e loops at the end of a line to shew that the
rhyme goes on to the first letter of the next line;
what in music are called pauses, to shew that the
syllable should be dwelt on; and twirls, to mark
reversed or counterpointed rhythm.

Note on the nature and history of Sprung Rhythm--
Sprung Rhythm is the most natural of things. For
(1) it is the rhythm of common speech and of written
prose, when rhythm is perceived in them. (2) It is the
rhythm of all but the most monotonously regular music,
so that in the words of choruses and refrains and in
songs written closely to music it arises. (3) It is
found in nursery rhymes, weather saws, and so on;
because, however these may have been once made in
running rhythm, the terminations having dropped off by
the change of language, the stresses come together and
so the rhythm is sprung. (4) It arises in common
(6) verse when reversed or counterpointed, for the same
reason.

But nevertheless in spite of all this and though Greek
and Latin lyric verse, which is well known, and the old
English verse seen in _Pierce Ploughman_ are in sprung
rhythm, it has in fact ceased to be used since the
Elizabethan age, Greene being the last writer who can
be said to have recognised it. For perhaps there was
not, down to our days, a single, even short, poem in
English in which sprung rhythm is employed not for
single effects or in fixed places but as the governing
principle of the scansion. I say this because the
contrary has been asserted: if it is otherwise the poem
should be cited.

Some of the sonnets in this book* (*See previous note.)
are in five-foot, some in six-foot or Alexandrine lines.

Nos. 13 and 22 are Curtal-Sonnets, that is they are
constructed in proportions resembling those of the
sonnet proper, namely 6 + 4 instead of 8 + 6, with
however a halfline tailpiece (so that the equation is
rather 12/8 + 9/2 = 21/2 + 10 1/2).

(7)
_EARLY POEMS_

_1
For a Picture of
St. Dorothea_

I BEAR a basket lined with grass;
I am so light, I am so fair,
That men must wonder as I pass
And at the basket that I bear,
Where in a newly-drawn green litter
Sweet flowers I carry,--sweets for bitter.

Lilies I shew you, lilies none,
None in Caesar's gardens blow,--
And a quince in hand,--not one
Is set upon your boughs below;
Not set, because their buds not spring;
Spring not, 'cause world is wintering.

But these were found in the East and South
Where Winter is the clime fo