"On Cherubs and on Cherubims
Full royally he rode,
And on the Wings of mighty Winds
Came flying all abroad.
A Line of Chaucer's just now offers itself to my Memory, which has almost all the Arts of Poetry in it.
"A Sheffield Whittle bare he in his Hose.
There is a fine Alliteration in the Conclusion of the Line, Bare he in his Hose, and a mix'd one at the Beginning of it. The h in the first Syllables of the second and third Words mixes the Sound very agreeably; and lastly, the Inversion of the Phrase (where the Nominative is put immediately after the Verb) is extremely poetical. Bare he. Chaucer seems (to me) by the help of a delicate Ear, and a curious Judgment, to have learnt all his Graces from Virgil. 1. His Rhyme. 2. His Inversion of the Phrase: And 3. His Alliteratio. The Varying of the Pause he does not seem to have attended to. But to return to Milton.
Having spoken sufficiently of the Initial, I come now to the mix'd Alliteration. And this latter is almost as common as the former, and is to be found in all such Lines as these.
"————————And now is come
Into the blissful Field.———————