Practical Guide to English Versification / With a Compendious Dictionary of Rhymes, an Examination / of Classical Measures, and Comments Upon Burlesque and / Comic Verse, Vers de Société, and Song-writing

by Tom Hood

Was lovely as a Grecian maid,

Adorn'd with wreaths of myrtle."

Compare the effect of this stanza with its parenthetic clause and its tale-tagged similitude, to that of the old ballad, so remarkable for its simplicity:—

"I wish I were where Helen lies;

Night and day on me she cries;

Oh! that I were where Helen lies,

On fair Kirkconnel lea."

* * * * * *

"Curst be the head that thought the thought,

Curst be the hand that shot the shot,