Xxxiv. Lighter Eighteenth-Century Lyric

(a) Gay:

The school|boy's desire | is a play-|day, The school|master's joy | is to flog, The milk|maid's delight | is on May-|day, But mine | is on sweet | Molly Mog.

(Remarkable for the improvement, by the redundant syllable in the odd lines, on the plain anapæstic three-foot quatrain used later by Shenstone and Cowper, as well as for its leading up to the more obvious successes of Praed and Mr. Swinburne; v. inf. § XLIV.)

(b) Gray:

'Twas on a lofty vase's side Where China's gayest art had dyed The azure flowers that blow-- Demurest of the tabby kind, The pensive Selima reclined, Gazed on the lake below.

(Eleventh-century poets employed the old romance-six, or rime couée, almost more largely than any other metre for general lyrical purposes.)

(c) (D. Lewis?):

And when with envy Time, transport|ed, Shall think to rob us of our joys, You'll in your girls again be court|ed, And I'll go wooing in my boys.

(Another instance of the refreshing and alterative effect of redundance--in this case on the old "long measure." But even in its stricter form the century managed "L.M." better than "C.M.," which, till Blake, was almost always sing-song.)