Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/402

 330

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. v. APRIL ss, im.

standard of refinement. This is probably represented in Burns's "low'ring and pour- ing" in the lyric entitled 'To Ruin,' especially when it is considered that the poem is written in English and that other poets Prior, Campbell, and so on rime lower with power. In another English poem, the ' Epistle from Esopus,' Burns has this characteristically trenchant couplet :

Why, Lonsdale, thus thy wrath on vagrants pour ; Must earth no rascal save thyself endure?

In other lyrics * The Birks of Aberfeldy,' 4 Her Answer,' 'Sleep'st Thou' the poet again uses endure as a rime im pour, making also bower, flower^ hour, and shower con- veniently responsive. In all these the dominant Scottish pronunciation may well be represented. But Burns's contemporary, the Rev. John Morrison of Cannisbay, Caithness, who died in 1798, probably gives the scholarly value in the well known hymn which he contributed to the collection of service of praise in the Church of Scotland. Based on St. Matthew xxyi. 26-29, this is No. 35 of the series, and it is inseparably associated with the celebration of the Holy Communion. The closing stanza is interest- ing, not only for the rime in which pour has a share, but also because of the example it affords of the early pronunciation of draught. It is as follows :
 * Scripture Paraphrases,' prepared for the

With love to man this cup is fraught,

Let all partake the sacred draught ;

Through latest ages let it pour,

In mem'ry of my dying hour.

The same rime occurs in the tenth Scripture Paraphrase, st. 3, and it is twice used in Campbell's * Pleasures of Hope,' Part I.

In the second section of ' The Poet's Mind Tennyson writes :

Holy water will I pour Into every spicy flower.

Examples of theconventional pronunciation of pour may easily be found in the English poetry of the last three centuries. There is* for instance, Gray's strenuous description o^ the stream of music in the opening strophe of ' The Progress of Poesy ' :

Headlong, impetuous, see it pour ;

The rocks and nodding groves rebellow to the roar.

Young, whose miscellaneous poems are a curious storehouse of references as well as rimes, frequently uses pour as the closing syllable of his couplets, but always links it with a word that suggests its modern sound more, roar, shore, and so on. This, from the poet's 'Paraphrase on Part of the Book of Job,' 11. 125-30 is a good example of the

dexterity with which he balances his vowel- sounds, and moves in a manner not alto- gether unworthy of his original : Vho taught the rapid vyinds to fly so fast, 3r shakes the centre with his eastern blast ? Who from the skies can a whole deluge pour? Who strikes through nature with the solemn roar Of dreadful thunder, points it where to fall, And in tierce lightning wraps the flying ball?

Cowper, in his 'Longing to be with Ohrist,' rimes adored with poured, and in ranslating Milton's Elegy iv., * To his Tutor Thomas Young,' has the couplet,

And favoured by the Muse, whom I implored. Thrice on my lip the hallowed stream I poured.

Burns, in * The Vision,' Duan II. st. 5, has the series gore pour roar lore; while he conjoins door and score with pour in the 'Epistle to William Creech.' Once in 'The Pleasures of Hope,' Part I., Campbell asso- iates 'adored with pour'd ; and he assigns the same position to restored in ' The Bitter Bann.' With pourd Tennyson conjoins stored in 'The Palace of Art,' oar'd in 'To E. L. on his Travels in Greece,' and stored and Lord in the 4 Ode sung at the Opening of the International Exhibition. 3

THOMAS BAYXE.

PROF. SKEAT adduces couplets from Pope, Gay, and Burns in which pour is matched as rime- word with shoiver and flower, and hints that "perhaps some one can help us to another example." Here are six :

Her leave I now my conscience for to scour

When she for me the teares down could pour. That fair sweet thing, benign in every bour (bower).

'King Heart,' by Gavin Douglas, 1586. Like a dark wood he comes, or tempest pouring ! Oh, view the Wings of Horse, the meadows scouring !

Song in ' The Mad Lover,' by J. Fletcher, 1617. Then wept the Eyes ; and from their springs did

pour Of liquid oriental pearls a shower.

' Lips and Eyes,' by T. Carew, 1640. Fairest ! when thine eyes did pour

A crystal shower.

' Julia Weeping,' by John Hall, 1646. But finds the essence only showers, Which, straight, in pity back he pours.

4 Eyes and Tears,' by A. Marvel), 1681. Winter invades the spring, and often pours A chilling flood on summer's drooping flowers. ' Table Talk,' by W. Cowper, 1782.

An instance of pour pronounced as poor occurs in a poem (attributed by Turbervile to the Earl of Surrey) in Tot toll's 'Miscellany,' second ed., 1557 :

Then set this Drivel out of door That in thy brains such tales doth pour. That door usually had, at this time, the vowel-sound now heard in poor, moor, &c., is