f" 
 
 < 
 
 /■ x Lxbru 
 
 1 
 
 
 K. OODEN ; 
 
 1 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 
 ' 6& 
 
 U 
 
 
 *A,
 
 A STUDY OF METRE
 
 A STUDY OF METKE 
 
 BY 
 
 T. S. OMOND 
 
 "The ear is a rational sense, and a chief judge of pro- 
 portion. "— Thos. Campion. 
 
 "A dunce like myself measures verse . . . by ear and 
 not by finger."— A. C. Swinburne. 
 
 LONDON 
 GRANT RICHARDS 
 
 1903
 
 CHISWICK IKK,>: CUARIFs WH1TTINGHAM AM) CO. 
 
 IKS COURT, I ii vvkky I Ufl
 
 1-5 
 0Ti 
 
 TO ALL LOVERS OF ENGLISH POETRY.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 Introductory . 
 I. The "Period"— Time and Pause 
 II. The " Period "—Accent 
 
 III. The " Period "—Quantity 
 
 IV. Duple Metre (General) 
 V. Duple Metre (Special) 
 
 VI. Triple Metre 
 VII. Quadruple Metre, etc. 
 VIII. Exemplifications of Method 
 
 Appendix : Pseudo-Classical Measures 
 
 pack 
 ix 
 
 l 
 17 
 32 
 48 
 61 
 83 
 99 
 120 
 
 141 
 
 VII

 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 Modekn English prosody dates from Coleridge's 
 dictum, in the preface to " Christabel" (1816), that 
 not the syllables but the accents of his lines were to 
 be reckoned. This remark of a great master cannot 
 have been intended to give a complete theory. It 
 says nothing about the arrangement of these accents, 
 "which is at least as vital as the fact of their occur- 
 rence. Probably he assumed their order of succes- 
 sion as obvious. This order, however, has been 
 ignored by very many of his successors, who speak 
 as if mere casual recurrence of accents sufficed to 
 constitute verse. Thus, for example, our ordinary 
 " heroic " line ' is often said to be a line carrying 
 five stresses, as though that were in itself distinctive. 
 But the same description applies to many a prose 
 sentence. Prosody is bound to furnish a criterion 
 distinguishing verse from prose. Coleridge's " new 
 principle," as he called it — new to the critics of his 
 
 1 This name belongs to the best-known of all our lines, 
 containing normally ten syllables, used by Shakespeare in 
 his plays, Milton in " Paradise Lost," Pope in his Essays and 
 Satires. It may be rhymed or rhymeless, in blank verse, 
 couplet, or stanza. 
 
 ix
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 day, Inn old as English j«>«'trv in moaning and a\>- 
 plication gives a atarting-point t<> those seeking 
 raoh oriterioiL It indicates the path, which hia pupils 
 must follow for themeeh 
 
 \ itep forward was taken when Coventry I'atmoiv. 
 in the essay now appended t.. hia Poems, proclaimed 
 that the aocenti mnal be leparated bj " iaochronom 
 intern This pronouncement brought him into 
 
 line with our musical Bcanaionieta, to all of whom 
 Joshua Bteele ' P Etationalia," 177.".) oaaj be 
 
 inted father. Scansion l>v musical notation has 
 not found much favour in thi^ oountry, though 
 Buskin made use of it in hia " Blementa of Bngliah 
 ■•i\ " (1880), representing tin- units "t" rerse — 
 termed by him " metrea " under the !_mi>.- of minima 
 and orotohete. In America it aeema t<> hare made 
 morewaj. Sidnej Lanier developed it systematically 
 m ■• Th I ;liah Verse" I Boston, 18 
 
 a I i which has re >i\ ed strangely little atten- 
 tion on tlii- side the Atlantic Other independent 
 workerahaTe pursued the eubject since. One of the 
 Mi .i iv Dabnej <•• The Musical B 
 
 N'« »rk :tn<l L«>nT>n, 1901), follows Lanier 
 m genera] conception while criticiaing aim in flfttaila, 
 ,n ..I mmmmh .ilin.-st t.» think that bis leader inTented the 
 
 u Imlf i.l.-.i <il iini^h-.il srausion. 
 
 Thi-s.- writ'i-s ii it until v emphasize the idea ottime. 
 
 the majority of our grammarians, on th.' other 
 
 hand, it ia complei mored. While theoretically 
 
 admitting time as an element in all rerse, thej i 
 
 ly leave it out of th ount Ordinan 
 
   lv never mention it. and usually 
 
 X
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 state that accent is the foundation of our verse. 
 Lists of so-called "feet" are given, yet the one 
 element which can really create " feet " is passed by 
 without mention. The facts under review are not 
 adequately explained by these statements. Verse- 
 structure must exist before it can be signalized by 
 accent. A more thorough-going inquiry is needed, 
 which will resolve our verse into its actual constitu- 
 ents, and assign to each its station and degree. 
 Accent is pretty obviously one of these, but it is 
 almost as obviously not the sole one. Accurate 
 analysis of English verse should leave no possible 
 factor unnoticed. 
 
 Scientific study of our verse -forms, indeed, has 
 not been neglected. Both in England and America, 
 during the last thirty years especially, much very 
 valuable analysis has been made of phenomena and 
 their grouping. But it is contained in treatises 
 written by scholars for scholars, concerned more with 
 points of detail than with general laws. Metrical 
 effect depends on certain broad principles, simple in 
 conception (for a child can enjoy verse), yet capable 
 of endless elaboration and development at the hands 
 of accomplished singers. In considering the latter 
 aspect we have, perhaps, somewhat lost sight of the 
 former. No building is secure without a good founda- 
 tion. The most complex, and refined, and specialized 
 theories of verse-structure stand or fall by compli- 
 ance with certain plain, elementary, fundamental 
 truths. A clear statement of these last is indispens- 
 able to any real understanding of the conditions which 
 shape English verse. 
 
 xi
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 In the following rtudy, time is taken as the basis 
 of our rone, but music and metre are doI regarded 
 m synonymous. BfeMorementi are held to <h-pend on 
 time-periods rather than syllables, while the function 
 mee mainly directive and illuminative. 
 An attempt ii made to analyse the natore and con* 
 ■traction of our metrical unit. The appeal through* 
 
 out is to roadon of English \ try, technical q 
 
 tkmi are sparingly dealt with, and acquaintance with 
 other languagei ia no! presumed. It were itrange if 
 the principlei of English verse <•• >ul«l n..t In.- compre- 
 hended without refere n ce to foreign literatnre, ancient 
 or modern, [ndeed, it seemi donbtfnl whether we 
 folly appreciate the v e r so - r hythm of any but our 
 
 native lan^mu/e, or one closely akin to it. Not thai 
 study of oth.T prosodies, Classical in particular, can 
 be held of small value. It ii inestimably important 
 in matters metrical. Bui even knowledge of the 
 < - is no lubstitute for knowledge of Kn^lish. 
 
 Mop- hartn tl \ seems to have 1 ■. . n dott 
 
 critics whose tingle ides was to compare our y< 
 with that of the old Greeks and Romans, and to 
 interpret our cadences by meam of theirs. These 
 chapter! deal with Bngl'sh verse for and by it 
 any reference to other literatures being madeonlj by 
 wav "f illust rat ion. 
 The element! which blend to form   anil are noted 
 separately, then in conjunction. While the 
 argument must be left to unfold itself, it maj be pre 
 • l that the criterion before referred to ii found 
 to be indissoluble connected with time, and that 
 • i bj 1 1 1 1 1 • - - bed v. it h t he crad* 
 
 rij
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 ity and dubiety of scansion by syllables. Results 
 reached on these lines seem to carry their own 
 warrant, and to make English Prosody more real and 
 helpful than it is generally esteemed. 
 
 * * * 
 
 * * * 
 * 
 
 The present volume builds on and supersedes 
 certain essays and magazine articles of a mainly 
 tentative character published from five to six years 
 ago. These received a welcome which encouraged 
 me to attempt a more systematic handling of the 
 whole subject, in doing which — not without inter- 
 ruption from other work — I have revised and re- 
 stated my own views as well as paid attention to 
 those of others. 
 
 A sarcastic letter sent by Mr. Swinburne to the 
 " Academy " of January 15th, 1876, some words 
 from which appear on my title-page, contains the 
 following pronouncement. "Of word-music, the 
 technical quality of metre, the executive secret and 
 inner method of the poetic art, it is admittedly for 
 scholiasts alone to judge ; and their teaching is un- 
 doubtedly not as that of the scribes or poets." The 
 first part of this sentence I accept seriously, save 
 indeed for the word " alone." As regards the second, 
 I trust these pages may show that it is possible for 
 a mere grammarian to expound doctrines according 
 with both the theory and the practice of poets, and 
 drawing their whole meaning and authority from 
 the latter. 
 
 xiii
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 I had hoped to subjoin lo this studv a short his- 
 torical and bibliographical sketch of English ni.'t! 
 
 criticism, proTiding •-•in.' halfpennyworth of Cad to 
 relieve whal maj seem an intolerable amount of 
 
 th.M.ri/inu'. The dimensions t.» which this soon at- 
 tain. ••! forbade its inclusion, and it is reserved t\>r 
 nble future issue. In its st.-a.l will be found an 
 appendu on hexameter and other tonus of would- 
 be Olassica] metre, consideration of which B oom ed 
 germane to my subject. 
 
 T. S. Omond. 
 
 Ill' \l.\ I.KI.KY Pabjc, 
 'I'i IBBIDOI Wi .i i .-. 
 
 January, MKW. 

 
 (" Hearing ti~t- metre"). 
 
 " LONOIHI B" <»n Hkimi KWmOM. 
 
 Aurt'in baton Interroga 
 ("Question thy ear"). 
 
 PltOBUS aiti. A. (iiii 
 
 " Poetry utters words in time . " 
 
 Lk- IN'., /. UXOOn. 
 
 *
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE " PERIOD " TIME AND PAUSE 
 
 Metre is the body of verse, as emotional thought 
 is the soul. Etymologic-ally, metre means simply 
 measure. Some writers use it in specialized senses, 
 but it is better to keep it as a term of general conno- 
 tation. Why do we want to measure verse ? For 
 the same reason that we study laws of colour, or 
 laws of musical harmony. In each case we seek to 
 analyze results which have pleased us in the work of 
 poet, painter, or musician. By measuring, by divid- 
 ing this into its units, we hope to throw light on 
 its architecture. Such knowledge is not necessary 
 to the artist, nor even to his intelligent admirer. 
 It will not make a genius, nor teach us infallibly to 
 detect one ; we can but judge of results, not lay 
 down laws for the future. Great poets undoubtedly 
 sing by ear, and their practice is so far a law to 
 itself. Yet it must in every case obey the principles 
 of its art ; the highest freedom is conditioned by the 
 laws of its being. Metrical science should train us 
 to detect bad verse, and aid us to appreciate good, 
 unless the latter present combinations too novel for 
 an unprepared taste to relish. What, then, are the 
 
 1 B
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 principles which underlie English prosody, pract 
 as an art or studied as a science r 
 
 All metre is essentially rhythmical Tlmt is to say, 
 
 n consists of equal units, uniform as regards dura- 
 tion. This is the meaning and definition <>f the 
 word, by no means always kept in view. Consider 
 aiiv application of rhv thm, even to inarticulate objects. 
 
 The aulor polling at hie ropes, the blacksmith beat- 
 ing on bii anvil, the tramp of i marching regiment 
 
 — all the old familiar illustrations — regularity oi re- 
 currence is the principle these show at work. Mihir 
 and verse both obey this law. The schoolboy patch- 
 ing his doc^erel, the poet "hidden in the tight of 
 thought," equally own its sway. Philosophers have 
 
 called rhythm the pulse of the universe ; the Greeka 
 
 Baid that its sire was (Jod. At all eveuta poetry, in 
 common with other arts, is wholly and absolutely 
 Conditioned by rhythm; this is the breath and law 
 i its being. 
 Here, at the outset, we find preeiseh what differ- 
 entiates verse from prose. These two possess much 
 in common. Their ideals are often -miliar; then- 
 subjects may be identical ; their cadem • - sometimes 
 
 coincide. Yet there ii an essentia] difference, which 
 
 has seldom been rightly Stated, and which is a differ- 
 ence of mechanical method. The units of prose are 
 diverse, irregular in length, rarely conformed to   
 common pattern. In rerse, on the other band, 
 roccossion ii continuous. Bomething recuri with 
 
 ilanty. This is 1 he distinctive note of V( 
 
 making its itructure differ bom that of prose; no 
 other al olute line of demarcation can be drawn. 
 
 •J
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 Typical recurrence, uniform repetition, is the prime 
 postulate of metre. 
 
 Our first inquiry must therefore be : What is it 
 that thus recurs? English grammarians almost 
 unanimously teach that what recurs is a succession 
 of words. Divided into syllables, which are classed 
 according to certain inherent qualities, words are 
 held to form the basis of our metre. Their syllables, 
 denoted now by symbols of long and short, now by 
 characters representing degrees of stress, or yet 
 again by musical notes, are put forward as by 
 themselves constituting verse. I maintain that this 
 view is fundamentally fallacious. It assumes suc- 
 cessions which do not exist. Uniformity is claimed 
 where there is patent diversity. The "feet" of our 
 grammars, the algrebraical-looking columns of a x 
 and * a given in some books of prosody, the rows of 
 crotchets and quavers preferred by musical scan- 
 sionists, all show an imagined regularity not in 
 accordance with fact. Syllables do not succeed each 
 other with anything like the correspondence asserted. 
 This is not denied by our best authorities, who 
 content themselves with treating it as of small im- 
 portance. Yet it throws doubt on the validity of 
 their whole explanation. Can a different answer be 
 given, not vitiated by this element of inexactness and 
 make-believe, and according better with the real 
 facts ? 
 
 If syllables do not recur with regularity, we must 
 fall back on that which underlies these — on the 
 time-spaces or periods of duration in which syllables 
 are, as it were, embedded. All verse is conditioned 
 
 3
 
 A STUDY OF METKK 
 
 by time. The term "period" may be conveniently 
 used to denote the unit of time (less intelligibly 
 
 ■tried '•>■ "t""t"). ulinM' constitution \\.- ,uv ;il>out 
 
 to consider. If these periods are of uniform length, 
 regularity <>f recurrence is secured. It is usually 
 
 Lined that an English line may consist of un- 
 equsJ units- proportionate, perhaps, in mOM OX less 
 definite ratio, but not fundamentally equal. This, 
 howev e r , would violate our definition of rhythm. 
 Ii periods constitute rhythm, they must do so by 
 uniform succession. Syllables do not supply this 
 absolute recurrence; their order of succession is 
 changeful, capricious. They need to be contra - 
 with underlying uniformity. That substratum socimn 
 afforded by time. l$ockronou» psrioebform the units 
 ..)' metre, Syllabic variation gets its whole force 
 from contrast with these, is conceivable only in re- 
 lation to these. Forgetfulness of this fact leads to 
 
 Ealse tli y ami incorrect practice. Unless temporal 
 
 uniformity underlies syllahie variety, verse ot 
 
 be recognised as verse; and not afew lines in recent 
 
 poetry seem to exemplify this defect. 
 
 Equality of periods cannot be directly demonstrated. 
 The very existence of BUOfa divisions, nun h more their 
 
 ' length, is matter Less for ajpriori dogmat ism 
 
 than for testing In, experiment. The roador must 
 \< nfv it \>\ his own ear. Still, if time govern metre 
 — which no critic will <]i-w\ there must he units of 
 time, and the wry definition of rhythm sn that 
 
 these units are equal Per the present, thi^ equality 
 
 shall l>e a — lined as a working hypothesis, and the 
 
 division of   line into periods shall be assumed to be 
 
 4
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 patent. As a matter of fact, I imagine, no reader 
 will feel any more difficulty in recognizing that a 
 line of verse consists of successive periods, than in 
 recognizing that a word usually consists of successive 
 sounds. Later on we may see what determines the 
 length of periods ; at present it is enough to perceive 
 that they exist. 
 
 That syllables do not occur uniformly in periods, 
 again — even as regards their number, much less as 
 regards their character — is equally obvious. Any 
 snatch of verse shows it. Take the child's rhyme : 
 
 Pease | pudding | hot, 
 Pease | pudding | cold. 
 
 The periods are pretty obviously as here represented, 
 with a monosyllable in the first, a dissyllable in the 
 second. Or take a slightly more complex structure 
 in " Sing a song of sixpence." There I should say 
 that every line has seven periods, each normally carry- 
 ing two syllables. A line may either have its full 
 tale of syllables, e.g., 
 
 Now was | not this | a dain- | ty dish | to set | before | a 
 king? 
 
 Or it may have a less number, e.g., 
 
 By | came | a hlack- | bird, | and nipt | off | her nose. 
 
 Where we put the division-marks is of little 
 moment. What is needful is to see that these are 
 two lines of the same pattern, tbe same metre, though 
 one contains ten syllables, the other fourteen. How, 
 
 5
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 then, does the second line produce flu- same metrical 
 effect as the first? Obviously because the periods in 
 each are identical, though in one case less fully tilled 
 op by syllables. Time is thus the reft] basis of this 
 metre, and syllables are comparatively unimportant ; 
 
 in other words, the period* mav be either oocupied 
 by sound or left blank (to some extent at least), 
 apparently as the writer wills. 
 
 No apology need l>e made for choosing these ex- 
 amples. The ruder the structure, the better for our 
 purp"-<\ We want to see the raw beginnings, the 
 original framework of metre; flesh and colouring 
 can come later. Identical laws must govern all 
 verse, from the simplest to the most complicated- 
 It is. perhaps, too common a mistake to plunge at 
 
 once into the depths of metrical analysis without 
 
 first mastering its plainer lessons. The present is 
 conspicuously a case in point. 
 
 In order to recognize periods as equal, then, it is 
 necessary t<> take account of silent intervals between 
 words. This is so patent in theory, and BO familiar 
 in practice to every reciter, that it is surprising to 
 
 find it ignored by most English metrista Pew of 
 our prosody«booki regard anything but syllables. 
 
 But to loan by syllables alone is like trying to • 
 
 a page of niusir, taking aOOOUnt exclusively of notes, 
 
 and paying no attention to pausoi or " rests " i 
 
 nition of t ho s e last is as essential in metre as in 
 music Neglect Of them, more than any other eau.se, 
 
 produces the unreality so often complained <>i in the 
 
 prosodv of "Hi gnminin. We must trust our - 
 and make theory conform to practioo. I Hu ears and 
 
 6
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 our tongues, in everyday reading, tell us that pause 
 forms an integral part of our metre. 
 
 Here, however, a distinction must be noted. We 
 make pauses in reading verse, to bring out the mean- 
 ing, or merely to draw breath. Some writers have 
 tried to find in these a foundation of verse- structure. 
 Guest's great book on English Ehythms l builds on 
 a notion of this kind. A very ingenious attempt on 
 similar lines was made by the late Professor Fleeming 
 Jenkin. 2 Such theories seem to confuse the delivery 
 of verse with its essential rhythm. The pauses which 
 we make in reading poetry are voluntary and optional ; 
 one reader makes them and another leaves them out ; 
 the same reader will vary them at different times. 
 These surely cannot be parts of structure. All 
 grammarians recognize the "sectional" pause, divid- 
 ing a line into two, as in this couplet : 
 
 Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, 
 Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees. 
 
 Pope, "Essay on Man," Book I., near end. 
 
 Here we naturally pause after " sun " and " stars." 
 The sense requires it, and the line falls of itself into 
 two parts. Yet even this is surely an oratorical 
 pause, not a metrical. It is something imposed on 
 the line from without ; something which affects the 
 sense and expression of the line, not its substance. 
 True metrical pause is absolutely part of the line, 
 
 1 " History of English Rhythms," 1838 ; new edition, 
 edited by Prof. Skeat, 1882. 
 
 2 "On Rhythm in English Verse." See "Memoir "by 
 R. L. Stevenson, 1887, vol. ii. 
 
 7
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 ;iml is prow.] such by l>eing in «.ther cases filled up 
 vllil. l.-s. If we choose tn read for sound instead 
 of s, Riming rather than reading, we can dis- 
 
 regard tin- •' caesura " ill the foregoing couplet, with 
 
 detriment to delivery indeed, but with no detriment 
 
 to metre. Whereat, iu " My came a blackbird," DO 
 
 device ol reading will alter the fact that this line 
 oontaini an element other than its syllables. We 
 feel, and eunnot help feeling, that the periods arc 
 
 eked out bv something over and above the words. 
 That something 1 call "pause," and it is immaterial 
 
 whether the roice pauses on the syllables «.r />»•/ 
 
 them. In either oaee it is an element forming an 
 integral part of the line, and entirely unaffected by 
 
 any whims or tricks of elocution. 
 
 The discretional pansei which we properly and 
 
 naturally make in delivering B Line Wem to stand in 
 ipiite a different category. They do not alter the 
 time od ver>e. That is 110 m..re affected by such than 
 
 the time of a piece "t" music' is altered when the 
 player itopc to turn over a page or to adjust his 
 ipectacles. We are all free to panse iu reading Terse 
 
 When and where and as often as we pleas.'. At . ;c li 
 such pause the metre is suspend.'. I. and does not 
 
 ii again till we resume. We may pause in the 
 
 middle of a period, and take up the measure where 
 we left ..ff, after an ah~.n. •• of minutes or of hours. 
 But this is a very different matter from that in- 
 tegral and 10 < . — .1 r\ pause which forms a constituent 
 
 part of the line itself, without recognition of which 
 no scansion is complete, and bj ignoring which so 
 much populai m i rend* pi d illusorj 
 
 8
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 That an element of " pause," denned as above, 
 exists in all English verse, a very cursory examina- 
 tion ought sufficiently to show. It is more marked 
 in some types of verse than in others, for a reason 
 which it might be premature at present to discuss. 
 Even in our simplest forms of metre it is discernible. 
 At the beginning of a line it is so common that a 
 name has been given to it, regarded from the con- 
 verse side as a prefixing of " redundant " syllables ; 
 this is technically called " anacrusis." In Milton's 
 " L' Allegro" and " II Penseroso," for example, lines 
 of seven syllables alternate with lines of eight, 
 obviously without change of metre. In our regular 
 " heroic " verse of ten syllables the same phenomenon 
 occurs, though less often ; it is easy to find lines of 
 nine syllables, like Shakespeare's 
 
 Stay, the king has thrown his warder down ! 
 
 "Richard II.," Act I., Sc. 3. 
 or Marlowe's 
 
 What is heauty, saith my sufferings then ? 
 
 " Tamburlaine," Pt. I., Act V., Sc. 2. 
 
 Blank intervals in the middle of a heroic line 
 are somewhat less easy to identify. For it scarcely 
 seems fair to quote lines like Shakespeare's 
 
 Than the soft myrtle* ; ' but man, proud man. 
 
 " Measure for Measure," Act II., Sc. 2. 
 
 1 The asterisk shows where a syllable has apparently 
 been dropped.
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 Milton's 
 
 Self-feil and M'lf-consnm'd* ; if thi> fail. 
 
 ««Coinus,"596. 
 Or Shelley's 
 
 Fre-h spring, ami sninnier, 1 and winter boar. 
 
 ■• A Lament.'' -nil verse. 
 
 These, in truth, air at best exceptional, and at worst 
 open to suspicion of error in the text. Still less is it 
 allowable t<> quote from dramatic verso instances 
 where the words of two speakers join imperfectly 
 one writer lias quoted from " Hamlet "   
 
 "Tlii> bodily ereatioD Eestesj 
 
 I- very cunning in." * •• lie-!. i 
 
 '• llaiul.t." A.-t III., So. 1. 
 
 Such jnnrtiif'i limn! a»Uida, x which is not infrequent 
 in Shakespeare, sliould surely Im- set down as extra- 
 metrical and perhaps accidental. In our regular 
 
 heroic verse sm h initancei attracl notice from their 
 very rarity. But in other Linns of verse, on the 
 contrary, they are familiar and euininonplaee. How, 
 without regard to pause, can we possibly make metri- 
 cal such lines .1- the following P 
 
 Toil for the brave, 
 Tin- brave thai an- no mo 
 
 I iih per, " Royal < targe." 
 
 And iweep i brougb i be deep 
 \\ liili- tli.' itonny tempests blow. 
 
 < Sampbell, " Mariaen "t England." 
 
 My heart [| at j OUI feetil al, 
 
 m . bead batb it- whimis! 
 
 Wordsworth, "Ode on Immortal!! 
 
 1 " Ill-fitting /o Irtaal equivalent of this plna-e. 
 
 I"
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 There be none of beauty's daughters 
 With a magic like thee. 
 
 Byron, " Stanzas for Music." 
 
 Thy brother Death came and cried. 
 
 Shelley, "To Night." 
 
 Break, break, break 
 
 On thy cold gray stones, O Sea ! 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
 Clear and cool — clear and cool — 
 
 By laughing shallow and dreaming pool. 
 
 C. Kingsley. 
 Stand up, look below ; 
 It is our life at thy feet we throw. 
 
 Browning, " Flight of the Duchess," § 15. 
 
 Where never sound yet was. 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 And the list might of course be quite indefinitely 
 extended. 
 
 Our lyric poetry more particularly, from Shake- 
 speare's Ariel-flights to the "banjo music" of Mr. 
 Kipling, literally cries aloud for due observance of 
 pause. Nor does this hold good only in loose or 
 careless measures. With what fine effect does Miss 
 Kossetti lead off from a dropped syllable in her even- 
 flowing lines : 
 
 Does the road wind uphill all the way ? 
 Yes, to the very end. 
 
 "Poems," "Uphill." 
 
 And how subtly does Sydney Dobell vary the mono- 
 tony of common "eights and sixes" in his well- 
 known ballad : 
 
 11
 
 A STl'DY OF METRE 
 
 The murmur of the mourning ghost 
 
 That k eeps tlif shadowy sine ; — 
 
 Oh, Ki ith of Kavcl-toii, 
 The MMTOS - .if ili\ line I" ' 
 
 To suppose tluit tin- third line in this last quotation 
 is shorter than the first would be indeed ridiculous. 
 
 Itv >ix svllal'h's clearly fill tin- same time as the 
 
 « - i -_r 1 1 1 of its predeoeeeor, and '1" bo in firtue of that 
 structural element win. si- recognition is essential t«> 
 an adequate \ iew of our verse. 
 
 But it would profit little to acknowledge, vagu< lv 
 and gent-rally, tin- existence of •• pause" as a factor, 
 mil- in .1. tannine its actual place and function 
 
 in particular lines. On   two instaiic.-s shall there- 
 fore be quoted where metrical pause is not only 
 unmistakable, hut seems capable of fairly pn 
 
 measurement, lirowning's first "Cavalier Song" 3 
 begins : 
 
 Kentish sir Byng itood tor his King, 
 Bidding the crop -headed Parliament iwing. 
 
 Hep- an obvious ami necessary suspension of SOUnd 
 after the word " Hviilt " in the first line BOOTM in tin- 
 second line exactly tilled up Lv the word " headed." 
 Omit this w..rd. and the two lines are of practically 
 
 id. wit ical st met ure : 
 
 Kentish sir Byng . . . stood for his King, 
 Bidding the crop* . . . Parliament swing. 
 
 1 " Poem , " \ Nuptial Kvc. Si • " Kn^'laml in Time 
 of War   (1856), <.r " Poetteal Wotk (edition of 1875), 
 roL i.. p, 879. 
 
 • "Selection! pocket rolum<- e.lition , p. i in. 
 
 IS
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 The time thus suggested really pervades the whole 
 poem, as will be shown at a later stage. 1 But for the 
 present it is enough to contend that the silent space 
 or pause after " Byng " is an integral part of the first 
 line ; that its duration is equal to the time taken in 
 pronouncing " headed " ; and that in other lines this 
 pause is sometimes left blank, sometimes filled up — 
 partially by one syllable, or wholly by two — but 
 never in any case by more than two syllables. Very 
 similar results appear in the same poet's Epilogue 
 to " Ferishtah's Fancies," where a pause midway in 
 the odd lines will be found filled up by syllables in 
 the even. And Tennyson's beautiful lyric in " Queen 
 Mary" (Act V., Scene 2) exhibits the same corre- 
 spondence of silence with sound in 
 
 Hapless doom of woman happy in betrothing ! 
 
 Beauty passes like a breath, and love is lost in loathing — 
 
 though in this case the first line alone contains the 
 pause, all the remaining lines of the short song being 
 furnished with their full tale of syllables. 
 
 Such instances — one or two out of very many — 
 seem sufficient to prove the possibility of measuring 
 and determining duration of pause. Analysis need 
 not be carried further at present. It will be seen 
 that the judgement of time appealed to is of the most 
 elementary kind. No " musical faculty," no mathe- 
 matical appreciation of ratios and proportions, is 
 needed for the enjoyment of verse. This fact is 
 obvious, and speaks for itself. No doubt the sense 
 of time postulated by verse is akin to that of music, 
 
 1 Cf. below, p. 86. 
 13
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 and metrical "periods" are in many respects ana- 
 logous to musical " bars." It is not wonderful if 
 soiiu- have thought that verse can K- best written in 
 musical notation, and it may be admitted that this 
 is ;in improvement on the syllabi. '-counting of or- 
 dinary grammar. Music and verse mv closely re- 
 lated. Th.y in all probability originated together, 
 and their undue separation was early complained of 
 by the greatest poet-philosopher of Greece. Any 
 reform in scansion will probablj illustrate their 
 common origin. But this does not imply lhat they 
 are one and the same. 
 
