(That murmur, soon replies: "God doth not need B 1 Either man's work or His own gifts; who best MILTON. In the second part of the sonnet great variety prevails. The six lines all rhyme in some way together; but sometimes there are only two rhymes, instead of three, as in the following example: O nightingale, that on yon bloomy spray Warblest at eve, when all the woods are still; Ib. C. d. C. d. C. d. Here the rhymes do not keep the regular order; and even where there are three rhymes, the order is often varied. Milton, however, only once allows a rhyming couplet to end the sonnet; but Wordsworth often ends with a rhyming couplet, as in the following example: Scorn not the Sonnet: Critic, you have frowned, Shakspeare unlocked his heart; the melody Of this small lute gave ease to Petrarch's wound; It cheered mild Spenser, called from Faery-land C. d. C. d. e. e. Two of the objects of a sonnet are (1) to preserve the unity of the poem, and not to suffer it to be broken up into a number of couplets; (2) to diffuse the effect throughout the whole, and (as Wordsworth distinctly says) to avoid any thing like an epigram at the end. Hence (1) the poem is so arranged that it cannot possibly divide itself into halves; and, as a further precaution, the beginning of the second section (underlined above) is often not separated by the slightest pause from the first section.1 Hence also (2) Milton rejected as too epigrammatic the couplet with which Shakspeare always concluded his sonnets. Though there is no pause in either of the two sonnets of Milton quoted above, yet there is a change in the meaning. In the first sonnet, there is a change from the "murmur to the "reply;" in the second, from statement to appeal, "Now timely sing." The change of metre suggests a change in thought, and therefore seems to make a pause appropriate. On the other hand, a pause, combined with a change of thought, endangers the unity of the poem by cutting it into 1 There is no pause at all in half of Milton's sonnets; and when there is a pause, it is sometimes slight. two distinct parts. Thus it would appear that the sonnet attempts to combine two effects somewhat incongruous in their nature. Hence its peculiar difficulty. TRISYLLABIC METRE. 143. Early Use of Trisyllabic Metre. Although in early English alliterative poetry the number of syllables was not regulated by rule, yet for the most part the general effect is trisyllabic. When there is no catch,1 the effect is trisyllabic, with accent on the first syllable; i.e., dactylic. Lúcifer with legionnes || lérned it in hévene. Piers the Plowman. This dactylic metre, when preceded by a catch of two syllables, gives the effect of an anapæstic metre. When the catch is of one syllable, the effect is of mixed iambs and anapæsts, or amphibrachs; 2 but in any case the metre has a trisyllabic effect. Consequently, this trisyllabic, or, as it has been sometimes called, tumbling metre, is very common in the earlier ballads. The following extract from Skelton of a description of Envy, written in the beginning of the sixteenth century, illustrates the irregularity of this metre: Whan other are glád, Thán is hee sád, Fránticke and mád, 1 See paragraph 129. 2 For explanation of these terms, see 97. His tóunge never stýll Wrything and wrínging, Here the last two lines are dactylic, the rest of a mixed trisyllabic, dissyllabic, and monosyllabic metre. 144. The Effect of the Trisyllabic Metre when following the trochaic metre is to give a telling and merry effect. Thus: Thére I | cóuch, when | owls do | crý; On the bát's back | Í do | flý, After | summer, | mérri | lý. Mérrily, mérrily, | shall I live | nów Under the blossom that | hangs on the | bóugh. The Tempest. Conversely, the trisyllabic gives a merry beginning, fol lowed by a serious trochaic end, in Mérrily swím we, the | móon shines | bríght; Dównward we | dríft through the | shadow and light. Cálm and sílent, | dárk and | déep. SCOTT.1 In the trisyllabic metre, it is not necessary that every foot should be trisyllabic. The first foot is, as often as not, dissyllabic; and dissyllabic feet occur in the middle of the verse, but not at the end. The third foot is often dissyllabic: Behold, how they tóss | their torch es on hígh. DRYDEN. And now, in the gráss | behold | they are laid. COWPER. 1 This and the two preceding examples are quoted from Guest's "History of English Rhythms." In the ballad metre, trisyllabic feet are often used, without interfering with the general dissyllabic effect; and the result is a certain free, merry, and almost rollicking effect, which suits the ballad style very well. It is only in this free dissyllabic metre that a trisyllabic foot is frequent at the end of a verse. In most strict dissyllabic metre, a trisyllabic foot at the end of the verse would injure the effect, though allowable in the middle. But see exception, p. 203. In the following example from a ballad whose general effect is dissyllabic, the trisyllabic foot occurs even at the end of the verse:— Wé | have a lét|ter, sayd Á|dam Bell, To the júst ice we múst | it bring; That we were agáíne | to the kýng.1 145. The Scansion of the Trisyllabic Metre must often be a matter of taste. In some poems, as in Hood's " of Sighs," the effect is unquestionably dactylic: Sisterly, brotherly, Fatherly, motherly. And so in a great part of the following: Over the mountains, Over the waves, Under the fountains, Bridge 1 Even the strictest trisyllabic metre allows an accented syllable in a dissyllable, and sometimes a weak accent in a quadrisyllable, to be without the Metrical Accent, after a Metrical Accent: Have a stíll shorter dáte and die sooner than wé. COWPER. GOLDSMITH. Are pleased to be kind, but I háte ostentation. |