...But when loud surges lash the sounding shore, The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrentroar. sten'd feet begin to bind, Hear how Timotheus' vary'd lays surprise, [main. And bid alternate passions fall and rise ! While,...

...But when loud billows lash the sounding shore, The hoarse rough verse should like the torrent roar. When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,...slow ; Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain, Flieso'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main. From these lines, laboured with great attention,...

...principles of representative harmony, it will be sufficient to remark that the poet, who tells us, that When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, The line too labours, and the words move slow: Nut so, when swift Camilla scours the plain, Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main...

...principles of representative harmony, it will be sufficient to remark that the poet, who tells us, that When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,...years, the praise of Camilla's lightness of foot, tried another experiment upon sound and time, and produced this memorable triplet : Waller was smooth...

...principles of representative harmony, it will be sufficient to remark that the poet, who tells us, that, When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,...thirty years the praise of Camilla's lightness of foot, tried another experiment upon sound and time, and produced this memorable triplet ; Waller was smooth...

...case of enactment for traditional poetics is Pope's example from Homer in his 'Essay on Criticism': 'When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, / The line too labours and the words move slow.' But the Sonnets offer more striking examples, such as the opening of 129: 'Th'expense of spirit in...

...or the genius of the writer. A single instance may suffice to let this idea in the clearest light: When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, The line too labours, and the words move slow.23 So will they in the expression of a deep and heavy affliction: And in this harsh world draw...

...harmony' like Pope's is not true musical poetry but only description. He does not admire such passages as When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw The line too labours and the words move slow. For precisely the same reason Beattie attacked Handel for 'imitating in a trifling way' in his setting...

...exemplifying his simplistic youthful "rule" that the sound of a verse "must seem an Eccho to the Sense." When Ajax strives, some Rock's vast Weight to throw,...o'er th' unbending Corn, and skims along the Main. As he matures, however, he applies this principle in subtler and subtler ways — in fact, to the vanishing...

...is in fact mucking about with the truth about our lives. To return to Pope's examples for a moment: "When Ajax strives, some Rock's vast weight to throw,.../ The Line too labours, and the Words move slow": We may easily observe that "some Rock's vast weight," although metrically resolved as iambs (because...