 If Music and sweet Poetry agree, 
 
 Am they must needs, the sister and the brother, 1 
 
 it does not follow that there is no difference between 
 them, or even that their union is like that of the 
 Siamese twins. Later it will be contended that   a< li 
 
 has its own method, its own perfection, and thai 
 neither processes nor results are identical in the two. 
 
 But, at this initial stage.it is more useful to dwell 
 
 on resemblances than on differences. To think of 
 
 simple metre in terms of music is good, because it 
 
 tends to emphasize the conception of time. That 
 oonoeption, unrepresented on the printed page, and 
 nnnotioed in popular prosody, is the mosi important 
 and the ni<>^t fundamental prim iple of English 
 
 1 Richard Barnfield (?), Bonnet "in prai •• of Mnaiqne 
 and Poetrie," 1 1 r t published in " Poerm in divert Iran 
 (i 100), and formerly ascribed to Bhskespssra Bse Bsra 
 field's "Poems," edited »•> Prot arbor (" l-ln-rli-h Beholai - 
 
 Lil.rary," No. II, 18C 
 
 H
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 metre. The musician is not likely to neglect it ; nor 
 is he likely to think of " periods " as other than uni- 
 form. For these reasons, if no other, it seems bene- 
 ficial to approach English verse in terms of music, 
 at all events in the first stages of study ; the 
 beginner will get a more natural, therefore a more 
 satisfactory, idea of scansion by thinking of it in 
 terms with which he is familiar, than by using half- 
 understood names whose application will be shown 
 hereafter to be more than doubtful. 
 
 It must not, however, be supposed that condition- 
 ment by time is the sole characteristic of an English 
 " period." That is its first and most fundamental 
 principle, and as such has here been placed in the 
 forefront. Its importance can hardly be overesti- 
 mated, while its appreciation involves the scarcely 
 less important recognition of pauses or silent spaces. 
 But it is the foundation only, not the building. 
 Other elements will be considered in the next two 
 chapters, still dealing with the raw material of verse. 
 Only after that will it be possible to reach combina- 
 tions of periods, taking up English verse at the point 
 where our prosody usually begins, and showing how 
 this " metre " which we are considering is distin- 
 guished into various " metres." The preliminary 
 exposition may seem tedious and technical. But, as 
 it happens, English scansion has been too apt to 
 assume its basic principles at second hand ; often, 
 indeed, taking them ready-made from alien prosodies. 
 To do any good, we must begin at the beginning, 
 and seek to form for ourselves a view of the relation 
 of units to each other, and of the constituting ele- 
 
 15
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 merits which shape each unit. That time is the moat 
 original and necoooary of these is a Gad ultimate in 
 
 our prosody, and strictly in accordance with the hi>- 
 tory, haluts, and development of our Kuglish lan- 
 guage. All metre really depends upon time. In 
 some literatures its function is more clearly marked, 
 more readily distinguished, than in 0UT8. Heme it 
 has been possible for critics to ignore its working, to 
 speak as if the connection of syllables in our rerte 
 depended on arithmetic instead of on temporal move- 
 ment. No rational, no adequate, scansion can be 
 based on such notions. English metre is not rightlj 
 interpreted till we recognize t inie-value of periods as 
 its indispensable foundation, and their uniform re- 
 currence as the condition of its rhythm. 
 
 NoTK. 
 
 F follow the usual spelling of i/is\t//tahlr and trisyllable. 
 There is no reason for I heir difference, and uniformity would 
 
 lined l>y spelling end pronouncing the hitter irord 
 syllable. Or we might speak oi /,.' fllablestuid trisyllables. 
 
 The alternative form di-Syllablt S CO TJ M t \ olutioiUUrj . 
 
 L6
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE " PERIOD " ACCENT 
 
 Constitution by time is the first note of our unit 
 of verse-measurement. But perception of this fact 
 does not explain what gives substance to metre, what 
 lends it character and colour. The period is not a 
 mere space of blank time ; it is occupied by words or 
 the intervals between words. These words possess 
 qualities of their own — sensuous, intellectual, emo- 
 tional — which are turned to due account by the poet. 
 Even in dealing with words, however (in doing 
 which it is usually convenient to break them up into 
 syllables), we never get far away from the primal 
 condition of time-measure. The first necessity felt 
 by the poet is apparently to use his words as indices 
 of time. After that, other qualities come into play, 
 which make his verse rough or smooth, languid or 
 vivacious, and so forth. But his first care — certainly 
 in English, and one is disposed to conclude neces- 
 sarily in all verse — is to marshal his words so that 
 they shall impress on our ear the sequence of periods, 
 emphasize temporal uniformity, and thus gratify our 
 sense of rhythm. Powerful aid in achieving this 
 is supplied, in our verse, by what is usually called 
 accent. 
 
 17 c
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 No term, indeed, is more loosely used either in 
 books or in common talk. It seldom means the same 
 tliiiiL,' in different writers, often not indifferent page! 
 of the same writer. Some <ritirs identify it with 
 change of tone, some with prolongal i« »n of sound, most 
 (of late years, and in reference to English speech) with 
 increase of loudness. It is subdivided under many 
 heads — syntactic or logical, subjective 0T rhetorical, 
 rhythmical, etymological. ] Vet. in broad outline at 
 least, we all know what is meant when a syllable is 
 said to be accented. In the few samples of verse 
 already quoted it is easy to see that — as a rule — each 
 period contains one pretty strongly accented syllable, 
 and that when more than one syllable is contained in 
 
 a period the less strongly accented either precede or 
 follow the more strongly accented with approximate 
 
 regularity. This brings under review a wr\ im- 
 portant factor in Knglish verse. 
 
 So important is it that recent English prosody 
 usually proclaims it the sole law of our eerse. In such 
 
 alternations of accented with unaccented syllables 
 our metrists claim to and " feet " as definite as those 
 
 which existed on a different basis in (iivek and Latin 
 
 It will be argued later - that this c eptioii 
 
 is untenable and misleading. A.1 present it ma\ be 
 
 enough to point out that the regularity postulate 
 
 much less complete than these theori time, as 
 
 appears from the but that they are frequently unable 
 
 a\ which feet ar<- which | \., . .■rtainl\. no 
 
 1 Sehipper, "GrnndriM der engluchen Metrik " (Vienna, 
 
 . i. I. ::. 
 
   Sir rliajitei iv., p. SI. 
 
 is
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 finality, rewards their efforts. Our best grammarians 
 are continually found at variance one with another. 
 Carey and Lindley Murray, Clough and Conington, 
 Prof. Masson and Dr. Abbott, Mr. A. J. Ellis and 
 Prof. Mayor, break lances over the nature of par- 
 ticular " feet." l The first line of " Paradise Lost " 
 
 1 As the names of these feet occur in most metrical dis- 
 cussions, as it is convenient to use them, and as they have 
 a real meaning (to be explained later) in English pros ody, 
 a list of the chief ones is appended. 
 
 Principal Classic Feet, with descriptions and symbols. 
 
 Feet of two 
 syllables. 
 
 Feet of three 
 syllables. 
 
 ' Pyrrhic . . 
 
 Spondee . . 
 
 Iamb . . . 
 
 Trochee (or 
 
 Choree) . 
 
 f Tribrach . . 
 Molossus 
 Anapaest 
 Dactyl . . 
 Amphibrach 
 
 Amphimacer 
 (or Cretic) 
 Bacchius 
 
 short-short 
 long-long . 
 short-Ion" 
 
 long-short . . 
 
 short-short-short 
 long-long-long . 
 short-short-long 
 long-short-short 
 short-long-short 
 
 long-short-long . 
 short-long-lon" . 
 
 :c 
 
 * »• * 
 
 » m m 
 
 I I I 
 
 o m a 
 
 > Ul 
 
 >l u 
 
 ^Antibacchius long-long-short . _ - w • .• • 
 
 The last two names are reversed by some authors. 
 
 The name choree, which simply means a foot used in choric 
 metre, is most commonly a synonym for trochee, but some- 
 times for pyrrhic or tribrach. Kuskin uses trochee as a sub- 
 stitute for pyrrhic. 
 
 Feet of more than three syllables may be treated as com- 
 binations of the above. Thus a choriamb (- w w _) is a trochee 
 
 19
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 is a veritable crux to prosodists. Pr. Abbott scans 
 a particular line in Tennyson's " Idylls " one way, 
 and the poet promptly repudiates the scansion. 1 
 Prof. Mayor finds iambs 3 where the scheme of metro 
 requires spondees, ami trochees where most read< rs 
 will ]>refer to detect iambs. Indeed, the untutored 
 reader as well Bfl the export will often be ut a loss to 
 say why a particular sequence of syllables should be 
 classed as one "foot" rather than another. Such 
 nebulousness of result is surely proof of failure in 
 the working of any theory. 
 
 To what is this failure due ? A full answer to this 
 question would involve exhaustive analysis of the 
 nature and function of accent or "stress." Such 
 analysis might probably reveal undue narrowness 
 and artificiality in the definitions of our schools, and 
 in my belief would exhibil English accent as e. im- 
 pounded usually of both stress and tone, while dura- 
 tion of sound shows a strong inclination u< keep the 
 
 others company. I Jut it is i dlcss to wade in such 
 
 deep water- A suthcient answer will perhaps be 
 found if we assume — as for practical purposes it 
 
 (choree) followed 1>\ ;wi ialuli. Kirli li writer- I to l> refer 
 
 to these, and the feet most frequently mentioned are spondee, 
 iamb, trochee, tribrach, anapaest, and dactyL 
 
 Philological Society's "Transactions," L878-1874, p. 
 
   The references' are to Prof. Mayor's "Chapters on 
 English Metre" (first edition, 1886), where (p. 188) only 
 iambs and anapaests are reoo used In the first line ol 
 
 Tennj ion's " Alcaics," and (]>. iss) live iiodiee- an- -.ml to 
 • iu a line bom " I'.i h Arden." The new edition 
 
 (l!H)l ) retain , tin re. unaltered. 
 
 •J,,
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 seems safe to do — that accent is the emphasis, 1 how- 
 ever produced, which selects one or more syllables 
 out of a group of syllables, one or more words out of 
 a group of words. This distinction at once suggests 
 a difference. Roughly speaking, the accent we put 
 on syllables is constant, that we put on words vari- 
 able. When we pronounce the word " lonely," we 
 always accentuate the first syllable ; when the word 
 " alone," always the second. But such fixed accent 
 is a small part only of our speech-cadence. Over 
 and above this, there is the grouping of a sentence, 
 the weight we put on words according to their mean- 
 ing, " logical accent " if we like so to term it. This 
 is variable, uncertain, differing in different speakers, 
 or in the same speaker according to his mood. With- 
 out reflection, one hardly realizes how vital this is, 
 even in common talk. Think of the significance given 
 by tones of anger, scorn, complaint, affection, inter- 
 rogation, exclamation. It is often less what we say, 
 than how we say it, that matters. This accent can 
 override the other, can reverse the word-accent, as 
 when we say "to bear and /orbear," "to please or 
 displease," and so on. Logical accent moulds our 
 speech as a potter his clay. Englishmen are said to 
 use it less than most, but a single sentence pro- 
 nounced with only syllable-accent will show how 
 widely that differs from normal utterance. The 
 
 1 Emphasis and accent are distinguished by some critics. 
 Their application may differ, the former being concerned 
 chiefly with sentences ; but their physical constitution is 
 surely identical. Are they not merely two names for one 
 
 thing ? 
 
 21
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 gradations of stress, the modulations of voice, what 
 have been well called the " tunes of speech," 1 domin- 
 ate our most trivial conversation; in serious and 
 impassioned oratory they become still more inevitable 
 and conspicuous. 
 
 Now poetry is speech, of a specially ornate kind. 
 All verse is .-u i ■]•■■-•■< i to !>.■ read aloud, and in con- 
 sidering it we must study sound rather than sight, 
 phonetics rather than orthography. Serious poetry 
 demands proper expression ; comic, of course, aims at 
 
 burlesquing this. The "tunes of s] eh," therefore, 
 
 as well as the mere syllable-stresses, go to the con- 
 struction of English verse ; and this at once intro- 
 duces an element of uncertainty. Such uncertainty 
 may even affect metrical pattern. 
 
 The line 
 
 How happy entilil I l>c with cither ' - 
 
 actually varies in metre according as we emphaaiae 
 the word "I" or leave it unimportant. Similar 
 doubt attends Browning's line in •• Crist ina," 
 
 She should never have Looked at me. 
 
 Probably few persons on first reading Tennyson's 
 
 1 This phrase WSJ familiar to me before leading Sidney 
 Lanier'.- " Science of English Verse " (Boston, 1880), chapten 
 x., wln-rc, however, it reoeivea unusually foil exposition, 
 though Laniei see ms to approach verse too exclusivelj from 
 the side oi mil Le. 
 
 ■' Gay, " ft Opera* 1 (1728), Act n., Be. ft 
 
 3 " Selections n (as before), p IflS 
 
 ...»
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 O great and gallant Scott, 
 
 True gentleman, heart, blood, and bone, 1 
 
 will take up the intended measure of the second line. 
 His verse in " Enoch Arden," 
 
 Take your own time, Annie, take your own time, 
 
 can be read differently according as we put the main 
 stress on "own," or on "time," or on both. The 
 first Line of " Paradise Lost " varies in accentuation 
 with the importance given to " first," to the " dis-" 
 of " disobedience," and so forth. How can any 
 stable structure be reared on a foundation like this ? 
 How can exact "feet" be framed from material so 
 elusive and illusory ? It is trying to make ropes of 
 sand. To base prosody on accentuation seems hope- 
 lessly futile, so long as our word-accent is thus at the 
 mercy of our sentence-accent, and the latter is a 
 thing capricious and fugitive and chameleon-like in 
 its changes. 
 
 Other arguments might be added, but the fore- 
 going seems sufficiently to show that no prosody 
 building on stress alone can be definite or exact. 
 This, however, must not lead us to underestimate 
 the value of accent. It is a feature of vast import- 
 ance in our speech, and therefore in our verse. It 
 shapes everything else to its use, except only the 
 conditioning element of time. It moulds syllables 
 like wax, altering their resonance and weight. And 
 its alternations are habitually used by the poet to 
 signalize time. Their approximately uniform recur- 
 rence impresses on us the absolute recurrence of 
 
 1 "The Death of Oenone, and other Poems " (1892), p. 48. 
 
 23
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 periods. Accent is truly our iehu MSfriett!, empha- 
 sizing rhythm. We do not require to beat time with 
 hand or foot ; the words themselves do it for us. 
 But those who make accent the constitutive principle 
 of English metre seem to confound this ictut with 
 the structure it illustrates, the "period" with the 
 bell which calls attention to it. 
 
 This may be put more plainly and practically. 
 Every period usually contains one and only one 
 syllable of stronger accentuation, and these usually 
 alternate with others of weaker accentuation. But 
 this is far from being an absolute law. The ward 
 " usually " must not be read as " always." Milton's 
 Mank verse normally carries five accents, yet all 
 critics agree that there are lines iu "Paradise Lost" 
 with only four. How do such lines remain metrical P 
 They remain so because each line consists of five 
 periods, though iu the case assumed not every 
 period is signalized by accent. Periodicity is t In- 
 essential quality, accentuation its usual but not in- 
 variable exponent. To identify these is to confuse 
 rvMiMr with accident, the thing illustrated with the 
 thing which illustrates. 
 
 To get a clear idea of how accent affects periods, 
 and perhaps incidentally ritl ourselves of erroneous 
 conceptions of its working, it may be well to consider 
 for a moment its precise relalioii to   group ol 
 syllables. This can be done without going far into 
 technicalities, Speech involve! lUccessivc emissions 
 of voice. The How is never OOntUlUOUl. BvCTj 
 syllable contain! one vowel, but it osualh also con- 
 tain! consonants which check and break up the vocal 
 
 _'l
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 stream. Even when speech contains vowels alone, 
 the flow is interrupted ; each vocal sound is separated 
 from its neighbour by a slackening of voice, as will 
 appear if we repeat any consecutive series of pure 
 vowels. These increases and decreases of pressure, 
 these diminutions and augmentations of the vocal 
 current, constitute a large part at least of what we 
 have agreed to call " accent." Can we find any law 
 determining their progress, any fact pointing to a 
 unit of accentuation, as the "period" creates a unit 
 of verse ? 
 
 A bold attempt to answer this question was made 
 by the anonymous author of " Accent and Rhythm 
 explained by the Law of Monopressures" (Blackwood, 
 1888), a book whose argument has been adopted and 
 amplified by Prof. Skeat, first in his "Chaucer" 
 (introduction to vol. vi., pp. lxxxii-xcvii), more lately 
 in a paper published in the Philological Society's 
 "Transactions" (1895-1898, pp. 484-503). Both 
 writers declare the limit of a single pressure to be 
 three syllables. One, two, or three syllables — but not 
 more — may be included in a " monopressure." When 
 it embraces only two syllables, the maximum pressure 
 (identified with accent) may be on either syllable ; 
 when three, this must be on the mid-syllable. It is 
 not meant that a separate breath is required for each 
 monopressure ; very many of these can be rattled off 
 in one breath by fluent speakers. But each is distinct 
 and distinguishable, a definite exertion of vocal force, 
 of which we may note the beginning, middle, and 
 end. Such a word as tremendous, for example, can 
 be uttered on one pressure ; a word like intervene 
 
 25
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 requires two, on the first syllable and the last. All 
 words of more than three syllables require two 
 pressures. There are therefore only four possible 
 varieties of monopressure ; one on a monosyllable, 
 two upon dissyllables, one on the form of trisyllable 
 instanced above. A simple siijn being devised COX 
 each of these varieties, it is claimed that all units of 
 speech can be indicated by these, and that for verse 
 a system of notation is created which supersedes 
 division into " feet." 
 
 The theory is ingenious and striking, and no doubt 
 in the main illustrates and explains our habit of 
 speech. But, with all deference to the high authority 
 of its supporter, one may doubt whether it is not 
 expressed much too absolutely. Does the Limitation 
 to three syllables really hold good? Can four never 
 be uttered on one pressure f The original author 
 quotes no words of four syllables, but jumps at once 
 from three to five, ami easily establishes that words 
 like accommodation, re ve rb e ra tin g, etc., require more 
 than one pressure. But what of a host of wopU 
 like m emori al, tuperfluoue, vmagiuin<j r Is it so certain 
 that these require two pressures P The theory also 
 
 necessitates two pressures OD trisyllables like iniit>i, 
 memory, cynical, fugitive, devi">i*. trum{>rt,r. Is this 
 quite beyond doubt? lujiiiriin-nt would be a word of 
 
 one pressure ; why need indolent hare more? Such 
 words must of course be considered, not in isolation, 
 but as they occur In • sentence Memory a e e e rte , 
 
 iiii'itij demand*, and the like. Surely phrases like 
 
 these last can be embraced in two pressures f That 
 
 three unaccented syllables cannol OOme together is a 
 
 26
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 favourite doctrine of metrists ; Prof. Skeat, more 
 cautious, only says that such " would ruin any 
 verse." We shall see later that the practice of poets 
 by no means bears out either assertion. 1 Further, is 
 it right to distinguish thus broadly between accented 
 and unaccented syllables ? The authors themselves 
 say that pressure increases, reaches its height, 
 diminishes ; do not syllables manifest its impact in 
 varying degrees ? In his later paper, Prof. Skeat re- 
 cognizes secondary as well as primary accent. But 
 even this concession seems inadequate, nor does it 
 appear why a syllable is held capable of receiving 
 only one degree of stress during its utterance. 
 
 Again, and with special view to our present purpose, 
 in its application to verse this theory helps little. 
 The units into which it divides a line are irregular, 
 and are identical with the units of prose speech. Is 
 there then no difference between prose and verse ? 
 Unless our analysts establish some principle which 
 makes these units metrical, they really give no theory 
 of verse-structure at all. Doubtless, most verse can 
 be resolved into the collocations which their symbols 
 represent. That merely proves that the collocations 
 exist, not that they constitute metre. Poetry and 
 prose alike employ words ; what we want to know is, 
 wherein do thev differ in doing so. The units 
 which these writers recognize are the units which 
 are common to both, nor is any law of arrangement 
 suggested in virtue of which these units are grouped, 
 here into verse, there into prose. 
 
 Even, however, if we cannot accept this theory as 
 1 Infra, p. 96. 
 27
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 final, it may aid us to realize the preoiae way in 
 
 which accent is related to rhythm. Swellings and 
 slackenings of voice, regulated by the principle of 
 monopressure, give potenl aid t<> tin- poet by mark- 
 ing his periods. When two syllables occupy a period, 
 one is usually more strongly emphasised bj aooenl 
 than the other. It is seldom correct to sped 
 them as accented and unaccented; occasionally the 
 difference may be sufficient to justify these terms, 
 but in most cases it is comparative only, and some- 
 times may not exist at all. We are dealing with a 
 customary sequence, not an invariable law. The 
 more helpful plan is to regard accent as progress- 
 ive. It is an increase or decrease of pressure, 
 not a sudden stress. As a rule, accentual impact 
 either increases or diminishes throughout a period. 
 The poet arranges his words so that I ilterna- 
 
 tions occur consecutively- He does not, indeed, tie 
 himself to do so slavishly ; such verse would become 
 intolerably monotonous. But he does it with ap- 
 proximate regularity sufficienl to enforce underlying 
 
 rhythm. Accent is n< >t rh\ thin, but it tends to act 
 
 rhythmically, and its alternations aid us in reoog- 
 
 nizing periods. As a general rule, accentual pn 
 
 urc culminates 0nC6 in I period : and this is equally 
 true whatever the number of syllables contained in 
 
 the period. Obviously, this is a potenl engine ready 
 
 to the poet's hand. Without it, he might he driven 
 to mark his periodl by artificial means by musical 
 
 aooompaniment, ox other method-- of denoting time. 
 
 In some languages such devices may conceivably be 
 m-cessarv ; \sith us at least tln-v are n..t. A-OCCnt 
 
 26
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 supplies an index of time in English verse, and it 
 does so by progressive action and reaction under the 
 law of monopressure. 
 
 Eegularity of accentuation is no canon of English 
 verse. All our poets vary its incidence, some much 
 more largely than others. Not only does this avoid 
 monotony; if skilfully used, it sharpens our per- 
 ception of rhythm. Too much regularity dulls 
 attention, which may be startled awake by an unex- 
 pected change. A dropped accent, like a dropped 
 syllable, may minister to our perception of periodic 
 recurrence. Full exemplification of this will be 
 given at a later stage, but hei*e it is sufficient to in- 
 dicate it as obvious ; so obvious, that it would be 
 surprising if our poets failed to utilize it. Their 
 doing so, however, is clear proof that accentuation 
 does not constitute the sole and invariable basis of 
 our verse ; its essential unchanging element must be 
 sought in that which underlies both syllables and 
 stresses. 
 
 Accentual monopressure very probably also deter- 
 mines the length of periods. It need not be assumed 
 to do so directly, but rather to suggest a natural 
 duration, which is accepted and made invariable by 
 the rhythmical faculty. The absolute length of 
 periods really matters very little, their mutual rela- 
 tion being the point of importance. But it is in- 
 teresting to speculate what caused periods to exist, 
 and determined their duration. While it would be 
 rash to assume that they are actually constituted by 
 accentual pressure, it seems highly probable that this 
 indicated a natural and appropriate length for the 
 
 29
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 unit. Thf f;ict that temporal ami accentual units 
 habitually coincide Lb at all events u t . t « • t of consider- 
 able interest. 1 
 
 Accent may be regarded, therefore, as partly a 
 (•(institutive luit mainly a signalizing element in 
 English verse. It is constitutive so far as it shapes 
 syllables, not merely bringing them into greater or 
 less prominence, but aometimefl actually changing 
 their structure. Its main function, however, i 
 signalize periodicity. It does not create the regularity 
 of verse, since that exists apart from accent, and can 
 be impressed on our ear by variation or omission of 
 accent. But normally it is used as an exponent of 
 regularity. Its approximately uniform recurrences 
 illustrate the fundamental uniformity of rhythm. By 
 its alternations we are aided to realize the unbroken 
 succession of peritt Is. These alternations should be 
 conceived of as progressive, rather than as a Beril 
 abrupt changes; progressive even during the utter- 
 ance of single syllables, always during that of BUG 
 ive syllables. The hest rationale of their habitual 
 mode of action seems that given by the law of mono- 
 pressures. So regarded, acoenl claims a leading 
 place in our analysis. All critics admit thi> claim. 
 
 1 Tlic Lab • • -nt ill*- Investigator among American 
 inctri-t- c An introduction t<> the Btndy <>i Poetry," Prof, 
 Mark H. Liddell, New fork, 1902) regards thii relation m 
 one of eauae and effect, lli- nniti are " rhythm- wave*," 
 depending on the meaning of s Una Perhaps tlii-- ex 
 aggeratea the intellectual side of terse the temporal rei • 
 
 inadequate recognition but Its urnMice %vitli the Idea 
 
 <,f "monopn la suggestive. The volume • 
 
 careful study. 
 
 80
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 From the infancy of our literature accent has been 
 acknowledged a prominent feature of our verse. Its 
 prominence is manifest, undeniable ; its importance 
 has been fully recognized in previous pages. But it 
 is not and cannot be the sole law of our verse. Were 
 it so, a prose sentence printed in lines would be in- 
 distinguishable from poetry. Those who hold that 
 stresses alone constitute verse omit Hamlet from 
 their play. Stresses without time cannot make verse ; 
 when conditioned by time, they cease to be funda- 
 mental. Counting of stresses is but a shade less 
 mechanical than counting of syllables. Temporal 
 periods, usually occupied by syllables, and habitually 
 denoted by stress, must be regarded as the true basis 
 of our verse ; and the part thus assigned to stress or 
 accent is sufficiently important. This, however, is not 
 its only function. Our poets also use it in countless 
 delicate ways, which almost defy analysis and laugh 
 to scorn ourpedantryof nomenclature, to give subtlety 
 and grace and variety to their verse. These will be 
 considered when we come to combinations of periods. 
 At present it is enough to get a general idea of the 
 nature and working of accent, and the foregoing 
 statement seems amply to explain and justify the 
 high place always given to it in English prosody. 
 
 31
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE " PERIOD " QUANTITY 
 
 Another factor in the construction of verse is what 
 is technically termed "quantity." By this is meant 
 the hulk of syllables (guon&ug, "how great"), as 
 measured by the time they take to utter. Time-value 
 
 reigns again supreme, though in a narrower field. 
 "Quantity" is sometimes given a wider sense, to 
 inelude silent spaces as well as syllables, being thus 
 made virtually synonymous with time. Here, for 
 the sake of clearness, it shall be restricted to its 
 more definite use, which is that familiar to Flnglish 
 
 tnetrists. As applied to syllables it takes aooounl 
 
 of structure only, not of accent nation, unless the 
 latter can be shown to affect the time taken in pro- 
 nouncing. 
 
 When this definition is laid before an English 
 reader, he may be inclined to BSk whether it has any 
 
 real meaning. Do syllable- differ in time of pro- 
 
 Qonncingf " 1 know," he maj say, "what yon mean 
 
 by more or less strongly accented syllables. I re 
 
 •n/.c a difference between these, though I maj ool 
 
 be able to define its exad na'nre and degree. Ibit a 
 
 difference in time-value is much more donbtfuL Do 
 not all syllables take practically the same time to 
 
 82
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 utter, unless perhaps the strongly accented take a 
 shade longer than the weakly accented ? Are you not 
 simply reintroducing under a new name the distinc- 
 tion already taken cognizance of in last chapter ? " 
 
 He will not be alone in feeling these doubts. Very 
 eminent critics have expressed them. The conception 
 comes from Classic metre, and Classical scholars seem 
 particularly incredulous of its applicability to English 
 verse ; the late Prof. H. A. J. Munro, of Cam- 
 bridge, proclaimed this incredulity in remarkably 
 strong terms. 1 Our poets, on the other hand, incline 
 to believe in it; Tennyson's "Life," 2 by his son, shows 
 him an earnest student of quantity. Whom shall we 
 trust, poet or critic? Neither, if we are wise, but 
 examine for ourselves, and draw our own conclusions. 
 In so doing, it will be necessary to refer briefly to the 
 structure of Greek and Latin metre, that we may be 
 able to distinguish— as even eminent critics have not 
 always done — the fact of " quantity " from the Classic 
 rules for its observance. 
 
 The very notion of quantity is unfamiliar to us in 
 English. We pay no attention to this characteristic 
 of syllables, and often neglect differences due to it, 
 slurring unaccented syllables till they are barely 
 heard. Other nations have different habits. The 
 old Greeks and Romans gave such distinction and 
 prominence to time-value, that it became the index 
 
 1 See Cambridge Philosophical Society's "Transactions," 
 vol. x. (1864), pp. 374-402. Munro's paper is dated Feb- 
 ruary, 1860, and an appendix is dated July, 1861. The 
 paper is often quoted in contemporary controversy. 
 
 J "Alfred, Lord Tennyson. A Memoir." 2 vols. (1897). 
 
