"Criticism" - читать интересную книгу автора (Poe Edgar Allan)

Another specimen, and one still more to the purpose may be given
from Milton whose accurate ear (although he cannot justly be called
the best of versifiers) included and balanced without difficulty the
rhythm of the longest passages.

But say, if our Deliverer up to heaven
Must re-ascend, what will betide the few
His faithful, left among the unfaithful herd,
The enemies of truth? who then shall guide
His people, who defend? Will they not deal
More with his fo than with him they dealt?
Be sure they will, said the Angel.

The other metrical faults in The Ages are few. Mr. Bryant is not
always successful in his Alexandrines. Too great care cannot be taken,
we think, in so regulating this species of verse as to admit of the
necessary pause at the end of the third foot- or at least as not to
render a pause necessary elsewhere. We object, therefore, to such
lines as

A palm like his, and catch from him the hallowed flame.

The truth of heaven, and kneel to Gods that heard them not.

That which concludes Stanza X, although correctly cadenced in the
above respect, requires an accent on the monosyllable the, which is
too unimportant to sustain it. The defect is rendered the more
perceptible by the introduction of a Trochee in the first foot.

The sick untended then
Languished in the damp shade, and died afar from men.

We are not sure that such lines as

A boundless sea of blood and the wild air.

The smile of heaven, till a new age expands.

are in any case justifiable, and they can be easily avoided. As in the
Alexandrine mentioned above, the course of the rhythm demands an
accent on monosyllables too unimportant to sustain it. For this
prevalent heresy in metre we are mainly indebted to Byron, who
introduced it freely, with the view of imparting an abrupt energy to
his verse. There are, however, many better ways of relieving a
monotone.
Stanza VI is, throughout, an exquisite specimen of versification,
besides embracing many beauties both of thought and expression.

Look on this beautiful world and read the truth