_Translated From The Spanish of_ THOMAS YRIARTE
A country squire of greater wealth than wit
(For fools are often blessed with fortune's smile),
Had built a splendid house and furnished it
In splendid style.
"One thing is wanting," said a friend; "for though
The rooms are fine, the furniture profuse,
You lack a library, dear sir, for show,
If not for use."
"'Tis true, but zounds!" replied the squire with glee,
"The lumber-room in yonder northern wing
(I wonder I ne'er thought of it) will be
The very thing.
"I'll have it fitted up without delay
With shelves and presses of the newest mode,
And rarest wood, befitting every way
A squire's abode.
"And when the whole is ready, I'll dispatch
My coachman--a most knowing fellow--down
To buy me, by admeasurement, a batch
Of books in town."
But ere the library was half supplied
With all its pomps of cabinet and shelf,
The booby squire repented him, and cried
Unto himself:
"This room is much more roomy than I thought;
Ten thousand volumes hardly would suffice
To fill it, and would cost, however bought,
A plaguey price.
[Illustration: THE SQUIRE'S LIBRARY]
"Now, as I only want them for their looks,
It might, on second thoughts, be just as good,
And cost me next to nothing, if the books
Were made of wood.
"It shall be so, I'll give the shaven deal
A coat of paint--a colorable dress,
To look like calf or vellum and conceal
Its nakedness.
"And, gilt and lettered with the author's name,
Whatever is most excellent and rare
Shall be, or seem to be ('tis all the same),
Assembled there."
The work was done, the simulated hoards
Of wit and wisdom round the chamber stood,
In binding some; and some, of course, in _boards_
Where all were wood.
From bulky folios down to slender twelves
The choicest tomes, in many an even row
Displayed their lettered backs upon the shelves,
A goodly show.
With such a stock as seemingly surpassed
The best collections ever formed in Spain,
What wonder if the owner grew at last
Supremely vain?
What wonder, as he paced from shelf to shelf
And conned their titles, that the squire began,
Despite his ignorance, to think himself
A learned man?
Let every amateur, who merely looks
To backs and binding, take the hint, and sell
His costly library--_for painted books
Would serve as well_.
Poetry means more to us and we get more enjoyment from reading it
when we understand some of the difficulties that the poet has in
writing it and can recognize those things which make it poetry in
form.
For instance, you will notice in the poem which we have just read
that every stanza has four lines; that, in printing, the first and
third lines begin close to the margin, while the second and fourth
lines begin a little farther in on the page--that is, they are
_indented_. Now if you will look at the ends of the lines you will
see that the words with which the first and third lines terminate
are in rhyme, and that the words with which the second and fourth
lines terminate are in rhyme. In other words, the indentation at
beginning of lines in poetry calls attention to the rhymes.
It is true throughout _The Country Squire_ that every pair of lines
taken alternately ends in rhymes which are perfect or nearly so.
Now a perfect rhyme is one in which the two rhyming syllables are
both accented, the vowel sound and the consonants which follow the
vowels are identical, and the sounds preceding the vowel are
different. For instance, the words _smile_ and _style_ rhyme. Both
of these are monosyllables and hence accented. The vowel sound is
the long sound of _i_; the consonant sound of _l_ follows. The
sounds preceding the _i_ are similar but not identical, represented
by _sm_ in the first case and _st_ in the second. In the fifth
stanza the first line ends with the word _dispatch_, the third with
the word _batch_. This rhyme is perfect, because the accent on the
word _dispatch_ is naturally on the second syllable. In the ninth
stanza the word _dress_ is made to rhyme with _nakedness_. This is
not strictly perfect, for the natural accent of _nakedness_ is on
the first syllable.
It may be interesting for beginners to work out the rhyme scheme of
a poem and write it down. This is very easily done. Take the first
stanza in _The Country Squire_. Represent the rhyming syllable of
the first line by _a_, the rhyming syllable of the second line by
_b_. It follows then that the rhyming syllable of the third line
must be represented by _a_, and the rhyming syllable of the fourth
line by _b_. Writing these letters in succession we have the
nonsense word _abab_, which will always stand for stanzas of this
kind. If you are interested in this turn to the studies at the end
of the next poem, _To My Infant Son_.