 33 d
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 of their verse; they used it, as we use accent, to 
 
 emphasize rhythm. They classified it 1 1 syllables as 
 either long or thort, and accounted one long syllable 
 exactly equal to two short. (This las! was probably 
 a metrical convention; but to secure aoceptanoe it 
 must have accorded in the main with fact.) A few 
 syllables were exceptional, might change their quan- 
 tity under special conditions. All others remained 
 long or short, absolutely and under all circumstances. 
 To make an error in quantity showed clownish ig- 
 norance, comparable to our wrongly accenting a 
 familiar word. It is still held to disgrace anyone 
 pretending to knowledge of the Classics, though he 
 must have learned by rule what living languages 
 teach by ear. 
 
 Two principles created this quantity. A syllable 
 containing a long vowel was always long. (Short 
 vowels and long were doubtless distinguished in 
 speech ; the Greeks had different letters for long 
 and short 0, long E and short E.) And a syllable 
 containing a short vowel followed by two or more 
 consonants was also long. Man\ grammars cOttfUM 
 matters by -~t.il i 1 1 u r thai in this latter case the POWSi 
 lM'caine long, but this seems erroneous; the best 
 authorities say only that the si/l/.il>l< was reckoned 
 
 long. It was so reckoned, 1 imagine, simply be- 
 cause a plurality of consonants took a^ Long to pro- 
 nounce as did s long roweL They computed, it 
 
 should be said, always from rowel 1" vowel, so that 
 
 all consonants preceding s rowel in any syllable 
 affected the quantity, nol of i li.it syllable, but of its 
 predecessor. And so nice were their ears that two
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 consonants following a vowel were sufficient to con- 
 stitute length ; the only short syllable was that con- 
 taining a short vowel separated by but one consonant 
 from the vowel of the following syllable. 
 
 Now there is no reason to suppose that their rules 
 regarding quantity hold good in English. Our habits 
 of speech are different, our ears are differently 
 trained. But the fact of quantity remains, and is 
 based on the same broad principles. For, first, we 
 also have differences among our vowels, which our 
 grammarians hold to be differences in length. Recent 
 philology, indeed, tends to call these differences of 
 quality rather than quantity, and speaks of open 
 and shut more than of long and short vowels. But 
 the difference at any rate exists, and can be used for 
 metrical purposes. We all recognize a difference 
 between the vowel-sounds in bat and bar, net and 
 neat, ill and isle, hop and hope, luff and lure. The 
 alternative pronunciations of knowledge and know- 
 ledge, primer and primer, turn wholly on this differ- 
 ence. And, as it is commonly regarded as a difference 
 in length, our poets would be justified in treating it 
 as such. 
 
 The second distinction is still more palpable. A 
 syllable encumbered with many consonants must, in 
 the nature of things, take more time to pronounce 
 than one with fewer. Here, again, our philologists 
 complicate issues by talking of long and short con- 
 sonants, and of consonants whose effect is to shorten 
 a weak vowel. But it seems doubtful whether such 
 niceties appeal to an ordinary reader, seeing that (as 
 above said) our ears are habitually insensitive to 
 
 35
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 minute differences of quantity. They are not, how- 
 ever, so hopelessly dulled as to be unable to realize 
 that a syllable like tihouldet must take longer to pro- 
 nounce fully than a syllable like shut. A In i 
 distinction of this kiud is all we really want. It is 
 sufficient to create metrical difference, and there ii 
 n<i necessity to push analysis further. 
 
 It does not follow that our poets use these differ- 
 ences consciously, much less that they are bound by 
 fixed rules. The Latin rules are almost certainly 
 too narrow for our usage. Our speech so abounds 
 in consonants, and we are accustomed to get over 
 them so glibly, that two consonants are probablj 
 insufficient to create an idea <>f length. < hie English 
 poet, at any rate, proposed a much wider range. 1 
 Again, our spelling is a much less sate guide than 
 was the Latin. Quantity of course depends on 
 sound, and letters should represent VOCal utterances. 
 But our alphabet is notoriously chaotic in this re- 
 spect. Single letters npresent double or even triple 
 sounds, and double letters represent single sounds, 
 while our pronunciation is very Est from being re- 
 produced in our spelling. Our habits of speech, 
 moreover, are often peculiar. When the modern 
 [talian pronounces words like bocea, donna, he sounds 
 
 both the doubled consonants ; and there i an be little 
 
 doubt that the ancient Italian did the same But in 
 our utterance of words like bucket or bonnet only 
 one consonantal sound divides the syllables, and the 
 tirst syllables of these words oanuot possibly be e 
 
 < 'h.tr li- Kin N \ , " Life sad Letters," roL i., p. 847. 
 
 86
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 counted long. Anyone trying to make quantitative 
 rules for English would have to begin by reforming 
 our alphabet. Even as regards broad facts of quan- 
 tity we must be content to adopt a phonetic stand- 
 point. We must remember that both one and won 
 are pronounced as if written wun, that two con- 
 sonants really separate the syllables in exist or agile, 
 and only one in happy, mother, or gushing. In fact, 
 for the purposes of this chapter, we must ignore 
 spelling, and go wholly by sound. 
 
 Proceeding on this basis, and regarding — here as 
 always — deduction from practice as the only possible 
 method of proof, let us see whether our poets do 
 appear to make use of such quantitative difference. 
 For argument's sake, let some such rule as the Latin 
 be assumed, founded on the two broad principles 
 aforesaid. Even though inadequate in itself, this 
 may indicate the general drift and tendency of our 
 verse in relation to quantity ; and it is to that general 
 aspect alone that attention is invited. 
 
 A very common type of verse is where the accen- 
 tual stress culminates on the even as distinguished 
 from the odd syllables of a line. This may be illus- 
 trated by a couplet from Marvell, the even syllables 
 being italicized for easier reference : 
 
 And all the way, to guide their chime, 
 With/aWing oars they kept the time. 1 
 
 It will be noticed that every italicized syllable here 
 is long, on the principles tentatively assumed. The 
 
 1 Andrew Marvell (1621-1678), "Song of the Emigrants in 
 Bermuda." 
 
 37
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 remaining syllables, however, are not with equal 
 constancy short. This is just what might have been 
 expected, from the relative unimportance of lightly 
 accented syllables in our speech. It is natural that 
 our poets should obey the spirit of their language. 
 Let us, like them, attend mainly to syllables of pre- 
 dominant accentuation, and study some cases from 
 this standpoint. 
 
 In the following instances, taken from Moore, the 
 syllables of chief accentuation are again printed in 
 italics : 
 
 The /">;/ -hall be my/rogrant eh r ine, 
 
 My /'///]'!••. Lord ! thai <<r<fi of tliiiir; 
 
 Mv " neex - breath the mountain aire, 
 
 Ami .s/lent thuut/hu my only proffers, 
 
 " Sacred Songs." 
 
 It will readily be seen that here, likewise, the italic- 
 ized syllables are to be consider.. 1 l<nuj. A more 
 extended quotation from the same writer will give 
 greater scope for observing : 
 
 Tin- harp, thai ohm thro 1 Hsra'a hulls 
 Tin' toul (A iwmiri laarf, 
 
 Now hamgt as mut- an 7'e 11$ 
 
 \ ij that ■-'"'/ u cr. ■//"/. 
 
 Bo ./"/' s ill'' /"'"'' <»f /'//incr (/"//.v, 
 So ffloTj'n thrill i- </'. /•, 
 
 A n< I foortff thai """ beal AqvA forjmfl 
 
 v.w /. i / thai /'"/' m no ""■'■' . 
 
 So won to • /<<•/> and fodiet i>ri<jlit 
 
 The tare >.t /"i. 1 noeUt ; 
 The chord tlont thai presto Al night 
 
 It - faA .it / win /, l
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 Thus Freedom now so seMom wakes, 
 
 The 07i\y throb she gives 
 Is when some heart indignant breaks, 
 
 To show that s&7/ she lives. 
 
 " Irish Melodies." 
 
 In these stanzas, with one possible exception (the 
 word thrill), each italicized syllable would rank as 
 long. (Shed and fled are not exceptions, for the last 
 syllable of a line is accounted long in any case, 
 doubtless because reinforced by a pause.) Lest it 
 should be supposed that this structure is peculiar to 
 verse of one type, an instance may be taken from 
 lines where alternation is more irregular, while the 
 syllables of main stress are still easy to identify : 
 
 The minstrel bog to the war is gone, 
 
 In the ranks of death you'll find him ; 
 His/ather's sword he has gi?-ded on, 
 
 And his wild harp slung behind him. 
 ''Land of song ! " said the warrior bard, 
 
 " Though all the world betrays thee, 
 One sword, at least, thy rights shall guard, 
 
 One/«i7Aful harp shall praise thee." 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 Here, without any exception, the italicized syllables 
 would be reckoned as long. 
 
 These, of course, are selected instances. They are 
 taken from verse that is easy to dissect. More 
 varied cadences would perplex the issue, and dis- 
 tract attention from the point raised. Yet the 
 reader may be asked to study for himself, in the 
 light of these principles, some lines taken almost at 
 random from Tennyson's blank verse : 
 
 39
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 The weight of all the hopes of half tin- world. 
 
 The voice of days of old and days to he. 
 
 Where all of high and holy die- away. 
 
 Again for -lory, while the golden 1\ re. 
 
 To break tin' heathen and nphold the Christ 
 
 The craft of kindred, and tin- godless hoati 
 
 < »f heathen swarming o'er the Northern Sea. 
 
 Then eame thy shameful >in with Lancelot. 
 
 I guard ai God'a high gift from seathe and wrong. 
 
 A- in the -olden day- before thy sin. 
 
 While there is rather more variety of movement in 
 some of these lines, the quantitative structure in 
 each case seems sufficiently well marked. 
 
 One more example shall be cited, this time from a 
 poet whose work demonstrates, better almost than 
 any other in our language, (lie fine results attained 
 by respecting principles of quantity, as regards both 
 vowel-length and consonant -aggregation. The fol- 
 lowing stanza from Mr. Swinburne's " In the Bay " ' 
 also well illustrates the eiTect produced by occasional 
 inversion of accent, emphatic stress heing shifted 
 fn>m even to odd syllable, and quantity aocom- 
 panying: 
 
 Ahove the hroad sweep of the hreathless hay 
 
 Sonthwestward, far past Bight of night and day, 
 Lower than the ranken ranset sink-, and higher 
 
 Than dawn ran freak the front uf heaven with lire, 
 
 My thought with eye- and win-- made wide makes way 
 
 To find the place of souls that l desire. 
 
 Critics will notice that the hi-t line here, like the 
 lir-t quoted from Tennyson, OOmei Very near indeed 
 to pure iambic cadence. 
 
 1 " Poems and Ballads, 1 aoond sries(1878). 
 10
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 It will not be imagined that any law is being laid 
 down, requiring stress and quantity to coincide in 
 our verse. Such a notion could not withstand a 
 moment's examination. The reader has been warned 
 not to expect any fixed rule, and reminded that our 
 wealth of consonants makes syllables which are short 
 by Latin rule exceptional in our language. Yet, if 
 we look at facts rather than rules, we do seem to 
 come upon traces of a real use of quantity. Such 
 instances as have been quoted can hardly be quite 
 fortuitous. Our poets do, in certain cases at least, 
 appear to take pleasure in supplementing accent by 
 sound ; in other cases they may delight in contrast- 
 ing them. Evidently there are metrical effects to 
 be obtained in either way. When weakly accented 
 syllables are short, the line moves with lightness 
 and rapidity ; when long, it gains weight and dig- 
 nity. Again, the result varies according as syllables 
 of main accentuation derive their length from vowel- 
 sound or from frequence of consonants. Fine effects 
 certainly come from the former, as in Moore's : 
 
 And false the light on glory's plume, 
 As /ruling clouds of even. 
 
 "Sacred Songs." 
 
 Yet the latter also is impressive. These are cases 
 of coincidence, but contrast of accent and quantity 
 may produce other effects, as fine in their way. 
 All that can be claimed is that writers do use 
 this element, and it would be strange if they did 
 not. It is obviously a factor capable of achieving 
 considerable results. If our poets were so ill-advised 
 
 41
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 as to neglect it entirely, they would deserve blame 
 for not making the best use of their instrument. I 
 submit that they do make habitual use of it, and 
 that no theory which leaves this out of account can 
 give a complete view of English prosody. 
 
 Of course, it is always acknowledged that our 
 poets delight in sound for its own sake: Milton in 
 his sonorous proper names, Shakespeare in the vowel- 
 music of 
 
 Take, oh take those lipe away 
 That bo sweetly were forsworn, 
 and 
 
 Blow, blow, thou winter wind ! 
 
 But the present contention goes somewhat farther, 
 and argues that they use it — so to say — as form, not 
 only as colour. Besides, vowel-sound is not the only 
 source of length. If we examine such a piece of 
 regular verse as Gray's "Elegy," I think it will 
 appear that stress and quantity ooincide more fre- 
 quently than might have been expected, but that 
 vowel-soun.l is less prominent than in the best work 
 of greater poets. The question, however, is not so 
 much whether quantitative difference is used at all 
 
 by our poets, as whether it is used by them (con- 
 sciously or unconsciously) as an element of metrical 
 
 structure. Is it possible to determine this point F 
 
 An affirmative answer would he easy, if every caM 
 where one syllable alternates with two weir held a 
 case iii point. Bui this would be to forgel the func- 
 tion of pause. When Burns writes, 
 
 The wan moon i- letting beyond the white wave, 
 And tfmt i set I Lng n i 1 1 > me, 
 
 12
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 the italicized word clearly might be replaced by a 
 dissyllable, but it is hard to say whether it owes its 
 place to quantity, or to being followed by a fraction 
 of silence. Again, there are countless examples of 
 words like fire, tire, flower, hour, heaven, chasm, world, 
 etc., occupying the space of two syllables, as in this 
 line from Tennyson's " Lotos-Eaters " : 
 
 And in the stream the longdeav'd flowers weep. 
 
 It may be argued that such words are used as verit- 
 able dissyllables rather than prolonged monosyllables. 
 But is not such use due to quantity ? When Scott's 
 burr makes two syllables of " corn " in 
 
 Shall tame the unicorn's pride. 
 
 " Lay of the Last Minstrel," Canto I. 
 
 or when Prof. Blackie expands " Cairngorm " into 
 four syllables : 
 
 See that kingly Cairngorm 
 With his heaven-kissing crown. 
 
 "Glenfeshie." 
 or even when Wither writes : 
 
 By the murmur of a spring, 
 Or the least bough's rustling. 1 
 
 "Shepherd's Hunting," 4th Eclogue. 
 
 is it not quantity which dictates the prolongation ? 
 Perhaps no case can be quite free from doubt, but I 
 ask the reader to study carefully the italicized words 
 in the following extracts : 
 
 1 Old editions write " rosteling." But the spelling is due 
 to the quantity, and parallel cases are not very uncommon. 
 
 43
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 U wert thou in the ntultf blast. 
 
 Burns. 
 Oh mount and go, 
 Mount and make you ready. 
 
 Boras. 
 
 This "■ night, this ae night, 
 
 I'.scrv Dighl ami all. 
 
 Northumbrian ballad. 
 
 March borrows from April 
 Thrti days, ami they are ill. 
 
 < Mil rhyme. 
 
 Morning, evenin<r, noon, and night, 
 Prat- <i"'l ' sang Theocrite. 
 
 Browning. 1 
 
 All of lift- - a '/•// just of weariness and woe, love | 
 
 Browning. 
 
 Trusty, dusky, vivid, true, 
 
 With eyes of gold and bramble-dew, 
 
 iSKetf-trne ami Mods-straight 
 The great Artificer made my mate. 
 
 K. I.. Strvenson. 
 
 All, all are gone, but Mill Uvea on 
 Tin" fame of those s ho died, 
 
 \ml //•'/,- men, like V"". nun, 
 
 Bemember them with pride. 
 
 [rich poem.' 
 
   
 
 Selections,' 1 p. »i5, "The Boj and the AngeL" 
 
 Kpilo^'ue i'. " Kerishtali's Kami' 
 
 Prom "Nation" newspaper. Bee "Treasury of [risk 
 Poetry " (London, i!«H(), p. i i.t. This partieular nedenoe ll 
 oommon in Soots poetry, and osnally depends on bold n 
 
 Bui pause \~ nol r.-.|uir.-il when quantity suffioea 
 (The poem is by Pro! •'. K. [ngram, ami will be found in 
 bis collected "Sonnets and other poems,* 1 L90Q, p. 104.) 
 
 1 1
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 In each of these cases the italicized syllable must be 
 read as equal to an ordinary dissyllable, and it 
 seems to me — perhaps it should be recorded as a 
 personal impression only — that quantity is the agent 
 responsible for the prolongation. 
 
 Moreover, we can seldom substitute a long syllable 
 for a short one, or vice versa, without detriment to 
 metre. When Tennyson writes, 
 
 Dearer and nearer, as the rapid of life 
 Shoots to the fall. 
 
 "A Dedication." 
 
 the charm of the first line depends much on the 
 shortness of the word rapid. Substitute a word of 
 hke accentuation but different quantity — such as 
 rumblings, for instance — and the line would limp 
 heavily. This is too obvious to need enforcement, 
 and the converse is less so only because English ears 
 are prompt to reinforce defective quantity by pause. 
 It may be objected that such differences affect rather 
 the melody than the metre of a line ; but can the 
 two be thus separated ? Quantity, in English verse, 
 certainly does not hold anything like the place it did 
 in Classic ; no one dreams of asserting that. Neg- 
 lect of it, with us, rather deforms than destroys 
 structure, making a line unmusical rather than 
 strictly unmetrical. Even so, it is a fact of our 
 prosody. We are all offended when a line is too 
 grossly choked with consonants, as in this choice in- 
 stance (whose authorship I have forgotten) : 
 
 'Twas thou that smooth'd'st the rough rugg'd hed of pain. 
 
 Probably we are also most gratified when the use of 
 
 45
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 quantity is least obtrusive; when we feel that a line 
 flows well without too readily perceiving why it Joes 
 so. Quantity is not with us a matter of definite rule. 
 It may be rather an added grace than a structural 
 necessity. But thai it does in a hundred ways affect 
 the charm, the movement, the melodiousneBB of Eng- 
 lish verse seems a truth incapable of dispute; and 
 that our poets should fail to take advantage of this 
 fact is a contingency so improbable that it may be 
 safely accounted impossible. 
 
 Quantity, in our verse, has an ancillary function. 
 Those few writers — scholars rather than poets — who 
 have composed lines based solely on quantity may 
 be said to sin against the genius of their language. 
 But its place, if subordinate, is still real. Just as 
 we found our grammars at built through ignoring 
 the constitutive work of pause, so here they Been to 
 seek in neglecting the effect contributed by quantify 
 to building up line-structure. This, like other 'la- 
 ments, is not properly considered when it is taken by 
 itself. An organism can be dissected, its different 
 fibres shown separately for purposes of study. In 
 the live creature they are closely intertwined, and 
 oa t be torn apart without mortal danger. Bo it 
 
 is here. Each of the elements which go to make 
 
 • acta and read i on each other. They have bees 
 dealt with separately in these introductory chapters ; 
 for clearer analysis, they have been shown in artificial 
 and unnatural isolation. Their working is nol rightly 
 understood till we Btudy them in combination. Quan- 
 tity and pause often blend tall they are ^distinguish 
 able, as has been already shown; time and si 
 
 46
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 have intimate relations. The " period," or unit of 
 verse-measurement, is the live organism in which 
 these elements unite. Henceforward — passing from 
 statement to verification of principles — we shall be 
 able to deal with the period as a whole. Analysis 
 of details, unsatisfactory at best, because separating 
 what is really conjoined, will have done its work if it 
 teach us to recognize in union what we have studied 
 in isolation. The various elements we have been 
 considering combine and conspire to make a living 
 reality of English verse. 
 
 47
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 DUPLE METRE (GENERAL) 
 
 Tims, Accent, and Quantity have been seen t<> be the 
 chief influences shaping our verso; but (since time 
 and quantity are 1 1 1 *   Bame thing when predicated of 
 syllables) its actual units may be better described m 
 
 affected by Ace. 'ut, Quantity, and Pause. Equality 
 of time-measure underlies all, the ultimate reality, 
 the essential basis. But " periods " are occupied by 
 words, which form the malleable material handled by 
 our poets. Greater or less intensification of syllables ; 
 their comparative bulk and substance; their o 
 sional omission and replacement by an interval of 
 silence; these are the leading facts of which it seems 
 
 necessary to take account. English vene Consists of 
 
 rhythmical units, made and coloured by the working 
 of these factors. Such is the conception arrived at 
 
 in previous chapters, which it remains to test by 
 
 further comparison of instances. Prosody knows no 
 
 other test. No one can tell beforehand how Kurdish 
 
 verse should be written ; we can determine onlj how 
 
 it has been written. This dor- not imply thai ] 
 
 are impeccable j bul it implies thai their practice is 
 
 the sole courl of proof. B ilea tnusl be deduced from 
 
 rvation; theory must never outrun experience.
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 It would have well for English metrical science had 
 this truth been always remembered. 
 
 The only observation of other than analytical im- 
 port made in previous pages relates to the number of 
 syllables in a period. We have seen that in some 
 cases two syllables seem normally to occupy a period, 
 in other cases more than two ; a fact probably due to, 
 or at least closely connected with, the limit of ac- 
 centual monopressure. This fact shall be our start- 
 ing point, and no better could be chosen. For it 
 leads to recognition of the most important general 
 distinction in English metre. This distinction is so 
 vital, and so far-reaching, that it may be said to 
 swallow up most minor differences. Naturally, there- 
 fore, it has to do with time. We have two leading 
 types of verse, in one of which the time-space or unit 
 represents the normal time of two syllables, in the 
 other that of three. This initial distinction corre- 
 sponds to the musical division of time into duple and 
 triple} 
 
 The validity of this distinction has indeed been ques- 
 tioned. Guest, criticising Mitford, objects that were 
 it real we should find it more clearly marked in earlier 
 than in later verse. 2 This seems curious reasoning. 
 On the contrary, one would naturally expect the two 
 types to be but imperfectly distinguished in our pri- 
 mitive literature, and gradually differentiated as our 
 poetry developed. That is what really happened. It 
 
 1 Common and triple are the usual terms, but the above 
 refers only to one branch of common time, and that, I 
 believe, is correctly described by the word duple. 
 
 2 As before, p. 161. 
 
 49 e
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 was long before the two were dearly separated and 
 classed as different genera. Duple-time verso, lx>ing 
 
 the more consonant to our B] eh-habit. was for long 
 
 considered practically our one form of metre. The 
 other was detached from it by decrees and with difli- 
 culty. Nine-tenths of our whole verse, at a rough 
 guess, moves to duple time ; to it, therefore, out first 
 attention is due. 
 
 But another objector will ask "How do we know tin- 
 time of two syllables? " The absolute time they take 
 to utter we of course do not know ; it may \ai v with 
 every speaker. All we know, or need to knov. 
 their relative time. Ruskin indeed, in a singular 
 passage, 1 desired that " the time of metres [i.e., peri< ids] 
 should he defined positively no less than relatively"; 
 but this seems as impossible as it would be usi 1> — . 
 Time, in this context, means proportional and rela- 
 tive time. To say we do not know time in this sense 
 would destroy the foundation alike of music and 
 metre. No faculty seems more widelj diffused than 
 this. Children and savages usually possess it, and 
 delight in its exercise. If anyone be really destitute 
 of this sense — if the difference between duple and 
 triple time has no meaning for him — then on su-li i 
 person the cadence of verse would probably be found 
 altogether thrown away. 
 
 Thus underal 1 the distinction seems as real ai LI 
 
 11 universally intelligible. What we are required to 
 
 know is not M the time of two syllables," l'iit merely 
 
 the time-beat to which two syllables are mar-hailed. 
 
 The §2 Uables do oo1 create the time, and we have y< | 
 
 1 " Element! of English Proeodj " (1880), p. r>.
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 to see what precise relation they bear to it. Dealing 
 with syllables exclusively, English metrists have come 
 to some very strange conclusions about our verse, 
 which are reflected in popular terminology. Before 
 going further, let us see whether these will bear ex- 
 amination. The questions raised affect the nature as 
 well as names of our chief rhythms, so must be dealt 
 with on the threshold of any investigation. They in- 
 volve, it need hardly be said, a passing reference to 
 the chief types of Greek or Latin verse. 
 
 Classic metre had " feet " of two and of three syl- 
 lables. Their names are transferred to our prosody, 
 but with a difference, accent being made the basis 
 instead of quantity. One objection to doing so has 
 been incidentally pointed out, 1 but a far stronger re- 
 mains to notice. As applied, these names are at once 
 meaningless and mischievous. An " accentual foot" 
 is a contradiction in terms. Accent no more creates 
 a " foot " than the colour of a peach makes it round. 
 The transference is meaningless, or at best meta- 
 phorical, and might be allowed to pass were the meta- 
 phor harmless. But in practice it is far from in- 
 nocuous. It leads people to assume, naturally enough, 
 though irrationally, that the time of an English unit 
 agrees with that of its supposed prototype. No greater 
 mistake could well be made. 
 
 Demonstration of this can scarcely be forthcoming, 
 since we have no positive record of time. Strong 
 confirmation, at least, may be drawn from admitted 
 characteristics in each case. To Greeks and Romans 
 dactylic was a weighty, sonorous, regular measure, 
 
 1 Ante, p. 18. 
 51
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 used for heroic themes; iambic a light, pliant, collo- 
 <)iii;il type of verse, admitting greater variety. With 
 us, though the names are identical, the eh;i s are 
 
 reversed. So-called " iambic " is by common consent 
 our heroic measure, while to so-called " dactylic " and 
 " anapaestic " belong greater lightness and vivacity. 
 Surely this is enough to discredit any fancied re- 
 semblance. That no real analogy exists can l»e proved 
 in another way. 
 
 The best Greek authorities classified feet by their 
 movement, not by syllables. Thus the dactyl divided 
 evenly, its one long and two short syllables balancing 
 exactly; the iamb divided unevenly, wherefore two 
 such feet were needed to make a unit. Adopting this 
 more rational principle of analysis, we per, five the 
 movement of our metres to be just the reverse of 
 what is popularly assumed. Our heroic verse is 
 clearly the regular, even, stately measure, moving to 
 duple time ; our " jiggy " three-syllable met res belong 
 with appropriateness to triple rhythm. This brings 
 our verse tonus into harmony at once with ancienl 
 metre anil modern music. It follows, however, thai 
 the Classic names are misapplied by our grammars. 
 Tiny should be kept to mean what they meant in 
 ancient verse, not used in t hat spurious metaphorical 
 sense which is wholly misleading. Ihiple-timc v< 
 
 for example, has nothing iii common with ancient 
 iambic. 
 
 It cannot, be expected that these assertions will 
 e-«-apc critii ism. hoes, it will be asked, "in- heroic 
 verse really exemplify even measure f Take a line 
 previously quoted from Tennj ion i 
 
 52
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 The weight of all the hopes of half the world. 
 
 "Princess," Section IV. 
 
 Do not these words manifestly move to uneven, that 
 is to iambic, time ? Undoubtedly they do, in and by 
 themselves. Their ten syllables can be divided into 
 five very tolerable iambs, in the real as well as the 
 metaphorical sense. But do the words occupy the 
 whole time of the verse ? If they do, how is it possible 
 for the same metre to contain such very different 
 syllables as these of Milton's ? — 
 
 Say, Muse, their names then known, who first, who last. 
 
 "P. L.,"I. 376. 
 
 To call this a substitution of spondees for iambs is 
 to explain nothing. A line which could admit five 
 spondees instead of five iambs, without other com- 
 pensating change, would be a monstrosity. The total 
 time of verse cannot alter in that way. But the 
 only other possible explanation is that in one case the 
 line contains something other than its words. That 
 this is the true and simple explanation seems beyond 
 doubt. The time-measure of each line is identical, 
 but in one case it is less completely filled by syllables. 
 This view presents no difficulty, when one has grasped 
 the fact that time-spaces exist apart from the syllables 
 embedded in them. There is correspondence between 
 the two, no doubt, but it is not necessarily exact. 
 Even as regards mere number of syllables, a duple 
 period need not always contain two syllables, nor a 
 triple three. That number of syllables is no infall- 
 ible guide to time, and that we are conscious of time 
 
 53
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 as distinct from syllabic structure, a single further 
 instance will conclusively show. 1 
 What is the metre of this line: 
 
 The sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, the bills! 
 
 No one, reading it, would doubt its iambic structure. 
 It would be taken unhesitatingly for a line of 
 "heroic " verse. Yet, if we turn to Tennyson's poem, 
 " The Higher Pantheism," we shall find tin >.• words 
 in the first line, followed by other three: " and the 
 plains." This addition works a notable change. Th.it 
 one word " and," coining where it docs, tells us that 
 the metre is not what we supposed it, that the time 
 underlying the whole poeru is not duple but triple. 
 Our ear responds at once, prepares us to find more 
 syllables in following lines, to enjoy the music of 
 such later lines as : 
 
 Speak to Him thou for He hears, and Spirit witli Spirit can 
 meet ; 
 
 ( loser i- Me than breathing, and aearer than hands and 
 feet. 
 
