The Art of English Poetry (1708)

Edward Bysshe and Arthur Dwight Culler

Before rhyming dictionaries were common, poets kept Bysshe within reach. The Art of English Poetry, first issued in 1708, lays down the rules of English verse, syllable counts, rhymes and all, and became the manual an entire generation of apprentice poets quietly plundered. The eighteenth century learned its mechanics somewhere. Study the trade secrets of an age of wit.