Knowing this, it was, of course, with some
surprise that we found the American Monthly (for whose opinions we
still have the highest respect,) citing Pope in opposition to Mr.
Willis upon the very point to which we allude. A few examples will
be sufficient to show that Pope not only made free use of the
license referred to, but that he used it for the reasons, and under
the circumstances which we have suggested.
Oh thou! whatever title please thine ear,
Dean, Drapier, Bickerstaff, or Gulliver!
Whether thou choose Cervantes' serious air,
Or laugh and shake in Rabelais easy chair.
Any person will here readily perceive that the third line
Whether thou choose Cervantes' serious air,
differs in time from the usual course of the rhythm, and requires some
counterbalance in the line which succeeds. It is indeed precisely such
a verse as that of Mr. Bryant's upon which we have commented,
Stream, as the eyes of those that love us close,
and commences in the same manner with a Trochee. But again, from
Pope we have-
Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac lines
Hence Journals, Medleys, Mercuries, Magazines.
Else all my prose and verse were much the same,
This prose on stilts, that poetry fallen lame.
And thrice he lifted high the birth-day brand
And thrice he dropped it from his quivering hand.
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