Verbs-boast and bleed,' " surpasses

or subdues,' 'foams and flows,' 'forms and falls,'' stir and sting.'

(2) Epithets alliterative to the substantive:

Ornamental- wanton wealth,' 'dull delay,' 'merry masquerade,' 'brawling brook,' 'weary waves.'

Determining the meaning-'bloodless bier,' 'warlike worshipper,' 'shady scene,' 'paltry prize,' 'sultriest season,' 'partial praise.'

(3) Epithets alliterative to one another :

That lagging barks may make their lazy way: (2.175)
And join the mimic train of merry Carnival: (2. 746)
But o'er the blacken'd memory's blighting dream. (3. 458)

(4) Alternating alliteration:

Back to the struggle, baffled in the strife: (1. 889)

But ne'er will freedom seek this fated soil: (2.736)
Nor staid to welcome here thy wanderer home. (2.896)
(5) Double alliteration, in the first and last half of a line :
The mountain moss by scorching skies imbrown'd: (1. 245)
Seen her long locks that foil the painter's power: (1.571)
He stops-he starts-disdaining to decline: (1. 785)
Beneath its base are heroes' ashes hid. (3. 539)

Still more elaborate alliteration on two letters may be seen in—
There the blithe bee his fragrant fortress builds: (2.823)
Foiled, bleeding, breathless, furious to the last,
Full in the centre stands the bull at bay. (1. 774, 5)

(6) Triple alliteration, either in one or in two lines:
How do they loathe the laughter idly loud: (2.781)
And wield the slavish sickle, not the sword: (2 788)

I look upon the peopled desert past,

As on a place of agony and strife. (3. 690, 691)

(7) Contrast marked by alliteration:

Who lick yet loathe the hand that waves the sword: (1. 223)

Death in the front, destruction in the rear: (2. 849)

To feign the pleasure or conceal the pique:

(2.915)

Conqueror and captive of the earth art thou. (3.325)

(8) Alliteration gains force by marking the beat of the verse: When his Delhis come dashing in blood o'er the banks:

(2.687)

If ever more should meet those mutual eyes: (3.215)
The field of freedom, faction, fame, and blood: (4.1009)
Her reign is past, her gentle glories gone. (2. 262)

(9) Different effect produced by the alliteration of different letters:

Compare the effect produced by r in

Look o'er the ravage of the reeking plain; (1.901)

Red rolls his eyes' dilated glow; (1.755)

Rome and her ruin past redemption's skill; (4. 1304)

with that produced by l, w, and s in—

Then let his length the loitering pilgrim lay; (2.449)
As winds come lightly whispering from the west; (2.626)
Sounds sweet as if a Sister's voice reproved. (3.804)

(10) The musical effect of a number of the above-mentioned forms of alliteration, when not made too prominent, may be traced in the following stanza :—

The parted bosom clings to wonted home,

If aught that's kindred cheer the welcome hearth;
He that is lonely, hither let him roam,

And gaze complacent on congenial earth.
Greece is no lightsome land of social mirth :
But he whom Sadness sootheth may abide,
And scarce regret the region of his birth,
When wandering slow by Delphi's sacred side,

Or gazing o'er the plains where Greek and Persian died.

e. Adaptation of sound to sense.

(2.864-72)

In modern poetry this does not take the form of direct

imitation, as it does sometimes in Greek and Latin, but is confined to a general correspondence of movement.

Extension is expressed by the long compound in—

Immense horizon-bounded plains succeed. (1. 353)

Smooth movement, combined with alliteration, corresponds to the idea of

Some gentle spirit still pervades the spot,

Sighs in the gale, keeps silence in the cave,
And glides with glassy foot o'er yon melodious wave.

Rhythmic motion is seen in—

He watch'd the billows' melancholy flow. (2. 367) Ponderous monosyllables express tedious delay in—

(1.636-8)

The day drags through, though storms keep out the sun.

(3. 287)

In the next example, the long monosyllables of the first line correspond to slowness, the short ones of the second to rapidity : A thousand years scarce serve to form a state; An hour may lay it in the dust. (2.797, 8)

Forward motion, followed by a sudden stop, is expressed in the rhythm and alliteration of—

He rush'd into the field, and, foremost fighting, fell.

(3. 207)

CHILDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE.

A ROMAUNT.

L'UNIVERS est une espèce de livre, dont on n'a lu que la première page quand on n'a vu que son pays. J'en ai feuilleté un assez grand nombre, que j'ai trouvé également mauvaises. Cet examen ne m'a point été infructueux. Je haïssais ma patrie. Toutes les impertinences des peuples divers, parmi lesquels j'ai vécu, m'ont réconcilié avec elle. Quand je n'aurais tiré d'autre bénéfice de mes voyages que celui-là, je n'en regretterais ni les frais ni les fatigues.-LE COSMOPOLITE 1.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST AND SECOND CANTOS.

THE following poem was written, for the most part, amidst the scenes which it attempts to describe. It was begun in Albania ; and the parts relative to Spain and Portugal were composed from the author's observations in those countries. Thus much it may be necessary to state for the correctness of the descriptions. The scenes attempted to be sketched are in Spain, Portugal, Epirus, Acarnania, and Greece. There, for the present, the poem stops; its reception will determine whether the author may venture to conduct his readers to the capital of the East, through Ionia and Phrygia: these two cantos are merely experimental.

A fictitious character is introduced for the sake of giving some connexion to the piece; which, however, makes no pretension to regularity. It has been suggested to me by friends, on whose opinions I set a high value, that in this fictitious character,

1 By M. de Montbron; Par. 1798.

E

'Childe Harold,' I may incur the suspicion of having intended some real personage: this I beg leave, once for all, to disclaim -Harold is the child of imagination, for the purpose I have stated. In some very trivial particulars, and those merely local, there might be grounds for such a notion; but in the main points, I should hope, none whatever.

It is almost superfluous to mention that the appellation 'Childe,' as 'Childe Waters,' 'Childe Childers,' &c., is used as more consonant with the old structure of versification which I have adopted. The 'Good Night,' in the beginning of the first canto, was suggested by 'Lord Maxwell's Good Night,' in the Border Minstrelsy, edited by Mr. Scott.

With the different poems which have been published on Spanish subjects, there may be found some slight coincidence in the first part, which treats of the Peninsula, but it can only be casual; as, with the exception of a few concluding stanzas, the whole of this poem was written in the Levant.

The stanza of Spenser, according to one of our most successful poets, admits of every variety. Dr. Beattie makes the following observation :-'Not long ago, I began a poem in the style and stanza of Spenser, in which I propose to give full scope to my inclination, and be either droll or pathetic, descriptive or sentimental, tender or satirical, as the humour strikes me; for, if I mistake not, the measure which I have adopted admits equally of all these kinds of composition1.'-Strengthened in my opinion by such authority, and by the example of some in the highest order of Italian poets, I shall make no apology for attempts at similar variations in the following composition; satisfied that if they are unsuccessful, their failure must be in the execution, rather than in the design, sanctioned by the practice of Ariosto, Thomson, and Beattie 2.

LONDON, February 1812.

1 Beattie's Letter, in Sir W. Forbes's 'Life of Beattie,' vol. i. p. 89. 2 The poems here referred to are Ariosto's 'Orlando Furioso,' Thomson's 'Castle of Indolence,' and Beattie's 'Minstrel.'