The word stunned,' by its short emphasis, well expresses the effect of a stunning blow. Obstructed movement is readily responded to by the march of the language, as in the second of the lines on Sisyphus. 4. Huge, unwieldy bulk implies slowness of movement, and may be expressed by similar language:O'er all the dreary coasts So stretched out, huge in length, the arch-fiend lay. But ended foul in many a scaly fold Voluminous and vast. 5. It is through combined sound and movement that language can harmonize with specific feelings. This element of poetic beauty appears in our oldest poetry-notably in Homer. The soothing spirit of a lullaby is expressed by Shakespeare through the use of the liquid consonants : Philomel, with melody, Sing in our sweet lullaby; Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby; Never harm, nor spell nor charm, Come our lovely lady nigh: So, good night, with lullaby. Goldsmith, in the opening line of the Traveller, suggests the feeling of sadness by the slow movement of the verse:— Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow. Wordsworth, in his lines At the Grave of Burns,' aims at the same effect in a succession of heavy syllables, intensified by a strong alliteration :— Oh! spare to sweep, thou mournful blast, His grave grass-grown. In expressing the feeling of hopelessness, Tennyson. employs a harsh rhythm, the harshness increased by alliteration: And ghastly through the drizzling rain On the bald street breaks the blank day. The different measures of poetry are suited to different passions. Lively movements belong to cheerful emotions, slow movements to melancholy. The languishing reluctance of the spirit to quit the earth is finely expressed in the movement of Gray's stanza, beginning— For who to dumb forgetfulness a prey? SOUND HARMONIZING WITH FEELINGS. 295 Tennyson is very notable for his skill under this head. The following stanzas are from ‘A Dream of Fair Women': Slowly my sense undazzled. Then I heard A noise of some one coming thro' the lawn, She lock'd her lips; she left me where I stood: In both stanzas, the independent effect of each set of sounds and movements is enhanced by an opening contrast. In Browning's 'How they brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix,' we have an example of a rapid measure well employed to express rapid motion and intensity of feeling. In Dryden's Alexander's Feast,' the measure is constantly varied in order to suit the action and the feeling expressed. VERSIFICATION AND METRE. Metre is the regular recurrence of similar groups of accented syllables at short intervals. Essential alike to prose and to poetry is the alternation of accented and unaccented syllables. When the voice has made a strong effort, it must be relaxed prior to a similar exertion. This demand is answered both by alternating the syllables in accent with those out of accent, and by short pauses and stops, amounting to a total rest of the vocal organs. The modes of meeting these requirements admit of the largest variety, and contribute greatly to the charm of language. When the accent is found to recur at regular intervals within a series of words or syllables, as in these examples He plants' | his foot' steps in' | the sea'— What' though you | tell' me each gay' little | rover each of the groups receives the name of a Measure. We have different measures according to the extent of the groups and the place of the accent within them. Between two accented Syllables in English words, there can lie one, or two, but not more than two, unaccented syllables. This applies either to single words, or to groups or successions of words. Consequently, under any arrangeinent, the first accent must occur not beyond the third syllable. Within these limits, five distinct positions, giving rise to five measures, are possible: two, where the accent recurs on alternate syllables, three where the accent recurs on every third syllable. These positions give their measures the names Dissyllabic and Trisyllabic, and are typified by single words like these--(1) a'ble; (2) ago'; (3) pret'tily; (4) discern'ing; (5) reprimand'. The various regularly accented groups; or measures, which involve these different recurrences, are repeated to form verses. A verse is determined in length by the number of the repetitions. These, for practical purposes, are seldom fewer than two (the dimeter), or more than eight. Often, in the case of the 1st and 3rd measures, in which the accent falls on the first syllable, the last measure of the verse is shortened by the omission of the unaccented part; in like manner, the closing unaccented syllable of the 4th measure may drop away. On the other hand, the 2nd and 5th, accenting on the last, may be supplemented at the end by an additional unaccented syllable, more rarely, two, forming no part