The school|boy's desire | is a play-|day,
The school|master's joy | is to flog,
The milk|maid's delight | is on May-|day,
But mine | is on sweet | Molly Mog.
(Remarkable for the improvement, by the redundant syllable in the odd lines, on the plain anapæstic three-foot quatrain used later by Shenstone and Cowper, as well as for its leading up to the more obvious successes of Praed and Mr. Swinburne; v. inf. § [XLIV].)
(b) Gray:
'Twas on a lofty vase's side
Where China's gayest art had dyed
The azure flowers that blow—
Demurest of the tabby kind,
The pensive Selima reclined,
Gazed on the lake below.
(Eleventh-century poets employed the old romance-six, or rime couée, almost more largely than any other metre for general lyrical purposes.)
(c) (D. Lewis?):
And when with envy Time, transport|ed,
Shall think to rob us of our joys,
You'll in your girls again be court|ed,
And I'll go wooing in my boys.
(Another instance of the refreshing and alterative effect of
redundance—in this case on the old "long measure." But even in its
stricter form the century managed "L.M." better than "C.M.," which,
till Blake, was almost always sing-song.)
XXXV. The Revival of Equivalence (Chatterton and Blake)
Percy's Reliques, however, taught it something better; though Percy's own imitations and those of others were often as described above. Yet soon we find in