
 kemb, phlegm, condemn, contemn, parapegm, apo- 
 thegm. 
 
 EME. 
 See Eam. 
 
 EMN. 
 See Em. 
 
 EMPT. 
 Tempt, exempt, attempt, contempt, dreamt. 
 
 EN. 
 Den, hen, fen, ken, men, pen, ten, then, when, wren, 
 denizen. Hyen rhymes Een. 
 
 ENCE. 
 
 Fence, hence, pence, thence, whence, defence, ex- 
 pense, offence, pretence, commence, abstinence, circum- 
 ference, conference, confidence, consequence, continence,
 
 154 
 
 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 benevolence, concupiscence, difference, diffidence, dili- 
 gence, eloquence, eminence, evidence, excellence, im- 
 penitence, impertinence, impotence, impudence, im- 
 providence, incontinence, indifference, indigence, indo- 
 lence, inference, intelligence, innocence, magnificence, 
 munificence, negligence, omnipotence, penitence, pref- 
 erence, providence, recompense, reference, residence, 
 reverence, vehemence, violence, sense, dense, cense, 
 condense, immense, intense, prepense, dispense, sus- 
 pense, prepense, incense, frankincense. 
 
 ENCH. 
 
 Bench, drench, retrench, quench, clench, stench, 
 tench, trench, wench, wrench, intrench, blench. 
 
 END. 
 
 Bend, mend, blend, end, fend, lend, rend, send, 
 spend, tend, vend, amend, attend, ascend, commend, 
 contend, defend, depend, descend, distend, expend, 
 extend, forefend, impend, misspend, obtend, offend, 
 portend, pretend, protend, suspend, transcend, unbend, 
 apprehend, comprehend, condescend, discommend, rec- 
 ommend, reprehend, dividend, reverend, friend, be- 
 friend, and the preterites and participles of verbs in 
 En, etc. 
 
 ENDS. 
 
 Amends, the plurals of nouns and third persons 
 singular present tense of verbs in End. 
 
 ENE. 
 See Ean.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 155 
 
 ENGE. 
 Avenge, revenge, no rhyme. 
 
 ENGTH. 
 
 Length, strength. 
 
 ENS. 
 
 Lens, plural of nouns and third person singular 
 ■present of verbs in En. 
 
 ENT. 
 
 Bent, lent, rent, pent, scent, sent, shent, spent, tent, 
 vent, went, blent, cement, brent, hent, absent, meant, 
 ascent, assent, attent, augment, cement, content, con- 
 sent, descent, dissent, event, extent, foment, frequent, 
 indent, intent, invent, lament, misspent, o'erspent, pre- 
 sent, prevent, relent, repent, resent, ostent, ferment, 
 outwent, under\vent, discontent, unbent, circumvent, 
 represent, abstinent, accident, accomplishment, admon- 
 ishment, acknowledgment, aliment, arbitrament, argu- 
 ment, banishment, battlement, blandishment, astonish- 
 ment, armipotent, bellipotent, benevolent, chastisement, 
 competent, complement, compliment, confident, conti- 
 nent, corpulent, detriment, different, diligent, disparage- 
 ment, document, element, eloquent, eminent, equivalent, 
 establishment, evident, excellent, excrement, exigent, 
 experiment, firmament, fraudulent, government, embel- 
 lishment, imminent, impenitent, impertinent, implement, 
 impotent, imprisonment, improvident, impudent, inci- 
 dent, incompetent, incontinent, indifferent, indigent.
 
 156 • THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 innocent, insolent, instrument, irreverent, languishment, 
 ligament, lineament, magnificent, management, medica- 
 ment, malecontent, monument, negligent, nourishment, 
 nutriment, Occident, omnipotent, opulent, ornament, 
 parliament, penitent, permanent, pertinent, president, 
 precedent, prevalent, provident, punishment, ravish- 
 ment, regiment, resident, redolent, rudiment, sacra- 
 ment, sediment, sentiment, settlement, subsequent, 
 supplement, intelligent, tenement, temperament, testa- 
 ment, tournament, turbulent, vehement, violent, viru- 
 lent, reverent. 
 
 ENTS. 
 Accoutrements, the plurals of nouns and third per- 
 sons singular present tense of verbs in Ent. 
 
 EP. 
 
 Step, nep, skep, rep, demirep. 
 
 EPT. 
 Accept, adept, except, intercept, crept, sept, slept, 
 wept, kept. 
 
 ER, and ERR. 
 Her, sir, fir, burr, cur, err, aver, defer, infer, deter, 
 inter, refer, transfer, confer, prefer, whirr, administer, 
 wagoner, islander, arbiter, character, villager, cottager, 
 dowager, forager, pillager, voyager, massacre, gardener, 
 slanderer, flatterer, idolater, provender, theatre, amphi- 
 theatre, foreigner, lavender, messenger, passenger, sor- 
 cerer, interpreter, officer, mariner, harbinger, minister,
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 157 
 
 register, canister, chorister, sophister, presbyter, law- 
 giver, philosopher, astrologer, loiterer, prisoner, grass- 
 hopper, astronomer, sepulchre, thunderer, traveler, 
 murderer, usurer, myrrh, purr, stir, slur, fur, bur, spur, 
 concur, demur, incur, skirr. 
 
 See Earch. ' 
 
 ERCH. 
 
 See Erse. 
 
 ERCE. 
 
 See Erse. 
 
 lERCE. 
 
 See Eard. 
 
 ERD. 
 
 See Eer. 
 
 ERE. 
 
 
 ERF. 
 
 Serf, turf, surf, scurf. 
 
 ERGE. 
 
 Verge, absterge, emerge, immerge, dirge, urge, 
 
 purge, surge. 
 
 ERGUE. 
 Exergue, burgh. 
 
 ERM. 
 Term, firm, worm, afifirm, confirm infirm, chirm, 
 turm. 
 
 ERN. 
 
 Fern, stern, discern, hern, concern, learn, earn, 
 yearn, quern, dern, burn, eterne, turn.
 
 158 THE RHYMESTER, 
 
 ERNE. 
 Eterne. See Ern. 
 
 ERP. 
 Discerp. See Irp. 
 
 ERSE. 
 Verse, absterse, adverse, averse, converse, terse, 
 disperse, immerse, perverse, reverse, asperse, inter- 
 sperse, universe, amerce, coerce, hearse, purse, curse, 
 nurse, etc., accurse, disburse, imburse, reimburse, 
 worse. 
 
 ERT. 
 
 Wert, advert, assert, avert, concert, convert, con- 
 trovert, desert, divert, exert, expert, insert, invert, per- 
 vert, subvert, shirt, dirt, sqirt, flirt, blurt, hurt, spurt. 
 
 ERTH. 
 Berth, birth, mirth, earth, worth, dearth, girth, 
 perth. 
 
 ERVE. 
 Serve, nerve, swerve, preserve, deserve, conserve, 
 observe, reserve, disserve, subserve, curve. 
 
 ES, ESS, or ESSE. 
 Yes, bless, dress, cess, chess, guess, less, mess, 
 press, stress, acquiesce, access, address, assess, com- 
 press, confess, caress, depress, digress, dispossess, dis- 
 tress, excess, express, impress, oppress, possess, profess, 
 recess, repress, redress, success, transgress, adultress.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 159 
 
 bashfulness, bitterness, cheerfulness, comfortless, come- 
 liness, dizziness, diocess, drowsiness, eagerness, easi- 
 ness, ambassadress, emptiness, evenness, fatherless, 
 filthiness, foolishness, forgetfulness, forwardness, fro- 
 wardness, fruitfulness, fulsomeness, giddiness, greedi- 
 ness, gentleness, governess, happiness, haughtiness, 
 heaviness, idleness, heinousness, hoariness, hollowness, 
 holiness, lasciviousness, lawfulness, laziness, littleness, 
 liveliness, loftiness, lioness, lowliness, manliness, mas- 
 terless, mightiness, motherless, motionless, nakedness, 
 neediness, noisomeness, numberless, patroness, peev- 
 ishness, perfidiousness, pitiless, poetess, prophetess, 
 ransomless, readiness, righteousness, shepherdess, sor- 
 ceress, sordidness, spiritless, sprightliness, stubbornness, 
 sturdiness, surliness, steadiness, tenderness, thought- 
 fulness, ugliness, uneasiness, unhappiness, votaress, 
 usefulness, wakefulness, wantonness, weaponless, wari-' 
 ness, willingness, willfulness, weariness, wickedness, 
 wilderness, wretchedness, drunkenness, childishness, 
 duresse, cesse. -*^'^'- 
 
 ESE. 
 See Eeze. 
 
 ESH. 
 Flesh, fresh, refresh, thresh, afresh, nesh, mesh. 
 
 ESK, and ESQUE. 
 
 Desk, grotesque, burlesque, arabesque, picturesque, 
 moresque.
 
 l6o THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 EST. 
 