 It is like poetical magic, and shows the extreme sen- 
 sitiveness of our ears to any direction affect ing time. 
 But it shows more than this. The first linecannol 
 
 be supposed to be in a different metre from I he others. 
 The measure is elearl} the same, though syllables 
 are fewer, and this implies that the periods contain 
 silence as well as sound. At any rate, in this ease, 
 the words by themselves do not give the time. Struc- 
 ture if not revealed till we call in a further element 
 It follows that we cannot inter time with anv COT 
 
 54
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 tainty f rom syllables, and that our appreciation of it 
 does not depend on them. There is nothing violent 
 or forced, therefore, in supposing that the time of 
 duple metre may not he always indicated by its words. 
 They may be iambic, and yet not be set to iambic 
 time. The above instance goes far to prove the ab- 
 solute unimportance of syllables in comparison with 
 rhythm. 
 
 In triple time the omission of entire syllables is 
 cpuite common. In duple, the slower movement 
 hardly allows this to be done without risk ; but it 
 easily allows the substitution of a short syllable for 
 a long. My contention is that this involves com- 
 pensation by pause. It will be remembered that 
 this does not imply actual cessation of voice. It 
 implies only that we recognize something beyond 
 and outside of syllables, supplementing their de- 
 ficiency. In the crucial case just quoted from Tenny- 
 son, we no doubt do actually make a break between 
 each pair of words. This is because oratorical pause 
 (indicated by a comma) happens to coincide with 
 metrical. But the effect is surely no less real when 
 oratorical pause is absent. A line of short or weak 
 syllables produces its effect by contrast with under- 
 lying rhythm. In Tennyson's line first quoted, 
 
 The weight of all the hopes of half the world, 
 
 vocal utterance need never be suspended, yet the 
 contrast is felt, and produces an impression wholly 
 different from that of Milton's line. The exact 
 value of this impression may be matter of argument, 
 but all must feel the contrast between lines of 
 
 55
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 slenderer and of fuller syllabification. Yet both 
 admittedly belong to tin- same metre. Compare 
 other two lines, both taken from Milton : 
 
 Kocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogB, den-, and shades of death. 
 
 •• 1'. L.," II. 821. 
 
 And I shall shortly he with them that rest. 
 
 "S. A-.," 598. 
 
 Can we bring these to a common measure except 
 by recognizing that the first line mon- entirely 
 occupies time-spaces which equally nnderUe the 
 second, and by contrast with which tin- tenuity of 
 the latter produces its designed effect ? 
 
 It is easy therefore to uuderstand how iambic 
 words may move to even time. Why tiny arc 
 iambic is equally intelligible. Imagine- a duple 
 period completely occupied by two such words as 
 " more room " or "own time." Here there is prac- 
 tical equipoise of accent, J » 1 1 1 that is exceptional; 
 usually one word or other will hare stress-pre 
 dominance. Our poets note this fact, utilise it to 
 mark rhythm, and gratify their ears by making 
 quantity reinforce accent. Heme coiim' real iambs 
 and trochees, which certainly do occur in duple rerse, 
 but only at intervals and without connection, thus 
 showing themselves not true units. Whenever they 
 
 occur they are coupled with Eractional pauses; the 
 
 two together make up the real unit of structure. 
 
 This view of our metre seems at once simple ;uid 
 
 sufficient, according with and explaining the tacts 
 
 of our verse. 
 
 The point has been thu> dwelt on he. ause it is 
 
 56
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 indispensable to a right understanding of our verse 
 in any of its divisions. So long as we imagine that 
 syllables indicate time, we attach to them undue 
 importance. Our poets handle syllables with great 
 freedom. " Quantity is loose in all modern verse," 
 say the critics ; but it is so for a good reason. Our 
 stoong rhythm and punctuating accent enable us 
 to dispense with quantitative recurrence. Syllabic 
 variety contrasted with temporal uniformity creates 
 the charm of English metre. A succession of words 
 like " more room " or " say, Muse " would give re- 
 markably heavy periods. Even a succession of 
 iambs would make heroic verse too monotonous, 
 though at least one English versifier took this as 
 his ideal. 1 Our poets, as a rule, evidently desire 
 nothing of the kind. Their aim is toward freedom 
 and variety. Pope narrowed and artificialized our 
 verse, yet even Pope constantly varies his move- 
 ment. Other writers of course do it far more. By 
 what has been called opposing accent to quantity, 
 but is really opposing both accent and quantity to 
 time, they keep our attention alert, and give elasticity 
 to their metre. There must indeed be a limit to 
 such variation. It must never be carried so far as 
 to crush our sense of rhythm. When syllabic 
 variety overpowers temporal recurrence a line ceases 
 to be metrical. But, short of this, any sort of 
 irregularity — whether in the bulk of syllables, or 
 their stress-value, the rate of their succession, their 
 partial or even complete suppression — seems capable 
 of being so handled as to gratify our ears. It is 
 
 1 Richard Glover, « Leonidas" (1737). 
 
 57
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 idle, therefore, to expect in syllables any key to the 
 actual structure of Ferae. 
 
 These considerations seem to show what English 
 scansion really means. It cannot mean attaching a 
 definite value to every syllable of every word. That 
 way madness lies, Q-uesI with his twelve hundred 
 and ninety-six possible odenoee, Mr. A. J. Ellis 
 (than whom no higher authority can be quoted) 
 with his forty-five different degrees of syllable* 
 prominence,'' show whither such attempts lead. For- 
 tunately, no such task is incumbent on the student 
 of our verse. It is only necessary t<» determine the 
 time-measure of any particular ]">cm — which in OUT 
 chief metres should be known already, while in 
 others a poet succeeds only by making it clear — and 
 then to consider, with as much or as little minute- 
 ness as he chooses, the way in which syllables cor- 
 respond to time. 
 
 All the excellent work done by many critics in 
 the way of analysing the mechanism, content, and 
 character of particular lines has its proper place and 
 iunct ion. It becomes of the highest vain.- when it 
 is placed in relation to rhythm. But it is still 
 secondary, not primary. The child who " sing- 
 song*" bis line has grasped its essential principle, 
 though foolishly emphasising this at the expense 
 
 of other elements. The broad lines of scansion are 
 patent and ODvioUS, however delicate and difficult he 
 
 1 As before, p. •"> , > ,, • 
 3es Philological Society*! " Transactions,' 1 1878 1876, p. 
 442; '" Mayor, si before, ohapter \., where the tie* 
 
 Mr. Kill- are < j m »t «■< l and diseoflaed.
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 their application to individual cases. They consist 
 essentially in relating syllables to time. 
 
 It will also be evident how futile it is to expect 
 correspondence between the methods of metre and 
 music. Musical notes are almost pure symbols. In 
 theory at least, and no doubt substantially in prac- 
 tice, they can be divided with mathematical accuracy 
 — into fractions of \, \, \, T ' ? , etc. — and the ideal of 
 music is absolute accordance with time. Verse has 
 other materials and another ideal. Its words are 
 concrete things, not readily carved to such exact 
 pattern. Our poets know this well, and turn it to 
 account. The very stubbornness of their raw material 
 is converted into a grace. Verse and song, as has 
 been said, probably originated together. The earliest 
 form, common to both, may very well have been an 
 inarticulate chant, such as survives slightly modified 
 in the " baloo, balay," or " hey derry down " of 
 popular ballads. But they were soon separated. 
 Neglecting other differences (of pitch, compass, 
 stress, quantitative prolongation, melodic quality), 
 we see that they also differ in their relation to time. 
 The perfection of music lies in absolute accordance 
 with time, that of verse in continual slight departures 
 from time. This is why no musical representations 
 of verse ever seem satisfactory. They assume regu- 
 larity where none exists. They show syllables as 
 uniform which are really various, and pretend that 
 these keep perfect time when its imperfection forms 
 part of the charm. On the other hand, to suppose 
 that this imperfection is itself rhythmical — that 
 these aberrations from type, variations of stress and 
 
 59
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 quantity and what not, constitute in themselves the 
 law of verse — would be a still more fatal blonder. 
 Variations are intelligible only by contrast with 
 perfect rhythm, and in studying their nature and 
 limitations it must be remembered that to this con- 
 trast they owe their very existence. 
 
 General questions have detained us so long, that 
 I 'articular examination of duple rhythm must be 
 reserved for next chapter. The work, however, that 
 has now been done is done once for all. It will not 
 require repetition for each form of verse. If the 
 principles that have been contended for are real, 
 they apply to all varieties of metre. Their reality 
 will, it is hoped, receive confirmation from subse- 
 quent examples. It seemed useless to discuss de- 
 tails of scansion, till the general laws governing 
 scansion were defined. Exaggerated views of 1 li<- 
 part played by syllables would have rendered true 
 
 analysis impossible. Variations are in it rightly under- 
 stood till it is known from what they vary. Onlj 
 now that the basis of duple metre may he assumed 
 as known, can we safely proceed to examine particu- 
 lar instances. But the way is now left clear for sinh 
 examination. 
 
 uO
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 DUPLE METRE (SPECIAL) 
 
 The time-beat of duple metre being determined, we 
 pass on to more particular questions. After time 
 comes accentual notation. When two syllables meet 
 in a period, one usually outweighs the other, and our 
 poets emphasize rhythm by repeating such alterna- 
 tions consecutively. The result is, to put it more 
 precisely, that accentual impact normally rises or 
 falls, increases or diminishes, through each successive 
 period. Duple metre may therefore be divided into 
 duple rising and duple falling (corresponding to the 
 " iambic " and " trochaic " of our grammars), accord- 
 ing as one or other alternation is adopted. But these 
 are really subdivisions of the same metre. Our poets, 
 as has been already noted, pass backwards and for- 
 wards from one form to the other at their pleasure. 
 Critics have pi'ofessed to find different effects in the 
 two types ; but in view of this interchangeability such 
 professions must be received with distrust. Others 
 would fain annihilate the distinction by writing both 
 alike. As in music the accented note comes first in 
 a bar, so in verse — they say — the syllable of main 
 accentuation should always begin the period. In 
 itself this latter idea is harmless. Where we place 
 
 61
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 the division-marks matters little, so long as uniformity 
 is maintained. Marks for distinguishing periods, 
 like lines showing bars in music, are mere aids to 
 the eye. They have no objective existence, in theory ; 
 they do not separate units by any space of time, or 
 give them any reality which they did not possess 
 before. There is therefore no real objection to 
 adopting this method, if anyone greatly desires it ; 
 but there are circumstances which make it less 
 natural and convenient in metre than in urn- 
 moment's consideration will show. 
 
 English sentences most frequently begin with an 
 unimportant word, such as "And" or "Of" or 
 "The." English lines of verse naturally do the 
 same. So far as the types can be separated, there. 
 fore, rising metre is immensely more common than 
 fatting. Why should this fad be left obscurer 
 Why should the less common form be made normal ? 
 Why, for example, instead of writing, as everyone 
 would naturally do, 
 
 The weight | <>f all [ the hopes | oi half | the world, 
 
 should we be asked to write. 
 
 The | weight of | all the | ln»i>«-- of ' halt the world, 
 
 with an odd syllable left forlorn at beginning and 
 
 end? Imagine every line of Tennyson's "Idylls," 
 
 every line of " Paradise Lost.'' treated in this way! 
 
 Nothing is really gained, for it is just as i 
 
 recognize the syllable of main stress when placed 
 last in a period as when placed first ; or, in stricter 
 phrase, to conceive of accentual pressure rising 
 throughout a period as to .(.m-cive ,,t' it tailing. 
 
 62
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 The latter lias no monopoly of correctness. Undue 
 insistence on musical analogy, and perhaps some 
 lurking confusion between accent and time — so often 
 confounded, believed inseparable — seem responsible 
 for the pertinacity with which this notation is pressed. 
 "Whoever can distinguish accent from time must feel 
 supremely indifferent which method is adopted. The 
 important thing is to realize that time is the same 
 in either notation, that rising and falling are sub- 
 varieties of one metre. When a poet writes a piece 
 wholly in one or other type, it is convenient to be 
 able to distinguish it by name, and to show it by 
 some difference of marking. What particular de- 
 vice is adopted may be left to taste ; the marks do 
 not make verse, only aid us to analyze it. But if 
 one notation be desired applicable to both, it seems 
 more rational to adopt that which represents our 
 usual type of verse, and shows most clearly its com- 
 ponent periods. Rising metre would then become 
 the normal pattern, and departure from it be shown 
 as omission of initial syllables. 
 
 The mere names used of course matter little. 
 Those now suggested (not for the first time) seem 
 clear, intelligible, and not too cumbrous. Single 
 epithets might easily be invented ; but why burden 
 English prosody with terms needing explanation and 
 definition ? Duple rising and duple falling carry 
 their own meaning, and show the two types as 
 belonging to one metre. The first word in each 
 name refers to time, the second to accentuation. 
 Similar names will naturally apply to the periods of 
 triple metre. 
 
 63
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 The number of periods iu a line is of course matter 
 for the poet's choice. In duple metre we find a very 
 wide range, from lines of one period (as in Herri k's 
 
 quaint poem "Upon his departure hence," 1 
 
 Tims I 
 Pass liy 
 And die, 
 A- one 
 Unknown 
 Ami gone) 
 
 to lines of five, six, seven, and even more. The 
 strong preference of English verse for rising rhythm 
 is particularly shown in five-period lines. That, in 
 tli.' rising variety, is the familiar "heroic" line so 
 often mentioned, while its falling form is so unusual 
 that Browning wrote " One Word More " ' in it for 
 the sake of uniqueness : 
 
 Lines I write tin- lir-t time and the l&Bl time. 
 
 This is matter merely of linguistic custom, syntax 
 determining prosody. Other nations have different 
 habits. In IJoheinian literature, 1 understand, /<i//iw</ 
 rhythm is as natural as ruing with us; the metre of 
 "One Word More" is normal, that of "Paradise 
 Lost" exotic. Whichever form be used by our 
 
 poets, whatever the length of line, and whether it be 
 
 arranged singly (as in " blank rerse") or in couplets 
 
 or in stanzas, the verse we are considering lias one 
 and the sa structure, is still set to duple time. 
 
 i it 
 
 II. peridc I IW8). 
 
 Men and Women " (18f>">), la-t piece. 
 
 64
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 How widely this type of verse prevails in our poetry 
 it is unnecessary to labour. Plays, ballads, sonnets, 
 didactic and descriptive poems, and not a few of our 
 best songs, exemplify its cadence. For convenience' 
 sake, most examples shall still be taken from lines 
 of " heroic " pattern ; but inferences drawn from these 
 apply, mutatis mutandis, to all lines based upon 
 duple time. 
 
 Five periods make a " heroic" line. Its time-struc- 
 ture and normal accentuation may be represented 
 thus: 
 
 ->l\->.\-±\->\-1. 
 
 No particular length of duration is represented by 
 the symbol -, and any other symbol would do as 
 well. But the symbols must be of uniform length 
 one with another. If musical precedent be preferred, 
 the notation would run : 
 
 This has the disadvantage of not showing five periods, 
 and so far is less true to fact. But the charm of 
 English metre consists, not in arranging syllables to 
 correspond precisely with this scheme, either as re- 
 gards time or as regards stress, but in so disposing 
 them that they shall constantly vary from this 
 pattern, yet never disturb our perception of con- 
 formity to it. Lines which follow the pattern too 
 closely are tame and mechanical ; bines which depart 
 from it too widely relapse into prose. It is a ques- 
 tion of ear for the most part, of the writer's ear first, 
 the reader's second. No absolute laws can be laid 
 down. But the possible variations evidently depend 
 
 65 f
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 on (1) the number (2) the character of syllables 
 employed. 
 
 First, as to number. Old critics declared that a 
 heroic line must consist of ten syllables, neither 
 more nor less. By plentiful use of apostrophes and 
 other elisiou-niarks — by writing **t' atone," " th* 
 eternal," and so forth — they sought to make every 
 line in Shakespeare or Milton obey this canon. The 
 eighteenth century saw this delusion at its height, and 
 for a time our verse looked like yielding to fetters. 
 But the genius of our poets rebelled against their 
 critics. Neither historically, nor phonetically, nor 
 critically, was there real foundation for this view. 
 Only at the most artificial epoch of our poetry, and 
 under foreign influence, could such a notion have 
 prevailed. It was conserved in theory, long alter it 
 had been abandoned in practice. Fadladeen, the 
 captious critic in Moore's poem, 1 censures the dis- 
 guised prince for using " exquisite" as a dissyllable; 
 and Guest, in all seriousness, similarly upbraids 
 Wordsworth and Coleridge for so using the word 
 "delicate." 2 No critic now maintains this view. It 
 is universally abandoned. Yet discussions still go 
 on about how many syllables Budi a line may carry, 
 what and how many "trisyllabic feet " ii may eon- 
 tain. The real principle of limitation is not iimn- 
 tioiied. either in reprobating the old narrowness or 
 
 1 " Lai la konkh" ( l si 7 ). See Interlude after oonelosioo 
 of "The Veiled Prophet" 
 
 3 A^ before, p. iTti. Prof. Skeal point- out that <;ue-t 
 gradually abandoned bia uncompromising opposition i<> 
 •• thrse-syllablc toet M 
 
 fit;
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 discussing modern freedom. A principle, clear in its 
 terms, though elastic in its application, does seem 
 manifestly at work in the pages of our poets ; its 
 enunciation will show how futile and unreal discussion 
 of the above points must be. 
 
 Absurd as the eighteenth-century view was in itself, 
 it had a glimpse of truth. Words occupying a duple 
 period must be pronounced in the time of that period. 
 To suppose that Shakespeare said " del'cate " l is 
 ridiculous ; but this is a false deduction from a real 
 fact. The fact is that the word " delicate " can be 
 easily uttered to a duple beat, in the normal time of 
 two syllables ; and this gives our principle. What- 
 ever syllables can be so uttered are legitimate. Fixed 
 rules cannot be made, for circumstances alter words. 
 The same syllables will be now admissible, at another 
 time not. The poet is arbiter for himself. He judges 
 which syllables fulfil this condition ; we judge if he 
 has judged aright. Mistakes are no doubt made, 
 both by writer and reader. The worst are made 
 when a poet writes by rule instead of ear. Some- 
 thing depends on the listener ; a line may be praised 
 by one, condemned by another. But the general 
 principle remains, though writer or reader may mis- 
 apply it in particular cases. This judgement of 
 syllables is made in respect of time. 
 
 What critics like Johnson really sought was to 
 prevent triple time being inserted into duple. A 
 parallel from music seems applicable here. Three 
 crotchets may occupy the time of a minim, if they 
 
 1 This is explicitly maintained by Guest, on the page last 
 referred to. 
 
 67
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 are bracketed together as " triplets." They arc I hen 
 played in the time of two crotchets, music for onoe 
 departing from its law of absolute time-repreeenta- 
 tion. Precisely analogous seems what is done in 
 verse. A word like "delicate" is pronounced in the 
 time of two syllables, not of three. There is no dis- 
 ruption of time, no mixing up of different times in 
 the same verse. There is tin r> tore no reason to 
 limit the number of such trisyllables. Mr. Swinburne, 
 in the heroic verse of "Marino Fallen" (Act III., 
 Scene 1 '), writes: 
 
 Thou art older and colder of spirit and blood than \. 
 
 Had he chanced to write " than am I," the line would 
 have contained fifteen syllables, and probably no one 
 would have found fault. So far, no reason app< an 
 for limiting the discretionary power of a capable 
 singer. 
 
 Can a duple period contain more than three syl- 
 lables? It were rash indeed to say no. Continually 
 have critics made BUCh assertions, only to find them 
 annihilated by succeeding poets. In this case the 
 question simply means, can four syllables ever be 
 uttered in the time of two? I think instances arc 
 not unknown. Some readers will remember a sen.: 
 in Gilbert's opera " Patience," where tin 1 List tine of 
 
 each wise run- somewhat thus: 
 
 Why, what a particular I y hravr \oun- man tin- l>ra\e 
 yOOOg man mii-t b& 
 
 The sontf is dearly in dnple metre, as even the 
 1 Original edition oi L886, p. 00.
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 single line quoted is enough to show. And I think 
 it would be difficult to deny that four out of the five 
 syllables in " particularly " are meant to occupy the 
 time of two ordinary syllables, and that such rapid 
 delivery of the word is essential to the comedy of 
 this line. 1 
 
 Even in serious poetry, something not unlike this 
 may be foimd. Observe our poets' use of the word 
 " spiritual." Shakespeare can write at one time : 
 
 Upon our spiritual convocation. 
 
 " King Henry V.," Act I., Sc. 1. 
 
 at another : 
 
 And fix'd on spiritual object he shall still. 
 
 " King Henry VIII.," Act III., Sc. 2. 
 To steal from spiritual leisure a brief span. ' 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 This latter use of the word, compressing it into the 
 time of two syllables, is far from uncommon. Else- 
 where Shakespeare has : 
 
 Unreverent Gloster ! Thou art reverend 
 Touching thy spiritual function, not thy life. 
 
 " First Part of King Henry VI.," Act III., Sc. I. 
 
 Milton follows suit with : 
 
 1 A recent parody in " Punch " (June 18th, 1902) yields a 
 still better example : 
 
 "Why, what a very singularly rich old man," etc. 
 
 Here the eight italicized syllables must be crowded into the 
 time of four, so that the effect is twice repeated. The line 
 can be read in no other way. 
 
 69
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth. 
 
 1'. L.," IV. 677. 
 
 NYith spiritual armour ahle to re-i-t. 
 
 Ibid., XII. 101. 
 
 while on other occasions he u'iv.-s the word its fuller 
 sound. Keats perhaps copied these in 
 
 Bent his soul liercely like a spiritual how. 
 
 " Bndymion," Book IV. 
 
 Tennyson similarly has : 
 
 I saw the spiritual city and all her spil 
 
 "Holy Grail." 
 
 While in the four-period lines of " In Memorianx " 
 he can write either 
 
 Ui^e in the spiritual rock. 
 
 Section 131. 
 or 
 
 But spiritual presentiments. 
 
 S.vtion 92. 
 
 or, finally, 
 
 That lovM t<> handle spiritual strife. 
 
 Section N.">. 
 
 thus giving the word equivalence sonirtnii.s to four, 
 sometimes to three, sometimes to only two, normal 
 syllabic spaces. This is enough to warn rxfl againtl 
 making an J fixed rale. Naturally, eases will bo rare 
 where four syllables' are crowded into the time of 
 two, hut tiny are by no means impossible. In 
 analyzing duple verse, therefore, we must not start 
 
 7<>
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 with any fixed idea as to the precise number of 
 syllables any line may contain. 
 
 Our first question respecting number of syllables 
 has already merged in our second, which relates to 
 their character. For the number of syllables which 
 may occupy a line obviously depends on their bulk 
 and weight. Some will flow from the tongue more 
 trippingly than others. Pope has been praised for 
 his line, 
 
 The freezing Tanais through a waste of snows. 
 
 " Dunciad," Book III. 
 
 evidently because the word " Tanais " runs with such 
 ease to duple time. This line, however, seems no 
 better than many others that might be quoted from 
 the same author, containing a polysyllable with i or 
 y in its midst, e.g., 
 
 The sultry Sirius burns the thirsty plains. 
 
 " Pastorals," " Summer." 
 
 Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring. 
 
 " Essay on Criticism," II. 
 
 Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man. 
 
 "Essay on Man," Ep. I. 
 
 And, while Pope is particularly fond of words con- 
 taining this sound (furious, glorious, radiant, suppli- 
 ant, foliage, zodiac, Cynthia, Delia, Parian, Latian 
 are a few instances), his ear taught him to make like 
 use of other words (such as presumptuous, poisonous, 
 favourite, Dandus), where the conventional apostrophe 
 equally is but a sign of rapid elocution. Quantity 
 
 71
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 evidently determined his choice. So in lines of 
 greater complexity, as in Milton's 
 
 Fled over Adria to the Hesperian field*. 
 
 " P. L.," I. 520. 
 
 With dart and javelin, stones and sulphurous lire. 
 
 Ibid., XI. 658. 
 
 and still more in later verse, which has recaptured 
 Elizabethan freedom, as when Tennyson writes : 
 
 Ruining along the Illimitable inane. 
 
 " Lucretiu 
 
 Myriads of rivulets hurrying thro' the lawn. 
 
 " Princess," § 7, " Come down, maid." 
 Camelot, a city of shadowy palaee 
 
 "Gaieth an.l Lynette." 
 
 or when Mr. Swinburne gives us that line lately 
 quoted : 
 
 Thou art older and colder of spirit and bl I than I. 
 
 In these and innumerable similar instances it semis 
 certain that time is the governing principle, and 
 
 quantity the factor dictating suitability. 
 
 There ;ir- . however, not covered by this ex- 
 
 planation. When sense is broken, eapeciallj midwaj 
 in a line, our older and our most recenl writers 
 sometimes introduce what is called an "extra- 
 metrical syllable," as in these instances from " Mac- 
 beth " : 
 
 But bow od I !awdoi ? The thane oi < Sawdor Ih 
 
 Art I., Sc. I,
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 Look on 't again I dare not. Infirm of purpose. 
 
 Act II., Sc.2. 
 
 Which in his death were perfect. I'm one, my liege. 
 
 Act III., Sc. 1. 
 
 Hundreds of parallel cases might be quoted, but the 
 very name above given suggests that they scarcely be- 
 long to our survey. Such lines are probably not 
 meant to be altogether metrical. Shakespeare's later 
 verse, for instance, seems designedly approximated 
 to prose, perhaps for greater realism. His followers 
 undoubtedly overstepped due bound, and before long 
 comedy at least was frankly written in prose. It is 
 therefore quite arguable that lines like the above are 
 not really metrical. Milton's example rather points 
 that way. In youth he followed Elizabethan pre- 
 cedent, writing, for example, in " Comus " : 
 
 To quench the drouth of Phoebus, which as they taste. 
 
 Line 66. 
 
 But for that damn'd magician, let him be girt. 
 
 Line 602. 
 
 Made goddess of the river ; still she retains. 
 
 Line 842. 
 
 In "Paradise Lost" such lines are conspicuously 
 absent. His maturer taste seems to have rejected 
 such borrowing of prose cadence as unsuited to high 
 and serious, however allowable in dramatic and 
 colloquial, verse. Tennyson's experience seems simi- 
 lar. In early poems we find this form adopted, e.g., 
 
 Stole from her sister Sorrow. Might I not tell. 
 
 "Gardener's Daughter." 
 73 
 
 -.-■
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 And I repeal it ; and nodding, as in scorn. 
 
 "Godiva," 
 
 But in his later poems the extra syllable is nearly 
 always slight, fitting easily to the time. Our young 
 poets, therefore, when they introduce a heavy super- 
 numerary syllable in imitation of Shakespeare, should 
 ask themselves what effect it has on the ear. Poetry 
 cannot be written by recipes. In their wish to avoid 
 dullness, they may be in danger of lapsing into 
 prose. 
 
 When a line ceases to be rhythmical it ceases to 
 be verse. Mr. Swinburne gives us as a heroic line 
 the following : 
 
 Illimitable, insuperable, infinite. 
 
 "Elegy" <»n Burton. 1 
 
 That his ear was conscious of five periods when he 
 wrote this line we need not doubt ; but it is not I 
 for his readers to recognize them. The fourth period 
 seems crowded almost to congestion, and very prob- 
 ably carries four syllables. Of course it is not fair 
 to isolate a line like this. Poems come to us as a 
 whole, and must be so judged. Any individual line 
 may depend for its effect on context and contrast ; 
 discord may be introduced of set purpose. But even 
 in isolation this line serves as a test. If any reader, 
 after careful study, fail to hear live periodl under- 
 lying thil line, to him it is QOl verse. The sense of 
 periodicity is indispensable. Metre is here umpies- 
 
 1 "Astrophel and other Poems" (1804), p. IM. The 
 
 poem is written in quatrains. 
 
 7!
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 tionably strained to its utmost ; for some readers it 
 may have been strained even to breaking-point. 
 Rhythmical periods alone constitute metrical char- 
 acter ; if they are not felt, the words become simple 
 prose. 
 
 A poet is undoubtedly to some extent at the mercy 
 of his readers. They pronounce the verdict, and can 
 but judge as they perceive. New methods, new cad- 
 ences, take time to be understood. It is always said 
 that a poet has to educate his public. Milton prayed 
 to find " fit audience, though few." Easy verse will 
 always be more popular than that which seeks un- 
 common effects. This is one reason why we are at a 
 disadvantage in studying foreign verse ; subtle shades 
 of meaning and intonation are unperceived. The 
 same applies, of course, to foreign critics of English. 
 On the other hand, verse which leaves no clear im- 
 pression is so far faulty. Pranks of new writers may 
 demonstrate their authors' incapacity, not their 
 readers' stupidity. General rules are dangerous, but 
 one thing may safely be asserted. Variation is suc- 
 cessful only when it brings into relief, not obscures, 
 our perception of underlying uniformity. 
 
 To estimate the variations in any particular line, 
 then, we have to study the relation between its syl- 
 lables and its time. This is work of great delicacy, 
 belonging to the "higher criticism" of verse. The 
 present chapters aim only at defining a basis for this 
 higher criticism. A few typical instances, however, 
 may be quoted to illustrate the method proposed, and 
 shall be taken from Milton, as our acknowledged 
 greatest master of legitimate variation. It seems 
 
 75
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 unnecessary to reprint over each line the very simple 
 time-scheme of heroic measure. The reader is asked 
 to carry it in his head, and compare with it the 
 movement of the following lines : 
 
 Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit. 
 