of any new measure. Licenses are admissible in all. Occasionally it happens that one measure, as, for example, the 1st, is introduced into a verse made up of the 2nd; variety and greater emphasis being thereby obtained. This liberty is taken still more frequently in the Trisyllabic measure; where, too, the dropping out of unaccented syllables is far from uncommon. The interchange of dactyls, anapæsts and spondees in certain of the classical metres is a parallel case. It is not to be lost sight of, that great liberty is taken with accentuation. For the purpose of speaking, no word, however long, has more than one principal accent: e.g., 'myste'riously,' hu'manised'. Yet in Robert Buchanan (City of Dream) we getWas now' mysterious'ly hu'manis'ed; SO and Inton'ing or'acles' and stu'dying'; Inheritors' of imʼmortality'. * Such lines as the following do occur : Our ar'my lies' rea'dy to give up' the ghost'.-('Julius Cæsar.') This is the only scansion that will preserve the blank verse rhythm. LIBERTIES WITH ACCENTUATION. See, too, Shakespeare's— The multitu'dinous seas' incar'nadine'. 297 It is made a merit of Dante Rossetti's that in his Sonnets he handles these polysyllables habitually to good metrical purpose. The same word may even have, or not have, some other than its speaking accent, according to its place among surrounding accents. Thus, Arnold's What seeks' on the moun'tain 'glorified' could easily, if required, take two accents—' glo'rifi'ed'. Or take his But, where Hel'icon breaks' down In cliff to the sea; the reading of 'breaks' down' would, as a rule, be 'breaks down"; but that would place three unaccented syllables-a forbidden number-between Hel'-' and 'down". Or cf. his Through the black', rushing smoke'-bursts, where 'rushing' loses its accent altogether, because of 'black' before and smoke' after it. 6 Similarly with monosyllables: they depend on their rhetorical emphasis in the sentence for their accent in verse; sometimes having to be forced. This is best studied in lines made up wholly of monosyllables: e.g., Shakespeare's or his That in' black ink' my love' may still' shine bright'; Or if they sing', 'tis with' so dull' a cheer'; where unforced reading would throw 'so' into accent. He has a very fine couplet, wholly composed of monosyllables, where every accent is determined by the rhetorically important word:- So long as men' can breathe', or eyes' can see', So long' lives this', and this' gives life' to thee'. Milton, in Paradise Lost (II. 621), has a famous monosyllabic line: Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens and shades of death. There is a real difficulty here, because the first six words are equally emphatic; but for metrical purposes, 'fens' and 'dens ' catch the ear, and so the accent, by their rhyming sound; and then at the close the 'and' and 'of' throw the weight on to the important words, and determine the movement of the line. Mr. Swinburne, in his much-praised anapæstic metres, secures the same effect by filling up the unaccented places mostly with particles and connectives: The word' of the earth' in the ears' of the world', was it God'? was it man' ? Eyes' that had look'ed not on time', and ears' that had heard' not of death'. For the waste' of the dead' void air' took form' of a world' at birth'. Not each' man of all' men is God', but God' is the fruit' of the whole'. With such fire' as the stars' of the skies' are, the roots' of his heart are fed'. For his face' is set' to the east', his feet' on the past' and its dead'. This accounts for that poet's great plentifulness of 'of the,' in the,' 'for the,'' that had,' 'that has,' &c., which recur in him with the monotony of a mannerism. But he has the great gain of flinging the weight of accent on the really effective words. There may now be given some Examples of the most common verses in the different measures. The use of the ancient descriptive epithets is abandoned, because of their evident incongruity, except to designate in a general way the measures themselves. I. Dissyllabic Measures. 1. The First, or Trochaic, Measure. Hope' is ban'ish'd Joys' are van'ish'd- Gen'tle river, gen'tle | riv'er Lo' thy streams' are | stain'd' with | gore' And' the raven, I never | flit'ting, still' is sitting, still' is sitting On' the pallid | bust' of | Pallas | just' above' my | cham'ber | door'. The Trochaic measure has a light tripping movement, and is peculiarly fitted for lively subjects, although the examples now quoted are of a different kind. It is employed largely in simple nursery rhymes. Shakespeare regularly uses a variety of this measure for incantations, charms, &c. See Macbeth's' witches, the fairy songs and charms in A Midsummer Night's Dream,' or, the casket scrolls in the Merchant of Venice'. Take one of these last: All' that glis'ters is' not gold': |