 Best, chest, crest, guest, jest, nest, pest, quest, rest, 
 test, vest, lest, west, arrest, attest, bequest, contest, 
 detest, digest, divest, invest, palimpsest, alcahest, in- 
 fest, molest, obtest, protest, request, suggest, unrest, 
 interest, manifest, breast, abreast, and the preterites 
 and participles of verbs in Ess. 
 
 ET, and ETTE. 
 Bet, get, jet, fret, let, met, net, set, wet, whet, yet, 
 debt, abet, beget, beset, forget, regret, alphabet, amu- 
 let, anchoret, cabinet, epithet, parapet, rivulet, violet, 
 coronet, parroquet, basinet, wagonette, cadet, epau- 
 lette, piquette, sweat, threat, rosette, silhouette. 
 
 ETCH. 
 Fetch, stretch, wretch, sketch. 
 
 See Eat. 
 
 See Eath. 
 See Eave. 
 See Use. 
 See Ude. 
 See Ume. 
 
 ETE. 
 
 ETH. 
 EVE. 
 EUCE. 
 EUD. 
 EUM. 
 
 EUR. 
 Amateur, connoisseur, bon-viveur.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. i6i 
 
 EW. 
 Blew, chew, dew, brew, drew, flew, few, grew, new, 
 coo, woo, shoe, too, who, do, blue, stew, knew, hew, 
 Jew, mew, view, threw, yew, crew, slew, anew, askew, 
 bedew, eschew, renew, review, withdrew, screw, inter- 
 view, emmew, clue, due, cue, glue, hue, rue, sue, 
 true, accrue, ensue, endue, imbue, imbrue, pursue, sub- 
 due, adieu, purlieu, perdue, residue, ormolu, avenue, 
 revenue, retinue, through, pooh, you. (News takes 
 plural of nouns and third person singular present of 
 verbs of this class.) 
 
 EWD. 
 See Ude. 
 
 EWN. 
 See Une. 
 
 EX. 
 Sex, vex, annex, convex, complex, perplex, circum- 
 flex, and the plurals of nouns and third persons sin- 
 gular of verbs in Ec, ECK. 
 
 EXT. 
 
 Next, pretext, and the preterites and participles of 
 verbs in Ex. 
 
 EY. 
 
 As in prey. See Ay. 
 As in key. See Ee. 
 
 EYNE. 
 Eyne rhymes Ine.
 
 162 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 I 
 
 I. 
 
 See lE. 
 
 IB. 
 Bib, crib, squib, drib, glib, nib, rib. 
 
 IBE. 
 
 Bribe, tribe, kibe, scribe, ascribe, describe, super- 
 scribe, prescribe, proscribe, subscribe, transcribe, in- 
 scribe, imbibe, diatribe. 
 
 IC. 
 
 See ICK. 
 
 ICE. 
 Ice, dice, mice, nice, price, rice, spice, slice, thrice, 
 trice, splice, advice, entice, vice, device, concise, pre- 
 cise, paradise, sacrifice. 
 
 ICHE and ICH. 
 See Itch. 
 
 ICK. 
 
 Brick, sick, chick, kick, lick, nick, pick, quick, stick, 
 thick, trick, arithmetic, choleric, catholic, heretic, rhet- 
 oric, splenetic, lunatic, politic. 
 
 ICT. 
 Strict, addict, afflict, convict, inflict, contradict, 
 Pict, The preterites and participles of verbs in ICK.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 163 
 
 ID. 
 Bid, chid, hid, kid, lid, slid, rid, bestrid, pyramid, 
 forbid, quid, squid, katydid. 
 
 IDE. 
 
 Bide, chide, hide, gride, glide, pride, ride, slide, 
 side, nide, stride, tide, wide, bride, abide, guide, aside, 
 astride, beside, bestride, betide, confide, decide, de- 
 ride, divide, preside, provide, subside, misguide, subdi- 
 vide, the preterites and participles of verbs in lE, IGH, 
 and Y. 
 
 IDES. 
 Ides, besides, the plurals of nouns and third per- 
 sons singular of verbs in IDE. 
 
 IDGE. 
 Bridge, ridge, midge, fidge, abridge. 
 
 IDST. 
 
 Midst, amidst, didst, the second persons singular 
 of the present tense of verbs in Id. 
 
 IE, or Y. 
 
 By, buy, cry, die, dry, eye, fly, fry, fie, hie, lie, pie, 
 alibi, alkali, ply, pry, rye, shy, sly, spy, sky, sty, tie, 
 try, vie, why, ally, apply, awry, bely, comply, decry, 
 defy, descry, deny, imply, espy, outvie, outfly, rely, 
 reply, supply, untie, amplify, beautify, certify, crucify, 
 deify, dignify, edify, falsify, fortify, gratify, glorify, in- 
 II
 
 164 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 demnify, justify, magnify, modify, mollify, mortify, 
 pacify, petrify, purify, putrify, qualify, ratify, rectify, 
 sanctify, satisfy, scarify, signify, specify, stupefy, ter- 
 rify, testify, verify, vilify, vitrify, vivify, prophesy, high, 
 nigh, sigh, thigh. Such w^ords as lunacy, polygamy, 
 tyranny, can not well be used, as it is difficult to get 
 the y sound without ov^er-accentuating it. 
 
 lECE. 
 See Ease. 
 
 lED. 
 
 Pied, side, sighed, rhymes with preterites and par- 
 ticiples of verbs in Y or lE. 
 
 lEF. 
 
 Grief, chief, fief, thief, brief, belief, relief, reef, beef, 
 leaf, sheaf. 
 
 lEGE. 
 Liege, siege, assiege, besiege. 
 
 lELD. 
 
 Field, yield, shield, wield, afield, weald, and the 
 preterites and participles of verbs in Eal. 
 
 lEN. 
 See Een. 
 
 lEND. 
 
 As in fiend. Rhymes preterites and participles of 
 verbs in Ean, Een. 
 
 As in friend. Rhymes End.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 165 
 
 lER. 
 See Eer. 
 
 lERCE. 
 Fierce, pierce, tierce. 
 
 lEST. 
 Priest rhymes East. Dicst, second person sin- 
 gular present, at times pronounced as a monosyllable, 
 rhymes spiced, etc. 
 
 
 I EVE 
 
 As in sieve. 
 
 See IVE. 
 
 As in grieve. 
 
 See Eave. 
 
 
 lEU. 
 
 See Ew. 
 
 
 
 lEZE. 
 
 Frieze. See 
 
 Eeze. 
 
 IF, IFF. 
 If, skiff, stiff, whiff, cliff, sniff, tiff, hieroglyph. 
 
 IFE. 
 
 Rife, fife, knife, wife, strife, life. 
 
 IFT. 
 
 Gift, drift, shift, lift, rift, sift, thrift, adrift, and the 
 preterites and participles of verbs in Iff.
 
 l66 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 IG. 
 
 Big, dig, gig, fig, pig, rig, sprig, twig, swig, grig. 
 Whig, wig, jig, prig. 
 
 Oblige, no 
 
 rhyme. 
 
 IGE. 
 
 See IE. 
 
 
 IGH. 
 
 See ITE, 
 
 
 IGHT. 
 
 See Ime. 
 
 
 IGM. 
 
 See INE, 
 
 
 IGN. 
 
 See Eague. 
 
 IGUE. 
 
 IKE. 
 Dike, like, pike, spike, strike, alike, dislike, shrike, 
 glike. 
 
 IL, ILL. 
 
 Bill, chill, fill, drill, gill, hill, ill, kill, mill, pill, quill, 
 rill, shrill, fill, skill, spill, still, swill, thrill, till, trill, 
 will, distill, fulfill, instill, codicil, daffodil. 
 
 ILCH. 
 
 Filch, milch. 
 
 ILD. 
 
 As in child. Rhymes mild, wild, guild, etc., the 
 preterites and participles of verbs of one syllable in
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 167 
 
 ILE, or of more syllables, provided the accent be on 
 the last. 
 
 As in gild. Rhymes build, rebuild, etc., and the 
 preterites and participles of verbs in III. 
 
 ILE. 
 
 Bile, chyle, file, guile, isle, mile, pile, smile, stile, 
 style, tile, vile, while, awhile, compile, revile, defile, 
 exile, erewhile, reconcile, beguile, aisle. (There is also 
 the eel sound, as in imported words like bastile, pas- 
 tile, rhyming with Eal.) 
 
 ILGE. 
 Bilge, no rhyme. 
 
 ILK. 
 Milk, silk, bilk, whilk. 
 
 ILN. 
 Kiln, no rhyme. 
 
 ILT. 
 Gilt, jilt, built, quilt, hilt, guilt, spilt, stilt, tilt, milt. 
 
 ILTH. 
 Filth, tilth, spilth. 
 
 IM. 
 
 Brim, dim, grim, him, rim, skim, slim, trim, whim, 
 prim, limb, hymn, limn.
 
 l68 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 1MB. 
 As in limb. See Im. 
 
 As in clhnb. See Ime. 
 
