The Grammar of English Grammars Part 190

But as they were written before the poetical language of the English tongue was fixed, and as the rules of verse were not then settled, these works can be of little practical utility."--_Preface_, p. 1. The works thus excepted as of _reliable authority without practical utility_, are "a short tract by _Gascoyne_," doubtless _George Gascoigne's_ 'Notes of Instruction concerning the making of Verse or Rhyme in English,' published in 1575, and Webbe's 'Discourse of English Poetry,' dated 1586, neither of which does the kind exceptor appear to have ever seen! Mention is next made, successively, of Dr. Carey, of Dryden, of Dr. Johnson, of Blair, and of Lord Kames. "To these _guides_," or at least to the last two, "the author is indebted for many valuable hints;" yet he scruples not to say, "Blair betrays a paucity of knowledge on this subject;"--"Lord Kames has slurred over the subject of Quant.i.ty," and "shown an unpardonable ignorance of the first principles of Quant.i.ty in our verse;"--and, "Even Dr. Johnson speaks of syllables in such a manner as would lead us to suppose that he was in the same error as Kames. These inaccuracies," it is added, "can be accounted for only from the fact that Prosodians have not thought _Quant.i.ty_ of sufficient importance to merit their attention."--See _Preface_, p. 4-6.

OBS. 18.--Everett's Versification consists of seventeen chapters, numbered consecutively, but divided into two parts, under the two t.i.tles Quant.i.ty and Construction. Its specimens of verse are numerous, various, and beautiful. Its modes of scansion--the things chiefly to be taught--though perhaps generally correct, are sometimes questionable, and not always consonant with the writer's own rules of quant.i.ty. From the citations above, one might expect from this author such an exposition of quant.i.ty, as n.o.body could either mistake or gainsay; but, as the following platform will show, his treatment of this point is singularly curt and incomplete. He is so sparing of words as not even to have given a _definition_ of quant.i.ty.

He opens his subject thus: "VERSIFICATION is the proper arrangement of words in _a line_ according to _their quant.i.ty_, and the disposition of _these lines in_ couplets, stanzas, or in blank verse, in such order, and according to such rules, as are sanctioned by usage.--A FOOT is a combination of two or _more_ syllables, whether long or short.--A LINE is one foot, or more than one.--The QUANt.i.tY of each _word_ depends on its _accent_. In words of more than one syllable, all accented syllables are long, and all unaccented syllables are short. Monosyllables are long or short, according to the following Rules:--1st. All Nouns, Adjectives, Verbs, and Participles are long.--2nd. The articles are always short.--3rd, The p.r.o.nouns are long or short, according to _emphasis_.--4th.

Interjections and Adverbs are generally long, but sometimes _made short by emphasis_.--5th. Prepositions and Conjunctions are almost always _short_, but sometimes _made long by emphasis_."--_English Versification_, p. 13.

None of these principles of quant.i.ty are unexceptionable; and whoever follows them implicitly, will often differ not only from what is right, but from their author himself in the a.n.a.lysis of verses. Nor are they free from important antagonisms. "Emphasis," as here spoken of, not only clashes with "accent," but contradicts itself, by making some syllables long and some short; and, what is more mysteriously absurd, the author says, "It _frequently happens_ that syllables _long by_ QUANt.i.tY become _short by_ EMPHASIS."--_Everett's Eng. Versif._, 1st Ed., p. 99. Of this, he takes the first syllable of the following line, namely, "the word _bids_," to be an example:

"B~ids m~e l=ive b~ut t=o h=ope f~or p~ost=er~it~y's pr=aise."

OBS. 19.--In the American Review, for May, 1848, Everett's System of Versification is named as "an apology and occasion"--not for a critical examination of this or any other scheme of prosody--but for the promulgation of a new one, a rival theory of English metres, "the principles and laws" of which the writer promises, "at an other time" more fully "to develop." The article referred to is ent.i.tled, "_The Art of Measuring Verses_." The writer, being designated by his initials, "J. D.

W.," is understood to be James D. Whelpley, editor of the Review. Believing Everett's princ.i.p.al doctrines to be radically erroneous, this critic nevertheless excuses them, because he thinks we have nothing better! "The views supported in the work itself," says his closing paragraph, "_are not, indeed, such as we would subscribe to, nor can we admit the numerous a.n.a.lyses of the English metres which it contains to be correct_; yet, as it is as complete in design and execution as anything that has yet appeared on the subject, and well calculated to excite the attention, and direct the inquiries, of English scholars, to the study of our own metres, we shall even pa.s.s it by without a word of criticism."--_American Review, New Series_, Vol. I, p. 492.

OBS. 20.--Everett, although, as we have seen, he thought proper to deny that the student of English versification had any well authorized "rules to guide him," still argues that, "The laws of our verse are just as fixed, and may be as clearly laid down, if we but attend to the usage of the great Poets, as are the laws of our syntax."--_Preface_, p. 7. But this critic, of the American Review, ingenious though he is in many of his remarks, flippantly denies that our English Prosody has either authorities or principles which one ought to respect; and accordingly cares so little whom he contradicts, that he is often inconsistent with himself. Here is a sample: "As there are _no established authorities_ in this art, and, indeed, _no acknowledged principles_--every rhymester being permitted to _invent_ his own _method_, and write by _instinct_ or _imitation_--the critic feels quite at liberty to say just what he pleases, and _offer his private observations_ as though these were really of some moment."--_Am.

