n. In truly melodious reading, the design or figure, so to
speak, is so arabesque that it is not taken in by the ear of the hearer,
and does not come to his consciousness, but it tells effectively on his
feelings. And by 'effectively' I specially mean that the feelings are
brought into harmony with, into a state of elective attraction for, the
contriving creative spirit which moulds the poetic form. Such reading of
high poetry is the extreme merit of vocal expression. Some of its
principles may be _taught_; but the vitality of it must be the result of
the spiritual education of the reader, must be exhaled spontaneously
from his _being_.

A reader with a nice sense of melody may conceal a deficiency of melody
in the poem he is reading; and he may do this, without arbitrarily
imposing variety. An imposed variety is not true melody, which must be
vital, organic. In the reading of Pope's uniform couplets, for example,
he may keep down the rocking-horse movement of the verse (Note 6) by a
skilful management of the pauses (which come so uniformly in the middle
and at the end of the verses), and of the rhyming words, by an
acceleration and retardation of voice wherever these are permissible, by
the light touch, and by various other means. To counteract the uniform
construction of such verse as the following, for example, from the Essay
on Man, without arbitrarily imposing variety, the reader's art must
approach the artful:

Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees,
Lives thro' all life, extends thro' all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent; etc.

or the following, descriptive of the heroine, in The Rape of the Lock:

On her white breast, a sparkling cross she wore,
Which Jews might kiss, and infidels adore.
Her lively looks a sprightly mind disclose,
Quick as her eyes, and as unfix'd as those:
Favors to none, to all she smiles extends;
Oft she rejects, but never once offends.
Bright as the sun, her eyes the gazers strike,
And, like the sun, they shine on all alike.
Yet graceful ease, and sweetness void of pride,
Might hide her faults, if Belles had faults to hide:
If to her share some female errors fall,
Look on her face, and you'll forget 'em all.

The absence of _enjambement_ makes it somewhat difficult so to keep down
the rhyme emphasis that it may not pester the ear. (Note 7.)

Where a reader's