 •• P. I,.,"T. 1. 
 
 Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire. 
 
 Ibid., I. 7. 
 
 Hurled headlong Banting from the ethereal sky. 
 
 Ibid., I. 45. 
 
 o myriad- of immortal spirits ! o powers. 
 
 nut., i. oss. 
 
 ( )Vr bog OT Bteep, through stniit, rough, dense, or rare, 
 With head, hands, winjjs, or feet, pursues his way ; 
 And Hwims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or fliea 
 
 I hid., II. 94S-5). r >0. 
 
 And where the river of blisa through midst of heaven. 
 
 Ibid., 111. 868. 
 
 Infinite wrath, and infinite despair. 
 
 Ibid., IV. 74. 
 And corporeal to incorporeal turn. 
 
 Ibid., V. lift 
 
 Burned after them to tin- bottomless pit. 
 
 Ibid., VI. 866. 
 
 Yet fell. Remember, ami fear t" bran 
 
 I h id., VI. 918. 
 
 Silence, ye troubled waves, and, thou Deep, peace. 
 
 //.„/., VII. 218. 
 
 Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait. 
 
 llnd., VII. in. 
 
 < treated thee in the image of < tod. 
 
 I htd., VII. 637. 
 
 76
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 Submiss. He reared me, and ' ' Whom thou sought'st, I am. " 
 
 "P. L.," VIII. 316. 
 
 And dust shalt eat all the davs of thy life. 
 
 Hid., X. 178. 
 
 Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife. 
 
 Ibid.,X. 198. 
 
 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. 
 
 Ibid., X. 205. 
 Me, me only, just object of his ire. 
 
 Ibid., X. 936. 
 
 By the waters of life, where'er they sat. 
 
 Ibid., XI. 79. 
 Gliding meteorous, as evening mist. 
 
 Ibid., XII. 629. 
 
 And made him bow to the gods of his wives. 
 
 "P. R.,"II. 171. 
 
 Light from above, from the fountain of light. 
 
 Ibid., IV. 289. 
 Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse. 
 
 "S. Ag.,"81. 
 
 Out, out, hyaena ! these are thy wonted arts. 
 
 Ibid., 748. 
 
 For his people of old : what hinders now. 
 
 Ibid., 1533. 
 
 These examples, chosen for freedom from diffi- 
 culties of pronunciation, show something of the sur- 
 prising variety which Milton superimposes on a simple 
 time-scheme, without weakening our perception of its 
 absolute and unvarying recurrence. 1 
 
 1 Many other instances will be found in "Milton's Pro- 
 sody," by Robert Bridges (latest and fullest edition, 1901). 
 The method of that book ignores time, attends solely to 
 stress, and perhaps too much regards Milton's habits of 
 
 77
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 In some instances, however, the variation is so 
 great as to disturb that perception. Most people 
 find difficulty in reading one or two lines of "Para- 
 dise Lost," such as 
 
 of Leinnos, the Aegean isle. Thus tiny relate. 
 
 1 . 746. 
 
 Shoots invisible virtue ev'n to the deep. 
 
 III. 5S6. 
 
 It is difficult not to suspect here some change of 
 accent or vocalization. This suspicion, even if un- 
 founded, supports my thesis. It shows that there is 
 a limit of variation beyond which not even Milton 
 may go, and that this limit depends on the char- 
 acter of syllables more than their number. The 
 unlearned reader equally with the expert is conscious 
 of something dubious, can challenge a great poet's 
 judgement, and inquire whether his line has come 
 down to us aright. Surely this proves that the 
 appeal is to simple and natural principles, patent to 
 all of us, though we may not all realise on what 
 issue the appeal is made. 
 
 It will now be seen how wide is the field open to 
 the higher critic. Every line of every poet yields 
 material for his analysis. Each greal poet has a 
 movement peculiar to himself. Tennyson tells us 
 
 that each of his *• M\lls" was composed to a dif- 
 ferent music.' The intellectual contents of verse, its 
 
 speech as laws admitting no exception. Bui the collection 
 and nlitifimtitm of examples is 'lone with admirable eare, 
 
 ami makes the hook a treasure hoUM to the Student Ol verse. 
 
 1 " Life," a before, roL ii., p 188, note. 
 
 7-
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 most subtle and delicate refinements of thought or 
 passion, are mirrored in its metre, and must be 
 reckoned with in any complete analysis. An ele- 
 mentary study like this cannot deal with such pro- 
 blems. And it is time we considered the other great 
 branch of English metre, whose phenomena are in 
 some ways even more noteworthy and definite. Light 
 may be reflected from them on the facts of duple 
 verse. Before passing from the latter, however, two 
 points may be mentioned, which have reference alike 
 to its structure and to that of the verse next to be 
 examined. 
 
 First, there seems no reason to suppose that every 
 syllable must be wholly within one or another period 
 of a line. In music, a note may be prolonged from 
 one bar into another ; in verse, with its much less 
 tractable material, it would be strange if a similar 
 practice did not prevail. Take, for instance, this 
 simple and beautiful line of Shelley's : 
 
 The one remains, the many change and pass. 1 
 
 Orthodox prosody divides this into five feet, bisecting 
 the word " many," but such bisection (though in itself 
 quite legitimate) seems in this case to caricature the 
 movement of the line. Reformers like Prof. Skeat, 
 again, would divide the line thus : 
 
 The one | remains | the many | change | and pass. 
 
 This is the natural prose grouping of the words, but it 
 fails to show what makes them metrical. Shall we 
 assume a pause before " change," the division other - 
 
 1 " Adoniiis," stanza 52. 
 79
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 wise being as above, and the fourth period being filled 
 out by this pause into equality with t he oth< 
 This would be a good enough lin.\ but no! perhaps 
 exactly Sh< 11. Vs. Had he written 
 
 The one remains, tin- many depart ami pass, 
 
 it would have been clear enough that "the many' 
 must occupy the third period; but it seems equally 
 dear that it is not so in the real line, whose "dying 
 fall" seems incompatible with such movement. The 
 true explanation is surely that suggested by the 
 opening words of this paragraph. That a metrical 
 pause docs precede the word "change*' I make no 
 doubt ; but it does not follow that it covers the whole 
 time of a syllable. The second syllable of* 1 many" 
 mav be on the boundarydine between the third and 
 fourth periods, not to be assigned definitely to either. 
 Our poets, ever seeking variety, ever studious to 
 obtain slight contrasts between syllables and time, 
 will naturally try this method among others. To 
 suppose that they cannot is a legacy Erom the dead 
 doctrine of syllabic feet. To me at least the above 
 view -.■.■ins both plausible and rational, and if ac- 
 Cepted it will be found applicable to very many I 
 in all type, of metre. 
 
 The tr ci nul point is more speculative. Some 
 theorists teach that the unit of metre mn-t be a 
 
 double foci, containing action and reaction, systole 
 
 ami diastole. Coventry Patmore, in the essay before 
 mentioned (p. 242), lays thi- down with all the con- 
 fidence of Newton affirming the Ian of gravitation. 
 
 The id.-a i- attractive, since rhythm Lfl < • it ;i i 1 1 ly a
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 kind of pulsation. But from this Patmore and 
 others draw the astonishing inference that no line of 
 duple metre containing an odd number of periods 
 can be complete in itself, but must in every case be 
 followed by an entire period of silence. Our heroic 
 line must therefore contain six periods, of which the 
 last is normally blank. This seems wild theory in- 
 deed. No doubt every perfect line is followed by a 
 pause. The very name verse (from versus, " a turn- 
 ing ") implies some such pause as is involved in 
 stopping and beginning afresh. Into this pause, I 
 imagine, is projected the redundant syllable which 
 sometimes ends an heroic line, as when Milton writes : 
 
 Of rebel angels, by whose aid aspiring. 
 
 "P. L.,"I. 38. l 
 
 This same pause gives weight to the weakest final 
 syllable, so that in this line, 
 
 White, black, and gray, with all their trumpery. 
 
 "P. L.," III. 475. 
 
 no "rhythmical accent" whatever need be assumed 
 to rest on the last syllable of " trumpery." But to 
 suppose that this pause is definite or metrical, still 
 
 1 This cadence is comparatively rare in Milton, rare in 
 Tennyson's mature poetry, common in dramatic and col- 
 loquial verse. Sometimes two syllables are so projected, 
 as in Milton's " For solitude sometimes is sweet society" 
 ("P. L.," IX. 249) ; but then the syllables are always short, 
 practically equal to one ordinary syllable. What was said 
 of redundant syllables in the middle of a line seems to 
 apply to final ones also, though the latter are naturally less 
 obtrusive and therefore more inoffensive. 
 
 81 G
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 more that it covers a whole period, is pure assump- 
 tion. If our view of duple verse be correct, the 
 assumption is needless. Every duple period, con- 
 taining two equal parts, has in itself action and re- 
 action, systole and diastole. A single such period 
 can therefore stand by itself, as we saw in an instance 
 from Herrick; and our heroic line is stable in itself, 
 without any imaginary additions. Not .v.rv Hue 
 printed as verse is complete in itself, as we shall see 
 in next chapter; were this theory applied to triple 
 time it might have more likelihood. But it seems 
 manifestly untrue of the metre of " Paradise Lost," 
 and its untruth confirms our view of that metre. It is 
 because that metre moves to duple, or even, not to 
 iambic, time, that it is stable, self-poised, self-com- 
 plete ; and the same description would seem to hold 
 good of all lines in duple measure, irrespective of 
 their length. 
 
 --
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 TRIPLE METRE 
 
 Verse of triple-time measure fills small place in our 
 early prosodies. Commonly styled or coupled with 
 " tumbling verse," it was regarded as an inferior 
 type, useful for comic purposes. James VI. of Scot- 
 land, in bis "Short Treatise" (1585), l describes it 
 as fit only for " flyting." Throughout the seven- 
 teenth and most of the eighteenth centuries, it was 
 still deemed of secondary importance, appropriate to 
 " Bath Guides " and poems about haunches of veni- 
 son, or at best expressing semi-serious tones of arti- 
 ficial feeling : 
 
 I have found out a gift for my fair, 
 I have found where the wood -pigeons breed. 2 
 
 The great revival of romance and poetry toward the 
 end of the latter century put new life into many 
 forms of verse, especially into those that move to 
 this measure. But it was reserved for the nineteenth 
 century, and for its Victorian era in particular, to 
 vindicate fully the rights of triple-time verse. Tenny- 
 
 1 " Essays of a Prentice in the Divine Art of Poesie " 
 (1585). Reprint hy Prof. Arber (1869). 
 8 Shenstone (William), "Pastoral Ballad " (1737?). 
 
 83
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 son and the Brownings, Rossetti and Morris, Mr. 
 Swinburne, and many of less note, have revolution- 
 ized our notions of its capability. It is known now 
 as an equal of its elder brother, adequate to all 
 themes, and possessing charm and flexibility peculiar 
 to itself. Some even think that the future of Eng- 
 lish poetry belongs especially to this type of verse. 
 At least there can be no doubt that it challenges 
 attention, and deserves more careful consideration 
 than it has received. Its bolder features and more 
 strongly marked rhythm make analysis of its struc- 
 ture especially interesting. 
 
 Yet, strange to say, this rhythm is constantly mis- 
 taken. The names dactyl and anapaest are responsible 
 for the error. How often we see the first line of 
 Longfellow's " Evangeline " scanned thus : 
 
 _ W W — V V _ W W _ww _ w 
 
 This i- the forest prim- | evul, the | murmuring I pines and 
 
 w _ _ 
 
 the | hemlocks. 
 
 Probably the writer states that the marks denote 
 accentuation, not length; but the time is n.\. i 
 plained, and readers naturally suppose it to be that 
 which these marks indicate. In reality, the time is 
 more like this : 
 
 www|www|wwv|vww|wvw|www; 
 
 one time spare in the last period being left without 
 
 an equivalent syllable. Tribrachs, accented on the 
 first syllable, represent the time better than dactyls. 
 I do not suppose that any competent critic really 
 doubts this, lie Knows that tin- movement is to
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 triple time, and lie knows that real dactyls and ana- 
 paests are incompatible with triple time. But he is 
 accustomed to ignore time in English verse, accus- 
 tomed to think only of syllables and their stresses, 
 and he uses familiar marks to express these last 
 without thinking of the confusion caused thereby. 
 Hopeless confusion is caused, and I believe it will 
 surpi*ise most English readers — ladies, perhaps, more 
 than others — to be told that the time of Longfellow's 
 line is quite different from that of Greek or Latin 
 hexameter verse.' 
 
 As duple time consists of two equal beats, so 
 triple time consists of three. Conclusions reached 
 by analysis of verse set to the former time hold good 
 with verse set to the latter, and need only be re- 
 capitulated briefly. Syllables do not correspond 
 precisely to beats. They do not keep perfect time, 
 like notes of music, but the time itself is unvarying. 
 On this background of rhythm our poets weave 
 tracery-work of dactyls and anapaests. Such feet do 
 exist in our verse, in the real not the metaphorical 
 sense, but they occur casually, and are not its true 
 units. They are due to a supplementing of accent 
 by quantity. Periods are the actual units, and the 
 way to scan a poem is to discover its time-measure, 
 and then consider the relation of syllables to time. 
 Words and parts of words, their stresses and quan- 
 tities, are less important than rhythm ; syllables 
 need not always be contained wholly in a particular 
 period. Such were the results of our inquiry into 
 duple metre, and the same results may be taken as 
 holding good in triple. Besides these, there are 
 
 85
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 others to be noted as specially applying to the latter 
 type of verse. 
 
 The beat of triple metre is so marked that syllables 
 can be dropped with greater ease, and pauses are 
 longer and of more frequent occurrence. Lines can 
 be run into each other with freedom, the rhythm 
 sufficiently distinguishing structure. The best way 
 to illustrate both these points is by example, and 
 Browning's first "Cavalier Song," referred t<> in an 
 early chapter, 1 will answer the purpose. I take the 
 first two stanzas, writing them as continuous Terse, 
 placing the time-notation above, and asking the 
 reader to notice for himself where lines end, what 
 time-beats have no corresponding syllable, and to 
 what extent stress or quantity reproduces temporal 
 uniformity. No particular length of time is indi- 
 cated by the symbol used ; relative uniformity is the 
 one and only postulate. The sign adopted (w) is 
 chosen as to some extent suggesting the act ual move- 
 ment, but not as in any way related to that used in 
 duple metre. No comparison between the two metres 
 is at present intended. 
 
 Kentish Sir | Hvnu | stood f«>r his | King, Bidding 
 the | crop-headed | Parliament | swing; And, | pressing » 
 
 www www www w w w » w 
 
 I troop mi- I ahle to | stoop Ami J we the rogues ! flourish 
 
 W WWW WWW W WW WWW 
 
 tad | honest folk droop, | Marched them a- i long, | 
 
 WWW WWW W WW WWW WW 
 
 lifty-score | strong, | Great hearted | gentlemen, | singing 
 
 w www 
 
 this | song. || 
 
 1 AnU, p. 11 
 
 86
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 www w w w w W w w w 
 
 God for Kins I Charles ! | Pyni and such | carles To 
 
 W W W W w w w www w 
 
 the I Devil that | prompts 'em their | treasonous | paries ! 
 
 WW www wwww w w www w 
 
 I Cavaliers, | up ! | Lips from the | cup, | Hands 
 
 wwwww WWW W W w 
 
 from the | pasty, nor | hite take nor | sup. Till you're | 
 
 WWW WWWWWW www w 
 
 marching a- | long, | fifty-score | strong, | Great- 
 
 WW www www www 
 
 hearted | gentlemen, | singing this | song. II 
 
 It will be seen that the time-structure is constant 
 throughout. I assume a break after each stanza. 
 Any reader, following the natural swing of the lines, 
 will find that he pauses at the places shown blank, 
 and instinctively allows silence to compensate for 
 absent souud. Time-measure is thus the basis. 
 Syllables, on the other hand, seem pitchforked into 
 their places with little care and less uniformity. 
 Feet, in any sense of the term, are the exception 
 rather than the rule. How can " see the rogues," 
 "fifty-score," "great-hearted" be accounted dactyls? 
 To call them so is to give up all attempt at reality, 
 and reduce metre to chaos. No, it is the very ab- 
 sence of uniformity in syllables which forms the 
 chief note of our verse, and that is even more patent 
 here than in duple metre. Syllables do not keep 
 accurate time, and do not succeed each other with 
 uniformity sufficient to constitute feet. The real 
 uniformity is one of time, and it is a uniformity 
 actual, palpable, measurable. 
 
 It may be said that this is exceptionally rough 
 verse. Browning is not metrically a prophet of 
 
 87
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 smooth things, and often strains his measure. But 
 his irregularity brings into stronger light the funda- 
 mental regularity conditioning his otteranoa Time 
 is maintained unbroken throughout, though some- 
 times one syllable, sometimes two, occupy part or 
 all of the more normal silence. A later verse begins 
 from a superfluous syllable: 
 
 Then, | God for King | Charles ! | . 
 
 As a pause must separate the stanzas, it is easy to 
 understand how this word "Then" finds room for 
 itself; it forms a real case of a/wrHxtV. 1 The space 
 which it occupies is, so to say, filched from the inde- 
 finite separating interval. Scansion by time is here 
 shown revealing structure otherwise indiscernible ; 
 ami the structure so revealed is evidently the real 
 1 m sis. 
 
 This dovetailing of lines into each other was 
 rightly recognized by Poe in his clever if untrust- 
 worthy paper, "The Rationale of Verse," 3 though 
 he strangely omits to draw the natural inference that 
 a time-space is occasionally left blank of words. 
 Syllable-structure in the piece he quotes happens to 
 
 be exceedingly regular, th Ly obi ions blank spaces 
 
 coming occasionally at the end o! lines. Had lie 
 pressed analysis further, he must have seen that 
 
 1 Cf. ante, p. 9. 
 
 a " Worki of Edgar Allan Pee," edited by [ngram (1875), 
 Mil. iii. The refe rence b t" lii-* ■nnlyeii of a well Known 
 
 passage from Byron's " bride <>f Abydoe," beginning " Know 
 
 ye i lie land where tlie cypress end myrtle Are emblema of 
 deed- iii.it ere done in their clime." r<>i - paper hai 
 many features wortli study. 
 
 B8
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 such blanks occur in other parts of the line, and this 
 might have suggested a method of scansion more 
 sound than his wild notions of quantity led him to 
 formulate. For, while some poets delight to give 
 three syllables to every period of triple time, others 
 almost habitually give less. A single instance of the 
 latter must suffice, and will further illustrate the re- 
 lations assumed by syllables to underlying time. 
 
 Shelley's " Cloud " is a poem in triple rising metre, 
 alternate lines comprising four pei'iods and three. 1 
 Occasionally the lines have their full complement of 
 syllables, e.g., 
 
 Like a child | from the womb, | like a ghost | from the 
 tomb, | 
 I arise | and unbuild | it again. 
 
 Here the time is obvious, because syllables exemplify 
 it pretty closely. But the same time pervades the 
 poem, a fact disguised from us only by pauses not 
 being printed as well as syllables. A specimen verse 
 is submitted in proof of this, the bar-marks being re- 
 stricted to time, and the lines left separate, to show 
 with what freedom metre is handled. Incessant as 
 the variations are, they never seem to destroy our 
 perception of rhythm ; the underlying cadence is 
 heard through all changes. One's ear is conscious 
 of something beyond syllables — something which 
 marshals them in temporal order, supplements them 
 
 1 The second and fourth lines of the first verse are 
 shorter — two periods instead of three — as if the poet had 
 not yet chosen his metre. I have therefore taken the 
 second verse for analysis, as better revealing metrical 
 pattern. 
 
 89
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 when exiguous, accelerates them when heavy. This 
 something is the time-measure to which they are set, 
 itself unchanging, whose regularity is but emj-li;i- 
 by their diversity. 
 
 w w w | w w w | w w w w w w 
 
 r sift the snow on the mountains l>elow, 
 
 w w w w w w | w w w 
 
 And their great pines groan aghast ; 
 » - wlw w w | w w -J-w w 
 And all the night tis my pillow white, 
 
 While 1 sleep in the arms of the Mast. 
 
 w w w | w w w | w w w | WW w 
 
 Sublime on the towers of my skiey bowers 
 
 WW w|w w wk/ww 
 
 Lightning my pilot rite : 
 
 www|www|w w wlw w w 
 
 In a cavern under is fettered the thunder, 
 
 ww w|w w w|www 
 
 It struggle* and howls nt fits. 
 
 WW W |WWW|W W w|wWW 
 
 Orer earth and ocean with gentle motion 
 Tin- pilot is guiding me, 
 
 ww w I w w w| w w w|w w w 
 
 Lured by the love of the genii that move 
 
 ww w Iwwwlwww 
 
 In the depths of the purple sea. 
 
 WW W|W W W| W W ' W | W WW 
 
 Orer the rub, and the crags, and the hills, 
 
 wwwfww w I w w w 
 
 I hrer the lakes and the plains. 
 
 Wherever be dream, under mountain 01 itream, 
 
 WW W|W W W |W W W 
 
 I he spirit be loi es remaina ; 
 
 W w| W w W I W W W|W W W 
 
 And I nil the while baeli in heavens blue smile, 
 
 w w wjw w w|w w w 
 
 \\ hilst lie is dissolving in ruins. 
 
 «J0
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 Readers will notice for themselves how free is the 
 movement of these lines, how bold the handling of 
 stress and quantity. Syllabic bulk sometimes aids 
 effect, as in the words " great pines groan." More 
 often pause is frankly relied on, as in the very next 
 line to this : 
 
 And all | the night. 
 
 This free use of pause gives spirit to the metre. 1 
 One is tempted to lay down a principle, to say that 
 fully syllabized verse, where words represent rhythm 
 and can be checked off on the fingers, belongs to 
 tame and conventional poetry, of such eighteenth- 
 century type as 
 
 At the close of the day, when the hamlet is still, 
 And mortals the sweets of forgetfulness prove ; 2 
 
 while the greater freedom of verse like Shelley 's„with 
 its vigorous use of metrical pause, came in with our 
 new poetry of romantic passion. The idea may not 
 be wholly false, but it must not be exalted into a 
 canon. The same poets use both forms. Next before 
 the " Cloud " in some editions of Shelley comes a 
 piece headed "A Vision of the Sea," Avhose four- 
 period lines nearly always contain their full tale of 
 syllables : 
 
 Tis the terror of tempest. The rags of the sail 
 Are flickering in ribhons within the fierce gale. 
 
 This is the same time as the longer lines of the 
 
 1 Readers doubting this analysis are referred to some 
 further remarks in chapter vii. (pp. 114-115). 
 
 2 Beattie, "The Hermit." 
 
 91
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 M Cloud," but how different the effect ! Fuller sylla- 
 bification creates an impression of haste, <»f being 
 hurried along withonl power to stop. We should 
 rather say that here we have two patterns of verse, 
 from either or both of which a poet can draw rich 
 music. Comparison of syllables with time teaches us 
 to discriminate the two. Our last groat original 
 singer, Mr. Swinburne, specially favours the line of 
 full syllabism, and his wonderful command of quan- 
 tity enables him to do this without loading or con- 
 gesting his line. Critics who glorify one of these 
 types of verse at the other's expense Bhow that they 
 have yet to learn the laws of their art. One of these 
 is to analyze, but never prophesy ; to register results, 
 but be chary of attempting to legislate. New writers 
 bring new methods, and Poetry is apt to be justified 
 of her children. 
 
 Both these specimens were in ruing metre. 1 The 
 division between risimj and fallimj is, it" possible, even 
 more shadowy in triple than in dnple metre. P< 
 pass freely from one to the other. Thus Mr. Swin- 
 burne's "Hesperia" 1 opens with falling cadence, 
 
 Out of the golden remote wild West . . . 
 
 while the very next line of similar pattern begins: 
 
 As s wind sets is with the Antonio . . . 
 
 How futile to regard these as separate metres! To 
 
 1 Triple rising, o& oonrse, oorrespoodi to so-called "ana' 
 
 He " measure, triple fatting to so-called "dactylie.' 1 
 - •• Poems and Ballads" 1 1 sn6). 
 
 92
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 discuss whether the metre of this poem be dactylic or 
 anapaestic is mere loss of time. It is either or both, 
 according as the poet has engrafted feet of these 
 patterns on the essential underlying rhythm. To my 
 ear, even such lines as the following, 
 
 From the bountiful infinite West, from the happy memorial 
 places 
 Full of the stately repose and the lordly delight of the 
 dead, . . . 
 
 convey much more of a dactylic than of an anapaestic 
 impression. The question is of little moment, since 
 both are cadences of one metre. Is there any funda- 
 mental difference between 
 
 Fair as a rose is on earth, as a rose under water in 
 prison, . . . 
 
 and 
 
 As the cross that a wild nun clasps till the edge of it 
 bruises her bosom ? 
 
 Surely they are lines of the same structure, differing 
 only because the first starts from a pause and the 
 second fills up that pause with syllables. Previous 
 analysis otherwise explains the measure. At any rate 
 the lines quoted in this paragraph exemplify to per- 
 fection Mr. Swinburne's magical command of words, 
 and his ability to fill eveiw period with syllables and 
 yet neither overweight nor hurry his verse. 
 
 Why have only two subdivisions been given in 
 triple metre, rising and falling ? Why not a third, in 
 which the signalizing stress shall rest on the mid- 
 syllable of three? This collocation, whose analogy 
 
 93
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 would be with the Classic amphibrach, is one of Prof. 
 Skeat's four units. It is undoubtedly common in our 
 speech, therefore presumably in our verse, but for some 
 reason our metrists object to recognizing it as an 
 English " foot," The looseness of our syllable-struc- 
 ture and the uncertainty of our accentuation enable 
 them always to propound another alternative. Tims 
 in Milton's line, 
 
 By clay a cloud, by night a pillar of tire. 
 
 "P. L.," XII. 203. 
 
 it would seem natural to assign "a pillar" to the 
 fourth period, but it is possible to contend that the 
 proper division is 
 
 a pil- ] lar of fire, 
 
 making an anapaest of the last foot. 1 So also with 
 Tennyson's phrase previously quoted, 
 
 the rapid of life, 
 
 and innumerable other instances. Why there should 
 be this unwillingness to recognize an ampkibruck 
 
 does not appear. Personally, I have no doubt that 
 the collocation of syllables loosely described by this 
 name does occur in a period. Many lines, moreover, 
 seem at first sight written to this cadence, such as 
 this of Browning's : 
 
 1 Tli i-. however, claahei with the doctrine «.t other proaod 
 
 that tli.- lost foot of ;i line must never be trisyllabic I 
 Bnefa are tie- -elf. created diHicultie.H that attend mere theo- 
 rizing. A a matter u f fact, there can he little doubt thai 
 
 both the phenomena denied occur in our ver.-c ; one or other 
 of them niu-t in- accepted in the above Instance. 
 
 :»l
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 I galloped, | Dirck galloped, | we galloped | all three ; a 
 
 or this of Mr. Swinburne's : 
 
 The laurel, | the palms, and | the paean, | the breast of | the 
 nymphs in | the brake. 2 
 
 But an examination of the poems from which these 
 lines are taken will show that the effect is accidental. 
 A dropped syllable at the beginning is responsible for 
 it. Of course dactyls, amphibrachs, and anapaests 
 are interchangeable if syllables may be dropped. 
 Omit one syllable from the beginning of a dactylic 
 line, and you make amphibrachs of all feet except 
 the last ; omit two, and you make dactyls. This is 
 true in Classic verse ; it is equally true in English, 
 applied to time-beats instead of syllables. But there 
 is this difference, that our freedom of dropping a 
 syllable makes the three varieties seldom long distin- 
 guishable. Even the two main effects, of falling or 
 rising stress, blend and alternate ; to constitute a 
 third type seems wholly unnecessary. Logically, it 
 would complete the division, and should a poem ever 
 appear containing lines of this pattern only it might 
 be desirable to do it, though even then the metre 
 might as easily be called triple rising with the first 
 syllable always omitted. Practically, such lines occur 
 only casually and infrequently; and to give them a 
 separate name would appear to create unnecessary 
 complication. 
 
 1 " How they brought the good news from Ghent to 
 Aix." 
 
 2 " Hymn to Proserpine " (" Poems and Ballads," 1866). 
 
 95
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 Can a triple-time period carry more than three 
 syllables? The analogy of duple metre suggests that 
 it can, provided the syllables arc such as fit easily 
 into the time of that period. But, as only one " ac- 
 cented" syllable usually goes to a period, this is 
 tantamount to saying that three "unaccented" 
 syllables may come together — which, as we have 
 seen, met lists declare impossible or disastrous. Not 
 stopping to correct rather vague phraseology, I would 
 suggest that the phenomenon so described must be 
 held far from uncommon in our verse, unless im- 
 possible elisions are assumed. Poe quotes from an 
 American writer, 
 
 Many arc the thoughts that come to me, 
 
 and no one now would say that the words italicized 
 contain less than four syllables, of which the first 
 alone can in any sense be desci ibed as "accented." 
 Similar collocations are n u 1 very rare. In " Ulaluine," 
 Poe himself has 
 
 The leaves tlu-y were withering and sere 
 Our talk had been st rious and sober. 
 Our memorie* were treacherous and tien. 
 she revel* in a region <>f signs. 
 See, it flickers "/> the sky through the night. 
 
