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200
HIPT0HY OP THE BONNBT.
VOL. VII I,
divided into two sets of quatrains iiiul
two of tercets, the quiitrains never having
more Minn three rhymes, and the tercets
never more Mum two. The rules of rhyme
and otliers of finer distinction have been
much disregarded, especially in English,
but the tendency of the best writers
has been to preserve them. It has been
inveighed against, as being u bed of Pro.
crustes, compelling Mie poet either to bar
biliously curtail his thought or to sense
lessly expand it to the limits of his vcise
With its mechanical rules and its super
an mi ate tl theme of love, love under every
circumstance, every form, and in every
degree, there is so little call for real and
earnest thought, that men of rank, who
have no poetry in their souls easily learn
to arrange the conventional thought in the
conventional syllables. But on the other
hand, the theme of love is one in which.
the funey is apt to run riot among the di
versity of iVs creations, and taste to err
from the infinite seductions to which it
is exposed; hence the comparative, super
iority of these productions, among all
poets, may be attributed in some degree
to the care which it is necessary to be.
stow on the choice of words and images
and to the setting forth of the thoughtin or
der to make it the most impressive in the
given limits. Moreover, no number of
rules that add bcrtuty and form to thought
can ever become restrictions to true poets,
who are word-compelling. Dante bears
witness that never a rhyme had made him
Miy otlnTr than liu would. A bed of Pro
crustes, and all levelling it may be, but
this has not prevented all the greatest
poets from leaving upon their sonnets,
more than upon any other of their works,
the impress of their own individuality
Shakspere's sonnets give us absolutely the
only glimpses of himself wu have. In
them, those "wood notes wild" of his are
like songs from leafless branches; "bare
ruined choirs where Into the swcot birds
sang," and full of the melancholy of the
Jailing year. In Milton, too wo seem to
discern the stately trend, the "long re.
sounding march, and melody divine" that
arc characteristic of his more ambitious
works
The earliest English writers of sonnets
wore Surrey and Wj'att. Both had tra
velled in Italy, and from a passionate
study of the Italian poets, brought to their
own language a finish unknown before
their time. They added that characters,
tic of reflection, rather than imagination,
which the Puritans into whose hands it
descended, did so mucfli to decpan and in.
tensify. The Puritans have in their list
of sonnet writers the names of Sidney, lta
leigh, Spenser and Milton, guiless apostles
of the sweetness and light that ever lurked
behind the Puritan severity and gloom.
Mrs. Browning was a poet so deeply
imbued witli the classic spirit that the
Hellenic charm could no more be missed
from her works than the perfume from a
flower, but her genius was like a sensitive
flame that vibrated to every influouco it
came in contact with, and the result ol
her travels and studies in Italy, in those
glowing sonnets from the Portugese, are
rightly considered the best of her works
Keats, Hunt and Shelly have each left the
trace of Italian influence in their sonnet,
while the little waifs and estrays you may
find in out of the way corners of any of
the magazines and newspapers of to-day
which, if you take the pains to conn1
rhymes and lines, will bo found to be per
feci sonnets in form at least, show that
the sonnet hna not yet lost all its popular
ity. '81.