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Wimsatt, James I. "Rhyme/Reason, Chaucer/Pope, Icon/Symbol," MLQ, 55 (March 1994), 17-46.
Since both Chaucer and Pope used the heroic couplet, metric comparisons seem inevitable. Nevertheless, the comparative standard used by William Wimsatt in a 1944 article, which found its way into the celebrated The Verbal Icon (1954), is fallacious for Mr. James Wimsatt. The former critic argued that Pope's rhymes were more effective by closely allying rhyme to sense; Chaucer's rhymes tend to be "dullish" or ' ' tame. ' ' According to Mr....