 (Secondary aooenl certainly occurs iii tome of these, 
 hut metrical stress is on the first syllable only.) A 
 previous .(notation from Shellej gives: 
 
 The rag mi the sail 
 A nJUckt ring m ribbons within the fieree gala 
 
 96
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 Browning, in his " Pheidippides," 1 abolishes the 
 second stress of " gloriously," writing : 
 
 Gloriously, as he began, 
 So to end gloriously. 
 
 Mr. Swinburne, in the early " Hymn to Proserpine " 
 before quoted, used this cadence in : 
 
 The roses grew rosier, and bluer the sea-blue stream of 
 the bays ; 
 
 and it occurs often in his later verse. Compare 
 
 A land that is lonelier than ruin. 
 
 "By the North Sea," I. l. a 
 But reefs the blood-guiltiest of murder. 
 
 Ibid., I. 7. 
 
 A land that is thirstier than ruin, 
 A sea that is hungrier than death. 
 
 Ibid., IV. 5. 
 
 The slayer and the stayer and the harper, the light of us 
 all and our lord. 
 
 " Off-shore." 2 
 
 These examples cannot be disposed of by saying 
 that the italicized words or parts of words are to be 
 reckoned trisyllables ; they are genuine instances of 
 four syllables pronounced in the normal time of three. 
 Metrically, they form one monoj)ressure, though in 
 ordinary speech some of them would involve two. 
 They seem decisive against the crudely expressed 
 theory which forbids " three unaccented syllables " 
 
 1 " Dramatic Idylls," first series, 1879. 
 
 2 "Studies in Song," 1880. 
 
 97 h
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 to come together, and even against Prof. Skeat's 
 more carefully worded opinion. While it might be 
 difficult to say that in each of these examples the 
 italicized syllables occupy one period, it is clear that 
 there is nothing to prevent such an occurrence, and 
 certain that our potts do in cases like this set four 
 syllables to the usual time-measure of three. When 
 two such collocations come consecutively, as in the 
 last instance, four syllables obviously must be con- 
 tained in a single period. 
 
 The analogy of duple metre further suggests that, 
 on rare occasions, even more than four syllables may 
 be crowded into a triple period. It would be danger- 
 ous to pronounce this impossible. But the limits 
 of monopressnre would certainly make it a rare and 
 difficult feat. Questions present themselves con- 
 nected with this, which will need discussion in a 
 fresh chapter They concern the extensibility of 
 rhythm, and the possibility of metres based OH other 
 than duple and triple time. Of verse set to the latter 
 a general account has now been given, and its furl her 
 examination must be left to the higher critic. The 
 problems it presents are well worth his study, and 
 should be handled to greater advantage when related 
 to a true hasis. Their proper solution is incom- 
 patible with the idea that our "three-syllable metres'' 
 move to common time. 
 
 98
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 QUADRUPLE METRE, ETC. 
 
 Do duple and triple rhythm cover between them the 
 whole compass of English verse ? Music has rhythms 
 of greater complexity ; is it so with metre ? The 
 question, here as elsewhere, is one not of theory but 
 of fact. Evidently verse has conditions peculiar to 
 itself. Limits of articulation and accentuation make 
 themselves felt. Since stress-pressure usually cul- 
 minates but once in a period, and more than three 
 syllables are rarely included in such monopressure, 
 the difficulties of adapting words to quadruple mea- 
 sure must be very great, to yet more extended periods 
 almost insuperable. If secondary pressure come in, 
 time will be imperfectly signalized, and rhythm be- 
 come doubtful. So much is clear, but the question 
 remains — have our poets tried to overcome these 
 difficulties ? This can be answered only by examina- 
 tion of instances. 
 
 The difficulties are illustrated by those phrases 
 which were quoted in the penultimate paragraph of 
 last chapter. Such words as " many are the " cannot 
 easily be compressed into a single period ; they tend 
 to split into two pairs, " many . . . are the." " Glori- 
 ously " is apt to have secondary stress on its third 
 
 99
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 syllable. "Revels in the" and "flickers up the" 
 show the disintegrating process further advance 1 ; 
 it needs an effort to keep them wit bin our rhythmical 
 unit. Given a line wholly composed of such units, 
 the effort would become considerable. A quadruple 
 period will only too easily separate into two duple 
 periods, both being forms of common time. We may 
 be prepared, therefore, to find some vagueness and 
 uncertainty of effect, supposing the experiment to 
 have been tried. 
 
 Lanier quotes three examples, 1 seemingly with no 
 doubt of their measure. One is : 
 
 Wistfully she | wandered o'er the | desert of the | wate 
 
 another : 
 
 The | rose was new in | blossom, and the | sun WH on the 
 | hill. 
 
 (I give these in his notation.) A third is humorous : 
 
 An | entertaining | history, en- 1 titled, "Saul, a | Mystery," 
 Wis | recently been | published by the I Reverend Arthur 
 | ( lose. 
 
 These are held to carry the maiu aecent on the first 
 syllable of eaeh period. A more usual form may 
 seem to carry it on the third, as in Browning's 
 
 At the midnight) | in the silence | of the Bleep-timei | 
 
 When yon Bel your i fancier free . 
 
 With this compare an earlier piece by the same 
 
 writer : 5 
 1 "Science of English VeiM-," pp. L26-139, 829, H2, 
 
 1 " Asolando," last poem. , 
 
 5 "A Toccata of Galuppi's." 
 
 1(M)
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 Oh, Galuppi, | Baldassaro, | this is very | sad to find ; 
 or Tennyson's line in the " Revenge " : l 
 
 We will make the | Spaniard promise, | if we yield, to | let 
 us go. 
 
 Each of the last three examples, of course, has a 
 dropped syllable at the end ; and Mrs. Browning 
 seems to use a similar cadence, with twice- repeated 
 omission, in 
 
 To the belfry, | one by one, | went the ringers | in the sun ; J 
 
 which precisely recalls the structure of her hus- 
 band's 
 
 On the sea and | at the Hague, | sixteen hundred | ninety - 
 two. 3 
 
 Mrs. Browning also gives us lines without omitted 
 syllables, as in " Lady Geraldine's Courtship " : 
 
 There are none of | England's daughters | who can show a 
 | prouder presence ; 
 
 or this from " The Cry of the Children " : 
 
 Do you hear the | children weeping, | O my brothers ? 
 
 Further instances will present themselves to my 
 readers' memory. I add one from an unpublished 
 piece, which seems as apposite as any of the above : 
 
 1 " The Revenge : a Ballad of the Fleet." 
 
 2 " Rhyme of the Duchess May." 
 
 3 "Henri Kiel." 
 
 101
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 There's Mildewan | and Pitewan | and the P.urn-ide | of 
 Inshewan ; 
 There's the house of | P.alniakewan ; | Wesl ;uid Kast and 
 | Middle Drum- : 
 On the coast we | have the Shunts— | through tin- -hire 
 a | lot of Granges, 
 And the city | that Lb known un- | to the uni- | verse as 
 "Thrums." 
 
 Are such verses really written to quadruple time ? 
 Before answering we should properly examine the 
 poems from which they are taken. The effect may 
 be accidental, a slight and temporary deviation from 
 typical structure. But, even regarded by themselves, 
 can it be said that they are beyond doubt ? In each 
 and all secondary accent shows a strong tendency to 
 appear, and in very few would it be difficult to recog- 
 nize units of duple rhythm. Does any of them, for 
 instance, differ substantially from this other line of 
 Browning's: 
 
 I have lived, then, done and Buffered, loved and hated, 
 learnt and taught . . . ? 
 
 Yet this last comes from a poem — " La Saisiaz" — 
 quite manifestly written in duple fatting metre, the 
 
 metre of Tennyson's " Locksley Hall." 
 
 Some of Mr. Kipling's metres seem t<> aim at 
 quadruple time. "The Last Chantry" 1 might pass 
 for triple, fa II in <j at first sight : 
 
 Loud aaag the I Kmhi ol the | jolly jolly | marina | 
 
 but the words " jolly jolly " prepare us for   different 
 
 tiine*meatnre, fully syllabized in sueh rapid lines as: 
 
 1 "The Seven Seas" (1890), \>- 21. 
 K»2
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 Nay, but we were | angry, and a | hasty folk are | we. 
 If we | worked the ship to- | gether till she | foundered in 
 
 foul | weather, 
 Are we | babes that we should | clamour for a | vengeance 
 
 on the | sea ? 
 
 (Observe how these lines dovetail.) Similar time 
 seems used in other poems, but disguised by a larger 
 element of pause, e.g., 
 
 Fair is our | lot, O | goodly is our | heritage. 1 
 
 Coast-wise, | cross-seas, | round the world and | back again. 2 
 
 Well, ah | fare you well, for the | Channel wind 's took | 
 hold on us. 3 
 
 This is fine swinging measure, but whether rightly 
 styled quadruple may be open to question. The last- 
 cited line has a peculiarity which, perhaps, sheds 
 light on its character. Note the extra syllable so 
 cunningly squeezed into its second period. Now 
 substitute for " fare " any such rapid dissyllable as 
 " merry " — sound, not sense, being under discussion 
 — which can be uttered in the same time as the 
 monosyllable it replaces. We should then have a 
 period comprising six syllables, which could not pos- 
 sibly be embraced in one monopressure. That a 
 quadruple period should carry six syllables is no 
 more remarkable than that a duple should carry 
 three ; but it seems fatal to its ranking as a unit. 
 If a unit can be divided it is no longer a unit. The 
 tendency here to divide into two parts would be 
 
 1 " The Seven Seas " p. 1 (" A Song of the English "). 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 30 (in "The Merchantmen "). 
 
 j 
 
 Ibid., p. 94 (in "Anchor Song"). 
 
 103
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 irresistible; the six syllables would obviously con- 
 stitute not one quadruple but two duple units. 
 Now, the time is the same in either case, whether 
 four syllables or six be carried, and time is what 
 constitutes metre. It seems, therefore, to follow 
 that, with whatever Dumber of syllables occupied* 
 the time underlying this verse is not really quadruple, 
 but only wears a semblance of being so. 
 
 Probably the truth is that any metre greater than 
 triple, like any (Jreek foot of more than three 
 syllables, is resoluble into simpler units. This does 
 not prevent its lending a cadence to verse. Greek 
 choriambic metre produces an effect of its own ; 
 though its units as commonly understood are not 
 real units but compound. Quadruple effects may 
 similarly be obtained in our verse by what is really 
 a composition of duple periods. If seseuple metre 
 were ever attempted, with such a unit as, for instance, 
 the word " variability," the latter's manifest capacity 
 of severance into two triple periods would probably 
 prevent it from making any single impression. 
 Music recognizes quintuple and septuple rhythm; 
 but it is difficult to see how either could be adopted 
 Cor verse. I know of no lines — even single ones — 
 which can be supposed to exemplify either. It such 
 verse were ever produced, the nutation is ready to 
 
 receive it. At present it Unlll'l Seem that duple and 
 
 triple rhythm divide between them the whole realm 
 of English poetry, quadruple effects being also in 
 soini attempted. The latter, however, <1" QOl 
 
 Constitute a real separate measure, and can always 
 
 in the last analysis be resolved into duple time. 
 
 K'l
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 Such superimposed effects are frequent in English 
 verse. We have seen that iambs and trochees find 
 place in duple, dactyls and anapaests in triple rhythm. 
 Subtler effects are also possible. Here is a not very 
 remarkable line of heroic verse : 
 
 Fears of the brave and follies of the wise. l 
 
 Repeat this structure as closely as possible in suc- 
 cessive lines, and its cadence will produce an impres- 
 sion of its own. Arrange such lines in quatrains, 
 with dissyllabic ending of odd lines and monosyllabic 
 of even, and the result may be something like this : 
 
 Then with a rush the intolerable craving 
 Shivers throughout me like a trumpet-call, — 
 
 Oh to save these ! to perish for their saving, 
 Die for their life, be ottered for them all ! 2 
 
 This metre, used throughout a pretty long poem, 
 gives quite the effect of a separate and peculiar 
 measure, and is often so regarded. Yet comparison 
 with Johnson's line seems to show that its apparent 
 peculiarity comes from incessant repetition of what 
 in a solitary instance would pass without notice. 
 Relax the insistency of this rhythm and the line 
 resumes its ordinary effect, e.g., 
 
 What can we do, o'er whom the unbeholden 
 Hangs in a night with which we cannot cope? 
 
 What but look sunward, and with faces golden 
 Speak to each other softly of a hope ? 3 
 
 Johnson, " Vanity of Human Wishes," line 316. 
 F. W. H. Mvers, " St. Paul," p. 34. 
 Ibid., p. 14. 
 
 105
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 This ranks with ordinary " heroic " measure. The 
 effect produced by the quatraiu first quoted depends 
 partly on its initial dactyl, partly on the unequal 
 division of syllables throughout periods. It may be 
 noted that it is almost identical with that produoed 
 by our reading of certain lines supposed to be in 
 Classic measure, such as Canning's: 
 
 Needy knife-grinder, "whither art thou going? ' 
 
 or the more serious attempt of an obscurer critic: 
 
 Yet with my charmer fondly will I wander. 3 
 
 This structure will be further analyzed in the ap- 
 pendix. It was certainly bold to set a cadence of 
 this kind to the familiar time-spaces of our best- 
 known measure, but the poet's ear is justified by the 
 result, unavoidable monotony being the one apparent 
 blemish on ;i measure which must be deemed beautiful 
 and satisfactory in itself. 
 
 In triple metre, a not uncommon effect — due 
 evidently to our habit of speech — is produced In- 
 letting the first and third syllables in a period out- 
 weigh the second. This results in a cadence whose 
 
 analogue would be the Classic fool '* amphimaoer/' 
 
 exactly reversing thai other which lias been noted 
 
 as comparable to the "amphibrach." Such cadence 
 
 i- exemplified in Moore's line, 
 
 She is Ear from the land when- her young hen. llespS, 
 
 1 " Ami Jacobin" (17!»7i. 
 Berries, John, "The Element! of speech" (London, 
 1778), p. 188. 
 3 " in-h Ifelodb 
 
 106
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 the rhythm of which has been not inaptly paralleled 
 with that of an ordinary French heroic line. It 
 would usually he scanned as consisting of " ana- 
 paests," but the fallacy of this has been already 
 exposed. That foot, in Greek verse, moves to com- 
 mon time, and its use to denote a triple period is 
 misleading. Besides, only a Boeotian ear could re- 
 gard these as anapaests, even in the metaphorical 
 sense. They have a not unpleasing rhythm of their 
 own, quite different from that of any of the Greek 
 feet mentioned in this paragraph. But it is a more 
 or less accidental and temporary effect merely, due 
 to the propensity of our language for accenting 
 alternate syllables, and the base on which it is super- 
 imposed — as an examination of the entire poem 
 readily shows — is triple rising metre. 
 
 In all such cases the important fact to remember 
 is that syllabic structure only, not time, is modified 
 by these conspicuous variations. Striking as they 
 are, and prominent as syllabic value necessarily is in 
 our verse, the ultimate appeal is to something yet 
 deeper, yet more fundamental. What astonishing 
 syllabic variety can be superimposed on simple times 
 has been noted in previous pages. To many readers, 
 doubtless, the syllabic variety will seem more im- 
 portant than the temporal uniformity. But the two 
 are blent in our verse, and the former takes its whole 
 meaning and content from the latter. Complexities 
 of metre, we have seen reason to believe, depend on 
 contrast between these two elements. With this re- 
 assertion of basic principle I pass on to other phases 
 of our subject. 
 
 107
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 The number of periods customarily constituting 
 triple lines was not discussed in last chapter, being 
 reserved for mention here, iu connection with wider 
 issues. Three, four, and six are the commonest 
 numbers, illustrated by Cowper's: 
 
 I am out of humanity's reach, 
 I imi-t finish niy journey alone; 1 
 Byron's : 
 
 The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold ; s 
 
 Mr. Swinburne's : 
 
 Por the breath of the face of the Lord that is felt in the 
 bones of the dead. ' 
 
 These are in rising rhvt Inn, but 1 1 1 « - sain.' applies to 
 tailing. The longest triple line known to me — per- 
 haps the very longest real line in serious English 
 verse — occurs in Tennyson's latest volume, 4 in the 
 poem "Kapiolani": 
 
 Danee in s fountain of Same with her devils, or shake with 
 
 her thunders and shutter her Island. 
 
 This, it will be seen, contains no fewer than eight 
 periods. The shortest triple lines, I think, contain 
 two periods, as in Hood's "One more Unfortunate": 
 
 Take her up tenderly, 
 
 Lift Iter with care . . . 
 
 1 "Minor Poems," •« Alexander Selkirk." 
 
 • " Hebrew Melodii 
 
 " Poems and Ballads" (1806), "A Son- in Time ..f in- 
 volution." 
 
 • " Oenone and other Poems" (1892). This same volume 
 
 Ins
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 It is an interesting question, pertinent to Patmore's 
 contention cited at the end of chapter v., whether 
 triple lines can consist of one period only. Of course 
 we could write Hood's lines in that form. : 
 
 Take her up 
 
 Tenderly, 
 Lift her with 
 
 Care — 
 
 and very odd it would look, since our printing does 
 not show the pauses which supplement the mono- 
 syllable " care." This would be typography merely, 
 not prosody. The prosodial question is, what de- 
 termines the length of a line ? 
 
 Not every Hue printed as such is a real line of 
 verse. We may write either : 
 
 The fair breeze blew, the white foam iiew, the furrow 
 
 followed free ; 
 We were the first that ever burst into that silent sea — 
 
 or, as these words are usually printed in the " Ancient 
 Mariner," arranged in four lines of common " ballad 
 
 contains more than one instance of his longest real line of 
 duple verse, first used in lines titled "Virgil," and never 
 more finely than in these which close his last gift to us : 
 
 Spirit, nearing yon dark portal at the limit of thy human 
 
 state, 
 Fear not thou the hidden purpose of the Being who alone Ls 
 
 great, 
 Nor the myriad world, His shadow, nor the silent watcher 
 
 at the gate. 
 
 But the nine periods of this duple verse cannot be held 
 equal in length to the eight triple periods of the line quoted 
 above. 
 
 109
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 measure "; or, finally, divided into six lines of shorter 
 length, four containing four syllables and the others 
 six, which is the form adopted BOmetimei for other 
 poems in precisely this metre. Is it matter of in- 
 difference, or of caprice? If we heard the poem 
 instead of reading it, should we know where the 
 lines end? Or is there no principle involved, and 
 may the printer exercise his choice in the arrange- 
 ment? 
 
 Final rhyme of course yields no such principle, 
 since some lines do not rhyme at all, while others 
 have rhyme elsewhere than at the end. We cannot 
 say that 
 
 The fair breeze blew, 
 The white foam Hew, 
 
 or 
 
 To the belfry, one by one, 
 Came the singers in the sun, 
 
 are separate lines because of their rhyme. Midway 
 and other rhymes are often found, notably in Urown- 
 ing's "The worst of it" and " Dis alitor visum." ' 
 Final rhyme, no doubt, accentuates to our ear the 
 termination of a line, but it does not cause termina- 
 tion. 
 
 A poem is in itself a whole, 1 mt either author or 
 printer usually divide! it into lines for <>nr con- 
 venience in reading. There is no law t<> prevent 
 their doing so as they j.l.-.i- -. and one often sees 
 < ui-ions arrangements which have no real significance. 
 
 1 " Selections," m before, pp. J09, 213. 
 110
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 With these we need not concern ourselves. The true 
 point is, supposing a poem came to us without 
 division at all, could we for ourselves arrange it into 
 lines — would these reveal themselves as the units of 
 rhythm do, while we read or listen ? 
 
 If so, it can be only in virtue of their being 
 necessarily followed by a pause. Nothing else will 
 avail to discriminate them. And the first answer 
 must be that only such lines are true units, all others 
 being merely matter of convenience. In triple verse, 
 as we have seen, many lines obviously run and dove- 
 tail into each other. Such verse possesses no real 
 line, and it is immaterial in most cases how the 
 division is made on paper. In " Take her up ten- 
 derly, lift her with care," there seems no real stop 
 till the word " care " is reached ; the words form 
 one rhythmical line. Therefore triple verse of one 
 period is never used ; it would be too manifest a 
 distortion of fact. One period of uneven time has 
 no stability, and cannot form a real unit, even if 
 printed as such. And even triple lines of three 
 periods are usually read in pairs, making them 
 virtually one line of six periods. 
 
 When the pause at the end of a line is due to a 
 dropped syllable, there may still be no finality. 
 Thus in 
 
 Britannia needs no bulwarks, 
 
 No towers along the steep ; 
 Her march is o'er the mountain-waves, 
 
 Her home is on the deep, 1 
 
 Campbell, " Ye Mariners of England." 
 Ill
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 it can hardly be doubted that the first line is identi- 
 cal in length with the third, a pause replacing the 
 eighth syllabi*- ; it' that pause were filled up by sub- 
 stituting "battlements" for "bulwarks," the time 
 would be unaltered, while the pause would disappear. 
 But the case is quit.' other with the second and 
 fourth lines. These are undoubtedly followed by a 
 distinct and unavoidable interval of silence. Some 
 writers teach that this is because the four lines are 
 all of equal length, the second and fourth having a 
 "silent foot" at the end. As we cannot define a 
 pause which is never filled up by syllables, it seems 
 safer to say that this, our familiar " ballad-measure." 
 contains really two lines of seven periods, whose 
 termination is marked by a distinct but unmetrica! 
 pause. 
 
 Patmore, who upheld the view just referred to, 
 contended that one of his own poems, written in 
 duple rising three-period metre — 
 
 How strange it is to wake 
 And watch, while others sleep — 
 
 owed its specially solemn and mournful e fleet to the 
 fact that each line was followed by a pause equal to 
 the time of two syllables. 1 II is friend Tennyson 
 
 ridiculed this theory, and set himself to disprove it 
 by composing comic lines to the same mcisi It 
 
 is c.-rtainly difficult to detect anything mournful or 
 solemn in i he.se lines from < "owper : 
 
 1 Essay as before, in "Collected l > oeniB, M VOL ii., p. 248. 
 Ci ibid., p. is:;. 
 1 '• Life," vol L, p. 170. 
 
 11 2
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 When all within is peace, 
 How Nature seems to smile ! 
 
 Delights that never cease 
 The livelong day beguile. 1 
 
 Even great critics, it would appear, allow their 
 theories to run away with them, and forget the 
 necessity of testing assertions by hard fact. 
 
 Our best-known measures, of which ballad-metre 
 and the heroic line are samples, do undoubtedly 
 seem to be followed by a short non-metrical pause. 
 When the sense of one line runs into another, this 
 stop is disregarded in delivery, being shortened so 
 as to be imperceptible, but still exists. True en- 
 jambement, as the French call it, in a metrical sense 
 exists only when beginnings and endings of lines 
 meet in one period, as we have seen happen in some 
 specimens of triple metre. True lines, therefore, 
 are probably less common in triple than in duple 
 verse. Beyond this generalization it seems unsafe 
 to dogmatize, and so long as lineal division does not 
 clash with rhythm it matters little how a page is 
 arranged. 
 
 The last question which it seems necessary to ask 
 in this study concerns a point which may have pre- 
 sented itself, at more than one stage, to any reader 
 who has accompanied the argument thus far. Do 
 duple and triple metre ever meet in the same poem ? 
 Hitherto they have been considered separately, as 
 if wholly distinct and incompatible ; do facts bear 
 out such severance ? This question goes to the very 
 
 1 "Minor Poems," "Song." 
 
 113 i
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 root of metrical analysis, and its examination may 
 fitly close our inquiry. 
 
 " Mixed metres " are mentioned in our books of 
 prosody, but the term needs explanation. If it 
 mean merely that now two syllables and now three 
 occupy succeeding periods in the same line, this is 
 true of our most regular measures. The unit of 
 heroic verse is pronounced by Mr. A. J. Ellis to be 
 "indiscriminately either dissyllabic or trisyllabic." ' 
 
 WW 
 
 Yet critics agree that poems like Coleridge's " Clnis- 
 tabel," Scott's " Lay of the Last Minstrel," and 
 Byron's "Siege of Corinth," differ in metrical kind 
 rather than degree from poems of more ordinary 
 and orthodox type; and they account for this In- 
 saying that the metre of these poems is " mixed." 
 Do they mean, and would they be right in meaning, 
 that the fundamental rhythm itself alters, that duple 
 and triple time meet and intermingle? 
 
 What would this imply '? If we attempt to alter- 
 nate duple and triple beats in any movement, we 
 shall find that we always reduce them to a common 
 integer, as when the feet are stamped in " Kentish 
 fire." The time-sense, the irresistible craving for 
 regular succession, leaves us no choice. How. then, 
 can dnple and triple units alternate in one rhythm? 
 Dissyllables and trisyllables can, of course, but only 
 when equalised in time. The two syllables must be 
 rpread <»ui to equal the three, or the three com- 
 pressed to equal the two. Instances of both arc 
 frequent in our rerse, but alternation without equality 
 
 1 Philological Society*! "Transactions," 1879-1874, i>. 
 844, 
 
 114
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 seems inconceivable. Our disregard of quantity, and 
 neglect of time, may easily lead astray here. It is 
 tempting to assume that the unit of all rhythm is 
 one and the same, so that metres differ only as this 
 unit is filled by two, or three, or even four syllables. 
 Duple metre would then simply mean a preponder- 
 ance of dissyllabic units, triple of trisyllabic, while 
 mixed metre would blend both freely. But this 
 belies the dictate of our senses, and breaks with the 
 tradition of music and the popular ear. The units 
 of duple and of triple time are different. A " triplet " 
 in duple metre does not occupy the time of a triple 
 period. All measure does not use one measure. 
 English syllables poorly represent time, and can 
 usually be fitted to any rhythm. We have seen that 
 a line of eight syllables may contain four duple units, 
 or four triple ; that a line of fifteen syllables may be 
 a "heroic" line, or a line of five triple periods. 
 Syllables alone are insufficient guide. They may be 
 varied at the poet's pleasure. But duple and triple 
 beats are essentially different, and one does not see 
 how they can coexist side by side. Unequal units 
 do not make rhythm. Duple and triple time are both 
 normal to English verse, and each has its own unit. 
 However or whatever compensation may assist to 
 balance syllables, the time-space in each remains 
 unaltered. All metre is not fundamentally the same 
 metre. Duple rhythm moves to duple time, triple 
 to triple, and each keeps its individuality. To sup- 
 pose them blent in a rhythm composed of both is 
 surely to contradict the verdict of our ears. 
 
 This does not, however, prevent rapid transition 
 
 115
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 from one to the other. It does not imply that duple 
 ami triple time may not alternate in our verse, as 
 hexameter and iambic did in Greek. 1 Here, fortun- 
 ately, theory may give place to example. A chorus 
 in Mr. Swinburne's " Erechtheus " runs thus : 
 
 With a leap of his limbfl as a lion's, a cry from his Up- as 
 of thunder, 
 In a storm of amorous godhead filled with lire, 
 From tlu' height of the heaven that was rent with the 
 roar of his coming in Bunder 
 Sprang the strong God on the spoil of his desire. 3 
 
 This speaks for itself. Here, beyond doubt, are 
 lines of triple rhythm alternated with lines of duple. 
 It will be seen how remarkable is the effect, how 
 striking the contrast, intensified by change fr«>m 
 rising cadence in the odd lines to fulling in the even. 
 I know of uo exact parallel in English poetry. But 
 the uniqueness is due mainly to continuity of rapid 
 change, successive single lines alternating with regu- 
 larity. If from aingle lines we pass to groups of 
 lines, examples are easier to find, such as this of 
 Blake's : 
 
 The sun descending In the west, 
 
 Tin' evening -tar does shine i 
 The birds are silent in I hen q< 
 
 And l must seek for mine. 
 
 The precise definition of time bj syllabic qnantttj In 
 Greek and Latin verse, however, rendered ]•<> Ible there 
 effects which are impossible to as. ('la— i<' precedents 
 seldom hold K°°d in English, conditions differing. 
 i i 1876), p. 88. 
 
 116
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 The moon, like a flower 
 In heaven's high bower, 
 With silent delight 
 Sits and smiles on the night. 1 
 
 By itself this excerpt may scarcely be deemed con- 
 clusive, but I conceive that no one reading the little 
 poem through will doubt that in each stanza the 
 first quatrain moves to duple time, the second to 
 triple. 
 
 In these instances succession is regular. If, now, 
 we turn to the poems before mentioned, we shall find 
 change of time not less apparent. " Christabel " is 
 mainly in duple metre, but some passages pass 
 clearly into triple, as, for example, one near the end 
 of the First Part, beginning : 
 
 In the touch of this bosom there worketh a spell 
 Which is lord of thy utterance, Christabel ! 
 
