Soft on her fragrant breast the babe she laid,
Hushed to repose, and with a smile surveyed.
The troubled pleasure soon chastised by fear,
She mingled with the smile a tender tear.
POPE’S VERSIFICATION.
The mechanical structure of Pope’s verses may be shown by omitting dissyllabic qualifying words, which are comparatively unimportant, and converting a ten-syllable into an eight-syllable metre, as in the following examples. First read the full text as in the original, and then read with the words in brackets omitted:—
Achilles’ wrath, to Greece the [direful] spring
Of woes unnumbered, [Heavenly] Goddess, sing!
That wrath which hurled to Pluto’s [gloomy] reign
The souls of [mighty] chiefs untimely slain;