Suckling, A Ballad upon a Wedding
2. Compare the following examples of Milton’s earlier and later blank verse respectively. Observe the metrical dexterity, the cadence, and the vowel-music.
(1) They left me then, when the gray-hooded even,
Like a sad votarist in palmer’s weed
Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phœbus’ wain.
But where they are, and why they came not back,
Is now the labour of my thoughts; ’tis likeliest
They had engaged their wandering steps too far;
And envious darkness, ere they could return,
Had stole them from me: else, O thievish night,