t4 ART OP READING AND WRITING, CHAP. XX. Of Reading Verse. TT-IERE are two ways of writing on any subject, and these are prose and verse; or, in other words, plain language and poetry. Prose is the common manner ofwriting where there is no ne. cessary confinement to a certain number of syllables, or placing the words in any peculiar form. English verse generally includes both metre and rhyme. When every line is confined to a certain number of syllables and the words so placed, that the accents may naturally fall on such peculiar syllables as make a sort of harmony to the ear; this is called themetre. When twoor more verses, near to each other, end withthe same, or a like sound, the verse is said to have rhyme : TAKE THESE EXAMPLES " I've tasted all the pleasures here, " They are not lasting, nor sincere, " To eat and drink, discourse and play, " To-morrow as wedo to-day : " This beaten track of life I've trod " So long, it grows a tedious road." SIR R. BLACKMORE. OR THUS: " Patiencea little longer hold, " Awhile this mortal burden bear ; " When a few moments more are told, " All this vain scenewill disappear : " Immortal life will follow this, " And guiltand grief bechang'd for endless joyand bliss.". Sir R. B. Sometimes a double rhyme is used, and the two last syllables chime together ; but this is seldom admitted, except in comical, pleasant, or familiar verse : as, " What made thee, Tom, last night so merry? " Was it good ale, or good canary t" Sometimes English verse is written without rhyme, and is called blank verse. For instance of this, take the description of hell in Milton's admirable poem, called Paradise lost. " Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace " And rest can never dwell: Hopenever comes, " That comes to all ; but torture without end " Still urges ; and a fiery deluge fed ' With ever-burning sulphur unconsum'd." But in this sort of verse the metre is observed, as much as if it had rhyme also. In English metre the words are generally so disposed, that the accent may fall on every second, fourth, and sixth syllable.; and on the eighth, and tenth, and twelfth also, if the lines are so long. The firstsix lines of Sir RichardBlackmore's excel-
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