ords
or syllables of a verse. It is frequently used in the "The Ancient
Mariner:"

"The fair breeze _blew_, the white foam _flew_,
The furrow followed free;
We were the _first_ that ever _burst_
Into that silent sea."

_Sectional rhyme_ is that occurring in the first half or section of a
verse; as,--

"_Lightly_ and _brightly_ breaks away
The morning from her mantle gray."

_Alliteration_ is the use of the same letter at the beginning of two or
more words or syllables in the same verse or successive verses. It was
the determining principle in Anglo-Saxon poetry, and has remained ever
since a source of harmony in English verse. Its effects are sometimes
most pleasing when the alliteration turns on one or more internal
syllables. The following from Mrs. Browning's "Romance of the Swan's
Nest" will serve for illustration:

"_L_ittle E_ll_ie sits a_l_one,
And the _s_mile _s_he _s_oftly uses
Fi_ll_s the _s_ilence _l_ike a _s_peech,
_W_hile _s_he thinks _w_hat _s_hall be done,
And the sweetest plea_s_ure choo_s_es
_F_or her _f_uture within reach."

The light rippling melody of this stanza is due, in considerable
measure, to its fine alliterative structure.

Tennyson likewise makes effective use of alliteration, as may be noted
especially in the matchless lyrics interspersed throughout "The
Princess." A single stanza will make this clear:

"The _s_plendor falls on ca_s_tle walls
And _s_nowy _s_ummits old in _s_tory;
The _l_ong _l_ight shakes across the _l_akes
And the wi_l_d cataract _l_eaps in g_l_ory.
_B_low, _b_ugle, _b_low, set the wild echoes flying,
_B_low, _b_ugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying."

+52. Stanzas.+ A stanza is a separate division of a poem, and contains
two or more lines or verses. A stanza of two lines is called a
_couplet_; of three lines, a _triplet_; of four lines, a _quatrain_.
Tennyson's "Locksley Hall" is in two-line stanza:

"Men, my brothers, men the workers, ever reaping something
new;
That which they have done but earnest of the things that they
shall do."

His "Two Voices" is in the triplet stanza:

"A still small voice spake unto me,
'Thou art so full of misery,
Were it not better not to be?'

"Then to the still small voice I said,
'Let me not cast in endless shade
What is so wond