5 instances.
_Gray._--Beech, stretch; borne, thorn; abode, God; broke, rock, 4
instances.
_Coleridge._--Not a single instance.
_Byron._--Given, heaven; Moore, yore; look, duke; song, tongue; knot,
not; of, enough; bestowed, mood. 7 instances.
In all these cases, as in that of Shelley's _Adonais_, I have taken no
count of those instances of lax sound-rhyme which are correct
letter-rhyme--such as the coupling of _move_ with _love_, or of _star_
with _war_; for these, however much some more than commonly purist ears
may demur to them, appear to be part and parcel of the rhyming system of
the English language. I need hardly say that, if these cases had been
included, my list would in every instance have swelled considerably; nor
yet that I am conscious how extremely partial and accidental is the
test, as to comparative number of laxities, which I have here supplied.
The Spenserian metre, in which _Adonais_ is written, was used by Shelley
in only one other instance--his long ideal epic _The Revolt of Islam_.
BION AND MOSCHUS.
The relation of Shelley's Elegy of _Adonais_ to the two Elegies written
by Bion and by Moschus must no doubt have been observed, and been more
or less remarked upon, as soon as _Adonais_ obtained some currency among
classical readers; Captain Medwin, in his _Shelley Papers_, 1832,
referred to it.
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