Given Hope's affinity with Eighteenth Century verse, and his wonderful imitations of period style in "The Age of Reason," it is probably reasonable to assume his intent to elide. The practice was commonplace in Pope, whom Hope most admired.
Kate, your critiques are interesting, especially your comment on the use of "allegory" in the context of "Imperial Adam." I think, however, that you should make some allowance for accent in the matter of rhyming. Hope intends full rhyme when he pairs "thighs" with "Paradise." The typing is correct; but there may be a punctuation error in the Carcanet "Selected Poems," the only edition I have of this particular piece. I sympathize with your complaint about Hope's view of female orgasm. The old guy was quite unreconstructed.
For the curious, I would commend also the collection of lengthy poems mentioned above ("The Age of Reason") and Hope's final book "Orpheus," which includes an extraordinary set of five long meditations, "Western Elegies," written in classical dactyllic hexameter, the only instance I know of an author making this ancient meter work in Modern English.
Alan Sullivan
[This message has been edited by Alan Sullivan (edited 11-19-2000).]
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