 IME. 
 Chime, time, grime, climb, clime, crime, prime, 
 mime, rhyme, slime, thyme, lime, sublime, paradigm. 
 
 IMES. 
 
 Betimes, sometimes. Rhymes the plurals of nouns 
 and third persons singular present tense of verbs in 
 Ime. 
 
 IMN. 
 
 See IM. 
 
 IMP. 
 Imp, limp, pimp, gimp, jimp. 
 
 IMPSE. 
 
 Glimpse. Rhymes the plurals of nouns and third 
 persons singular present tense of verbs in Imp. 
 
 IN, INN. 
 Bin, chin, din, fin, gin, grin, in, inn, kin, pin, shin, 
 sin, spin, skin, linn, thin, twin, tin, win, within, javelin, 
 begin, whin, baldachin, cannikin, discipline. 
 
 INC. 
 See Ink. 
 
 INCE. 
 
 Mince, prince, since, quince, rinse, wince, convince, 
 evince.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 169 
 
 INCH. 
 Clinch, finch, winch, pinch, inch. 
 
 INCT. 
 
 Instinct, distinct, extinct, precinct, succinct, tinct, 
 etc., and the preterites and participles of certain verbs 
 in Ink, as linked, pinked, etc. 
 
 IND. 
 
 As in bind. Find, mind, blind, kind, grind, rind, 
 wind, behind, unkind, remind, etc., and the preterites 
 and participles of verbs in Ine, Ign, etc. 
 
 As in rescind. Preterites and participles of verbs in 
 In. 
 
 INE. 
 
 As in dine. Brine, mine, chine, fine, line, nine, pine, 
 shine, shrine, kine, thine, trine, twine, vine, wine, whine, 
 combine, confine, decline, define, incHne, enshrine, en- 
 twine, opine, recline, refine, repine, superfine, interline, 
 countermine, undermine, supine, concubine, porcupine, 
 Rhine, divine, sign, assign, consign, design, eyne, con- 
 dign, indign. 
 
 As in discipline. See In. 
 
 ING. 
 Bring, sing, cling, fling, king, ring, sling, spring, 
 sting, string, ging, swing, wing, wring, thing, etc., and 
 the participles of the present tense in iNG, with the 
 accent on the antepenultimate, as recovering.
 
 lyo THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 INGE. 
 
 Cringe, fringe, hinge, singe, springe, swinge, tinge, 
 twinge, infringe. 
 
 INK and INQUE. 
 Ink, think, wink, drink, blink, brink, chink, clink, 
 link, pink, shrink, sink, slink, stink, bethink, forethink, 
 skink, swink, zinc, cinque, appropinque. 
 
 INSE. 
 Rinse. See Ince. 
 
 INT. 
 
 Dint, mint, hint, flint, lint, print, squint, asquint, 
 imprint, sprint, quint. 
 
 INTH. 
 
 Plinth, hyacinth, labyrinth. 
 
 INX. 
 
 Minx, sphinx, methinks, jinks, plural of nouns and 
 third person singular present of verb in Ink. 
 
 IP. 
 
 Chip, lip, hip, clip, dip, drip, lip, nip, sip, rip, scrip, 
 ship, skip, slip, snip, strip, tip, trip, whip, equip, elder- 
 ship, fellowship, workmanship, rivalship, and all words 
 in Ship with the accent on the antepenultimate. 
 
 IPE. 
 Gripe, pipe, ripe, snipe, type, stripe, wipe, archetype, 
 prototype.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 171 
 
 IPSE. 
 
 Eclipse. Rhymes the plurals of nouns and third 
 persons singular present tense in I P. 
 
 See Eak. 
 
 IQUE. 
 
 See Ur. 
 
 IR. 
 
 See Urch. 
 
 IRCH. 
 
 See Urd. 
 
 IRD. 
 
 IRE. 
 
 Fire, dire, hire, ire, lyre, mire, quire, sire, spire, 
 squire, wire, tire, attire, acquire, admire, aspire, con- 
 spire, desire, inquire, entire, expire, inspire, require, 
 retire, transpire, pyre, gipsire, gire. 
 
 IRGE. 
 See Erge. 
 
 IRK. 
 Dirk, firk, kirk, stirk, quirk, shirk, work, burke, 
 murk. 
 
 IRL. 
 
 See Earl. 
 
 IRM. 
 See Erm. 
 
 IRR. 
 See Er.
 
 172 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 IRP. 
 
 See Urp. 
 
 IRST. 
 See Urst 
 
 IRT. 
 See Urt. 
 
 IRTH. 
 See Erth. 
 
 IS. 
 
 Pronounced like is. Is, his, whiz. 
 
 ISS. 
 Bliss, miss, hiss, kiss, this, abyss, amiss, submiss, 
 dismiss, remiss, wis, Dis, spiss. 
 
 ISC. 
 Disc, whisk, risk. See ISK. 
 
 ISE. 
 See Ice and IZE. 
 
 ISH. 
 Dish, fish, wish, cuish, pish, squish. 
 
 ISK. 
 Brisk, frisk, disc, risk, whisk, basilisk, tamarisk. 
 
 ISM. 
 
 Chrism, solecism, anachronism, abysm, schism, syl- 
 logism, witticism, criticism, organism, heroism, prism, 
 egotism, cataclysm.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 173 
 
 ISP. 
 Crisp, wisp, lisp. 
 
 1ST. 
 
 Fist, list, mist, twist, wrist, assist, consist, desist, 
 
 exist, insist, persist, resist, subsist, alchemist, amethyst, 
 
 anatomist, antagonist, annalist, evangelist, eucharist, 
 
 exorcist, herbalist, humorist, oculist, organist, satirist, 
 
 etc., and the preterites and participles of verbs in Iss, 
 
 etc. 
 
 IT. 
 
 Bit, Cit, hit, fit, grit, flit, knit, pit, quit, sit, split, 
 twit, wit, chit, whit, writ, admit, acquit, commit, emit, 
 omit, outwit, permit, remit, submit, transmit, refit, 
 
 benefit, perquisite. 
 
 ITCH. 
 
 Ditch, pitch, rich, which, flitch, itch, stitch, switch, 
 twitch, witch, bewitch, niche, enrich, fitch. 
 
 ITE, and IGHT. 
 
 Bite, cite, kite, blite, mite, quite, rite, smite, spite, 
 trite, white, write, contrite, disunite, despite, indite, ex- 
 cite, incite, invite, polite, requite, recite, unite, reunite, 
 aconite, appetite, parasite, proselyte, expedite, blight, 
 benight, bright, fight, flight, fright, height, light, knight, 
 night, might, wight, plight, right, tight, slight, sight, 
 spright, wight, affright, alight, aright, foresight, delight, 
 despite, unsight, upright, benight, bedight,^ oversight, 
 height, accite, pight. •'?? / av- X"^^ 5 J^'U^ 
 
 ITH. 
 
 Pith, smith, frith, sith. {With has strictly no 
 rhyme.)
 
 174 ^^^ RHYMESTER. 
 
 ITHE. 
 Hithe, blithe, tithe, scythe, writhe, lithe. 
 
 ITS. 
 
 Quits rhymes plural of nouns and third person 
 singular present of verbs in It. 
 
 IVE. 
 
 As in five. Rhymes dive, alive, gyve, hive, drive, 
 rive, shrive, strive, thrive, arrive, connive, contrive, de- 
 prive, derive, revive, survive. 
 
 As in give. Rhymes live, sieve, fugitive, positive, 
 sensitive, etc. 
 
 IX. 
 Fix, six, mix, nix, affix, infix, prefix, transfix, inter- 
 mix, crucifix, etc., and the plurals of nouns and third 
 persons singular of verbs in ICK. 
 
 IXT. 
 
 Betwixt. Rhymes the preterites and participles of 
 verbs in Ix. 
 
 ISE, and IZE. 
 
 Prize, wise, rise, size, guise, disguise, advise, author- 
 ise, canonise, agonise, chastise, civilise, comprise, criti- 
 cise, despise, devise, enterprise, excise, exercise, idolise, 
 immortalise, premise, revise, signalise, solemnise, sur- 
 prise, surmise, suffice, sacrifice, symj)athise, tyrannise, 
 and the plurals of nouns and third persons singular 
 present tense of verbs in Ie or Y.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 
 
 75 
 
 O '^ 
 
 O. 
 
 Mo', calico, bo, portico, go, ago, undergo, ho, though, 
 woe, adagio, seraglio, owe, beau, crow, lo, no, fro', so, 
 snow, show, slow, overthrow, overflow, foreshow, out- 
 grow, dough, foreknow, forego, undergo, below, bestow, 
 tho', hoe, ho, ago, strow, slow, mistletoe, sloe, toe, Co, 
 foe, doe, roe, oh, stow, bow, flow, glow, grow, know, 
 low, mow, sew. 
 
 OACH. 
 
 Broach, coach, poach, abroach, approach, encroach, 
 reproach, loach. 
 
 See Ode. 
 
 OAD. 
 
