MY first impulse was to approach euphony from a purely grammatical and structural sense, but I soon discovered that I was dealing with an entirely different species of expression altogether. Explaining euphony is like putting a strange quicksilver animal inside a ribbed cage, the better to observe its physique, behaviors, and eccentricities; as soon as the creature gets settled in the cage, however, it collapses itself into viscous globules, leaches through the cage floor, and eludes further scrutiny.

No wonder then that even the venerable H.W. Fowler, in his 1908 language classic 'The King's English,' dealt with euphony not so much with a general definition as with copious particulars. He focused on the 10 most common devices English writers use to achieve euphony, then gave scores of examples of where they succeeded or failed in the effort.