Page:The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Volume 2.djvu/191

Rh But till some such regulation can be formed, I wish them still to be retained in their present state. They are sometimes convenient to the poet. Fenton was of opinion, that Dryden was too liberal, and Pope too sparing, in their use.

The rhymes of Dryden are commonly just, and he valued himself for his readiness in finding them; but he is sometimes open to objection.

It is the common practice of our poets to end the second line with a weak or grave syllable: Together o'er the Alps methinks we fly, Fill'd with ideas of fair Italy. Dryden sometimes puts the weak rhyme in the first: Laugh, all the powers that favour tyranny, And all the standing army of the sky. Sometimes he concludes a period or paragraph with the first line of a couplet, which, though the French seem to do it without irregularity, always displeases in English poetry.

The Alexandrine, though much his favourite, is not always very diligently Rh