 Oaf, loaf. 
 
 OAF. 
 
 See Oke. 
 
 OAK. 
 
 See OLE. 
 
 OAL. 
 
 See Ome. 
 
 OAM. 
 
 See One. 
 
 OAN. 
 
 See Ope. 
 
 OAP.
 
 176 
 
 THE 
 
 RHYMESTER. 
 
 See Ore. 
 
 
 
 OAR. 
 
 See Ord. 
 
 
 
 OARD, 
 
 See OST. 
 
 
 
 OAST. 
 
 See Ote. 
 
 
 
 OAT. 
 
 See 0th. 
 
 
 
 OATH. 
 OAVES. 
 
 Loaves, groves, 
 
 roves, cloves, etc. 
 
 OAX. 
 
 Hoax, coax, rhyme plural of nouns and third per- 
 son singular present of verbs in Oke. 
 
 OB. 
 
 Cob, fob, bob, lob, hob, nob, mob. knob. sob. rob, 
 throb, cabob, swab, squab. 
 
 OBE. 
 
 Globe, lobe, probe, robe, conglobe. 
 
 OCE. 
 See OSE. 
 
 OCH. • 
 
 See OcK.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 177 
 
 OCHE. 
 Caroche, gauche. 
 
 OCK. 
 
 Block, lock, cock, clock, crock, dock, frock, flock, 
 knock, mock, rock, shock, stock, sock, brock, hough, 
 loch, epoch. 
 
 OCT. 
 
 Concoct rhymes the preterites and participles of 
 verbs in OCK. 
 
 OD. 
 
 Cod, clod, God, rod, sod, trod, nod, plod, odd, shod, 
 quod, pod, wad, quad, odd, hod, tod. 
 
 ODE. 
 Bode, ode, code, mode, rode, abode, corrode, ex- 
 plode, forebode, commode, incommode, episode, a-la- 
 mode, road, toad, goad, load, etc., and the preterites 
 and participles of verbs in Ow, Owe. 
 
 ODGE. 
 Dodge, lodge, Hodge, podge, bodge. 
 
 OE. 
 As in shoe. See Oo. 
 As in toe. See O. 
 
   OFF. 
 
 Doff, off, scoff, cough.
 
 178 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 OFT. 
 
 Oft, croft, soft, aloft, and the preterites and par- 
 ticiples of verbs in OFF. 
 
 OG. 
 
 Hog, bog, cog, dog, clog, fog, frog, log, jog, agog, 
 Gog, prog, quog, shog, tog, pollywog, dialogue, epi- 
 logue, synagogue, catalogue, pedagogue, Quogue. 
 
 OGE. 
 
 Gamboge, rouge. 
 
 OGUE. 
 
 As in rogue. Rhymes vogue, prorogue, collogue, 
 disembogue. 
 
 As in catalogue. See Og. 
 
 OH. 
 See O. 
 
 OICE. 
 
 Choice, voice, rejoice. 
 
 OID. 
 
 Void, avoid, devoid, asteroid, alkaloid, varioloid, and 
 the preterites and participles of verbs in Oy. 
 
 OIF. 
 
 Coif, no rhyme. 
 
 OIGN. 
 See OiN.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 
 
 179 
 
 OIL. 
 
 Oil, boil, coil, moil, soil, spoil, toil, despoil, embroil, 
 recoil, turmoil, disembroil. 
 
 OIN. 
 
 Coin, join, subjoin, groin, loin, adjoin, conjoin, dis- 
 join, enjoin, foin, proin, purloin, rejoin, coign. 
 
 OINT. 
 
 Oint, joint, point, disjoint, anoint, appoint, aroint, 
 disappoint, counterpoint. 
 
 OIR. 
 
 As in choir. See Ire, but the foreign sound, as in 
 devoir, reservoir, is nearer Ar, but must not be so 
 rhymed. Coir is a dissyllable. 
 
 OISE. 
 
 Poise, noise, counterpoise, equipoise, etc., and the 
 plurals of nouns and third persons singular present 
 tense of verbs in Oy. 
 
 OIST. 
 
 Hoist, moist, foist, the preterites and participles of 
 verbs in OlCE, 
 
 OIT. 
 
 Doit, exploit, adroit, quoit, etc. 
 12
 
 i8o THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 OKE. 
 Broke, choke, smoke, spoke, stroke, yoke, bespoke, 
 invoke, provoke, revoke, cloak, oak, soak, joke, moke, 
 
 coke, equivoque. 
 
 OL. 
 
 Alcohol, loll, doll, extol, capitol, Moll, Poll. 
 
 OLD. 
 
 Old, bold, cold, gold, hold, mold, scold, sold, told, 
 behold, enfold, unfold, uphold, withhold, foretold, 
 manifold, marigold, preterites and participles of verbs 
 in Oll, Owl, Ole, and Oal. 
 
 OLE. 
 Bole, dole, jole, hole, mole, pole, sole, stole, whole, 
 shoal, cajole, girandole, condole, parole, patrole, pis- 
 tole, console, aureole, vole, coal, foal, goal, bowl, roll, 
 scroll, toll, troll, droll, poll, control, enrol, soul. 
 
 OLL. 
 
 As in loll. Rhymes Ol. 
 As in droll. See OLE. 
 
 OLN. 
 
 Stol'n, swoln. 
 
 OLP. 
 Holp, golpe. 
 
 OLT. 
 Bolt, colt, jolt, holt, dolt, revolt, thunderbolt, moult.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. i8i 
 
 OLVE. 
 
 Solve, absolve, resolve, convolve, involve, devolve, 
 dissolve, revolve. 
 
 CM. 
 Tom, from. But for whom, see OOM. 
 
 0MB. 
 
 As in tomb. See OoM. 
 
 As in co7nb. See Ome, clomb. 
 
 As in bomb. See Um. Rhomb has no rhyme. 
 
 OME. 
 Dome, home, mome, foam, roam, loam. 
 
 OMP. 
 Pomp, swamp, romp. 
 
 OMPT. 
 Prompt, preterite and participle of romp. 
 
 ON. 
 
 As in don. Rhymes on, con, upon, anon, shone. 
 As in won. See Un. 
 
 ONCE. 
 As in sconce. See Onse. 
 As in once. See Unce.
 
 l82 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 ONCH. 
 Conch, jonque. 
 
 OND. 
 
 Pond, bond, fond, beyond, abscond, correspond, 
 blonde, despond, diamond, vagabond, and the preterites 
 and participles of verbs in On. 
 
 ONE. 
 
 As in bone. Prone, drone, throne, alone, stone, tone, 
 lone, zone, atone, enthrone, dethrone, postpone, grown, 
 fiovvn, disown, thrown, sown, own, loan, shown, over- 
 thrown, groan, blown, moan, known, cone, loan. 
 
 As in done. See UN. 
 
 As \x\.gone. See Awn.- 
 
 As in shone. See On. 
 
 ONG. 
 
 As in long. Prong, song, thong, strong, throng, 
 wrong, along, belong, prolong. 
 As in among. See Ung. 
 
 ONGE. 
 
 See Unge. 
 
 ONGUE. 
 See Ung. 
 
 ONK. 
 
 As in fnonk. See Unk. 
 
 As in conk. Rhymes jonque.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 183 
 
 ONSE. 
 Response, sconce, ensconce. 
 
 ONT. 
 
 As mfofit. Rhymes want. 
 
 As in front. See Unt. (The abbreviated nega- 
 tives, won't, don't, rhyme together.) 
 
 00. 
 
 See Ew. 
 
 OOCH. 
 See Oach. 
 
 OOD. 
 
 As in brood. See Ude. 
 
 As in wood, , Rhymes good, hood, stood, withstood, 
 understood, could, would, brotherhood, livelihood, like- 
 lihood, neighborhood, widowhood. l^ 
 
 As in blood. See Ud. 
 
 OOF. 
 Hoof, proof, roof, woof, aloof, disproof, reproof, be- 
 hoof. 
 
 OOH. 
 See Ew. 
 
 r 
 
 OOK. 
 Book, brook, cook, crook, hook, look, rook, shook, 
 took, mistook, undertook, forsook, stook, betook, caout- 
 chouc.
 
 184 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 OOL. 
 
 Cool, fool, pool, school, stool, tool, befool, spool, 
 buhl, pule, rule. 
 
 OOM. 
 
 Gloom, groom, loom, room, spoom, bloom, boom, 
 doom, tomb, entomb, whom, womb, plume, spume, 
 fume, consume, assume, presume, resume, perfume, 
 rheum. 
 
 OON. 
 See Une. 
 
 OOP. 
 Loop, poop, scoop, stoop, troop, droop, whoop, 
 coop, hoop, soup, group, dupe. 
 
 OOR. 
 As in boor. Rhymes poor, moor, tour, amour, 
 paramour, contour, pure, sure, your. 
 As in door. See Ore. 
 
 OOSE. 
 See Use. 
 
 OOT. 
 
 As in root. See Ute. 
 
