5 OCTOBER 1912, Page 36

[To TIM Enron or TER " SPZETATOR:1 SIR,—The value attached

to monosyllabic lines seems to have

changed somewhat since Pope wrote, in the " Essay on Criticism" of the style and language of poetry, the lines :-

" While expletives their feeble aid do join ; And ten low words oft creep in one dull line."

The word " expletive" is here used of words inserted to

complete the scansion.—I am, Sir, SEc., J. R. C.