Rhyme and Reason, or a New Proposal to the Public respecting Poetry in Ordinary
RHYME AND REASON;
OR A NEW PROPOSAL TO THE PUBLIC RESPECTING POETRY
A FRIEND of ours the other day, taking up the miscella-
neous poems of Tasso,(2) read the title-page into English as
follows:—“The Rhimes of the Lord Twisted Yew, Amorous,
Bosky, and Maritime.”* The Italian exhibit a modesty
worthy of imitation in calling their Miscellaneous Poems,
Rhimes. Twisted Yew himself, with all his genius, has put
forth an abundance of these terminating blossoms, without
any fruit behind them: and his countrymen of the present
day do not scruple to confess, that their living poetry con-
sists of little else. The French have a game at verses, called
Rhymed Ends (Bouts Rimees) which they practise a great
deal more than they are aware; and the English, though
they are a more poetical people, and lay claim to a charac-
ter of a less vain one, practice the same game to a very un-
candid extent, without so much as allowing that the title is
applicable to any part of it.
Yet how many “Poems” are there among all these nations,
of which we require no more than the Rhymes, to be ac-
quainted with the whole of them? You know that the
rogues have done, by the ends they come to. For instance,
* Rime del Signor Torquato Tasso, Amorose, Boschereccie, Marittime, &c.
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what more is necessary to inform us of all which the follow-
ing gentleman has for sale, than the bell which he tinkles at
the end of his cry? We are as sure of him, as of the muf-
fin-man.
Grove, Heart Kiss
Night, Prove, Blest
Rove, Impart, Bliss
Delight. Love. Rest.
Was there ever per-oration more eloquent? Ever a series
of catastrophes more explanatory of their previous history?
Did any Chinese gentleman ever shew the amount of his
breeding and accomplishments more completely, by the nails
which he carries at his fingers’ ends?
The Italian Rimatori are equally comprehensive. We no
sooner see the majority of their rhymes, than we long to
save the modesty of their general pretensions so much trou-
ble in making out the case. Their cores and amores are
not to be disputed. Cursed is he that does not put implicit
reliance upon their fedeltà!—that makes inquisition why the
possessor più superbo va. They may take the oaths and
their seat at once. For example—
Ben mio Fuggito
Oh Dio Rapito
Da me La fe.
And again—
Amata
Sdegnata
Turbata
Irata
Furore
Dolore
Non so.
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With—
O Cielo
Dal gielo
Tradire
Languire
Morire
Soffrire
Non può.
Where is the dull and inordinate person that would require
these rhymes to be filled up? If they are brief as the love
of which they complain, are they not pregnant in conclusions,
full of a world of things that have past, infinitely retrospect-
tive, embracing, and enough? If not “vast”, are they not
“voluminous?”
It is doubtless an instinct of this kind that has made so
many modern Italian poets intersperse their lyrics with those
frequent single words, which are at once line and rhyme, and
which some of our countrymen have in vain endeavoured to
naturalize in the English opera. Not that they want the
same pregnancy in our language, but because they are neither
so abundant nor so musical; and besides, there is something
in the rest of our verses, however common-place, which
seems to be laughing at the incursion of these vivacious
strangers, as if it were a hop suddenly got up, and unseasona-
bly. We do not naturally take to any thing so abrupt and
saltatory.
This objection however does not apply to the proposal we
are about to make. Our rhymers must rhyme; and as there
is a great difference between single words thus mingled with
long verses, and the same rhymes in their proper places,
it has struck us, that a world of time and paper might be
saved to the ingenious rimatore, whether Italian or English,
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by foregoing at once all the superfluous part of his verses;
that is to say, all the rest of them; and confining himself,
entirely, to these very sufficing terminations. We subjoin
some specimens in the various kinds of poetry; and inform
the intelligent bookseller, that we are willing to treat with
him for any quantity at a penny the hundred; which con-
sidering our characters, and how much more is obtained by
the Laureate,(3) and divers other tinkling old gentlemen about
town, we trust will not be reckoned presuming.
A PASTORAL.
Dawn Each Fair Me Ray
Plains Spoke Mine Too Heat
Lawn Beech Hair Free Play
Swains. Yoke. Divine. Woo. Sweet.
Tune Fields Shades Adieu Farewell
Lays Bowers Darts Flocks Cows
Moon Yields Maids Renew Dell
Gaze. Flowers. Hearts. Rocks. Boughs.
Here, without any more ado, we have the whole history of
a couple of successful rural lovers comparing notes. They
issue forth in the morning; fall into the proper place and
dialogue; record the charms and kindness of their respective
mistresses; do justice at the same time to the fields and
shades; and conclude by telling their flocks to wait as usual,
while they renew their addresses under yonder boughs.
How easily is all this gathered from the rhymes! and how
worse than useless would it be in two persons, who have
such interesting avocations, to waste their precious time and
the reader’s in a heap of prefatory remarks, falsely called
verses!
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Of Love-songs we have already had specimens; and by the
bye, we did not think it necessary to give any French ex-
amples of our involuntary predecessors in this species of
writing. The yeux and dangereux, moi, and foi, charmes
and larmes, are too well-known as well too numerous to
mention. We proceed to lay before the reader a Prologue;
which, if spoken by a pretty actress, with a due sprinkling of
nods and becks, and a judicious management of the pauses,
would have an effect equally novel and triumphant. The
reader is aware that a Prologue is generally made up of some
observations on the drama in general, followed by an appeal
in favour of the new one, some compliments to the nation,
and a regular climax in honour of the persons appealed to.
We scarcely need observe, that the rhymes should be read
slowly, in order to give effect to the truly understood remarks
in the intervals.