 As in foot. Rhymes put. (It is difficult to say 
 whether soot should rhyme root or but, the pronuncia- 
 tion so varies.)
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 185 
 
 OOTH. 
 
 As in booth. Rhymes smooth, soothe. 
 
 As in tooth. Rhymes youth, uncouth, truth. 
 
 OOVE. 
 See OVE. 
 
 OOZE. 
 Ooze, noose, whose, choose, lose, use, abuse, the 
 plurals of nouns and third persons singular present 
 tense of verbs in Ew, Ue. 
 
 OP. 
 
 Chop, hop, drop, crop, fop, top, pop, prop, flop, 
 shop, slop, sop, stop, swop, underprop. 
 
 OPE. 
 Hope, cope, mope, grope, pope, rope, scope, slope, 
 trope, aslope, elope, interlope, telescope, heliotrope, 
 horoscope, antelope, etc., and ope, contracted in poetry 
 for open. 
 
 OPT. 
 Adopt rhymes with the preterites and participles 
 of verbs in Op, etc. 
 
 OQUE. 
 See Oke. 
 
 OR. 
 
 Or, for, creditor, counsellor, competitor, emperor, 
 ancestor, ambassador, progenitor, conspirator, con-
 
 l86 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 queror, governor, abhor, metaphor, bachelor, senator, 
 etc., and every word in Or having the accent on the 
 last, or last syllable but two, pour, bore, tore, boar, 
 hoar, war, corps, tor. 
 
 ORB. 
 Orb, sorb, corb. 
 
 ORCE. 
 See Orse. 
 
 ORCH. 
 
 Scorch, torch, porch. 
 
 ORD and ORDE. 
 
 As in cord. Rhymes lord, record, accord, abhorr'd, 
 hoard, horde, board, aboard, ford, afford, sword, and 
 the preterites and participles of verbs in Oar, Ore. 
 
 As in word. See Urd. 
 
 ORE. 
 Bore, core, gore, lore, more, ore, pore, score, shore, 
 snore, sore, store, swore, tore, wore, adore, afore, 
 ashore, deplore, explore, implore, restore, forebore, 
 foreswore, heretofore, hellebore, sycamore, albicore, 
 boar, oar, roar, soar, four, door, floor, o'er, orator, sena- 
 tor, abhor, corps, encore, Bucentaur. 
 
 r 
 
 ORGE. 
 George, gorge, disgorge, regorge, forge. 
 
 uO - 
 
 y J
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 187 
 
 ORK. 
 Ork, cork, fork, stork, pork, York. 
 
 ORLD. 
 
 World, rhymes with the preterites and participles 
 of verbs in Url and IRL. 
 
 ORM. 
 
 As inform. Rhymes storm, conform, deform, in- 
 form, perform, reform, misinform, uniform, multiform, 
 warm, swarm, chloroforrh, transform. 
 
 As in worm. See Erj^i. 
 
 ORN. 
 Born, corn, morn, horn, scorn, thorn, adorn, suborn, 
 unicorn, som, Capricorn, shorn, torn, worn, lorn, for- 
 lorn, lovelorn, sworn, foresworn, overborne, foreborne, 
 mourn, warn, forewarn. 
 
 ORP. 
 Thorp, warp. 
 
 ORPS. 
 Corps rhymes ORE. 
 
 ORPSE. 
 Corpse rhxTnes plurals of nouns and preterites and 
 participles of verbs in Arp.
 
 i88 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 ORSE. 
 
 Horse, endorse, unhorse, force, remorse, coarse, 
 course, torse, morse, corse. 
 
 ORST. 
 See Urst. 
 
 ORT. 
 
 Short, sort, exhort, consort, distort, extort, resort, 
 retort, snort, mort, wart, fort, port, court, report, morte, 
 wart, thwart, quart, swart. ^It-onJc 
 
 ORTS. 
 Orts, plural of nouns and third person singular 
 present of verbs in Ort. 
 
 ORTH. 
 
 As in north. Rhymes fourth. 
 As in worth. See Erth. 
 
 OSE. 
 
 As in jocose. Rhymes close, dose, morose, gross, 
 engross, verbose. 
 
 As in pose. Rhymes close, dose, hose, chose, glose, 
 froze, nose, prose, those, rose, compose, depose, dis- 
 close, dispose, discompose, expose, impose, enclose, 
 interpose7 oppose, propose, recompose, repose, sup- 
 pose, transpose, arose, presuppose, foreclose, gloze.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 189 
 
 etc., and the plurals of nouns and apostrophized pre- 
 terites and participles of verbs in Ow, Oe, O. 
 As in lose. See USE. 
 
 OSH. 
 Bosh, wash, swash. 
 
 OSM. 
 Microcosm, no rhyme. 
 
 OSQUE, OSK. 
 Mosque, kiosk. 
 
 OSS. 
 
 Boss, cross, dross, moss, loss, across, albatross, 
 doss, emboss. 
 
 OST. 
 
 As in cost. Rhymes frost, lost, accost, holocaust, 
 etc., and the preterites and participles of words in Oss. 
 
 As \Vi ghost. Rhymes post, most, coast, and second 
 person singular present of verbs in Ow, as ow'st. 
 
 As in dost. See UST. 
 
 OT. 
 
 Clot, cot, blot, got, hot, jot, lot, knot, not, plot, pot, 
 scot, shot, polyglot, sot, spot, apricot, trot, rot, g^ot, 
 begot, forgot, allot, complot, yacht, quat, melilot, coun- 
 terplot, what.
 
 190 
 
 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 OTCH. 
 Botch, notch, crotch, blotch, Scotch, watch. 
 
 OTE. 
 
 Note, vote, Iota, mote, quote, rote, wrote, smote, 
 denote, tote, promote, remote, devote, anecdote, anti- 
 dote, boat, coat, bloat, doat, float, gloat, goat, oat, over- 
 float, afloat, throat, moat. 
 
 OTH. 
 
 As in broth. Rhymes cloth, froth, troth, wrath. 
 As in both. Rhymes loth, sloth, oath, growth, both, 
 loath. 
 
 As in moth. Rhymes cloth. 
 
 OTHE. 
 
 Clothe, loathe (with s added rhymes oaths ; though 
 clothes, the noun, in comic verse may rhyme with snows, 
 being colloquially spoken do's). 
 
 OU. 
 
 As in thou. See Ow. 
 As myou. See Ew. 
 
 OUBT. 
 Doubt, see Out. 
 
 OUC. 
 See OOK.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 191 
 
 OUCH. 
 
 As in couch. Pouch, vouch, slouch, avouch, crouch. 
 As in touch. See Utch. 
 
 OUCHE. 
 Cartouche, buche. 
 
 OUD. 
 
 Shroud, cloud, loud, proud, aloud, crowd, o'er- 
 shroud, etc., and the preterites and participles of verbs 
 in Ow. 
 
 OUGH. 
 Has various pronunciations. See Off, Ow, Owe, 
 OCK, O, Ew, and Uff. 
 
 OUGE. 
 
 As in rouge. Rhymes gamboge. 
 
 OUGHT. 
 
 Bought, thought, ought, brought, forethought, 
 fought, nought, sought, wrought, besought, bethought, 
 methought, aught, naught, caught, taught. 
 
 OUL. 
 
 As \nfoul. See Owl. 
 As in soul. See OLE.
 
 ig,2 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 OULD. 
 
 Mould, fold, old, cold, and the preterites and par- 
 ticiples of verbs in Owl, Oll, and OLE. 
 
 OULT. 
 See Olt. 
 
 OUN. 
 
 See Own. 
 
 OUNCE. 
 
 Bounce, flounce, renounce, pounce, ounce, de- 
 nounce, pronounce. 
 
 OUND. 
 
 As in bound. Rhymes found, mound, ground, 
 hound, pound, round, sound, wound (verb), abound, 
 aground, around, confound, compound, expound, pro- 
 found, rebound, resound, propound, surround, etc., and 
 the preterites and participles of verbs in Own. 
 
 As in wound — the noun. Rhymes preterites and 
 participles of verbs in OON, Une. 
 
 OUNG. 
 See Ung. 
 
 OUNT. 
 
 Count, mount, fount, amount, dismount, remount, 
 
 surmount, account, discount, miscount, account. 
 
 OUP. 
 See OOP.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 193 
 
 OUPH, or OUPHE. 
 Ouphe, or ouph. See Oof. 
 
 OUQUE. 
 Chibouque. See Uke. 
 
 OUR. 
 As in hour. Rhymes lour, sour, our, scour, deflow'r, 
 devour, bow'r, tow'r, etc. 
 As in pour. See Ore. 
 As in tour. See Ure. 
 
 See Urge. 
 
 OURGE. 
 
 OURN. 
 
 As in adjotirn. See Urn. 
 As in mourn. See Orn. 
 
 OURNE. 
 Bourne, rhymes Orn. 
 
 OURS. 
 
 As in ours. Rhymes the plurals of nouns and 
 third persons singular present tense of verbs in OUR 
 and Ow'r. 
 
