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17O ORTHOMETRY. |
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The notice taken of this imperfection leads to the mention of another very similar to it. Our versifiers, for the most part, are well acquainted with poetical language, and possess a store of terms and phrases which are very fit and proper to be employed in the composition of verse; but they often commit mistakes in the application of them. Among their errors one arises from this : that they consider certain words to be synonymous which are only partially so. For instance, a head of hair and tresses frequently mean the same thing; but we cannot properly give the name of tresses to every head of hair. Again, waves and water are the same: every wave is water; but water in every situation and quantity is not to be called a wave. The misapplication of such terms as these, and the indifferent use of one for the other, as if they had the same signification in all cases, is a blemish in our poetry, and it deserves animadversion. It is admitted, sometimes for the purpose of supposed poetical ornament, and sometimes for the more urgent purpose of supplying a rhyme. Tyros in the art of versifying are the worst offenders in this respect, yet traces of it are to be seen in writers of a much higher order. In Pope's Windsor Forest the river Thames is described thus:
In that blest moment from his oozy bed Old Father Thames advanced his reverend head. His tresses dropp'd with dews, and o'er the stream His shining horns diffused a golden gleam.
Tresses are braided hair, and the term is gen- |
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