"Subtle rhymes, with ruin rife,
Murmur in the house of life."
EMERSON

"When this verse was first dictated to me I consider'd a Mo-
notonous Cadence like that used by Milton & Shakspeare, & all
writers of English Blank Verse, derived from the modern bond-
age of Rhyming, to be a necessary and indispensible part of
the verse. But I soon found that in the mouth of a true
Orator, such monotony was not only awkward, but as much a
bondage as rhyme itself. I therefore have produced a variety
in every line, both of cadences & number of syllables. Every
word and every letter is studied and put into its fit place: the
terrific numbers are reserved for the terrific parts, the mild
& gentle for the mild & gentle parts, and the prosaic for in-
ferior parts: all are necessary to each other. Poetry Fetter'd
Fetters the Human Race!"
WILLIAM BLAKE

As we pass from the general consideration of
Rhythm and Metre to some of the special
questions involved in Rhyme, Stanza and
Free Verse, it may be well to revert to the old
distinction between what we called for con-
venience the "outside" and the "inside" of a
work of art. In the field of music we saw that
this distinction is almost, if not quite, mean-
ingless, and in poetry it ought not to be

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