PROLOGUE.
Age Fashion Applause
Stage British Nation. Virtue’s Cause
Mind Trust
Mankind Young Just
Face Tongue Fear
Trace Bard Here
Sigh Reward Stands
Tragedy Hiss Hands
Scene Miss True
Spleen Dare YOU.
Pit British fair
Wit
Here we have some respectable observations on the advan-
G
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tages of the drama in every age, on the wideness of its
survey, the different natures of tragedy and comedy, the vicis-
situdes of fashion, and the permanent greatness of the British
empire. Then the young bard, new to the dramatic art, is
introduced. He disclaims any hope of reward for any merit
of his own, except that which is founded on a proper sense
of the delicacy and beauty of his fair auditors, and his zeal in
the cause of virtue. To this, and all events, he is sure his cri-
tics will be just; and though he cannot help feeling a certain
timidity, standing where he does, yet upon the whole, as
becomes an Englishman, he is perfectly willing to abide by
the decision of his countrymen’s hands, hoping that he shall
be found
—— to sense, if not to genius, true,
Should the reader, before he comes to this explication of the
Prologue, have had any other ideas suggested by it, we will
undertake to say, that they will at all events be found to have
a wonderful general similitude; and it is to be observed, that
this very flexibility of adaptation is one of the happiest and
most useful results of our proposed system of poetry. It
comprehends all the possible common-places in vogue; and
it also leaves to the ingenuous reader something to fill up;
which is a compliment, that has always been held due to him
by the best authorities.
The next specimen is what, in a more superfluous condi-
tion of metre, would have been entitled Lines on Time. It
is much in that genteel didactic taste, which is at once think-
ing and non-thinking, and has certain neat and elderly dis-
like of innovation in it, greatly to the comfort of the seniors
who adorn the circles.
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ON TIME.
Time Child Race Hold
Sublime Beguil’d Trace Old
Fraught Boy All Sure
Thought Joy Ball Endure
Power Man Pride Death
Devour Span Deride Breath
Rust Sire Aim Forgiven
Dust Expire. Same Heaven.
Glass Undo
Pass So New
Wings Go
Kings.
We ask any impartial reader, whether he could possibly
want a more sufficing account of the progress of this author’s
piece of reasoning upon Time? There is first the address
to a hoary god, with all his emblems and consequence about
him, the scythe excepted; that being an edge-tool to rhymers,
which they judiciously keep inside the verse, as in sheath.
Then we are carried through all the stages of human exis-
tence, the caducity of which the writer applied to the world
at large, impressing upon us the inutility of hope and exer-
tion, and suggesting of course the propriety of thinking just
as he does upon all subjects, political and moral, past, pre-
sent, and to come. We really expect the thanks of the blue-
stocking societies for this new-old piece of ethics, or at least
of one of Mr. Southey(5)’s deputations of old women.
In Acrostics, the utility of the system would be too obvi-
ous to mention. But in nothing would it be more felicitous
than in matters of Satire and Lampoon. Contempt is brief.
Bitterness and venom are the better for being concentrated.
A generous indignation wishes to save itself trouble:—a scan-
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dal-monger would save himself detection and a beating; and
every one would willingly be as safe as possible from the law.
Now what can be briefer and more contemptuous than the
mode in question? What a more essential salt or vitriolic
aced, distilling in solitary and biting drops? What less ex-
hausting to the writer’s feelings? What more baffling to
scrutiny, because able to dispense with all that constitutes
style and peculiarity? What safer from the law, as far as
any thing can be safe that is not supremely unlawful? Upon
principles equally obvious it will be the same with flattery
and panegyric, epithalamiums, odes on birth-days, &c. For
instance—
A PANEGYRICAL ADDRESS TO A CERTAIN HOUSE.
What Tools Backs Seat
Use Host Throne Sell
Rot Fools Tax Complete
Abuse. Most. Alone. Hell.
Part Reform Hire Set
Vocation Within Breath About
“Start Storm Tire Get
Indignation.” Begin. Death. Out.
A CAT-O’-NINE-TAILS FOR LORD C.
Packing Washy Loathing
Hacking Splashy Frothing
Racking. Flashy. Nothing.
ANOTHER, WITH KNOTS IN IT.
Hydrophoby Turn about on Go get your
Of troops Yourselves, Self taught
Quoth the looby, Quoth the spout on, Beat your feature,
The booby. The doat on. Your creature.
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A SOLILOQUY, BY THE SAME.
Folk Say Fate
Zoun’s! Blunder; So
Smoke Nay, Great
Nouns: Dunder! Low.
Else Hammer Curse ’em
Miracles. Grammar. Disperse ’em.
[BLANK PAGE]
EDITORIAL NOTES
[1] In “Rhyme and Reason”, Hunt suggests that the English imitate the Italian rimatori in their use of one-word lines of verse. In Byron’s view the piece was meant as a satire on Thomas Moore’s love poetry.
[2] Torquato Tasso (1544-95), the greatest Italian poet of the late Renaissance, known for his 1581 heroic epic poem in ottava rima Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered), dealing with the capture of Jerusalem during the First Crusade.
[3] Robert Southey (1774-1843), English poet and prose writer, mainly remembered for his close association with Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth. After initially embracing the ideals of the French Revolution, he gradually became more conservative and was accused by Byron of siding with the Establishment. In 1813 Southey was appointed Poet Laureate, a post he held until his death.
[4] Untraced quotation.
[5] Robert Southey (1774-1843), English poet and prose writer, Poet Laureate (1813-43).
Ultimo aggiornamento
08.03.2025