 As in yours. Rhymes the plurals of nouns and 
 third persons singular present tense of verbs in Ure, 
 OOR, etc.
 
 194 ^^-^ RHYMESTER. 
 
 OURSE. 
 Course. See Orse. 
 
 OURT. 
 Court. See Ort. 
 
 OURTH, 
 Fourth. See Orth. 
 
 OUS. 
 
 Nous, house, mouse, chouse, douse. 
 
 OUSE. 
 
 As in house (noun). See Ous. 
 As in spouse. See OwzE. 
 
 OUST. 
 Joust, Faust. 
 
 OUT. 
 
 Bout, stout, out, clout, pout, gout, grout, rout, scout, 
 shout, tout, snout, spout, stout, sprout, trout, about, 
 devout, without, throughout, doubt, redoubt, misdoubt, 
 drought. 
 
 OUTH. 
 As in 7nouth (noun). Rhymes south, drouth. 
 As in youth. See Uth. 
 As in mouth (verb), no rhyme.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 195 
 
 OVE. 
 As in wove. Rhymes inwove, interwove, hove, 
 alcove, clove, grove, behove, rove, stove, strove, throve, 
 
 drove. 
 
 As in dove. Rhymes love, shove, glove, above. 
 
 As in move. Rhymes approve, disprove, disap- 
 prove, improve, groove, prove, reprove. 
 
 OW. 
 
 As in now. Rhymes bow, how, mow, cow, brow, 
 sow, vow, prow, avow, allow, trow, disallow, endow, 
 bough, plough, slough (mire), thou. 
 
 As in blow. See O. 
 
 OWD. 
 Crowd. See OuD. 
 
 OWE. 
 Owe. See Ow. 
 
 OWL. 
 As in co%ul. Rhymes growl, owl, fowl, howl, prowl, 
 scowl, etc. 
 
 As in boivL See Ole. 
 
 OWN. 
 
 As in brown. Rhymes town, clown, crown, down, 
 drowTi, frown, gown, adown, renown, embrown, noun. 
 As in thrown. See One. 
 
 OWSE. 
 Bowse, rouse. See OuSE. 
 13
 
 196 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 OWTH. 
 Growth. See 0th. 
 
 OWZE. 
 Blowze, browse, rouse, spouse, carouse, touse, 
 espouse, the verbs to house, mouse, etc., and the plu- 
 rals of nouns and third persons singular present tense 
 of verbs in Ow. 
 
 OX. 
 
 Ox, box, fox, equinox, orthodox, heterodox, the 
 plurals of nouns and third persons singular present 
 tense of verbs in OCK. 
 
 OY. 
 
 Boy, buoy, coy, employ, cloy, joy, toy, alloy, annoy, 
 convoy, decoy, destroy, enjoy, employ. 
 
 OYNT. 
 
 Aroynt. See Oint. 
 
 OYLE. 
 Scroyle. See Oil. 
 
 OYNE. 
 Royne. See OiN. 
 
 OZ. 
 
 As m poz. Rhymes was. 
 As in coz. See Uz. 
 
 OZE. 
 See OSE.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 197 
 
 U 
 
 u. 
 
 See Ew. 
 
 UB. 
 Cub, club, dub, chub, drub, grub, hub, rub, snub, 
 shrub, tub. 
 
 UBE. 
 Cube, tube. 
 
 UCE. 
 Truce, sluice, spruce, deuce, conduce, deduce, in- 
 duce, introduce, puce, produce, seduce, traduce, juice, 
 reduce, use, abuse, profuse, abstruse, disuse, excuse, 
 misuse, obtuse, recluse. 
 
 UCH. 
 
 See Utch. 
 
 UCK. 
 Buck, luck, pluck, suck, struck, tuck, truck, duck. 
 
 UCT. 
 Conduct, deduct, instruct, obstruct, aqueduct. The 
 preterites and participles of verbs in UCK. 
 
 UD. 
 Bud, scud, stud, mud, cud, blood, flood. \Stids 
 rhymes plurals of nouns and third person present sin- 
 gular of verbs in Ud.]
 
 198 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 UDE. 
 
 Rude, crude, prude, allude, conclude, delude, elude, 
 include, mood, food, rood, illude, exclude, exude, snood, 
 include, intrude, obtrude, seclude, altitude, fortitude, 
 gratitude, interlude, latitude, longitude, magnitude, 
 multitude, solicitude, solitude, vicissitude, aptitude, 
 habitude, ingratitude, inaptitude, lassitude, plenitude, 
 promptitude, servitude, similitude, lewd, feud, brood, 
 and the preterites and participles of verbs in Ew, Ue, 
 etc. 
 
 UDGE. 
 
 Judge, drudge, grudge, trudge, adjudge, prejudge, 
 fudge, smudge, nudge, budge, sludge. 
 
 UE. 
 See Ew. 
 
 UFF. 
 Buff, cuff, chuff, bluff, huff, gruff, luff, puff, snuff 
 stuff, ruff, rebuff, counterbuff, rough, tough, enough, 
 slough (cast skin), chough. 
 
 UFT. 
 
 Tuft rhymes the preterites and participles of verbs 
 in Uff. 
 
 UG. 
 
 Lug, bug, dug, drug, hug, jug, rug, slug, smug, 
 snug, mug, shrug, pug. 
 
 UGUE. 
 Fugue, no rhyme.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 
 
 * 
 
 See Ule. 
 
 UHL. 
 
 See Use. 
 
 UICE. 
 
 See IDE. 
 
 UIDE. 
 
 See Ild. 
 
 UILD. 
 
 See ILT. 
 
 UILT. 
 
 See Int. 
 
 UINT. 
 
 199 
 
 UISE. 
 
 As in guise. See ISE. 
 As in bruise. See Use. 
 
 UISH. 
 Cuish. See ISH. 
 
 UIT. 
 
 See Ute. 
 
 UKE. 
 Duke, puke, rebuke, fluke, chibouque. 
 
 UL, and ULL. 
 As in cull. RhjTnes dull, gull, hull, lull, mull, null, 
 trull, skull, annul, disannul. 
 
 As xnfull. Rhymes wool, bull, pull, bountiful, fan-
 
 200 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 ciful, sorrowful, dutiful, merciful, wonderful, worship- 
 rul, and every word ending in ful having the accent on 
 the ante-penultimate. 
 
 ULCH. 
 
 Mulch, gulch. 
 
 ULE. 
 Mule, pule. Yule, rule, overrule, ridicule, misrule, 
 fool, tool, buhl. (Gules, heraldic term, rh>-mes plural 
 of nouns and third person singular present of verbs in 
 Ule, etc.) 
 
 ULF. 
 
 Gulf, no rhyme. 
 
 ULGE. 
 
 Bulge, indulge, divulge, etc. 
 
 ULK. 
 
 Bulk, hulk, skulk, sulk. 
 
 ULM. 
 
 Culm, no rhyme. 
 
 ULP. 
 Gulp, sculp, pulp, ensculp. 
 
 ULSE. 
 Pulse, repulse, impulse, expulse, convulse, insulse.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 201 
 
 ULT. 
 
 Result, ad-ult, exult, consult, indult, occult, insult, 
 difficult, catapult, etc. 
 
 UM. 
 Crum, chum, drum, glum, gum, hum, mum, scum, 
 plum, sum, swum, thruni, thumb, dumb, succumb, 
 come, become, overcome, burdensome, cumbersome, 
 frolicsome, humorsome, quarrelsome, troublesome, en- 
 comium, opium, crumb. 
 
 UMB. 
 
 See ilM. 
 
 UME. 
 See OOM. 
 
 UMP. 
 Bump, pump, jump, lump, plump, rump, stump, 
 trump, thump, clump. 
 
 UN. 
 Dun, gun, nun, pun, run, sun, shun, tun, stun, spun, 
 begun, son, won, ton, done, one, none, undone, bun. 
 
 UNCE. 
 Dunce, once. 
 
 UNCH. 
 Bunch, punch, hunch, lunch, munch, scrunch, 
 crunch.
 
 202 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 UNCT. 
 
 Defunct, disjunct, rhyme preterites and participles 
 of verbs in Unk. 
 
 UND. 
 Fund, refund, preterites of verbs in UN. 
 
 UNE. 
 
 June, tune, untune, jejune, prune, croon, hewn, 
 swoon, moon, soon, boon, noon, spoon, buffoon, lam- 
 poon, poltroon, triune, 'coon, cocoon, raccoon, dune, 
 shalloon, dragoon. 
 
 UNG. 
 
 Bung, clung, dung, flung, hung, rung, strung, sung, 
 sprung, slung, stung, swung, wrung, unsung, young, 
 tongue, among. 
 
 UNGE. 
 Plunge, sponge, expunge. 
 
 UNK. 
 
 Drunk, bunk, hunk, sunk, shrunk, stunk, punk, 
 trunk, slunk, funk, chunk, monk. (Hunks rhymes 
 plural of nouns and third person singular present of 
 verbs in Unk.) 
 
