Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-03-12
ALTERATION.

/ cOuAQ VI Inc CAQlliSbs eO
ton is the iingling of like beginnings. All
language has tendency to jingle both
ways. even in prose. Thus in proseawe
speak of ''near and DEAR" thigh and
dry. . health and wealth" ETC., but the
initial form of the jingle is much more
common safe and sound, " 60 thick and
thin" veal or VICE." '.fair or foul, -
''spick and span, kith and kim" The
poets of nearly all times and tongues have
not been slow to seize upon the emphasis
which could thus be produced. Accord
ingly we read in Shakespeare:
Full fathoms five thy father lies
In Gray:
Weave the warp and weave the wool,
The winding. sheet of Edwards race
In Coleridge
The fair breeze blew, the white foam few
The furrow followed free.
And Churchill describes himself as one
Who often, but without success had prayed
For apt alterations artf,I aid.
an example which is 10 itself a proof of his
| failure, for ALTERATION is seldom effective
unless it runs upon consonants. Allitera-
ton is wholly dependent on the poets
fancy he may avoid it altogether, or he
may run it into the ground" But there
is an extensive range of poetry whose metri-
cal laws are based entirely on ALTERATION.
This is on the principal which Ieelandic, or
Old Morse verse was founded, and which
came from them to the Anglo-Saxon poets,
and from them to the immediate predecess-
ors of Shakespeare. From the Icelandic the
use of ALTERATION has not yet disappeared
For many centuries it was the only form of
verse, rhymes and rythm being unknown.
The accent being thrown on the alliterative
syllables naturally produced the cadence
which answered for our rhythm.
Wits sometimes use ALTERATION to
sharpen the points of their satire, as Sidney
Smith, who, in contrasting the conditions
OF dignitary of the English Church and a
poor curate, wrote of them as The Right
Reverend Dives in the palace, and Lazarus
in, orders at the gate doctored by dogs and
comforted with crumbs"
Every reader knows-and many by
heart the ridiculous jingle of the alphabet,
beginning, can Austrian army awfully
arrayed."
Take up almost any English book
of verse, and ALTERATION will be found in
abundance. Pope used it constantly, and
lesser lights are in the same category.
Even the Ayrshire plowman found that
man was made to mourn" and the
ignorant boy of to-day says to his girl,
Z" The rose is red, the violet blue sugar is
sweet, and so are you"
Look into Tennyson's works and see how
hard he works the letter s, consonant
generally denounced as having no business
in poetry. Slow sailed the weary mari
ners, and saw I" ''She sat between the
shining; - Snow stood sunset flushed y
"Surely, surely, slumber is more sweet -
"Squadrons and squares of men :" So
shape chased shape as swift /" '.Slow, full
words sank through the silence; +" "The
slight she slips of loyal blood . Some
times let a sunbeam slip; and "She
turned her bosom shaken with sudden
storm OF signs" But / forbear, and turn
to Swinburne only to find that IN ALTER
alton he tout Herods Herod."
Old sayings and proverbs are full of allit-
Grafton care killeth the cat ;" =" Neither
fish, flesh nor fowl p Like master, like
man," and When the wine is in the wit
is out, " and SO on without end. To the
despair of the poor cockney favorite
poem has the line, 1.-The heart that is
humble might hope for it here.
No doubt there are remarkable allitera-
tions in the Bible.
Inasmuch as this article was intended
mainly to suggest that perhaps our English
tendency to use ALTERATION has come down
in our blood from the Mortimer, who were
in England long before the Anglo -Saxons,
enough has been said to call attention to
the query.
But there ia lower alliterative use of
letters that has become positive mania
with many of the newspapers Of the day,
in the headings of their articles. Ships
are no longer driven ashore; they are
Bounced by Billows;" if house is
burned it is g Fed to the Fire Fend :" to
commit suicide is to Kick off the Coil. :"
Out West, recently, mother murdered
child, and the newspaper said she had
Killed Her Kid" These sensational
headings are sometimes even blasphemous.
The disease amounts to an epidemic news
editors lie awake of nights racking their
brains for shocking sudden sensation
head of an article about next to nothing at
all. Let us hope the epidemic will soon
run its course, for it is now at the hight,
and one hardly dares put pen or pencil to
paper lest the disease might suddenly de-
velop in some extravagant enormity of ex
preston.
The kissing letters seem to be very USE
full factor in verse, after all. as the follow
ing specimens, hastily selected from book
of Familiar Quotations, will show:
Full well she sange the service divine
Entuned in her nose full sweetly.5Chaucer.
Shyned bright,
And made sunshine in shady place.
-tSpenser
And these from Shakespeare
Such jewel
AS twenty seas, IL all their sands were pearl
Certain stars shot mady from there spores.
None If should salvation.
So sways she level in her husbands heart
Saint George that winged the dragon, and eer since
Sits on his horses back.
l saw a smith stand with his hammer thus.
This precious stone set in the silver sea.
Let US sit upon the ound, and tell sad stories.
Even such man, 50 faint, so spiritless,
So dull so dead in loci k, so woe begone.
Some satter of age in you, some relish OF the salt
ness of time
| Stiffen the sinews summons the blood.
Greyhounds in the slips, straining upon the start
To men that sought him sweet as summer,
How silver sweet sound lovers tongues by night.
Brutus will start spirit as soon as Caesar.
Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such sort.
Eyes like stars start from their spheres.
Bow stubborn knees and heart with strings of steel
| Be soft sipews Of the newb IN babe.
When sorrows come they come not single spies.
When to the sessions Of sweet, silent thought, l
summon up
Milton wrote:
OF calling shapes, and reckoning shadows dire,
And airy tongues that syllable mems names
On sands, and shores, and desert wildernesses.
And further:
So dear so heaven is sanity Charity,
That when a soul is found sincerely so.