Till then a helpless, hopeless, homely Swain.
Which I am perswaded he left not thus through Negligence or Inadvertency, but with design to paint in the Number and Sound of the Words the thing he describ'd, a Shepherd in whom
Nec spes libertatis erat, nec cura peculi.
Now how far the Sound of the H aspirate, with which three Feet of that Verse begin, expresses the Despair of the Swain, let the Judicious judge: I have taken notice of it only to say, that 'tis a great Beauty in Poetry, when the Words and Numbers are so dispos'd, as by their Order and Sound to represent the things describ'd.
The fourth is, to avoid ending a Verse by an Adjective whose Substantive begins the following; as,
Some lost their quiet Rivals, some their kind
Parents, &c.Dav.
Or, by a Preposition when the Case it governs begins the Verse that follows; as,
The daily less'ning of our Life, shews by
A little dying, how outright to dye.Wall.
The fifth is, to avoid the frequent Use of Words of many Syllables, which are proper enough in Prose, but come not into Verse without a certain Violence altogether disagreeable; particularly those whose Accent is on the fourth Syllable from the last; as Undutifulness.