 Similar transitions abound in Scott's " Lay," ad- 
 mittedly moulded on Coleridge's metre ; also in 
 Byron's " Siege," which undoubtedly followed Scott's 
 lead. In all three poems, however, and very many 
 others since, the transitions come not at regular 
 intervals, but apparently haphazard. Even this is 
 not all. While some passages are clearly in duple 
 metre and others as clearly in triple, a large number 
 seem to waver between the two, and might be read 
 as either. Take these well-known lines : 
 
 Alas ! they had been friends in youth. 
 But whispering tongues can poison truth ; 
 And constancy lives in realms above ; 
 And life is thorny, and youth is vain ; 
 
 " Songs of Innocence," " Night. 
 117
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 And to be wroth with one we love 
 
 Doth work like iii;k 1 n ••-- in the brain. 1 
 
 This can be easily enough read to duple time, but 
 the third and fourth lines seem distinctly tending 
 toward triple. They seem to strain on the leash, 
 eager to break into more rapid measure. Such lines, 
 rather than mere irregularity of transition, I con- 
 ceive to be responsible for the "mixed" result. 
 Coleridge, the master, indeed passes freely from one 
 rhythm to the other, even in consecutive Hues, e.g., 
 
 For nothing near it could I see, 
 
 Save the gran sad green herbs underneath the old tree. 
 
 His followers seem often more visibly to halt between 
 the two. But in all of them this metre is char- 
 acterized, not merely by frequent and irregular 
 transits of time — though these, no doubt, aid the 
 impression — but by what is apparently a conscious 
 attempt to combine the effect of both. This be- 
 comes its distinctive mark. It is rightly styled 
 "mixed metre," not because duple and triple periods 
 blend in unity (a thing surely unimaginable), but 
 because the poet intermingles both rhythms and does 
 his best to assimilate their effects. Despite the re- 
 probation of earlier critics, tins form of verse has 
 taken an assured [dace in our poetry. 
 
 Without question, this helps to make analysis 
 more difficult We must take tacts as they are. Since 
 syllables do not in themselves reveal t iine, and our 
 poets are not always anxious to discriminate rhythms 
 
 — may perhaps be actually trying to combine their 
 1 " ( iiri-taiici," Pari [I. , near beginning.
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 effects — we may expect to find intricacy and possible 
 perplexity. Words may seem capable of more than 
 one movement, and we may feel uncertain which was 
 intended. Some illustrations of this will be given in 
 next chapter. Poets, like Esaias, are very bold; 
 sometimes, possibly, over-bold. They might attempt, 
 for example, to alternate duple with triple time in 
 successive portions of one line, as if one wrote : 
 
 With a leap of his limbs as a lion's, godhead filled with 
 fire. 
 
 I do not think such an attempt has ever been made ; 
 whether it could be made with success is beyond 
 the critic's province to say. Coleridge's metre had 
 its comic precursors, and was considered unfit for 
 serious poetry ; his genius proved this false. Other 
 experiments may yield similarly unexpected results. 
 We must not seek to fetter inspiration. But two 
 things, I think, may be asserted with confidence. 
 One is, that the actual cadences of verse depend 
 largely on their temporal rhythm. The other, that 
 whatever be the inter-relation of duple with triple 
 time, and even if the period in each were of the same 
 length, compensation by pause remains certain. 
 Balancing two syllables against three must imply 
 their equalization in time. Under both heads, there- 
 fore, previous contentions are justified. Time is 
 seen to be a fact of prime import in our verse. 
 Neglect of it cannot but be fatal to just scansion. 
 For it remains the sole real measurer of rhythm. 
 Temporal periods, however disguised, form the abso- 
 lute units of English metre. 
 
 119
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 EXEMPLIFICATIONS OK METHOD 
 
 The modus operandi of time-scansion has now been 
 denned to the best of my power, and I have dis- 
 claimed all wish to invade the field of the higher 
 critic. But some further practical illustration may 
 reasonably be asked. After all, most theories of 
 verse sound well in the abstract. It must be poor 
 analysis which cannot wear a face of verisimilitude 
 while confronted only with our commoner metres. 
 The trial comes when it encounters difficult and 
 unusual phenomena. Does it explain these better 
 than other theories, make them nun.' intelligible, 
 more easy to follow? Unless a theory does this, it 
 is of small use. Prosody should be a practical 
 science, helping us to unravel intricacies of structure. 
 That explanation is best which throws most light on 
 
 the Eacts, and accords with them beet. En this con- 
 cluding ehapter, therefore, 1 propose to seled B fen 
 Specimen! of unusual verse, and consider how far 
 
 time-measure elucidates their construction. The 
 appendix which follows will do the same thing to 
 some extent, though in a specially restricted tield. 
 In ihis way I hope to show that the method adopted 
 
 [20
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 is no air-drawn fancy, but a real key to prosodial 
 problems. 
 
 The proof of a pudding is in the eating, but much 
 depends on the cook. A theory may be true, yet 
 wrongly applied ; good material can be spoiled by 
 bad handling. If some of the explanations about to 
 be offered misplease, let it not be too hastily con- 
 cluded that the theory inspiring them is fallacious. 
 Time being determined by ear, not by arithmetic, 
 there may well be room for difference of opinion. 
 Other theories by no means furnish infallible tests. 
 My scansions must be taken as suggestions, not ex 
 cathedra judgements. Acceptance of their general 
 tenor is not incompatible with some disagreement 
 in respect of details. 
 
 If I am asked to define the metre of this line : 
 
 From the unknown sea to the unseen shore — 
 
 I cannot answer fully. It is clearly in duple rising 
 metre, but whether it contain four periods or five it 
 is impossible to say. If it occurred in heroic verse, 
 there would be no difficulty in spreading it over five 
 periods ; if in " octosyllabic," none in adapting it to 
 four. This is because the syllables are given us, but 
 not the time. If we had the whole poem before us, 
 time would be manifest, and would fix the metre. 
 In Greek verse a fragment like this would reveal 
 its structure absolutely, each syllable disclosing its 
 quantity. The difference in our case is patent. 1 As 
 
 1 "A metrical scheme which fails to inform us in what 
 metre detached decasyllabic lines are written is really no 
 scheme at all" ("Saturday Review," April 12th, i902, 
 
 121
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 a matter of fact, I do not remember whence the line 
 comes, or in what metre it is written ; the illustration 
 
 is all tin- hotter on that account, and no other method 
 of scansion can go further on the data given. 
 Similarly, if we read this line by itself — 
 
 To have loved, to have thought, t<> have done — 
 we cannot possibly tell whether it is duple metre or 
 triple. The words by themselves do not show. But 
 when we compare its context — 
 
 I- ii -ip small a thing 
 
 To hair en jo\ (1 the sun, 
 To havt lived light in the spring, 
 
 Tu have loved, to have thought, to have done : 
 To have advanced true friends, and beat down baffling 
 
 foes?'— 
 
 we perceive at once that the time is duple, that the 
 line in question consists of three "triplets." The 
 words which I have ventured to italicize, it will be 
 felt, cover in each case the normal time of two 
 Billables. "To have" represents sometimes a mono- 
 syllable, sometimes a dissyllable. The easy-going 
 
 way in which the poet oscillates between these usee 
 
 may seem a blemish to some; it at an\ rate shows 
 
 how little aid syllables give us in determining metre. 
 
 Compensation by pause is well exemplified in 
 
 p. 466). The writer of this sentence i comparing En 
 \.r a with Greek, and desires t>> apply similar methods to 
 each. Hut. il liferent materials require different methods 
 (compare a recent footnote, p. 116). No system <>f scan 
 sion can give to Kti gHJi syllables Qualities which they 
 
 do not po M 
 
 ' Matthew Arnold, "Empedoclee on Etna" (Act [., 
 
 Be. -•). 
 
 loo 
 
 1 MM
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 Shelley's "Arethusa" and "Hymn of Pan." The 
 time of each is triple, and the syllables of main 
 accentuation are separated by an interval uniform 
 in duration though not in content. Thus, in the 
 lines, 
 
 And opened a chasm 
 
 In the rocks ; with the spasm 
 
 All Ery»i«mthus shook, 
 
 the space which separates "spasm" from "all" is 
 clearly equal to that which intervenes between the 
 other italicized syllables ; while the rhetorical pause 
 after " rocks," emphasize it how we will, in no way 
 affects structure. Four syllables are sometimes 
 crowded into a period, as in this case, 
 
 And now from their fountains 
 In Enna's mountains, 
 Down one vale where the morning basks, 
 
 and we cannot read this without consciousness of the 
 crowding. With these provisoes, the analysis of either 
 poem offers no difficulty, unless lines of irregular 
 length in the " Hymn " be accounted such. 
 
 A beautiful little poem by Tennyson l may be 
 quoted entire. 
 
 All along the valley, stream that rlashest white, 
 
 Deepening thy voice with the deepening of the night, 
 
 All along the valley, where thy waters How, 
 
 I walk'd with one I loved two and thirty years ago. 
 
 All along the valley, while I walk'd to-day, 
 
 The two and thirty years were a mist that rolls away ; 
 
 1 " In the Valley of Cauteretz." 
 123
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 For all along the valley, down thy rocky bed, 
 Thy living voice to me was as the voice of the dead, 
 And all along the valley, by rock and cave and tree, 
 The voice of the dead was a living voice to me. 
 
 This does not seem difficult metre, vet has perplexed 
 more than one prosodist. The word " years " in the 
 sixth line, the second "voice" iu the eighth, are 
 reckoned dissyllables. The structure is pronounced 
 " trochaic, with iambic intrusion," and some words 
 are " hyper-metricaL" On a time-basis, these diffi- 
 culties disappear, and the structure is shown perfectly 
 simple. Seven duple rising periods constitute the 
 rhythm. These are nevei- wholly occupied by sound, 
 unless in the fourth line we choose to make " loved " 
 a dissyllable; 1 more naturally it is a monosyllable 
 followed by a pause. Silent intervals occur in each 
 line, not always in the same place, covering the space 
 sometimes of one syllable, sometimes of two. These 
 are part of the s truct u re, essential to the effects 
 every careful reader recognizes them. Omission of 
 initial syllables gives four lines faffing cadence; tin- 
 others have riling. Bui the basis, the fundamental 
 time-measure, remains unaltered throughout. Only 
 one further poiut requires notice. In I cond 
 
 1 Tennyson dill'ers from most of his coiitem]>orai iev in 
 
 printing *d when he does not wi-h the vowel sound 
 waited in this line), onless the verb ends In a vowel, when 
 he prints ed in every ease. The above spelling therefore 
 gires no elne to sound, but I eannol believe he meant • 
 ■ay "loveu." in the sixth line, "years" almost fills double 
 ■pace through it- natural quantity, the pause being more 
 on than after the word. But the word does not make the 
 
 metre ; it i- this luttei whieh gives value to the word. 
 
 124
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 line, the word " deepening " may seem to have two 
 different values. It might be supposed to fill the 
 space of three syllables when first used, of two when 
 repeated. If this were so, it would be nowise extra- 
 ordinary ; we have just seen a like instance in the 
 quotation from Arnold. Tennyson himself elsewhere 
 writes : 
 
 The Queen of Scots at least is Catholic. 
 
 Ay, Madam, Catholic ; but I will not have . . . l 
 
 But in the line under consideration spelling goes to 
 show that he wished his word treated as a triplet each 
 time, and the pause before the first "Deepening" 
 makes this easy to do. The more identically we pro- 
 nounce this word on the two occasions of its appear- 
 ance the nearer we shall come to realizing the in- 
 tended effect. 
 
 Falling cadence and frequent pauses give character 
 to the metre of Mr. Meredith's " Love in the Valley " 
 and " Phoebus with Admetus." 2 A single couplet 
 from the latter will illustrate : 
 
 Mindful were the shepherds, as now the noon severe 
 Bent a burning eyebrow to brown evetide. 
 
 If for " shepherds " we were to substitute shepherds 
 
 1 " Queen Mary" (Act V., Sc. 1). Is it Keats or Shelley 
 who speaks of 
 
 those to whom the miseries of the world 
 Are misery, and will not let them rest ? 
 
 Similar instances are not rare, and seem to show that our 
 poets enjoy the effect of these contrasts. 
 
 2 "Selected Poems" by George Meredith (1S97), pp. 47 
 and 77. 
 
 125
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 "//. for " severe" severely, for "eyebrow " fiery hrow, 
 and for " brown evetido " pallid eventide, we should 
 have filled up the silent spaces which my ear detects in 
 reading these lines, and to which their music owes 
 its charm. As filled up, the periods would appear 
 strictly regular, and comparatively insipid. l»y < 1 « - i" t 
 use of pans.- the poet creates what is practically a 
 new measure, easy of scansion if time 1"' taken as 
 the basis. Its framework continues the same through- 
 out each stanza of both poems, slight alterations of 
 pause adding a sense of variety. The short lines in 
 the second piece are merely two long lines printed as 
 four, without any real alteration ..♦' pattern. 
 
 "Brown evetide " gives not two merely, but three, 
 consecutive syllables of equally strong accentuation 
 — a conjunction which metrists have declared im- 
 possible. It is possible, I think, only where they 
 are separated by a pause. Every time they occur, 
 therefore, we may assume that they cover the normal 
 time of two syllables. This explains the structure 
 of 
 
 Ch> N /•, bofft, '-hii /■ ' do more of idle sorrow ; ' 
 
 or, 
 
 Here great tovle, in s plenitude of vision, 
 Planned high deeds m immortal is the ran i 
 
 <>r, the strong syllables coming at tl nd of a line, M 
 
 in Mr. Meredith's case, instead of at the beginning, 
 
 ■Charles Bdackaj in "The Emigrants" ("Worl 
 
 CliiincloH < 1. 1- ic- , |.. M6). 
 
 "Shadow-land,* 1 by Lord Bowen. Bee bis "Memoir" 
 i>y sir H. s. Cunningham (1807), p. 21 1 
 
 126
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 Savage I was sitting in my house, late, lone ; 
 Weary, dreary with the long day's work. 1 
 
 The duple structure of the pieces here quoted from 
 is in other respects unmistakable, unless indeed we 
 prefer to call Browning's effect quadruple. 
 
 For a case of triple metre masquerading as duple, 
 take this verse from Browning's poem " Rephan " : 2 
 
 Nothing hegins — so needs to end : 
 Where fell it short at first ? Extend 
 Only the same, no change can mend. 
 
 These three lines (unintelligible when thus isolated) 
 might very well pass for duple metre. But com- 
 parison with the rest of the poem dispels this idea. 
 Its rhythm is at once felt to be triple. A typical 
 line occurs in the first verse : 
 
 When my home was the star of my god Rephan. 
 
 Here are evidently four periods, of which three con- 
 tain three syllables, the fourth two only. In a few 
 lines the final period seems to carry three syllables 
 (unless the third period be " amphibrachic "), e.g., 
 
 None felt distaste when better or worse. 
 Not reach — aspire yet never attain. 
 
 1 Robert Browning, Epilogue to " Fifine at the Fair " 
 (1872) ; or in " Selections," p. 248, " The Householder." 
 
 2 " Asolando" (1889). The name "Kephan" is accented 
 on the second syllable. It is so spelt in the Revised Ver- 
 sion of the Bible (Acts, vii. 43), while the Authorized has 
 " Remphan." Browning's choice may have been influenced 
 by metrical feeling. 
 
 127
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 Usually it has "iambic" cadence, signalizing the 
 end of a line. Other periods contain dissyllable! or 
 
 trisyllables at pleasure, and the first often contains 
 only one syllable, giviug falling effect. But the 
 poem in its entirety manifestly moves to triple time. 
 Its lines have affinity with 
 
 Like a child from the womh, like a ghost from the tomb, 
 
 not with 
 
 The stag at eve had drunk his till. 
 
 From this follows that in the stanza first quoted 
 syllables do not correspond to periods in the manner 
 \v<- imagined. The poem reaching u> as a whole, we 
 read this like the other stanzas to triple rhythm, its 
 periods spaced out by liberal admixture of pause; 
 thus and Only thus is its metre determined. 
 
 Triple rhythm, we have seen throughout our study, 
 drops one or more syllables with ease. The examples 
 already cited in this chapter show that duple metre 
 
 can at times emulate this freedom. Particularly, 
 perhaps, is this the case when its periods are coupled 
 so as to produce somewhat of a quadruple effect It 
 appeared that verse so framed would be characterized 
 by rapid movement, and some vagueness of accen- 
 tual signalising. Yet if tl iltant impression 
 be well marked in itself, this need not disturb enjoy- 
 ment. 
 
 As an illustration of this, take a verse of Camp* 
 
 bell's '• I'.attle of the ll.llt i. "   
 
 Like lei iat bans afloal 
 Lay their bulwarka en tin- brine, 
 
 1JS
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 While the sign of battle flew 
 On the lofty British line. 
 It was ten of April morn by the chime ; 
 As they drifted on their path 
 There was silence deep as death, 
 And the boldest held his breath 
 For a time. 
 
 The opening lines here might pass for ordinary 
 duple falling metre : 
 
 Like le- | via- | thans a- | float w 
 Lay their | bulwarks | on the | brine w ; 
 
 or even for duple rising, with initial triplet : 
 
 Like levi- | athans | afloat 
 Lay their bul- | warks on | the brine. 
 
 But neither of these quite represents the way we 
 read it, or explains the word " morn " in the fifth 
 line, which cleai'ly covers the time of two syllables. 
 I take it that the time is indeed duple, but that the 
 periods are coupled to produce a quadruple impres- 
 sion. Occasionally this is forgotten, when the time 
 becomes frankly duple, e.g., 
 
 Again — again — again ! 
 
 Now joy, old England, raise ! 
 
 But the prevailing rhythm seems to run thus : 
 
 Like levia- | thans afloat v 
 
 Lay their bulwarks | on the brine, « 
 While the sign of | battle flew ^ 
 On the lofty | British line. « 
 It was ten of | April morn w | by the chime ; « 
 Etc. etc. 
 
 129 k
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 The second period always drops a syllable, necessi- 
 tating a pause. In the longer fifth line, the added 
 third period exactly repeats the measure of the 
 secoud. The last two lines of each stanza correspond 
 precisely to the fifth : 
 
 And t lie boldest | held hia breath >- | for a time v, 
 
 and air written as two lines merely to draw attention 
 
 to the rhymes. " For a time" is not a single period, 
 
 but should carry two stresses, as is well sen in a 
 
 line like 
 
 Led them <>n. 
 
 Whether or no this justly explains Campbell's 
 metre, it is certain that v\e read it without any dilli- 
 culty. Dropped syllables do not perplex us. The 
 first line begins with one: 
 
 w Of Nelson and the North <-, 
 
 which in weaker hands might cause dubiety. But 
 the strong swing of the verse carries us over all ob- 
 stacles. Prosodists may hesitate over its scansion; 
 the casual render makes no demur. Yet this measure 
 is singular, perhaps unique ; he will not have met its 
 like before. That t roublefl him QOt, since the rhythmic 
 heat is (dear and strong. Temporal impressions must 
 be definite, if unusual forms of metre are to be ac- 
 cept, d and enjoyed. 
 
 (.Quadruple cadence might -rem again suggested — 
 
 with the pause i M ;i different place by the "Coronach 
 in Scott's •• Lady of the Lake" (Canto III. § 16): 
 
 He i - gone on I - the mountain, 
 lie is loci to ! - the forest. 
 180
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 But, as the pause thus indicated is never replaced by 
 a syllable, we cannot verify its existence ; nor do I 
 think it real. If we attempt to fill it up, as by 
 writing 
 
 He is gone on | yonder mountain, 
 He is lost to | yonder forest, 
 
 I think we must feel that we have altered the mea- 
 sure. Dissyllabic rhyming seems here to produce a 
 fictitious quadruple impression. Substitute mono- 
 syllables, and the time is shown obviously triple — 
 
 He is gone | on the mount, 
 He is lost | to the wood. 
 
 The second syllable of a dissyllabic rhyme is, in most 
 cases at least, outside the metrical scheme ; and I do 
 not doubt it is so here. But from this instance we 
 may learn how quickly the ear accepts another sug- 
 gestion, how ready it is to divide each line into two 
 equal periods, three syllables balanced against four. 
 Real dropped syllables do occur at the beginnings of 
 lines, e.g., 
 
 v The font, reappearing . . . 
 
 And in one line : 
 
 Like the huhhle on the fountain, 
 
 a dissyllable is substituted for a monosyllable, so that 
 in this as in other cases four syllables are carried by 
 a triple period. 
 
 Variety of metre is a note of recent verse ; variety 
 of time we have been forewarned to expect. A good 
 
 131
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 instance of this latter seems afforded by Tennyson's 
 ballad "The Revenge." 1 Probably we are all con- 
 scious of something unusual in the measure of this 
 poem, some irregularity remarkable in itself, yet not 
 causing uncertainty of effect. I believe this is due 
 to management of time. The duple metre in which 
 the poem opens either passes into triple, or — it may 
 be — is so continuously overlaid with triplets as to 
 suggest the other movement. This change occurs 
 suddenly at the beginning of Section IV. — 
 
 He had only B hundred seamen to work the ship and to 
 
 fight- 
 soon gives way, but returns in Section V. Thence- 
 forward the two cadences are successive, now one 
 being favoured, now the other. Can we possibly call 
 these lines of our pattern ? — 
 
 But anon the great San Philip she bethought herself and 
 
 went. 
 And the sun went down, anil thfl ■tan came out far ovir 
 
 the rammer >ea. 
 
 Surely they are different, and deliberately contrasted. 
 
 We are never left in doubt which is which. Con- 
 summate art prevents that, and wields either with 
 equal force. As a rule, each section is wholly in one 
 or other. The last of all differs from the two which 
 
 precede it in so marked and singular a way that the 
 
 question tiiiu r ht ivst on this instance alone; change 
 of time, real or apparent, seems the <>uly j>< >ssil»b 
 
 I'lauation. 
 
 1 " Ballads and other Poems," iv*o. 
 132
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 An earlier poem, " The Charge of the Light Bri- 
 gade," shows similar handling of time even more 
 clearly, the structure being simpler. 
 
 Half a league, | half a league, | 
 Half a league | onward 
 
 must be triple rhythm (though Heaven forbid we 
 call these dactyls !). But 
 
 Forward, the Light Brigade ! 
 Charge for the guns, he said — 
 
 manifestly changes to duple. 1 The change is dis- 
 guised by inverted accent in each first period, so that 
 the line is half finished before the effect reveals itself. 
 None the less it is unmistakable, and I feel sure 
 that every careful reader feels it, as well as the change 
 back to triple time in 
 
 Cannon to right of them, 
 Cannon to left of them. 
 
 The syllabic difference here is very slight, but the 
 temporal difference asserts itself boldly, and carries 
 us from one measure to the other without risk of 
 confusion. 
 
 The tendency of late years to give duple metre a 
 character other than its own, by charging it heavily 
 
 1 A parallel is afforded by the short lines in Scott's "Boat- 
 song " (" Lady of the Lake," II. 19), e.g., 
 Heaven send it happy dew, 
 Eartli lend it sap anew ! 
 But in these time seems to me left somewhat ambiguous, 
 with resulting unsatisfactory vagueness of effect. The same 
 criticism can lie made in other pieces by Scott. 
 
 133
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 with triplets, is very noticeable. One of Miss Ros- 
 setti's last poems may illustrate this. 
 
 Sleeping at last, the trouble ami tumult over, 
 Sleeping at last, the struggle ami horror past. 
 
 Cold ami white, out of eight of friend and of lover, 
 Sleeping at last.' 
 
 Still more striking metrically is Mr. Meredith's "Me- 
 lampus " ' — 
 
 With love exceeding a simple love of the things 
 That glide in graseee ead rnbhle of woody wreck. 
 
 And one or two poems by Mr. Robert Bridges might 
 be cited in the same connection. These writers seem 
 trying to do throughout a whole poem what their 
 predecessors were content to do in scattered lines, 
 witness two quoted in previous pages, Milton's 
 
 Fled over Adria to the Hesperian fields, 
 
 and Mr. Swinburne's 
 
 Thou art older and colder of spirit ami blood than I. 
 
 This is not triple metre, but duple abounding in 
 triplets. Whether such an effect be satisfactory as 
 basis for a poem, the render must judge himself. To 
 me there seems something falsetto about it, some- 
 thing strained and factitious and unnatural. As one 
 
 1 " New Poems "(1896), p. 184. 
 
 - " Selected I'oems," as 1,,-iorc, p. s;;. 
 
 Compare In "Minor Poems" (1*90), l?k. II., No. 2, 
 "Whither, <> splendid ship'; No. 7, "The Down.-."; 
 15k. III., No. 2, "London Sm.w"; No. 15, " Awake, mj 
 
 heart." The lyrical cry of the bust of these is delightful. 
 
 b;i
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 of many effects, it not only pleases but delights ; yet 
 toujours perdrix soon palls. I suspect also that most 
 readers are puzzled by it. Time is deliberately made 
 uncertain, and our sense of rhythm rebels. We crave 
 a definite and unmistakable beat. That an adverse 
 verdict will finally be given on these grounds it were 
 rash at present to anticipate. The experiment is 
 at least interesting, and critics should watch its de- 
 velopment. 
 
 Christina Kossetti was a weaver of particularly 
 subtle verse-patterns, so subtle as almost to elude 
 analysis. Time-measure alone can help us to deal 
 with them. There is indeed no difficulty in following 
 her most boldly marked metres, like — 
 
 O where are you going with your love-locks flowing 
 On the west wind blowing along this valley track ? l 
 
 or that noble hymn in "Old and New Year 
 Ditties " 2 — 
 
 Passing away, saith the World, passing away. 
 
 But more characteristic and favourite is such measure 
 as that of " Mother Country " 3 — 
 
 Oh what is that country 
 
 And where can it be, 
 Not mine own country, 
 
 But dearer far to me ? 
 
 1 "Amor Mundi": "Poems," edition of 1884, p. 192. 
 This is, of course, the metre of Macaulay's "Battle of 
 Naseby," modified by dissyllabic rhymes and set to new 
 haunting harmonies. 
 
 a Ibid., p. 285. 3 Ibid., p. 257. 
 
 135
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 In this and similar poems ' syllables are handled with 
 great freedom, and the ear must be kept awake to 
 catch her delicate music. How far she ventures in 
 opposing syllables to time maybe seen from the con- 
 cluding lines of the poem just quoted : 
 
 But u vain shadow 
 
 If one considerc-tli ; 
 Vanity of vanities, 
 
 As the Preacher saith. 
 
 Compare the last quatrain of " Sleep at Sea," where 
 the same words recur ; words which she fits also to 
 heroic measure in her sonnet M One Certainty " * — 
 
 Vanity of vanities, the Preacher saitli — 
 
 and to many other periods in other poems. Her de- 
 partures from time are so manifold, her structure 
 seems often so capricious, that it may be questioned 
 if most readers really enjoy them from a metrical 
 standpoint. Beautiful as her cadences are to a trained 
 ear, to a careless one they must sometimes seem dis- 
 sonant ; her place as a "poets' poet" is readily 
 enough accounted for by the supersubtle and aerial 
 delicacy of these gossamer-like yet skilfully woven 
 verse-patterns. 
 
 Lyrics like these suggest song-rhythms. But in 
 most words written for music the pauses will be 
 found more gross and measurable. Thus in "Green 
 
 1 Compare "Dream-lore," p. 119; "A Feat's Windfalls, 11 
 
 p. 140; " sleep at Sea,' p, 264] also "Summer," p. 83, 
 with notable variations. 
 
 2 Ibid., ]>. 237. 
 
 L86
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 grow the rashes, 0," by Burns, the chorus opens with 
 imperfectly syllabized periods — 
 
 v Green w grow the rashes, O ! 
 
 w Green w grow the rashes, O ! 
 The sweetest hours that e'er I spend 
 
 Are spent among the lasses, O ! 
 
 Here the third and fourth lines fill up with syllables 
 the blanks shown in their predecessors. And the 
 rest of the piece repeats unvaryingly the cadence of 
 these later lines. Metrical subtlety is not character- 
 istic of Burns ; his pauses are clear and distinct, his 
 effects bold and natural. Simplicity seems essential 
 to song-writing. Exquisite verse needs no aid of 
 music, and always loses something — though it may 
 sometimes gain much — by wedlock with its rival. 
 The highest poetry has sufficing music of its own. 
 
 On the other hand, not all words set to tunes are 
 rhythmical in themselves. Prose sentences can be so 
 set, while verse-lines often put off their own music 
 and take that of the air to which they are joined. 
 The English version of " Adeste, fideles ! " is some- 
 times taken for verse. Its opening lines may be 
 rudely rhythmical — 
 
 O come, all ye faithful, 
 Joyfully triumphant — 
 
 but with the second stanza deception becomes im- 
 possible. 
 
 God of God ! 
 Light, of light ! 
 
 is in no sense English verse. The words have no 
 
 137
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 metre in this context ; they are simply prose words, 
 which with considerable violence are accommodated 
 to an extraneous time. Conversely, while it is easy 
 to find/"/// - triple /» riodn in such words as 
 
 Dear — dear — what can the matter be! l 
 afarehl march! BttrickaiidTeviotdale!' 
 
 or those others often quoted by early writers, of whose 
 authorship I am ignorant — 
 
 See — see — rural felicity — 
 
 it may perhaps be questionable whether this effect 
 is not in part due to the airs with which they arc 
 associated. Words can of course be set to more 
 than one air, with different intervals and modula- 
 tions; and none of the times so given need be their 
 metrical time. When we have always heard words 
 linked with one particular tune, it is difficult to 
 realize that they can have any other movement. But 
 unless they have a movement of their own, apart 
 altogether from vocal or instrumental accompani- 
 ment, they have no claim to be accounted English 
 verse at all. 
 
