body of his poems. _Adonais_ is, in this respect, neither more nor less
correct than his other writings. It would hardly be reasonable to
attribute his laxity in rhyming to either carelessness, indifference, or
unskilfulness: but rather to a deliberate preference for a certain
variety in the rhyme-sounds--as tending to please the ear, and availing
to satisfy it in the total effect, without cloying it by any tight-drawn
uniformity. Such a preference can be justified on two grounds: firstly,
that the general effect of the slightly varied sounds is really the more
gratifying of the two methods, and I believe that, practised within
reasonable limits, it is so; and secondly, that the requirements of
sense are superior to those of sound, and that, in the effort after
severely exact rhyming, a writer would often, be compelled to sacrifice
some delicacy of thought, or some grace or propriety of diction. Looking
through the stanzas of _Adonais_, I find the following laxities of
rhyming: Compeers, dares; anew, knew (this repetition of an identical
syllable as if it were a rhyme is very frequent with Shelley, who
evidently considered it to be permissible, and even right--and in this
view he has plenty of support): God; road; last, waste; taught, not;
break, cheek (two instances); ground, moaned; both, youth; rise, arise;
song, stung; steel, fell; light, delight; part, depart; wert, heart;
wrong, tongue; brow, so; moan, one; crown, tone; song, unstrung; knife,
grief; mourn, burn; dawn, moan; bear, bear; blot, thought; renown,
Chatterton; thought, not; approved, reproved; forth, earth; nought, not;
home, tomb; thither, together; wove, of; riven, heaven. These are 34
instances of irregularity. The number of stanzas in _Adonais_ is 55:
therefore there is more than one such irregularity for every two
stanzas.
It may not be absolutely futile if we bestow a little more attention
upon the details of these laxities of rhyme. The repetition of an
identical syllable has been cited 6 times. In 4 instances the sound of
_taught_ is assimilated to that of _not_ (I take here no account of
differences of spelling, but only of the sounds); in 4, the sound of
_ground_ and of _renown_ to that of _moaned_, or of _Chatterton_; in 2,
the sound of _o_ in _road, both_, and _wove_, to that in _God, youth_,
and _of_; in 3, the sound of _song_ to that of _stung_; in 2, the sound
of _ee_ in _compeers, steel, cheek_, and _grief_, to that in _dares,
fell, break_ and _knife_; in 2, the sound of _e_ in _wert_ and _earth_
to that in _heart_ and _forth_; in 3, the sound of _o_ in _moan_ and
_home_ to that in _one, dawn_, and _tomb_; in 2, the sound of _thither_
to that of _together_. The other cases which I have cited have only a
single instance apiece. It results therefore that the vowel-sound
subjected to the most frequent variations is that of _o_, whether single
or in combination.
Shelley may be considered to allow himself more than an average degree
of latitude in rhyming: but it is a fact that, if the general body of
English poetry is scrutinized, it will be found to be more or less lax
in this matter. This question is complicated by another question--that
of how words were pronounced at different periods in our literary
history: in order to exclude the most serious consequent difficulties, I
shall say nothing here about any poet prior to Milton. I take at
haphazard four pages of rhymed verse from each of the following six
poets, and the result proves to be as follows:--
_Milton._--Pass, was; feast, rest; come, room; still, invisible;
vouchsafe, safe; moon, whereon; ordained, land. 7 instances.
_Dryden._--Alone, fruition; guard, heard; pursued, good: procured,