Samuel Daniel, A Defence of Rhyme

Miles Layram (University of York)
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Samuel Daniel (1562-1619) was one of the greatest poets of the English Renaissance, and his abilities as a writer of rhymed verse made him unusually well-placed to issue a rebuttal to Thomas Campion’s Observations in the Art of English Poesie. Published in 1602, the Observations promotes quantitative metre, whereby syllables are patterned according to whether they are long or short, as a challenge to the usual practice of organising syllables based on whether they are stressed or unstressed; and, largely because the latter type of verse normally employed rhyme, it also criticises rhyme itself. Campion advises that poets can perhaps still make use of rhyme “sparingly”, but he nevertheless links it with …

1718 words

Citation: Layram, Miles . "A Defence of Rhyme". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 May 2017 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=36015, accessed 29 March 2024.]

36015 A Defence of Rhyme 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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