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 :tnnT>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 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 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, vmagiuini, 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 nf 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 < and fodiet i>ri.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 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, /">), 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 - 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, >'.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 " alrean< ''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. CHISWICK PRESS : PRINTED 11V CHARLKS WHITTINOHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. 159 I FAClllT* U 000 352 324 8 University Of California, Los Angeles L 007 626 572 7