flat A; and that where he is running a
particular consonant, he will not improbably rejoice to write it down
even when it is mute or bears a different value.

Here, then, we have a fresh pattern--a pattern, to speak grossly, of
letters--which makes the fourth preoccupation of the prose writer, and
the fifth of the versifier. At times it is very delicate and hard to
perceive, and then perhaps most excellent and winning (I say perhaps);
but at times again the elements of this literal melody stand more boldly
forward and usurp the ear. It becomes, therefore, somewhat a matter of
conscience to select examples; and as I cannot very well ask the reader
to help me, I shall do the next best by giving him the reason or the
history of each selection. The two first, one in prose, one in verse, I
chose without previous analysis, simply as engaging passages that had
long re-echoed in my ear.

"I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and
unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks
out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not
without dust and heat."[20] Down to "virtue," the current S and R are
both announced and repeated unobtrusively, and by way of a grace-note
that almost inseparable group PVF is given entire.[21] The next phrase
is a period of repose, almost ugly in itself, both S and R still
audible, and B given as the last fulfilment of PVF. In the next four
phrases, from "that never" down to "run for," the mask is thrown off,
and, but for a slight repetition of the F and V, the whole matter turns,
almost too obtrusively, on S and R; first S coming to the front, and
then R. In the concluding phrase all these favourite letters, and even
the flat A, a timid preference for which is just perceptible, are
discarded at a blow and in a bundle; and to make the break more obvious,
every word ends with a dental, and all but one with T, for which we have
been cautiously prepared since the beginning. The singular dignity of
the first clause, and this hammer-stroke of the last, go far to make the
charm of this exquisite sentence. But it is fair to own that S and R are
used a little coarsely.

"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan (KANDL)
A stately pleasure dome decree, (KDLSR)
Where Alph the sacred river ran, (KANDLSR)
Through caverns measureless to man, (KANLSR)
Down to a sunless sea."[22] (NDLS)

Here I have put the analysis of the ma