The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1875-02-04
PoEFAFIF.
The art OF RhymIng and the Tricks Of
the Rhymesferss


supposition that rhyme is necessary to
all good lyrics. Tom Hood (tbe
younger) says that the essence of rhyme
is identity of sound, and that we no
more match sounds by our eye than we
do colOrs by our nose. The same au-
thorlty remarks to aspiring rhymesters
T'oTHER END RHYMES.
Edgar Poe declared that it was mis-
take to suppose that rhyme must neces-
sarily be put on the ends of lines. On
the contrary, he asserted that unexpect-
edness added to the force of a rhyme, as
in the third stanza of the Raven:
And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each
purple curtain,
Thrilled me-filed me with fantastic terrors
never felt before
And also in the ninth stanza of "For
Annie:
Ny tantaIzing spirit
There blandly reposes-
Forgetting never
Regretting its roses.
This beautiful effect, which may be
called internal rhyming, has been used
by other poets since Poe suggested it.
In Mr.. Frederick Lockers dainty lyric,
The Serenade," we find:
Arise then, and hazy
Distrust from the fling
For sOrrows that crazy
To-morrows may bring.
INTERNAL RHYAuNG.
Like ALTERATION, like the refrain, in
ternal rhyming, pleasantly effective
when used in moderation, becomes in
tolerable when carried to excess. Wit
ness these incomprebensible stanzas
(Which we refrain from italicizing)
called by Joaquin Miller
LOST LOVE.
Thatch Of palm and patch OF clover,
Breath OF balm in field of brown;
The clouds blew up and the birds flew over.
And looked upward, but who looked down
Who was true in the test that tried US ?
Who WIS it Knocked Who now may mourn
The loss of love that a cross denied us,
With folded hands and heart forlorn?
God forgive when the fair forget us,
The worth Of a smile, the weight of tear,
Why, who can measure? The fates beset US
We laugh a moment, we mourn a year.
In the hands of the Minnesinger of
Germany, internal rhyming was Guilt
waited as an art. Mr.. KrOeger tells us
that "the ability with which the Min
nesinger utilized all possibilities of
rhyme is perfectly amazing. Limited
rhymes of complete purity, to such an
extent that in all of Vcgelweide's poems,
for instance, only two slight impurities
occur, they enlisted the vast resources
of their beautiful and flexible language
to the utmost extent. We have Mime
songs wherein every word of every line
rhymes with the other, while the lines
again rhyme in the usual way among
themselves /; poems wherein the last
word of the rhyme Is rhymed with the
first of the next line poems wherein
the last word of the strophe rhymes with
its first word /; poems built in strophie5
of twenty and more rhymes" etc., ad
Eibitlt77l.
LEONE VERSE.
is but one form of internal rhyming :;
in it a word in the middle of the line
rhymes with the final word. Example ::
Twas in the primo of summer time.
In Mr.. @. S. Claverley's ''FIy Leaves, -
this form has been extended; a third
rhyme in the next line is added wit
ness the first stanza of "In the GIoam-
| iLg":
In the cleaning to be roaming, where the
! crested waves are foaminR,
And the shy mermaidens combing locks that
ripple to their feet
/ Where the cleaning Is ! never made the ghost
! of an endeavOr
! To discover-but whatever were the hour it
! would be sweet.
Very peculiar is the theory in accord
| anee to which were composed the words
entitled
When I, sir, play at cricket sick it makes me
For the wicket kiol, it backward with my
heel,
Then OH such rollers bowlers always give to
me-
And the FOUNDERS, bounders, too, rise and strike
my knee;
Then I, IN anguish, try to force a smile,
! While laughing critics round me sound me on
my style
Striving in like manner after origi-
nality, Hood has a comic poem called
GA Nocturnal Sketch, " in which each
line ends with three rhyming words:
Even is come and from the dark, park. hark
The signal of the setting sun-one gun
And six is sounding from tho chime prime
time
To go and see the Drury Lane Dane slain, etc.
And another, called "The Double
Knock" in which it is the first words
lot the last of each line that rhymes
Rat-tat it went upon the lions chin;
81 That hat, know it" cried the joyful girl
Summers it is, 1 know him by his knock;
Corners like him are welcome as the day, etc.
Hood also perpetrated d" and inter
mediate link, as it were, between the
bland verse and rhyme, which begins
If I were used to writing verses,
And had muse not so perverse.
And csrrol like bird in spring.
| Or like a bee in summer time
That huns about bed OF thyme etc.
STOCK RHYMES.
While most of the above are merely
attempts at novelty in the position Of
the rhyming word, many poets and
essayists have earnestly protested
against the lack of freshness in the
rhymes themselves. In the Essay on
Criticism Pope speaks of poets who
ling round the same unvaried chimes,
With sure returns Of still recurring rhymes
Where'er you find "the cooling Western
In the next lines it whispers through thu
, trees"
, In crystal streams "with pleasing murmur
creep"
The reader threaten'd-not in vain-witl
'sleep."
DIR. Holmes says Gone gets tired
! to death of the old, old rhymes. I al
{ ways feel as if I were a cobbler putting
t new top-leathers to an old pair of boot
soles and bodies when I am fitting sen
L l.. Ill