[Previous page]... -- MILTON
The following lines afford other proofs of this license.
Yet, yet, I love -- from Abelard it came.
-- POPE
Flow, flow, my stream this devious way.
-- SHENSTONE
The Greeks and Romans in like manner had a number of syllables
which might in any situation be pronounced long or short without
offending the ear. They had others which they could make long or
short by changing their position. These were of great avail to the
poets. The following is an example:
{Pollakis o polyphame, ta / me kala / kala pe / phanlai.}
-- THEOCRITUS
{'Ages, 'Ages Brotoloige, miai phone tei chesipleta.}
-- HOM. IL.
{Metsa de tem' che theoisi, to / nd metron / estin agison.}
-- PHOCYL
where the word Ages, being used twice, the first syllable is
long in the first and short in the second instance, and the second is
short in the first and long in the second instance.
But though the poets have great authority over the
monosyllables, yet it is not altogether absolute. The following is a
proof of this:
Through the dark postern of time long elaps'd.
-- YOUNG
It is impossible to read this without throwing the accent on
the monosyllable
of and yet the ear is shocked and revolts at this.
That species of our verse wherein the accent falls on all the
odd syllables, I shall call, from that circumstance, odd or
imparisyllabic verse. It is what has been heretofore called trochaic
verse. To the foot which composes it, it will still be convenient
and most intelligible to retain the ancient name of Trochee, only
remembering that by that term we do not mean a long and a short
syllable, but an accented and unac-cented one.
That verse wherein the accent is on the even syllables may be
called even or parisyllabic verse, and corresponds with what has been
called iambic verse; retaining the term iambus for the name of the
foot we shall thereby mean an unaccented and an accented syllable.
That verse wherein the accent falls on every third syllable,
may be called trisyllabic verse; it is equivalent to what has been
called anapestic; and we will still use the term anapest to express
two unaccented and one accented syllable.
Accent then is, I think, the basis of English verse; and it
leads us to the same threefold distribution of it to which the
hypothesis of
quantity had led Dr. Johnson. While it preserves to
us the simplicity of his classification it relieves us from the
doubtfulness, if not the error, on which it was founded.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE THREE MEASURES.
Wherever a verse should regularly begin or end with an accented
syllable, that unaccented syllable may be suppressed.
Bred on plains, or born in valleys,
Who would bid those scenes adieu?
Stranger to the arts of malice,
Who would ever courts pursue?
-- SHENSTONE
Ruin seize thee, ruthless king!
Confusion on thy banners wait;
Though, fanned by Conquest's crimson wing,
They mock the air with idle state.
Helm, nor haulberk's twisted mail,
Nor ev'n thy virtues, Tyrant, shall avail
To save thy secret soul from nightly fears.
From Cambria's curse, from Cambria's tears!
-- GRAY
*Ye Shep* / herds! give ear / to my lay,
*And take* no more heed of my sheep;
They have nothing to do but to stray;
I have nothing to do but to weep.
-- SHENSTONE
In the first example the unaccented syllable with which the
imparisyllabic (odd) verse should end is omitted in the second and
fourth lines. In the second example the unaccented syllable with
which the parisyllabic (even) verse should begin is omitted in the
first and fifth lines. In the third instance one of the unaccented
syllables with which the trisyllabic (triple) verse should begin, is
omitted in the first and second lines and in the first of the
following line both are omitted:
Under this marble, or under this sill
Or under this turf, or e'en what you will
Lies one who ne'er car'd, and still cares not a pin
What they said, or may say, of the mortal within;
But who, living or dying, serene still and free,
Trusts in God that as well as he was he shall be.
-- POPE
An accented syllable may be prefixed to a verse which should
regularly begin with an accent and added to one which should end with
an accent, thus:
1. Dauntless on his native sands
*The* dragon-son of Mona stands;
*In* glittering arms and glory drest,
High he rears his ruby crest.
There the thundering strokes begin,
There the press, and there the din;
Talymalfra's rocky shore
-- GRAY
Again:
There Confusion, Terror's child,
Conflict fierce, and Ruin wild,
Agony, that pants for breath,
Despair, and honorable death.
-- GRAY
2. What is this world? thy school Oh! misery!
Our only lesson is to learn to suffer;
And he who knows not that, was born for no*thing*.
My comfort is each moment takes away
A grain at least from the dead load that's on *me*
And gives a nearer prospect of the grave.
-- YOUNG
3. Says Richard to Thomas (and seem'd half afraid),
"I'm thinking to marry thy mistress's maid;
Now, because Mrs. Lucy to thee is well known,
I will do't if thou bidst me, or let it alone."
Said Thomas to Richard, "To speak my opin*ion*,
There is not such a bitch in King George's domin*ion*;
And I firmly believe, if thou knew'st her as I *do*,
Thou wouldst choose out a whipping-post first to be tied *to*.
