The Principles of English Versification Part 23

But coloured leaves of latter rose-blossom, Stems of soft gra.s.s, some withered red and some Fair and fresh-blooded, and spoil splendider Of marigold and great spent sunflower.

SWINBURNE, The Two Dreams.

So Keats has--

The enchantment that afterwards befell.

Those whose taste sanctions such _outre_ effects probably find pleasure in the strangeness and daring of the rhythm.

An a.n.a.logous case to this distributed stress but with monosyllables instead of polysyllabic words is the familiar line in Lycidas--

The hungry sheep look up and are not fed.

One does not read: "but _are_ not _fed_" nor "but are _not fed"_ but rather something midway between. This variation, common with all poets, was a special favorite of Sh.e.l.ley's--

To deck with their bright hues his withered hair.

... His eyes beheld Their own wan light through the reflected lines Of his thin hair, distinct in the dark depth Of that still fountain....

Mingling its solemn song, whilst the broad river.

Alastor.

The monosyllabic foot in which the unstressed element is missing offers no difficulty. The familiar example of

Break, break, break,

has been discussed above (pages 63 f.). Compare also Tennyson's Sweet and Low; Fletcher's song--

Lay a garland on my hea.r.s.e Of the dismal yew; Maidens, willow branches bear; Say, I died true;

and Yeats's--

We sat grown quiet at the name of love; We saw the last embers of daylight die.

Adam's Curse.

Sh.e.l.ley has--

And wild roses and ivy serpentine.

The Question.

and Swinburne--

Fragrance of pine-leaves and odorous breath.

Song for the Centenary of Walter Savage Landor.

(where it would be absurd to make two syllables of "pine"), and a debated but perfectly intelligible hexameter--

Full-sailed, wide-winged, poised softly forever asway.

where the whole music of the line depends upon giving due time-emphasis to "poised." There is one odd case, not to be made too much of because one cannot be entirely sure of the text, in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, II, ii, of the omission of the stressed element of a foot--

Than the soft myrtle; ? but man, proud man.

The versification of the whole play, however, is peculiar, and this metrical anomaly may have been deliberate.

The older writers on versification, leaning heavily on the traditional prosody of Greek and Latin, made much of the caesura or pause, especially in blank verse. As has already been frequently suggested, the varied placing of the pause is one of the commonest means of avoiding monotony and giving freedom and fluency to the verse, but it is often also a means of fitting the verse to the meaning. Since the pause comes most frequently near the middle of the line, when it occurs within the first or the last foot there is some special emphasis intended, as in Milton's--

Before him, such as in their souls infix'd Plagues.

Paradise Lost, VI, 837 f.

Last Rose as in dance the stately trees, and spread.

Ibid., VII, 323 f.

For Milton these were rather bold and unusual. Later poets have made them familiar, but no less effective. Note Swinburne's repeated use in Atalanta in Calydon--

His helmet as a windy and withering moon Seen through blown cloud and plume-like drift, when s.h.i.+ps Drive, and men strive with all the sea, and oars Break, and the beaks dip under, drinking death.[97]

Except in these two places, however, there is seldom a very particular effect sought. That there can be even a good deal of regularity without stiffness or monotony is plain from a pa.s.sage like Paradise Lost, II, 344 ff.[98] The presence of several pauses in a line produces a broken, halting, r.e.t.a.r.ded effect, as--

Through wood, through waste, o'er hill, o'er dale, his roam.

Paradise Lost, IV, 538.

and is admirably used by Milton in describing Satan's arduous flight through Chaos--

O'er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies.

Paradise Lost, II, 948 ff.

+--------------------------------------------------------------+ [97] Note also the spondaic effect in the second line, the rime in the third, and the imitative movement in the fourth. [98] Here, dividing the lines into parts measured by the number of syllables, the series is: 6+4, 6+4,--, 2+4+4, 6+4, 8+2, 6+4, 6+4, 6+4, 8+2, 8+2, etc. +--------------------------------------------------------------+

Theoretically each rhythmic stress is of equal force or strength, but in verse there is the greatest variety, some stresses being so strong as to dominate a whole line, others so light as hardly to be felt. Thus it happens sometimes that in a 5-stress line there are actually only four or three stresses: the rhythmic result being a syncopation of four or three against five. Sometimes the word which contains the weak stress receives unusual emphasis, as--

Which if not victory is yet revenge.

Paradise Lost, II, 105.

Fall'n cherub, to be weak is miserable.

Ibid., I, 157.

Me miserable! which way shall I fly.

Ibid., IV, 73.

Low-seated she leans forward ma.s.sively.

THOMSON, City of Dreadful Night.

Like earth's own voice lifted unconquerable.

Sh.e.l.lEY, Revolt of Islam, IX, 3.

Sometimes the emphasis seems distributed, as--

As he our darkness, cannot we his light.

Paradise Lost, II, 269.