Xxxii. Eighteenth-Century Blank Verse

(a) Thomson:

First the flaming red Sprung vivid forth; the tawny orange next; And next delicious yellow; by whose side Fell the kind beams of all-refreshing green. Then the pure blue that swells autumnal skies, Etherial played, and then of sadder hue Emerged the deepened indigo (as when The heavy-skirted evening droops with frost), While the last gleamings of refracted light Died in the fainting violet away.

(This, from the poem on Newton, is Thomson at his very best in blank verse, or nearly so. He was, however, too apt to emphasise his phrases into full stops, producing what Johnson justly called "broken style," as thus:

On he walks Graceful, and crows defiance. In the pond The finely-chequered duck, before her train, Rows garrulous. The stately sailing swan, etc.)

The trick was pushed to a pitch of absurdity by

(b) Glover:

Mindful of their charge, The chiefs depart. Leonidas provides His various armour. Agis close attends, His best assistant. First a breastplate arms The spacious chest;

and is somewhat noteworthy in Young and others. The reason probably was a sort of nervous fear lest, in the absence of rhyme, the versification should not be sufficiently marked. But at length the proper flow was recovered by

(c) Cowper:

Tīme māde | thee what | thou wast, | kīng ŏf | the woods, And time hath made thee what thou art--a cave For owls to roost in. Once thy spreading boughs O'erhung the champaign; and the nu|mĕrŏus flōcks That grazed it stood beneath that ample cope Uncrowded, yet safe-sheltered from the storm. No flock frequents thee now. Thou hast outlived Thy popularity, and art become (Unless verse rescue thee awhile) a thing Forgotten, as the foliage of thy youth.

(Yardley Oak.)

(The spondee "Tīme māde" and trochee "kīng ŏf" are certainly intentional, whether consciously as such or not. The anapæst "-mĕrŏus flōcks" may not have been meant, for Cowper had not cleared his mind up about "elision," but is one in fact.)