 UNT. 
 
 Brunt, blunt, hunt, runt, grunt, front, etc., and (.'') 
 wont (to be accustomed).
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 203 
 
 UOR. 
 See Ore. 
 
 UP. 
 
 Cup, sup, pup, dup, up. 
 
 UPT. 
 Abrupt, corrupt, interrupt, the participles and pre- 
 terites of verbs in Up, etc. 
 
 UR. 
 
 See Er. 
 
 URB. 
 Curb, disturb, verb, herb. 
 
 URCH. 
 Church, lurch, birch, perch, search, smirch. 
 
 URD. 
 
 Curd, absurd, bird, gird, heard, herd, sherd, word, 
 and the preterites and participles of verbs in Er, Ur, 
 and Ir. 
 
 URE. 
 
 Cure, pure, dure, lure, sure, abjure, allure, assure, 
 demure, conjure, endure, manure, inure, insure, imma- 
 ture, immure, mature, obscure, procure, secure, adjure, 
 calenture, coverture, epicure, investiture, forfeiture, fur- 
 niture, miniature, nourriture, overture, portraiture, pri- 
 mogeniture, temperature, poor, moor, contour, amour, 
 your.
 
 204 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 URF. 
 Turf, scurf, serf, surf. 
 
 URGE. 
 Purge, urge, surge, scourge, thaumaturge, gurge, 
 verge, diverge. 
 
 URK. 
 Lurk, Turk, work, irk, jerk, perk, quirk, mirk. 
 
 URL. 
 Churl, curl, furl, hurl, purl, uncurl, unfurl, whirl, 
 earl, girl, twirl, pearl. 
 
 URM. 
 See Erm. 
 
 URN. 
 
 Burn, churn, spurn, turn, urn, return, overturn, tern, 
 
 discern, earn, sojourn, adjourn, rejourn. 
 
 URP. 
 Usurp, chirp, extirp, discerp, 
 
 URR. 
 Purr. See Ur. 
 
 URSE. 
 See Erse. 
 
 URST. 
 
 Burst, curst, durst, accurst, thirst, worst, first, 
 
 versed. 
 
 URT. 
 See Ert.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 205 
 
 US, or USS. 
 Pus, us, thus, buss, truss, discuss, incubus, over- 
 plus, arquebus, cuss, amorous, boisterous, clamorous, 
 credulous, dangerous, ungenerous, generous, emulous, 
 fabulous, frivolous, hazardous, idolatrous, infamous, 
 miraculous, mischievous, mountainous, mutinous, ne- 
 cessitous, numerous, ominous, perilous, poisonous, pop- 
 ulous, prosperous, ridiculous, riotous, ruinous, scanda- 
 lous, scrupulous, sedulous, traitorous, treacherous, 
 tyrannous, venomous, vigorous, villanous, adventurous, 
 adulterous, ambiguous, blasphemous, dolorous, fortu- 
 itous, gluttonous, gratuitous, incredulous, lecherous, 
 libidinous, magnanimous, obstreperous, odoriferous, 
 ponderous, ravenous, rigorous, slanderous, solicitous, 
 timorous, valorous, unanimous, calamitous. 
 
 USE. 
 
 As in the noun use. Rhymes disuse, abuse, deuce, 
 truce, sluice, juice, loose, goose, noose, moose. 
 
 As in 7nicse. Rhymes the verb use, abuse, lose, 
 choose, shoes, amuse, diffuse, excuse, infuse, misuse, 
 peruse, refuse, suffuse, transfuse, accuse, bruise, and 
 the plurals of nouns and third persons singular of verbs 
 in Ew and Ue, etc. 
 
 USH, 
 
 As in bbish. Rhymes brush, crush, gush, flush, 
 rush, lush, tush, frush, hush. 
 As in bush. Rhymes push. 
 
 USK. 
 
 Busk, tusk, dusk, husk, musk.
 
 2o6 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 USP. 
 Cusp, no rhyme. 
 
 UST. 
 Bust, crust, dust, just, must, lust, rust, thrust, trust, 
 adjust, disgust, distrust, intrust, mistrust, robust, un- 
 just, the preterites and participles of verbs in Us, Uss, 
 etc. 
 
 UT, or UTT. 
 But, butt, cut, hut, gut, glut, jut, nut, shut, strut, 
 englut, rut, scut, slut, smut, abut, and soot (?). 
 
 UTCH. 
 Hutch, crutch, Dutch, much, such, touch. 
 
 UTE. 
 Brute, lute, flute, mute, acute, compute, confute, 
 dispute, dilute, depute, impute, minute, pollute, refute, 
 salute, absolute, attribute, contribute, constitute, desti- 
 tute, dissolute, execute, institute, persecute, prosecute, 
 resolute, substitute, fruit, bruit, suit, recruit, boot, hoot, 
 coot, shoot, toot, soot (.?). 
 
 UTH. 
 
 As in azimuth. Rhymes doth. 
 As in truth. See Ooth. 
 
 UX. 
 
 Dux, crux, lux, flux, reflux. The plurals of nouns 
 and third persons singular of verbs in UCK.
 
 DICTIONARY OF RHYMES. 207 
 
 
 Y 
 
 
 Y. 
 
 See IE. 
 
 
 
 YB. 
 
 Syb. See Ib. 
 
 
 
 YM. 
 
 Sym. See Im. 
 
 
 
 YMN. 
 
 Hymn. See IM. 
 
 
 
 YMPH. 
 
 Nymph, lymph. 
 
 
 
 YN. 
 
 Baudekyn. See In. 
 
 
 
 YNE. 
 
 Anodyne. See INE 
 
 . 
 
 YNX. 
 
 Lynx rhymes plurals of nouns and third persons 
 present singular of verbs in Ink. 
 
 YP. 
 Gyp, hyp. See I P. 
 
 YPE. 
 Type. See Ipe. 
 
 YPH. 
 Hieroglyph. See Iff.
 
 2o8 THE RHYMESTER. 
 
 
 
 YPSE. 
 
 Apocalypse. 
 
 See Ipse. 
 
 See Ire. 
 
 
 YRE. 
 
 See Ur. 
 
 
 YRRH. 
 
 See Ism. 
 
 
 YSM. 
 
 See 1st. 
 
 
 YST. 
 
 Gyve. See 
 
 IVE. 
 
 YVE. 
 
 YX. 
 
 Sardonyx, pyx, fix, rhyme plural of nouns and 
 third persons singular present of verbs in ICK. 
 
 YZE. 
 Analyze. See ISE. 
 
 THE END.
 
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 FIVE EDITIONS IN FIVE WEEKS. 
 
 THE VERBALIST: 
 
 A MANUAL 
 
 Devoted to Brief Discussions of the Right and 
 
 the Wrong Use of Words, and to some other 
 
 Matters of Interest to those who would 
 
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 By ALFRED AYRES. 
 
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 may be known by his manner of expressing himself." — Swift. 
 
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 has its difficulties and problems which Ciin not be solved or 
 attempted to be solved, without special application and special 
 scholarship." — The Academy. 
 
 THE PRESS SAYS: 
 
 " Those who are familiar with ' The Orthoepist ' will give 
 'The Verbalist' a hearty welcome. From lid to lid it is full of 
 valuable matter." — Central Christian. Advocate. 
 
 " This is the best kind of an English grammar. It teaches 
 the right use of our mother-tongue by giving instances of the 
 wrong use of it, and showing why they are wrong." — The 
 Churchman. 
 
 "Every one can learn something from this volume, and 
 most of us a great deal." — Springjidd Eepublican.
 
 "Even men of learning may read it with advantage." — 
 Montreal Gazelle. 
 
 "It is bright, sensible, accurate, and helpful. Mr. Ayres 
 makes numerous citations to illustrate his points, and his criti- 
 cisms are keen and searching." — Boston Journal. 
 
 "Under the word punctuatimi, Mr. Ayres gives a number 
 of valuable rules. The book can be studied with profit by 
 writers, readers, and speakers of every class." 
 
 "This little book will be extensively consulted." — Albany 
 Argus. 
 
 " Mr. Ayres's lessons are conveyed in sharp and crisp Eng- 
 lish, and are an example of good as well as a warning against 
 bad writing and speaking." — Washington Star. 
 
 "'The Orthoepist ' was well received. ' The Verbalist ' ia 
 conceived on similar lines, and will doubtless find equal favor." 
 — The Critic. 
 
 "The work would delight the lamented William CuUen 
 Bryant were he alive to see it." — New Britain Herald. 
 
 " It would take hours to point out the sharp and profound 
 distinctions of the author of this ingenious and most useful 
 work. We may provoke inquiry for the volume itself when 
 we say that, judged by his high standard, very few men, even 
 the greiitest, have written or write with an exactitude required 
 by Mr. Ayres. There is no question that he is entirely correct 
 in the majority of cases, and no man, however accomplished, 
 can study this book without profit. Wo do most cordially 
 commend it to all who care to speak and write correctly." 
 
