The student, having made choice of a subject, will determine under which of these classes he proposes to carry it out, and direct his studies accordingly.

Never be deterred from writing on a subject because it does not, at the first blush, appear to be a poetical one: there are objects which are poetical in themselves from their own innate simple beauty, as a star, a snow-flake, a rose, a waterfall, a bird, a flower, or a rivulet. Others from their grandeur, as a storm, a mountain, the sun, the ocean, or a battle; but, on the other hand, the most common-place objects have afforded scope for poetry of a very high order. An oak table, a walking-stick, a shilling, a bucket, a lamp, a bundle of rags, an old horse, all have been treated of successfully; but it must be remembered that mere description won't do; your poem must contain a sentimentthe picture must call up some feeling, call back some memory. The association that your own mind may invent, or your experience suggest, will supply this.

If my reader imagines that this "handbook will make him a poet, let him undeceive himself at once. It professes to do nothing of the sort; its object is to assist him in the cultivation of his genius, if he has that within him which may lead to future excellence, by pointing out to him what to avoid, that he may become his own critic, and so spare himself the humiliation of having errors pointed out when too late to mend them. The method of writing poetry he may to a certain

extent learn by rule; the manner must be the reflection of the light that shines from himself. It is by the manner rather than the method that one poet surpasses another in power, grace, feeling, fancy, and all that constitutes the attributes of a true poet.

CHAPTER II.

ON RHYMES.

RHYME is the word which terminates a line

of poetry, when it agrees in sound with a corresponding line preceding it. Rhymes may be single, double, or treble, as — "LOVE" and "DOVE," single; "SORROW" and "MORROW," double; "TENDERLY" and "SLENDERLY," treble.

It is not absolutely necessary, in writing lyric poetry, that every line should have its rhyme; many poets rhyme only the alternate lines. It is better, however, that all the lines should have their rhymes, either in couplets, i.e., following each other, or in alternate lines (of triplets and suspended rhymes I shall speak hereafter), and in writing verses that are intended to be set to music, especially so.

Strictly speaking, nearly all those terminations which are called double or treble rhymes (i.e., when words of two or three syllables are employed) are not so. A rhyme is a simple or single sound, corresponding with another single sound with which it vibrates in unison, as so many notes struck upon an instrument correspond with the same notes struck an octave above or below them.

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sor"

Two words or syllables precisely alike are not rhymes, hence in "sorrow" and "morrow," the rhymes are and "mor," and in "slenderly" and "tenderly,” “slen” and "ten;" the concluding syllables, being the same word, are not rhymes. It is always on the first syllable of double and treble rhymes that the accent falls; and they, of course, constitute the rhymes. Where a word of three syllables is employed to rhyme with a monosyllable, the accent must be on the last syllable, as "shade" and "colonnade;" the rhymes being "shade" and "nade,” both single rhymes.

When a word is used where the accent does not fall on the last syllable, a ludicrous effect is produced, as the following example, notwithstanding "rain" and 66 cane "would be good rhymes, the accent agreeing, will show:

:

Pelting, undermining, loosening, came the rain;

Through its topmost branches roared the hurri-cane.

Words of two syllables having their second syllable the same as the word to be rhymed to, as Gipsey's "tent" to "content," cannot be used.

There are many words that ought not to be used as rhymes, and consequently ought never to end a line, viz., the particles an, and, as, of, the, is, &c. Some of these have been used by the old poets, but they are not admissible into modern verse. Beaumont and Fletcher

have the line

Every little flower that is,

and rhyme "is" to " 'kiss," which is a false rhyme, according to modern accent.

Words of more than three syllables, which have their accents far removed from the final syllable, should never be used as rhymes. Such words as "vindicated," having their accent on the last syllable but one, are allowable, because they will come in with the double rhymes, as "stated," "mated;" and the three-syllable words having a similar accent, as debated," "elated," &c. The simple rhyme in all these is the "ate," the other sounds being weak and languishing, or unaccented.

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There are many words ending in "ove," which have three distinct sounds, but which are used by some writers, as rhymes, indiscriminately: this is incorrect, and should at all times be especially avoided. LOVE, PROVE, and ROVE, though they rhyme to the eye, do not rhyme to the ear, and there is a sufficiency of rhymes to each of these for all practical purposes in poetry. It is better to reconstruct a line, finding another terminal, than to let a false or slovenly rhyme pass.

All obsolete words, many of which are to be found in the old poets, are inadmissible. In professedly imitations of the older poets, they may, of course, be used; but I advise no young writer to attempt such imitations; they would only convey modern thought clothed in an antique garb. The poetry of an age reflects its character, and is a landmark by which we can judge of the condition of the language of the period. Since the ancients