cies of Verse, because I think it explains them with justness and
precision.

"Little Elegies, consisting of four stanzas and a couplet, are no
more Sonnets than they are Epic Poems. The Sonnet is of a particular
and _arbitrary_ construction; it partakes of the nature of Blank
Verse, by the lines running into each other at proper intervals. Each
line of the first eight, rhimes four times, and the order in which
those rhimes should fall is decisive. For the ensuing six there is
more licence; they may, or may not, at pleasure, close with a
couplet.

"Of Milton's English Sonnets, only that to Oliver Cromwell ends with
a couplet, but the single instance is a sufficient precedent;
however, in three out of his five Italian ones, the concluding lines
rhime to each other.

"The style of the Sonnet should be nervous, and, where the subject
will with propriety bear elevation, sublime; with which, simplicity
of language is by no means incompatible. If the subject is familiar
and domestic, the style should, though affectionate, be nervous;
though plain, be energetic. The great models of perfection, for the
sublime and domestic Sonnet, are those of Milton's, 'To the Soldier
to spare his Dwelling-place,' and 'To Mr. Laurence.'

"The Sonnet is certainly the most difficult species of poetic
composition; but difficulty, well subdued, is excellence. Mrs. Smith
says she has been told that the regular Sonnet suits not the nature
or genius of our language. Surely this assertion cannot be
demonstrated, and therefore was not worth attention.

"Out of eighteen English Sonnets, written by Milton, four are bad.
The rest, though they are not free from certain hardnesses, have a
pathos and greatness in their simplicity, sufficient to endear the
legitimate Sonnet to every Reader of just taste. They possess a
_characteristic_ grace, which can never belong to three elegiac
stanzas, closing with a couplet."

I have pleasure in quoting the preceding Dissertation on the SONNET,
conscious that there is no order of Verse, upon which so much
erroneous opinion has gone forth, and of whose beauties the merely
common Reader is so insensible. But when the Author of this just
Treatise says of the assertion, that the legitimate Sonnet suits not
our language, "its truth cannot be demonstrated," he should perhaps
rather have observed, that its fallacy is proved by the great number
of beautiful legitimate Sonnets, which adorn our National Poetry, not
only