se equal syllables alone require,
ugh oft the ear the open vowels tire,
le,exp!etives their feeble aid do join,
1 ten low words oft creep in one dull line :
le IJiey ring round the same unvaried chimes,
li sure returns of stiU expected rhymes ;



lyCOOglC



ALEXANDER POPE. 1!

Where'er you find "the cooling western breeze,"

In the next line it "whiBpers through the trees ; "

If crystal streams " with pleasing murmura creep,"

The reader's threaten'd (not in vain) with "sleep; "

Then, at the last and only couplet, fraught

With some unmeaning thing they call a thought,

A needless Alexandrine ends the song,

That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.
Leave such to tune their own dull rhymes, and know.
What's roundly smooth, or langnishingly slow ;

And praise the easy vigour of a line

When Denham's strength and Waller's sweetness join.
True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,

Ab those move easiest who have leam'd to dance.
'Tis not enough no harshness gives offence ;

The sound must seem an echo to the sense.
Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows,

And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows ;

But when loud surges lash the sounding shore.
The hoarse, rov^h verse should like the torrent roar.
When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw.
The line, too, labours, and the words move slow :

Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain,

Flies o'er the unbending corn, and skims along the m^n.
Hear how Timotheus' varied lays surprise.
