With reference to the double rhyming, it has appeared to me to be employed with far less variety in our _serious_ poetry than our language would admit of genially, and that the various employment of it would add another string to the lyre of our Terpander. It has appeared to me that the single rhymes, as usually employed, are scarcely as various as they might be, but that of the double rhymes the observation is still truer. A great deal of attention--far more than it would take to rhyme with conventional accuracy--have I given to the subject of rhymes, and have determined in cold blood to hazard some experiments. At the same time I should tell you, that scarcely one of the _Pan_ rhymes [occurring in the poem of ‘The Dead Pan’] might not separately be justified _by the analogy of received rhymes_, although they have not themselves been received. Perhaps there is not so irregular a rhyme throughout the poem of _Pan_ as the “fel_low_” and “prunel_la_” of Pope the infallible. I maintain that my “islands” and “silence” is a regular rhyme in comparison.... A reader of Spanish poetry must be aware how soon the ear may be satisfied even by a recurring vowel. I mean to try it. At any rate, there are so few regular double rhymes in the English language that we must either admit some such trial or eschew the double rhymes generally; and I, for one, am very fond of them, and believe them to have a power not yet drawn out to its length, and capable of development, in our lyrical poetry especially. ELIZABETH BARRETT: ‘Letters to R. H. Horne.’ * * * * * [Sidenote: Browning’s praise of “The Dead Pan.”] I take the courage and vanity to send to you a note which a poet [Note by R. H. Horne: Robert Browning, then personally unknown to Miss Barrett, although an intimate friend of my own], whom we both admire, wrote to a friend of mine, who lent him the MS. [of ‘The Dead Pan’]. Mark! No opinion was asked about the rhymes,--the satisfaction was altogether impulsive, from within. Send me the note back, and never tell anybody that I showed it to you--it would appear too vain. Also, I have no right to show it. It was sent to me as likely to please me, and pleased me so much and naturally on various accounts, ... that I begged to be allowed to keep it. ELIZABETH BARRETT: ‘Letters to R. H. Horne.’ * * * * * [Sidenote: “Lady Geraldine.”] [Sidenote: A pleasing myth.]