are in any case justifiable, and they can be easily avoided. As in the
Alexandrine mentioned above, the course of the rhythm demands an
accent on monosyllables too unimportant to sustain it. For this
prevalent heresy in metre we are mainly indebted to Byron, who
introduced it freely, with the view of imparting an abrupt energy to
his verse. There are, however, many better ways of relieving a
monotone.
Stanza VI is, throughout, an exquisite specimen of versification,
besides embracing many beauties both of thought and expression.
Look on this beautiful world and read the truth
In her fair page; see every season brings
New change, to her, of everlasting youth;
Still the green soil with joyous living things
Swarms; the wide air is full of joyous wings;
And myriads, still, are happy in the sleep
Of ocean's azure gulfs, and where he flings
The restless surge. Eternal love doth keep
In his complacent arms the earth, the air, the deep.
The cadences, here, at the words page, swarms, and surge respectively,
cannot be surpassed. We shall find, upon examination, comparatively
few consonants in the stanza, and by their arrangement no impediment
is offered to the flow of the verse. Liquids and the most melodious
vowels abound. World, eternal, season, wide, change, full, air,
everlasting, wings, flings, complacent, surge, gulfs, myriads,
azure, ocean, sail, and joyous, are among the softest and most
sonorous sounds in the language, and the partial line after the
pause at surge, together with the stately march of the Alexandrine
which succeeds, is one of the finest imaginable of finales-
Eternal love doth keep
In his complacent arms, the earth, the air, the deep.
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