The rise of gravity in the 17th century or a life in the day of Isaac Newton

IT HAS OFTEN been said that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow did not invent the mode of poetic expression known as Homeric hexameter. It has less frequently been said that Elvis Presley did not invent the pelvis, or even discover it, for that matter. Nevertheless he apparently gave it a new significance as a mode of expression. It appears likely that Longfellow made a similar contribution to hexameter. Although it is most improbable that Longfellow’s favorite mode of expression will ever rival that of Presley, it has attracted a not inconsequential following among the relatively unsophisticated readers of American poetry (if a near redundancy may be pardoned).

This article is only available in PDF format