 One vol., 18mo, cloth. Price, $1.00. 
 
 For sale h;/ all booksellers ; or sent hy mail, post-paid, on re- 
 ceipt of price. 
 
 New York : D. APPLETON & CO., 1, 3, & 5 Bond Street.
 
 THE ORTHOEPIST: 
 
 A PRONOUNCING MANUAL, 
 
 Containing about Three Thousand Five Hundred 
 
 Words, including a Considerable Number of 
 
 the Names of Foreign Authors, Artists, etc., 
 
 that are often mispronounced. 
 
 By ALFRED AYRES. 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM THE WORK. 
 
 ab-do'men, not ^b'do-men. 
 
 * .7 • 
 
 ac-crue', not -cm'. 
 
 The orthoepists agree that «, preceded by r iu the 
 same syllable, generally becomes simply oo, as in ruile^ 
 rumoi\ rural, rule, ruhy. 
 
 al-l6p'a-tliy ; al-l6p'a-tliist. 
 Ar'a-bic, not A-ra'bic. 
 Asia — a'she-a, 7wt a'zba. 
 ay, or aye (meaning yes) — i. 
 aye (meaning alvmys) — a. 
 Bis'marck, not biz'-. 
 
 At the end of a syllable, s, in German, has invariably 
 its sharp, hissing sound. 
 
 Cairo — in Egypt, ki'ro; in the United 
 
 States, ka'ro. 
 Courbet — kor'ba'. 
 dec'ade, not de-kad'. 
 
 [see kext page.]
 
 THE OETHOEPTST.— {Continued.) 
 
 de-co'roiis. 
 
 ' The authority is small, and is becoming less, for say- 
 ing dea'a-rous, which is really as incorrect as it would be 
 to say son'o-rous. 
 
 def'i-cit, 7iot de-fig'it. 
 di§-daiii', not dis-. 
 di2-li5n'or, not dis-. 
 ec-o-ii5m'i-cal, or e-co-u6m'i-cal. 
 
 The first is the marking of a large majority of the 
 orthoepists. 
 
 e-ner'vate. 
 
 The only authority for saying en'er-tdte is popuiar 
 usage; all the orthoepists say e-ner'tdte. 
 
 ep'oeh, 7iot e'p6-eh. 
 
 The latter is a Websterian pronunciation, which is 
 not even permitted in the late editions. 
 
 fin-an-cier'. 
 
 This much-used word is rarely pronounced correctly. 
 
 Hei'ne, not hine. 
 
 Final c in German is never silent. 
 
 honest — 6n'est, not -ist, nor -ust. 
 
 "■Honest honest lago," is preferable to "honws^, hon- 
 vHt lago," some of our accidental Othellos to the con- 
 trary notwithstanding. 
 
 i§'o-late, or is'o-late, not i'so-lat. 
 
 The first marking is Walker's, Worcester's, and 
 Smart's ; the second, Webster's. 
 
 One vol., 18mOs> clotho Price, $loOO<i 
 
 New York : D. APPLETOX & CO., 1, 3, & 5 Bond Street
 
 CLASSICAL WRITERS. 
 
 Edited by JOHN RICHARD GREEN. 
 
 16mo, Flexible Cloth ... 60 cents each. 
 
 NOW READY. 
 
 MILTON. By Stopford A. Brooke. 
 
 " The life is accompanied by careful sjiiopses of Milton's prose and 
 poetical works, and by scholarly estimates and criticisms of them. Ar- 
 ranged in brief paragraphs, and clothed in a simple and perspicuous 
 style, the volume introduces the pupil directly to the author it de- 
 scribes, and not only familiarizes him with his method of composition, 
 but with his exquisite fancies and lofty conceptions, and enables him 
 to see practically and intelligently what an expressive and sonorous 
 instrument our tongue is in the hands of one of its mightiest masters." 
 — Harper's Magazine. 
 
 LIVY. By the Rev. W. W. Capes, M. A. 
 
 " Well deserves attentive study on many accounts, especially for 
 the variety of its theme and the concise perspicuity of its treatment." 
 —London Saturday Review. 
 
 VERGIL. By Professor Nettleship. 
 
 " The information is all sound and good, and no such hand-book 
 has before been within the reach of the young stiident. Any one who 
 wishes to read Vergil mtelligently, and not merely to cram so many 
 books of the '^neid'foran examination, should buy Professor Nettle- 
 ship's scholarly monograph." — London Atheneeum. 
 
 EUmPIDES. By Professor Mahaffy. 
 
 " A better book on the sibjeot than has previously been written 
 in English. He is scholarly and not pedantic, appreciative and yet 
 jasX."— London Academy. 
 
 SOPHOCLES. By Professor L. Campbell. 
 
 "Wo can not close without again recommending the little book to 
 all lovers of Sophocles, as an able and eloquent picture ot the life and 
 work of one of the greatest dramatic writers the world has ever seen." 
 — London Athen<xum. 
 
 Other volumes to follow. 
 
 New York : D. APPLETON & CO., 1, 3, & 5 Bond Street.
 
 APPLETONS^ READERS. 
 
 SOME DISTINGUISHING FEATURES. 
 
 Modern Methods made easy.— Education is a progressive sci- 
 ence. Aletlioils oftlie last century must be discarded. The question 
 " How shall we teach reading? " is fully answered in these boolis, 
 and teachers who have adopted and followed this method have 
 greatly improved their schools. 
 
 Word and Phonic Method.— By taking at first words with 
 whicii the clnld is quite familiar, and which contain sounds easily 
 distin','uislied and continually recuninj,', both teacher and pupil will 
 find the sounds a great help in reading new words as well as in 
 acquiring a distinct articulation. 
 
 Spelling.— Words selected from the lessons are given for spell- 
 ing witli each piece, thus affording the best opportunity for oral 
 and written spelling-lessons as well as for definitions. In the Third, 
 Fourth, and Fiftli Readers, graded exercises in spelling analysis, 
 together with daily lessons of words often misspelled or mispro- 
 nounced, are placed in the Appendix for constant study. With 
 these Readers no '• Speller" will be needed. 
 
 Illustrations.- The illustrations are beautiful and attractive, 
 and are well adapted to serve as a basis for the language and 
 thought lessons that are so prominent in these books. 
 
 Helps for Teachers.— Teachers will find in these books a simple 
 plan tiiat will trreatly aid them ; while the notes, questions, and 
 Buggestioiis will help the teacher to impart the most instruction and 
 the bi^st culture, which makes the reading-lesson something more 
 than a more naming of words. 
 
 Oral Reading.— Proper oral expression depends on the sense. 
 Get the sense ot each extract and the correct oral expression will be 
 an easy matter. This is the key-note to Professor Bailey"s excellent 
 lessons on accent, emphasis, inflection, and general vocal expres- 
 sion, that are placed as reading-lessons in the Third, Fourth, and 
 Fifth Readers. 
 
 Selections.- The selections embrace gems of literature from lead- 
 in^auihors. No other Keadera include such a wide ranire of thought, 
 showing from the simple stories for children in the earlier books, to 
 the extracts from the best authors in the Fourth and Fifth, unity of 
 design and a just appreciation of the needs of our schools. 
 
 Great Success.- Since the publication of these Renders, their 
 sale has averaged nearly a million a year, which is unprecedented in 
 the sale of schnol-bnoks. 
 
 Endorsements.— These Readers have received the endorsement 
 of nearly every educator of note in the United States, but the best 
 proof of "their merits is found in the great improvement manifested 
 everywhere they are used. 
 
 D. APPLETON & CO., Publishers, 
 
 New York, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco.
 
 JUST PUBLISHED. 
 
 AI HISTORICAL EEADEE 
 
 FOR THE USE OF 
 
 Classes in Academies, High Schools, and 
 Grammar Schools. 
 
 By HENRY E. SHEPHERD, M. A., 
 
 Superiuteudent of Public Instruction, Baltimore, Maryland. 
 
 This work consists of a collection of extracts representing the 
 purest historical literature that has been produced in the different 
 stages of our literary development, from the time of Clarendon to 
 the era of Macaulay and Prescott, its design being to present to the 
 minds of young pupils typical illustrations of classic historical style, 
 gathered mainly from English and American writers, and to create 
 and develop a fondness for historical study. 
 
 The book is totally devoid of sectarian or partisan tendencies, the 
 aim being simply to instill a love for historical reading, and not to 
 suggest opinions or inculcate views in regard to any of those great 
 civil and religious revolutions whose eflfects and whose influence 
 must remain open qusstious till the last act in the historical drama 
 shall be complsted. 
 
 The biographical and critical notes are jnst suflBcient to stimulate 
 inquiry and independent research. The intention of notes and com 
 merits is to suggest new lines of thought, and to develop a taste for 
 more extended investigation. 
 
 Price, post-paid, $1.S5. 
 
 New York : D. APFLETON & CO., 1, 3, & 5 Bond Street.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES 
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