WAR-SONG OF DINAS VAWR

The mountain sheep are sweeter
But the valley sheep are fatter;

We therefore deemed it meeter
To carry off the latter.

We made an expedition,

We met an host and quell'd it,
We forced a strong position

And kill'd the men who held it.

We find many clever examples of unusual rhymes in humorous and satirical verse. Barham's "The Ingoldsby Legends" is a mine of such ingenious combinations; for instance:

Should it even set fire to the castle and burn it, you're Amply insured both for buildings and furniture.

Horace and James Smith's "Rejected Addresses" contain other examples, such as chimney and slim knee, which they used because the former word was said to have no rhyme in English. W. S. Gilbert's "Bab Ballads" as well as his opera librettos contain many effective rhymes. As an example of a "patter song," take this from "The Sorcerer:"

O what is the matter?
O what is the clatter?
He's glowering at her
And threatens a blow!

O why does he batter
The girl he did flatter,
And why does the latter
Recoil from him so?

6. Special Cautions

Rhyming words should not be too widely separated, although occasionally a poet carries a rhyme from one stanza to another, as Keats does in the following:

IN A DREAR-NIGHTED DECEMBER

In a drear-nighted December,

Too happy, happy Tree,

Thy branches ne'er remember

Their green felicity:

The north wind cannot undo them
With a sleety whistle through them,
Nor frozen thawings glue them
From budding at the prime.

In a drear-nighted December
Too happy, happy Brook,
Thy bubblings ne'er remember
Apollo's summer look;

But with a sweet forgetting

They stay their crystal fretting,

Never, never petting

About the frozen time.

The troubadours wrote stanzas consisting entirely of unrhymed lines, to which rhymes were found in the succeeding stanzas of the same poem, but our ears are not so highly educated, and decline to carry many sounds so far.

If you employ rhyme at all, study to do it properly. Never be content to leave an unrhymed line unless your meter requires it, as in simple English ballad meter, or the quatrains (four-line stanzas) of Omar Khayyam.

In writing stanzas with alternate rhymes, do not use the same vowel-sound in pairs of adjoining rhymes,—for in

stance:

..hope

stone

.grope

.. alone

is a faulty rhyme-grouping because the rhymes are not identical, yet they are too similar to be well contrasted. It is almost as faulty to use as adjoining words those of generally similar sounds, as:

.hid

.led

rid

.said

In rhyming it is permissible to use your best and most effective word last, but do not be satisfied with an imperfect rhyme. Always seek a perfect one that expresses your meaning. Remember, Dante said that words had never made him say what he did not want to say, but that he had often made them say what they did not want to say. Re

vert to Boileau's counsel, which is prefixed to this chapter, and let all the scheme and variety of your rhymes be governed by your theme and your purpose. That which would be quite tolerable in nonsense verse would not serve for a dignified poem.

EXERCISES FOR CLASS USE AND SELF-INSTRUCTION

1. Which of the following groups are perfect rhymes: cold, doled; might, mite; due, two; knighthood, right would; claim, lain; twined, wind; his train, his strain; scruple, pupil. 2. Criticise any that may be imperfect, giving your

reasons.

3. Would you feel free to use an imperfect rhyme if it appears in poetic masterpieces?

4. In what classes of poetry are internal-rhymes especially appropriate?

5. If you must keep in a poem a word requiring a rhyme, and the only rhyming word is unpoetic, or conveys not quite the desired shade of meaning, which rhyming word should precede the other?

6. In selecting rhymes for a poem, should one always strive for euphony?

7. When a rhyme does not readily suggest itself, how do you proceed to find the suitable word?

8. Write a stanza, rhyming words of several syllables. 9. Write another containing one or more internal rhymes in every line.

10. Write others in imitation of the stanza (a) on pages 72 and 73; (b) on page 66; (c) on page 77; (d) on page 42.

II. From poems in this volume, make a list of rhymed words which are no longer perfect on account of changing pronunciation.

12. Are all the rhymes in the following stanza suited to serious poetry? Why, or why not?

KITTY

Blue eyes so changeable,

Hair so arrangeable,

Twice is she never the same,

Will so capricious is,

Form so delicious is,

Pulses of mine are aflame.

Doric simplicities,

Attic felicities,

In her trim figure unite.

Sweetly they steal to me,

Clearly reveal to me

How disconcerting my plight.

Though I may sing to her,
What could I bring to her?

Only a heart in distress,

Futile my verse it is,

Empty my purse it is,

Bondage, not bonds, I possess.