Form all curves like softness drifted,--
Wave-kissed marble roundly dimpling,
Far-off music slowly wingéd,
Gently rising, gently sinking,--
Bright, O bright Fedalma!

To appreciate anything so exotic as this one must cultivate
an ear for it, just as for the experiments with classical quan-
tities made by Robert Bridges.

Assonance has been used for rime frequently in the free
and easy versifying of the old ballads; and many of the
doubtful rimes quoted in this chapter from Mrs. Browning
and others are really cases of assonance. Unintentional
assonance between succeeding rimes offends the ear and shows
lack of finish. One of Keats's early attempts is guilty of
this blemish:

Or a white Naiad in a rippling stream;
Or a rapt Seraph in a moonlight beam;
Or again witness what with thee I've seen,
The dew of fairy feet swept from the green,
After a night of some quaint jubilee
Which every elf and fay had come to see.

( Epistle to G. F. Mathew.)

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