 These few hints and specimens may serve as 
 samples of the mannei in which it is suggested that 
 time-Scansion should lie applied. The results may 
 not seem very precise, hut are they not real and 
 helpful so far as they go r < 'an the same he said of 
 any other system P Merely to name and classify 
 syllables does not carry us very tar; it haves out 
 
 1 old English soog. 
 
 3 Beott, in "The Monastery," chap. sacr. 
 
 l:;s
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 what gives character and swing to our verse. Tem- 
 poral periods of some sort admittedly underlie metre ; 
 can it be right to ignore them ? To me at least they 
 seem the most important conditions of the problem. 
 Whether they have been rightly examined and in- 
 terpreted in these pages is another matter. Here as 
 elsewhere, there is no royal road to learning, and 
 mistakes may easily have been made. Prosodical 
 pontiffs should least of all claim infallibility. But 
 that the main idea of time-measurement is valid I 
 entertain no doubt whatever. It brings verse into 
 harmony with its sister arts. It maintains in theory 
 rules which we all observe in practice. No one who 
 reads English verse by rhythm fails to space it into 
 equal divisions. Oratorical delivery, for its own pur- 
 poses, may disregard these, and be justified in so 
 doing. But the sense of rhythm remains funda- 
 mental in our minds. To translate that sense into 
 articulated law is the real work of prosody. Some 
 elementary contribution to that work, on however 
 limited a scale, has been attempted in this study of 
 metre. 
 
 139
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 PSEUDO-CLASSICAL MEASURES 
 
 The metres which it is now proposed shortly to 
 examine do not, in conception at least, belong right- 
 fully to English verse. They are professed attempts 
 to imitate the structure of Greek and Latin poetry. 
 As such, scholars condemn them, asserting that 
 there is no real reproduction of the measures sought 
 to be naturalized. English readers, on the other 
 hand, both male and female, appear to read them 
 with enjoyment, and to find nothing repulsive in 
 their metrical form. Some study of how this hap- 
 pens will usefully supplement previous discussion, 
 and may tend to clarify our ideas as to the true 
 nature of English verse. 
 
 Such attempts have been made on two different 
 lines. Early in our literature, some few Elizabethan 
 writers tried to reproduce Classic metres on a basis 
 of quantity, accent being either ignored or thrown 
 into opposition. This enterprise was unfortunate, 
 if the principles laid down in preceding pages be 
 correct. No metre which gives quantity the first 
 place, and neglects or violates accent, is likely to 
 succeed in English. It is opposed to all the habits 
 of our speech and our verse. There were other 
 reasons for failure, but they need not be particular- 
 
 141
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 ized. That failure ensued is certain. Our poets 
 would none of this quantity-hunting. Spenser, 
 Greene, Campion and others tried, hut soon abas 
 doned it. The sixteenth century, which had seen 
 its inception, all but saw its conclusion. One or 
 two belated efforts on this line are recorded 'luring 
 the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the 
 nineteenth witnessed an attempt at revival, of which 
 more anon. But, for practical purposes, verse baood 
 on quantity may be said to have died out three 
 hundred years a„ r o. No serious general attempt has 
 been made since then to substitute it for ourordinarj 
 verse. To any but the student it is absolutely un- 
 known, and would be quite incomprehensible. The 
 description in last paragraph does not apply to verse 
 of this pattern. 
 
 The other line of attempt has proved more popular. 
 Noting the predominance of accent and the subor- 
 dination of quantity in modern speech, certain 
 authors tried to reproduce Classic structure by sub- 
 stitution of the former for the latter. This attempt 
 dates from the middle of the eighteenth century. 
 In this country it had hardly talon shape before it 
 
 was powerfully stimulated by examples from Ger- 
 many. There, Klopstock and Voss. followed l>y 
 (Joetlie and Schiller, practised metres of tins kind 
 
 energetically. Our first acquaintance with their 
 
 work seems to have been due to translations by 
 William Taylor (of Norwich) in the closing years of 
 the Century. Coleridge and Southey, among others, 
 
 were struck with bis specimens, corresponded with 
 
 their translator, wrote short poems in like measure 
 
 1 12
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 and projected a joint long one. Only fragments of 
 the latter survive, but some twenty years later 
 Southey wrote and published his "Vision of Judg- 
 ment " (1821), with a preface explaining and de- 
 fending the structure of his lines. His experiment 
 was severely criticised, privately and publicly. But 
 it founded a school, which flourishes still. The 
 controversy which his preface started flourishes also. 
 Critics denounce Southey's view as a " pestilent 
 heresy " ; ' poets go on writing verse like his, and 
 readers seem to enjoy it. Longfellow's " Evange- 
 line " and " Miles Standish," Charles Kingsley's 
 "Andromeda," Clough's " Bothie of Tobernavuolich," 
 are conspicuous examples of poems written in the 
 same metre as Southey's. Pieces in other metres, 
 based on the same structural idea, will be cited 
 presently. The poems now named cannot be called 
 failures; with some of us they may be particular 
 favourites. How is this result possible, if the metre 
 be such a miserable abortion as it is styled ? 
 
 For the sake of completeness, it may be noted 
 that there have been attempts to combine the two 
 lines. Clough and Spedding, both friends of Tenny- 
 son's, made faint efforts to revive quantitative verse 
 — efforts seconded vigorously by Charles Bagot 
 Cayley, who translated the whole " Iliad " in such 
 metre, and lately by a young Cambridge scholar, 
 whose early death has robbed English prosody of a 
 most brilliant recruit. 2 Tennyson disagreed with 
 
 1 " The Iliad of Homer," by Lord Derby (1864), preface, 
 p. vi. 
 
 2 See a pamphlet "On the use of Classical metres in 
 
 143
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 his friends, and satirized their " lame hexameters " 
 in lines which are wrongly understood as burlesquing 
 the Southeyan school. He himself, in his "Experi- 
 ments in Quantity," 1 essayed a new departure by 
 trying to write verses in which every accented syllable 
 should be long by Latin rule, and every long syllable 
 be signalized by accent. The extraordinary difficulty 
 of such a task — not wholly overcome by Tennyson 
 himself — has not deterred some followers. Notably 
 Prof. Robinson Ellis, in his " Poems and Fragments 
 of Catullus " (1871), applied this method, hampered 
 by the additional difficulty of faithful translation, 
 with ingenuity truly marvellous. Whether such a 
 towr de force achieved its purpose may well seem 
 doubtful. If previous argument can be trusted, 
 much of this laborious letter-counting was thrown 
 away. Latin rules do not necessarily hold good in 
 English; our quantity has its own laws, its own 
 place. Still, the fact remains that — as said before — 
 verses framed in this way can be enjoyed by English 
 readers, and the question is how tins happens. To 
 answer it, we must consider the effect produced by 
 rach lines on an ordinary ear. 
 
 Tennyson's " Alcaics " on Milton begiu : 
 
 • » mighty-mouth'd inventoi of harmonies, 
 
 O Hkill'd to ^in^' of time ii.ui 1 eternity ! 
 
 English," by William Johnson st..n.. (Oxford, iw. now 
 reprinted with alterations, and without the specimen \. ■!--.■-. 
 of the original edition, along with "Milton - Prosody" by 
 Robert Bridgea (Oxford, 1901). 
 ' " Enoch Arden, and other Poem (1864). 
 
 I I!
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 The Classic metre which these lines are supposed to 
 represent runs quantitatively as follows : 
 
 Teunyson's lines should reproduce this pattern, every 
 syllable which is long in the scheme being also " ac- 
 cented." The fifth syllable in the above scheme is 
 long. The fifth syllable in Tennyson's first line is 
 "in-," in his second "of." Can it possibly be held 
 that these syllables are " accented " ? Does any 
 reader attribute length, or weight, or importance of 
 any kind, to these syllables ? Unless he does, he is 
 not reading the lines by Classic metre at all. Alcaic 
 metre absolutely requires this quality in its fifth 
 syllable. As none of us read Tennyson's line so, we 
 do not read it as " alcaic." As what, then, do we 
 read it ? 
 
 My belief is that we read it simply as a line of 
 four periods, in triple falling metre. Dividing the 
 words thus, 
 
 O mighty- | raouth'd in- | ventor of | harmonies, 
 O skill'd to | sing of | time and e- | ternity, 
 
 we read it as we should read any similar line of 
 English verse, making the periods equal in length. 
 The second period is therefore felt to be spaced out 
 by pause, while in the third and fourth time is more 
 completely occupied by syllables. Possibly, in the 
 
 1 It will he noted that these divisions or "feet" are not 
 isochronous. This alone would prevent any English-trained 
 ear from enjoying their cadence in conihination. Did Ten- 
 nyson pronounce the first syllable of " eternity " with a 
 short vowel ? 
 
 145 l
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 first period, a careful reader notes a certain quanti- 
 tative retardation caused by leading off from two 
 long syllables ; and he may vaguely regard this as a 
 "Classic" effect. Beyond this, I doubt if he noti. < s 
 structure. The third and fourth lines are similarly 
 dealt with : 
 
 (oxl -gifted | organ- | voice of | England, 
 Milton, a | name to re- | sound for | ages. 
 
 Dissyllables and trisyllables are fell to be here cun- 
 ningly contrasted, and the dissyllabic terminations 
 
 of these lines are noted as against the trisyllabic 
 ones of the two former. These points, aud the ab- 
 sence of rhyme, produce a certain exotic impression. 
 The stanza is not English in form, yet can be read 
 as English verse. I am confident that this is how it 
 is read, and that no reader attributes length to the 
 second syllable of "organ," though the scheme of 
 alcaic metre requires length iu that place. The 
 lines, in short, are not read as " alcaics," but as 
 English verse, and as such are felt to be pleasing. 
 Deft workmausbip has created a measure which can- 
 not for a moment lie accepted as reproducing Classic 
 type, but which has a very real, and impressive, and 
 " original " music of its own. 
 
 Similar arguments apply in other cases. "Sapphic " 
 stanzas are read to this time: 
 
 All the | night sleep | cum- nut op< | on my | eyelids. 
 Shed not I dew, nor | shook nor tin I olosed S i feather, 
 Yet with | lipi -hut | elose Sad wiili | eyefl oi | iron 
 Stood and be* held me. 
 
 1 Swinhurne, " Poems and P.allads " (1H66). 
 
 l p;
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 This is duple falling metre, with a triplet in the 
 third period of the long lines and first of the short 
 ones. " Hendecasyllabic " (i.e., eleven-syllable) metre 
 is the above long line varied by having its triplet in 
 the second instead of third period : 
 
 In the | month of the | long de- | cline of | roses. ' 
 
 "Dactylics," again, are obviously four-period lines 
 in triple falling rhythm : 
 
 Weary way- | wanderer, | languid and | sick at heart. 5 
 Dactylics | call'st thou them ? | God help thee, | silly one. s 
 
 Mr. Swinburne's specimens, indeed, give too favour- 
 able an idea of the approximation to Classic type. 
 Most English " sapphics " are much looser. Southey, 
 for example, begins a set with 
 
 Cold was the night-wind, drifting fast the snows fell, 
 
 which can scarcely be recognized as the same metre. 4 
 
 1 Swinhurne, "Poems and Ballads." An artificial stress 
 must he laid on the word ' ' In. " 
 
 2 Southey's " Early Poems " (1797). It will be noted that 
 the " dactyls " of this line are very imperfect ones. 
 
 3 " Antijacobin" (1797), satirizing Southey's lines. 
 
 * Compare the following, which all profess to he "sap- 
 phic " lines : 
 That man, God-like, seems to me sitting by thee. 
 
 George Moore, " Pagan Poems," 1881. 
 Change and chancefulness in my flowering youthtime. 
 
 Thomas Hardy, " Wessex Poems," 1898, first piece. 
 Hapless, heroic Queen of the Iceni. 
 
 "Punch," July 2nd, 1902. 
 Each of these differs in structure. Compare also a remark 
 in chap. vi. (p. 106). 
 
 147
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 And Coleridge begins his " hemlecasyllables " with 
 two triplets — 
 
 Hear, my be- | loved, an | old Mi- | lesian | story ' — 
 
 making a line of twelve syllables instead of eleven, 
 even if we allow " Milesian " to contain only three 
 syllables. This looseness, of course, tends to show 
 that the lines were written by ear instead of by rule, 
 that time rather than syllabic structure was the basis 
 r.lied on. 
 
 Further illustration is afforded by " choriambh " 
 metre. In Classic verse, the usual type of this nut re 
 contained three choriambs, preceded by a spondee 
 and followed by an iamb. Here is a sample line, 
 with its quantitative scheme : 
 
 _ - - _ 
 
 Tune | quaesieri.s | — scire nefas — | quern milii, quern | tilii. 
 
 Mr. Swinburne's experiment follows this pattern 
 with approximate fidelity : 
 
 Love, what | ailed thee to leave | life that WU made | 
 lovely, we thought, | with love ?   
 
 But, to an English ear, each of these " < h. niani I «> " 
 
 1 M Poems,"" Catullian Bendecasyllahles." Allhislinea 
 follow this pattern, which Lb doI that of Catullus. 
 
 ' '• I '. .< in and Ballad od seriea (1878), "Cboriam 
 
 l.ie~." Coventry Patmore, in the "North British Review 
 f<«r August, 1867 (p. 189), pronounoed " jaunty chariamhic 
 manifestly onsuited to ;i dirge. When the paper ( "" w 
 placed .xs an appendii to hi^ ooUeotod poems, was reprinted 
 in i\ - preface t> " Amelia," this remark was omitted, 
 doubtlesa beeanae M i . Bwinharne'a poem had proved U 
 
 ei roinoii . I'll.- moral i- patent. 
 
 1 \-
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 is followed by a possibility of pause. Mr. Swin- 
 burne's metrical mastery carries him through the 
 whole fairly long poem without a single departure 
 from his precise pattern. Browning's" Pheidippides," ' 
 on the other hand, seems to show how an English 
 poet would more naturally treat this cadence. This 
 poem does not indeed follow the Classical scheme, 
 but an effect as of three choriambs seems to pervade 
 it. A sample line, with the time-measure of the 
 poem as I read it, will explain my view of its struc- 
 ture: 
 
 v v w | w w v I uw v | v w w v ww|www 
 
 Pre-sent to help, po-tent to save, (Pan,) pa-tron I call. 
 
 The time is triple rhythm. Every time-mark here 
 shown has sometimes a corresponding syllable, and 
 no syllable occurs throughout the poem otherwise 
 than in accordance with these time-marks/ But, 
 starting from this time-basis, Browning by frequent 
 omission of syllables produces a quasi-choriambic 
 effect. The three groups of words : 
 
 Present to help — potent to save — patron I call — 
 
 will be recognized as analogous to Mr. Swinburne's 
 more smoothly running feet. They are separated, in 
 Browning's poem, by a space sometimes left blank, 
 sometimes occupied by one syllable (as by the brack- 
 
 1 "Dramatic Idylls," first series (1879). 
 
 2 Except in certain lines — about half-a-dozen in all — 
 which contain two extra syllables at the end. Whether 
 these lines were lengthened by inadvertence, or designedly, 
 does not appear. With their exception, the above remarks 
 apply to the whole poem. 
 
 149
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 eted word "Pan" above) or two syllables, never bj 
 more. When two syllables intervene, the metre 
 becomes obviously triple, as for example (the inter- 
 vening words are again inclosed in parentheses): 
 
 Athens, except (for that) sparkle, thy name, (I had) 
 mouldered to Bah : 
 
 or, in a line where the time-structure is fully illus- 
 trated by syllables : 
 
 (Who could) race like a God, (hear the) face of a (led, 
 (whom a) God loved BO well. 
 
 In such lines the c horiambic effect is almost wholly 
 overlaid. But in most it stands out dearly enough, 
 allowing for Browning's habitual roughness, and 
 seems well suited to the runner's utterance. The 
 way in which it is superimposed on triple time, and 
 brought out by omission of syllables, Lfives an objeel 
 lesson in Kimlish metre; tie- freedom with which 
 pauses replace syllables, especially between the 
 
 superimposed choriambs, is eminent!) characteristic 
 
 of our whole metrical methods. 
 
 But these metres, after all, have been little more 
 than playthings. The one form that has reall\ 
 passed into our verse is that started bj Southej 
 his so-called " hexameter." Kt\ mologically, this word 
 means any line of sir unit*. In practice it is con- 
 fined to one type of such line, that known as "dac- 
 tylic." In Classic- v.rse, this moves to common 
 time; 1 with us, it becomes a six-period line in triple 
 
 1 A Clu>-ic (In. fill's lir>t -\ll.ilile took the sum' time to 
 
 pronounce m the leoond and third pul together, I Dleaawe 
 teed it thus, tre ignore "quantity." 
 
 150 *
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 falling metre, ending with a dissyllable. There are 
 other differences between our line and the Classic 
 one, which need not detain us. This essential differ- 
 ence in time is enough to separate them, and to 
 justify scholars in their contention that ours is no 
 equivalent of the ancient line. But this does not 
 prevent its being excellent English verse. A line 
 like that of Longfellow's before quoted — 
 
 This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the 
 hemlocks — 
 
 would pass muster anywhere as a sample of triple 
 falling rhythm. There is nothing extraordinary about 
 its construction. Length, rhymelessness, dissyllabic 
 ending, seem its chief distinctive notes. The second 
 of these is unessential ; such lines can be and often 
 are rhymed. The first and third are familiar to us 
 in other patterns. Why, then, should we hesitate 
 to accept this as English metre? The scholar is 
 right in his rejection, the ordinary reader right in 
 his acceptance. Cease calling this "hexameter" in 
 the technical sense, or imagining that it is in any 
 way a simulacrum of its supposed prototype, and the 
 way is clear to welcome it as a native measure. 
 This the common sense of readers during the last 
 fifty or sixty years has already done. 
 
 The Classic hexameter was used either by itself — 
 as we use our heroic line in " blank verse " — or 
 alternating with a pentameter to form what is called 
 " elegiac " metre. (The last name carries no sig- 
 nificance in English, being due merely to the fact 
 that the Greeks often used this couplet in writing 
 
 151
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 elegies.) Pentameter, of course, means any line of 
 jirt units; but in practice it usually denotes the 
 dactylic line of this measure, whose construction was 
 somewhat peculiar. Two feet followed by a siugle 
 syllable made up the first half of the line, while the 
 second half repeated this structure. In English, 
 such a line would infallibly consist of sis periods. 
 Grammarians dispute whether this was not so BTeo 
 in Greek, though the name shows such was not the 
 common view; some wish to write it as two lines, 
 which seems needlessly formal. With us, in any case, 
 there should be no possible doubt about the matter. 
 A single syllable so placed must be reinforced by 
 pause, and that silent interval — if tin- practice of OUT 
 poets teaches anything — must be capable of replace- 
 ment by sound. Let us test these assertions by fact. 
 Dismissing all comparison with Classic type, let us 
 take these metres for what they really are, native 
 measurea obeying native laws. How have our poets 
 handled them when writing by ear, not by rule, and 
 what results have they reached? 
 
 Poems confessedly following Latin rule must be 
 set aside. Nearly all our "hexameter" pieces come 
 under this category. Even the "elegiac " type is 
 usually so written, as by Browning in Ins •• Lrion" 1 
 
 or by Mr. William Watson in his line " ll\nm to the 
 
 .Sea." 1 ' Some of Mr. Bwinburne'i worl illustrates 
 
 what we want. Several writers have noted th;it 
 "Hesperia" approximates closely to elegiac metre. 
 
 ' "Joooseria" (1888). 
 
 * "The Patherofthe Poxest, and othai Poema (1886), 
 
 ' " l'ociiiH ami Hulladi " (1866). 
 
 1 52
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 But I have not seen mentioned the still closer 
 approximation made by a later piece. " Evening on 
 the Broads " 1 opens thus: 
 
 Over two shadowless waters, adrift as a pinnace in peril, 
 Hangs as in heavy suspense, charged with irresolute 
 light, 
 Softly the soul of the sunset upholden awhile on the 
 sterile 
 Waves and wastes of the land, half repossessed by the 
 night. 
 
 The metrical structure of these lines closely resembles 
 that of Mr. Watson's poem, as any reader can see 
 for himself. Yet Mr. Swinburne is clearly not writ- 
 ing " elegiac metre." The freedom of handling, the 
 continual departure from rules by which Mr. Watson 
 and our other Classicists have needlessly bound them- 
 selves, prove this beyond doubt. Examination of 
 this piece, therefore, should be decisive as to the 
 points raised, and teach us truer ideas as to the 
 nature and capabibties of verse framed on this pat- 
 tern. What does such examination show ? 
 
 The doctrine laid down about pause receives prompt 
 confirmation. The second and fourth lines above 
 quoted contain a manifest midway pause, but in 
 other corresponding lines this pause is filled up by 
 syllables, e.g., 
 
 Thick as the darkness of leaf-shadowed Spring is encum- 
 bered with ilower8. 
 
 The absolute convertibility of silence and sound in 
 English verse is thus once more demonstrated, and 
 
 1 "Studies in Song" (1880). 
 153
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 the hue becomes clearly one of .-/< /<- ri»ifo. The dis- 
 syllabic ending of the odd lines, the monosyllabic 
 ending of the evn, are secured by the usual omission 
 of syllables in the sixth period. Rhyme is used, 
 which makfs the verse seem more characteristically 
 English, but is obviously not a structural necessity. 
 Full correspondence of syllables with time is tin- 
 rule, as elsewhere shown to be this poet's favourite 
 effect, but exceptions are frequent. Mr. Swinburne 
 does not hesitate to use a dissyllable where time and 
 Classic rule demand a trisyllable, >'.<j., 
 
 Hover the colonic and clouds of the twilight, void <>f a star. 
 
 Spirit- of men that are eased when t lie wheels nf tfaesiM 
 
 ill part. 
 
 He also substitutes four syllables for three in •• loftier, 
 aloft," "higher than my head," " glad of the (jhinj of 
 their life," and so forth. Manifestly he does not 
 count syllables on his fingers, nor do his period* 
 necessarily contain exact feet. IThe very first words, 
 "Over two," are very far from forming a dactyl. 
 Real feet do appear now and then, as with such a 
 singer they were bound to do; but they appear ac- 
 cidentally, not as units of structure. In all these 
 respects the principles which have been shown to 
 govern English inetn trikingly illustrated; re- 
 
 mits aSStUne the form that nnu'lil have been ex- 
 pected. One more remains to be pointed out, some- 
 what more fully. 
 
 Greek dactylic lines of course began with a long 
 
 syllable. To imitate this, our hexametrists endeaToux 
 
 to begin their lines with a syllable of strong accen- 
 
 154
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 tuation. But they never can keep this up for long. 
 It is opposed to our habit of speech. All our native 
 verse either begins with weak syllables or admits 
 them as an alternative. Thus in triple-time verse, 
 as we have seen, falling accent and rising are fre- 
 quently intermixed ; as when Byron writes : 
 
 Thou who art hearing my buckler and bow, 
 Should the | soldiers of Saul look away from the foe. 1 
 
 This is fatal to the hexameter as our metrists con- 
 ceive it. Either they must give up counting by feet, 
 or they must be content — as they constantly are — 
 to begin with a weak word like "And " or " Of" or 
 " When," and trust their reader to supply for himself 
 a rhythm which they have failed to indicate. How 
 does Mr. Swinburne get over this difficulty ? By 
 doing what every English poet naturally does, when 
 not fettered by imaginary adherence to foreign 
 rules. Normally his lines begin with a strong syl- 
 lable, as in all the instances already quoted. But, 
 when this is inconvenient, he simply prefixes weak 
 syllables to the beat, e.g., 
 
 As a | bird unfledged is the broad-winged night . . . 
 But the | glories beloved of the night . . . 
 But | here by the sandbank watching . . . 
 
 This is the habitual practice of our poets, and it is 
 strange that our hexametrists neglect it. For want 
 of it, their verses are never readable for long to- 
 gether. Rhythm is confused, and the ear offended 
 
 1 " Hebrew Melodies," " Song of Saul," second verse. 
 
 155
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 by a continual emphasising of weak words. Even 
 so careful a writer as Mr. Watson begins line after 
 line with words of weak accentuation. In all our 
 int-tivs, n is true, such imaginary stress ooonrs at 
 
 times; it is one «.f the devices adopted to seoare 
 variety. But in a still unfamiliar metre like the 
 hexameter rhythm needs careful marking, and 
 accentual signalization should have been specially 
 exact, whereas in the important first syllable of a 
 line it is continually found at fault. 
 
 It is amusing to watch the uncertainty of our 
 hexametrists on this score. Southey debated which 
 feet might replace the first dactyl of a line.' Matthew 
 Arnold actually let the first beat fall on such a weak 
 pair of syllables as " To a," : instead of boldly pre- 
 fixing these to his beat. Even Clough, who ex- 
 perimented freely with this metre in his " Bothie." 
 never or hardly ever ventures on this licence. Yet 
 it is familiar to every English versifier. The tVw 
 who wrote hexameters by ear glided naturally into 
 it. Coleridge uses it once in his "Hymn to the 
 Earth." 3 Laudor, in some light verse of this type, 
 has it once : 
 
 Ton my | word, as I live, mid u younger, I really believe 
 
 lie hits done it.' 
 
 ' " Vision (.f Judgment," preface. 
 
 2 Lecture-, "On translating Homer" (is<;n ; popular edi* 
 ti-.M (iv.tii), |>. '.17. sod e£ footnote to p, i.m. 
 
 3 "Poems." "Thy I lap to the genial Heaven." 
 
 1 "Heroic Idylls," etc. (1868), Mo. 182 of Additional 
 Poems, "<>ii English Hexameters." 
 
 156
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 Frere, no mean authority, found it came naturally. 1 
 Among later writers " Owen Meredith " and Sir 
 Lewis Morris have used it, and Bret Harte, in " Lost 
 Tails of Miletus," actually begins a line with " Exe- 
 cuted a," probably emphasizing the third syllable. 
 The true canon seems to be : make your rhythm 
 clear, and let syllables find their own place in rela- 
 tion to it. Time is the thing of essential importance. 
 Ear and time carry Mr. Swinburne thixmgh such 
 lines as these, which would be anathema to the pain- 
 ful Classicist : 
 
 A wall of turbid water, aslope to the wide sky's wonder. 
 
 Discoloured, opaque, suspended in sign as of strength with- 
 out pity. 
 
 But the heart that impels them is even as a conqueror's 
 insatiably craving. 
 
 The delight of the light she knows not, nor answers the sun 
 or the stars. 
 
 Over these and many such obstacles his strong beat 
 bears him victoriously, while our admiration attests 
 the poet's success. 
 
 This point has been insisted on, because it is 
 typical of the whole matter, and seems to sum up 
 what can be said for and against both this and 
 similar metres. If they are to be naturalized as 
 English measures, they must be written as such, not 
 in fancied obedience to rules of an alien prosody. If 
 any cannot be so written, they are mere toys, which 
 may or may not tickle scholastic fancy, but have no 
 
 1 Note at end of "Frogs," translated from Aristophanes 
 (1830). See " Works" (Pickering, 1S74), vol. Hi., pp. 309- 
 310. 
 
 157
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 meaning for an English ear. The so-called " hexa- 
 meter" is not in this latter class. Already, despite 
 false ideals and hampering rules, our poets have 
 used it with acceptance ; its future cannot be fore- 
 seen. Matthew Arnold, in those " Lectures " alrea<l\ 
 quoted, where poetic insight is more conspicuous 
 than technical knowledge, predicted that our poets 
 " will not always be content to forego" the music of 
 the hexameter. 1 The music of Greet hexameter they 
 cannot have, sin< •»■ they write not Greek verse but 
 English; it remains for them to find a music of 
 their own. A great poet is wanted, who will treat 
 this metre as Milton treated that of "Paradise Lost," 
 discovering its harmonies, revealing its potentialities. 
 Prophecy is futile, but many signs point to a 
 development on the lines indicated. Triple-time 
 metre increases in favour; lines of six periods are 
 exceedingly common. It looks as if this might be- 
 come as usual a length in triple verse, as the five- 
 period line in duple. That, however, is guesswork. 
 No great singer has yet handled this line in con. 
 tinuous repetition, as Mr. Swinburne has handled it 
 in "elegiac" combination. Would that he might 
 .•-sa\ tie other task! Till he. or some other, do so, 
 mere grammarians should have it alone. They v. ill 
 
 but increase the misehief they have already done, in 
 
 suggesting wrone; < <>n< ''ptions, and cumbering an 
 
 English line with misleading rules and analogies. 
 
 I dish metre is made by poets, not by critics. 
 
 When the work has heeii done, it mav DC Competent 
 for us to come in and consider results. < >t" one 
 
 1 Aa before, p. 78. 
 
 I'.-
 
 A STUDY OF METRE 
 
 thing, however, we may be sure. If this or any 
 other measure is developed, it will be along the 
 lines which it shares with more familiar forms. Laws 
 which govern all English measures will apply to this 
 also. Even the cursory examination now given 
 seems to establish kinship with ordinary types, and 
 to substantiate the main contention of this volume. 
 Time-measure, rather than syllabic structure, is yet 
 again here shown to be the basis of English verse. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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