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

He adduces Shelley, with his intense poetry and exquisite sensitiveness to sweet sounds, as an instance of a poet who failed to see the exact necessities of song-writing, and gives a quotation from one of Shelley's "songs" to prove this. The line is—

"The fresh earth in new leaves drest."

and he says very pertinently, "It is a sweet line, and a pleasant image—but I defy any one to sing it: nearly every word shuts up the mouth instead of opening it." That last sentence is the key to song-writing. I use the word song-writing in preference to "lyrical writing," because "lyrical" has been warped from its strict meaning, and applied to verse which was not intended for music. It is not absolutely necessary that a song-writer should have a practical knowledge of music, but it is all the better if he have: beyond doubt, Moore owed much of his success to his possession of musical knowledge.

DICTIONARY OF RHYMES.

Explanation of Signs, etc.

† Words obsolete, antiquated, and rare.

* Provincialisms, or local terms.

§ Slang, vulgar, or commonplace words.

¶ Technical or unusual words.