The British Controversialist and Literary Magazine (2)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1865 edition. Excerpt: ...a score, and the last line of all is monosyllabic. This line contains the offending rule. The reader will observe that Pope does not object to ten words, but to ten low words, forming a dull line. Of monosyllabic lines in this poem we may note the following, and the reader can judge for himself whether they all and each contain ', ten low words, of which the results are dull lines, and thus decide on De Quincey v. Pope, --lines 35, 73, 81, 107, 113, 226, 232, 254, 284, 303, 335, 338, 347, 358, 399, 426, 451, 504, 574,599,632,673, 685, 727, 744. (33) Alexandrine verses, in English, consist of twelve syllables, of which the sixth should end a word. Drayton's Polyolbion is written in Alexandrines, and the Spenserian stanza always closes with such a line. It is, however, in general used only occasionally in heroics, and in Dryden's poems most frequently terminates a triplet. It got its name from a French poem, entitled The Alexaudriad. It was made popular by Ronsard. and it now forms the regular heroic verse of French poetry. Lines 357 and 373 of the ' Essay on Criticism are Alexandrines. (34) Sir John Denham was born in Dublin in 1615. He was educated for the law, and was a member of Lincoln's Inn. In youth he was much addicted to gaming, but eventually overcame tbatvice. In 1642 he issued his tragedy, The Sophy. Cooper's Hill, his next venture, is a highly successful descriptive poem. He translated Virgil, and the Cato Major; and composed a metrical version of the Psalms. He and Waller broke off from the metaphysical school of poets, and were among the earliest to attend to harmony of sound and sense, and the laws of poetic melody. He died 1688, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. (35) Edmund Waller was born at Coleshill, ...