Music and language, as we established in chapter 6, agree on a general categorization of subject matter according to prose and verse, where in the strictest sense the one expresses strong subjects through an irregularity of rhythm, metrical accent, and phrase structure, while the other expresses milder subjects through a contrasting homogeneity. Music and language, however, inevitably disagree as to which category presents the greater challenges for the composer and performer. There is so much music in spoken verse and so much speech in musical prose, the basis for the continuing analogy between the two, that the nearer one medium approaches the other, the greater the difficulty. In verse, as Elocutionist John Walker states in 1781, it is sometimes necessary to sacrifice sense for sound in order to regularize the cadence and flow of language, to turn the more predominant structures of language (those of prose) into that which is more musical. The resulting “affinity between poetry and music,” Walker claims, increases the difficulty in reading verse. Because verse requires an alteration in the inflections of prose, elegant readers of verse often verge on what is called sing song, and those who are less elegant produce a “whining cant.” Jacob Schuback, writing in 1775 on the subject of musical declamation, also comments on the very tenuous relationship between the structures of song and those of natural (prose-like) speech. A composer who has a firm grasp on the rules of declamation will find little pleasure in setting a text to the most verse-like musical expressions, the strophic songs and lieder. In fact, if in the composition something appears to work well—that is, sound and sense happen to coincide—one is better off simply crossing it out as an only greater disappointment lies in wait.