Note 33 — SAPPHO TO PHAON.[1]
Reading edition
These two lines have been quoted as the most smooth and mellifluous in our language; and they are supposed to derive their sweetness and harmony from the mixture of so many iambics. Pope himself preferred the following line to all he had written, with respect to harmony:
Lo, where Mæotis sleeps, and hardly flows.—Warton.
Dryden in his Annus Mirabilis:
A constant trade-wind will securely blow, And gently lay us on the spicy shore.—Wakefield.