Flower of the Mind by Alice Christiana Thompson Meynell
page 43 of 45 (95%)
page 43 of 45 (95%)
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Never was a human name more exquisitely sung than in these perfect stanzas. THE ISLES OF GREECE One really fine and poetic stanza--of course, the third; three stanzas that are good eloquence--the fourth, fifth, and seventh; and one that is a fair bit of argument--the tenth--may together perhaps carry the rest. HELLAS The profounder spirit of Shelley's poem yet leaves it a careless piece of work in comparison with Byron's. The two false rhymes at the outset may not be of great importance, but there is something annoying in the dissyllabic rhymes of the second stanza. Dissyllabic rhymes are beautiful and enriching when they fall in the right place; that is, where there is a pause for the second little syllable to stand. For example, they could not be better placed than they would have been at the end of the shorter lines of this same stanza, where they would have dropped into a part of the pause. Another sin of sheer heedlessness--the lapse of grammar in The Skylark, at the top of page 296 (With thy clear keen joyance)-- will remind the reader of the special habitual error of Drummond of Hawthornden. |
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