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 rough 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 th' unbending corn, and skims along the main.
-- Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
-- Essay on Criticism, Part ii, Line 166
And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows;
But when loud surges lash the sounding shore,
The hoarse rough 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 th' unbending corn, and skims along the main.
-- Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
-- Essay on Criticism, Part ii, Line 166
Related:
- A needless Alexandrine ends the song,
That like a wounded snake drags its slow length along.
Alexander Pope (1688-1744) -- Essay on Criticism,... - Such labour'd nothings, in so strange a style,
Amaze th' unlearn'd and make the learned smile.
Alexander Pope (1688-1744) -- Essay on Criticism,... - All seems infected that th' infected spy,
As all looks yellow to the jaundic'd eye.
Alexander Pope (1688-1744) -- Essay on Criticism,... - Words are like leaves; and where they most abound,
Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found.
Alexander Pope (1688-1744) -- Essay on Criticism,... - Envy will merit as its shade pursue,
But like a shadow proves the substance true.
Alexander Pope (1688-1744) -- Essay on Criticism,... - Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise!
-- Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
-
Essay on Criticism, Part ii, Line... - To err is human, to forgive divine.
-- Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
-
Essay on Criticism, Part ii, Line... - One science only will one genius fit:
So vast is art,
so narrow human wit. -- Alexander Pope (1688-1744)... - Yet let not each gay turn thy rapture move;
For fools admire,
but men of sense approve. -- Alexander Pope (1688...
