RHYMES FOR AUTHORS' NAMES

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1222, 2 September 1911, Page 9

RHYMES FOR AUTHORS' NAMES

The provider of one of the most interestin" ' of those daily miscellaneous columns by means of which the intellects of ike peoplo are deepened and fortiiied (nvs the "Daily News"), has raised the question nf the difficulty of fiiuiiiiir vhymos for the names of English novel-i-ts—a delect in the nature of things which manv of us are mercirully spared the realisation. He has admitted that the perfect rhyme to Thackeray, which is "quackery," is ngainst J* 1 * point. He looks askance, anfl very justly, at Browning's rhyming "thickens" to the name of Dickens. Jte asks v.ho will furnish rhymes to Galsworthy and J)e Jlor»iin and Meredith. Tlicro is, surely, a perfect rhyme to Dickens, and it is "chickens"; but it is not an inspiring one, somehow. A»e can-

not protend to see how it could be cmployed with suitable dignity. Thore is absolutely no poetry about a chicken. Jiven in "Chanteclcr," which is among the greatest of heroic poems the only appearance of the chickens aro in the nature of farce. We have considered tho tiling deeply, and wo do not believe it can bo done. Ono might say: Tho genius of Dickens lias countless devotees, From thoso who dino 011 chickens To those who dino on cheese. The idea is sound, and not in its-elf ridiculous; but there is .1 sort of suspicion of quaintness, infal to tho reverential spirit, about the lines. As for Meredith, there is no difficulty at all about finding rhymes. The difficulty here, again, is to find rhymes that sound tho right note. Suppose 0110 should poetise thus: ■ , Somo people say that Meredith Writeth a wanton way; That Herod he out-Herodeth In poem, talc, and play. Others again aro very dithYrambic in his praise, And pilo tho head of Meredith With everlasting bays. It is very nearly perfect rhyme; but it has not tho proper ell'cct, somehow. It is much the same if wo go 011 tho ■assumption that the nnnie of Meredith should have tho accent thrown-on tho middle syllable, ns it would in Wales. There is the samo indefinable sense of something wanting in 'the lines: In fiction, George Meredith Our roll of glory headeth. It sounds too inevitable—perhaps that is what is wrong with it. Anybody, of course, could rhyme to Mr. Do Morgan's name. There aro organ, gorgon, Sorgcn (a highly-appropriate German word), which rush to one's lips at once; and there must be others a little more recondite. It is Mr. Galsworthy, we confess, who drives us to despair. Only Browning, who rhymed "flaccid dent" to "accident," "a milo hence" to "silence," and "supplicate" to "duplicate" —these being among the least of his achievements in ihat direction—could' have dealt adequately with tho Galsworthy. difficulty.