She's peevish, she's thievish, she's ugly, she's old,
And a liar, and a fool, and a slut, and a scold."
Next day Richard hasten'd to church and was wed,
And ere night had inform'd her what Thomas had said.
-- SHENSTONE
An accented syllable can never be either omitted or added
without changing the character of the verse. In fact it is the
number of accented syllables which determines the length of the
verse. That is to say, the number of feet of which it consists.
Imparisyllabic verse being made up of Trochees should regularly
end with an unaccented syllable; and in that case if it be in rhyme
both syllables of the foot must be rhymed. But most frequently the
unaccented syllable is omitted according to the license before
mentioned and then it suffices to rhyme the accented one. The
following is given as a specimen of this kind of verse.
Shepherd, wouldst thou here obtain
Pleasure unalloy'd with pain?
Joy that suits the rural sphere?
Gentle shepherd, lend an ear.
Learn to relish calm delight
Verdant vales and fountains bright;
Trees that nod o'er sloping hills,
Caves that echo tinkling rills.
If thou canst no charm disclose
In the simplest bud that blows;
Go, forsake thy plain and fold;
Join the crowd, and toil for gold.
Tranquil pleasures never cloy;
Banish each tumultuous joy;
All but love -- for love inspires
Fonder wishes, warmer fires
See, to sweeten thy repose,
The blossom buds, the fountain flows;
Lo! to crown thy healthful board,
All that milk and fruits afford.
Seek no more -- the rest is vain;
Pleasure ending soon in pain:
Anguish lightly gilded o'er;
Close thy wish, and seek no more.
-- SHENSTONE
Parisyllabic verse should regularly be composed of all
iambuses; that is to say, all its even syllables should be accented.
Yet it is very common for the first foot of the line to be a trochee
as in this verse:
Ye who e'er lost an angel, pity me!
Sometimes a trochee is found in the midst of this verse. But
this is extremely rare indeed. The following, however, are instances
of it taken from Milton.
To do ought good
never will be our task
Behests obey,
worthiest to be obeyed.
Than self-esteem,
grounded on just and right
Leans the huge elephant the
wisest of brutes!
In these instances it has not a good effect, but in the
following it has:
This hand is mine --
oh! what a hand is here!
So soft, souls sink into it and are lost.
When this trochee is placed at the beginning of a verse, if it
be not too often repeated it produces a variety in the measure which
is pleasing. The following is a specimen of the parisyllabic verse,
wherein the instances of this trochee beginning the verse are noted:
Pity the sorrows of a poor old man,
Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door.
Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span;
Oh! give relief, and Heaven will bless your store.
These tattered clothes my poverty bespeak,
These hoary locks proclaim my lengthen'd years
And many a furrow in my grief-worn cheek
Has been the channel to a flood of tears.
Yon house, erected on the rising ground,
With tempting aspect, drew me from my road;
For plenty there a residence has found,
And grandeur a magnificent abode.
Hard is the fate of the infirm and poor!
Here, as I craved a morsel of their bread,
A pamper'd menial drove me from the door,
To seek a shelter in an humbler shed.
Oh! take me to your hospitable dome;
Keen blows the wind, and piercing is the cold;
Short is my passage to the friendly tomb,
For I am poor, and miserably old.
*Heaven sends* misfortunes; why should we repine!
Tis Heaven has brought me to the state you see;
And your condition may be soon like mine,
The child of sorrow and of misery.
-- MOSS
Trisyllabic verse consists altogether of anapests, that is, of
feet made up of two unaccented and one accented syllable; and it does
not admit a mixture of any other feet. The following is a specimen
of this kind of verse:
I have found out a gift for my fair;
I have found where the wood-pigeons breed;
But let me that plunder forbear,
She will say 'twas a barbarous deed:
For he ne'er could be true, she averr'd,
Who could rob a poor bird of its young;
And I loved her the more when I heard
Such tenderness fall from her tongue.
-- SHENSTONE
The following are instances of an iambus in an anapestic verse:
Or under this turf, or ev'n what they will.
-- POPE
It never was known that circular letters.
-- SWIFT
They are extremely rare and are deformities, which cannot be
admitted to belong to the verse, notwithstanding the authority of the
writers from whom they are quoted. Indeed, the pieces from which
they are taken are merely pieces of sport on which they did not mean
to rest their poetical merit.
But to what class shall we give the following species of verse?
"God save great Washington." It is triple verse, but the accent is on
the first syllable of the foot instead of the third. Is this an
attempt at dactylian verse? or shall we consider it still as
anapestic, wherein either the two unaccented syllables which should
begin the verse are omitted; or else the two which should end it are,
in reciting, transposed to the next verse to complete the first
anapest of that, as in Virgil in the following instance, the last
syllab...
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