Note 33 — PART TWO (continued 2)
Reading edition
Aaron Hill (1685-1750), an admirer of Thomson, wrote a "Poem in Praise of Blank Verse," opening:
"Up from Rhyme's poppied vale! and ride the storm That thunders in blank verse!"
On the other hand, there were not wanting protestants against the form, like Dr. Johnson and Goldsmith (see above, p. 205). Robert Lloyd (1733-1764) wrote:
"Some Milton-mad (an affectation Glean'd up from college-education) Approve no verse, but that which flows In epithetic measur'd prose;... the metre which they call Blank, classic blank, their all in all."
(Quoted in Perry's English Literature in the Eighteenth Century, p. 385.)