Rev._, Vol. i, p. 484. In respect to writing, "_to invent_," and _to "imitate_," are repugnant ideas; and so are, _after a "method_," and "_by instinct_." Again, what sense is there in making the "liberty" of publis.h.i.+ng one's "private observations" to depend on the presumed absence of rivals? That the author did not lack confidence in the general applicability of his speculations, subversive though they are of the best and most popular teaching on this subject, is evident from the following sentence: "We intend, also, that if these principles, with the others previously expressed, are true in the given instances, _they are equally true for all languages and all varieties of metre_, even to the denial that _any_ poetic metres, founded on other principles, can properly exist."--_Ib._, p. 491

OBS. 21.--J. D. W. is not one of those who discard quant.i.ty and supply accent in expounding the nature of metre; and yet he does not coincide very nearly with any of those who have heretofore made quant.i.ty the basis of poetic numbers. His views of the rhythmical elements being in several respects _peculiar_, I purpose briefly to notice them here, though some of the peculiarities of this new "_Art of Measuring Verses_," should rather be quoted under the head of _Scanning_, to which they more properly belong.

"Of every species of beauty," says this author, "and more especially of the beauty of sounds, _continuousness_ is the _first element_; a succession of _pulses_ of sound becomes agreeable, only when the breaks or intervals cease to be heard." Again: "Quant.i.ty, or the _division into measures of time_, is a _second element_ of verse; each line must be _stuffed out with sounds_, to a certain fullness and plumpness, that will sustain the voice, and force it to dwell upon the sounds."--_Rev._, p. 485. The first of these positions is subsequently contradicted, or very largely qualified, by the following: "So, the line of significant sounds, in a verse, is also marked by _accents_, or _pulses_, and divided into portions called _feet_. These are necessary and natural for the very simple reason that _continuity by itself is tedious_; and the greatest pleasure arises from the union of continuity with _variety_. [That is, with "_interruption_," as he elsewhere calls it!] In the line,

'Full many a tale their music tells,'

there are at least four accents or stresses of the voice, with faint _pauses_ after them, just enough to separate the continuous stream of sound into these four parts, to be read thus:

Fullman--yataleth--eirmus--ictells,[503]

by which, new combinations of sound are produced, of a singularly musical character. It is evident from the inspection of the above line, that the division of the feet by the accents is quite independent of the division of words by the sense. The sounds are melted into continuity, and _re-divided again_ in a manner agreeable to the musical ear."--_Ib._, p. 486.

Undoubtedly, the due formation of our poetic feet occasions both a blending of some words and a dividing of others, in a manner unknown to prose; but still we have the authority of this writer, as well as of earlier ones, for saying, "Good verse requires to be read _with the natural quant.i.tes [sic--KTH] of the syllables_," (p. 487,) a doctrine with which that of the _redivision_ appears to clash. If the example given be read with any regard to the _caesural pause_, as undoubtedly it should be, the _th_ of _their_ cannot be joined, as above, to the word _tale_; nor do I see any propriety in joining the _s_ of _music_ to the third foot rather than to the fourth.

Can a theory which turns topsyturvy the whole plan of syllabication, fail to affect "the _natural quant.i.ties_ of syllables?"

OBS. 22--Different modes of reading verse, may, without doubt, change the quant.i.ties of very many syllables. Hence a correct mode of reading, as well as a just theory of measure, is essential to correct scansion, or a just discrimination of the poetic feet. It is a very common opinion, that English verse has but few spondees; and the doctrine of Brightland has been rarely disputed, that, "_Heroic Verses_ consist of five _short_, and five _long_ Syllables _intermixt_, but not so very strictly as never to alter that order."--_Gram._, 7th Ed., p. 160.[504] J. D. W., being a heavy reader, will have each line so "_stuffed out with sounds_," and the consonants so syllabled after the vowels, as to give to our heroics three spondees for every two iambuses; and lines like the following, which, with the elisions, I should resolve into four iambuses, and without them, into three iambuses and one anapest, he supposes to consist severally of four spondees:--

"'When coldness wraps this suffering clay, Ah! whither strays the immortal mind?'

[These are] to be read," according to this prosodian,

"Whencoldn--esswrapsth--issuff'r--ingclay, Ah! whith--erstraysth'--immort--almind?"

"The verse," he contends, "is perceived to consist of _six_ [probably he meant to say _eight_] heavy syllables, each composed of a vowel followed by a group of consonantal sounds, the whole measured into four equal feet. The movement is what is called spondaic, a spondee being a foot of two heavy sounds. The absence of short syllables gives the line a peculiar weight and solemnity suited to the sentiment, and doubtless prompted by it."--_American Review_, Vol. i, p. 487. Of his theory, he subsequently says: "It maintains that good English verse is as thoroughly quant.i.tative as the Greek, though it be _much more heavy and spondaic_."--_Ib._, p.

491.[505]

OBS. 23--For the determining of quant.i.ties and feet, this author borrows from some old Latin grammar three or four rules, commonly thought inapplicable to our tongue, and, mixing them up with other speculations, satisfies himself with stating that the "Art of Measuring Verses" requires yet the production of many more such! But, these things being the essence of his principles, it is proper to state them _in his own words_: "A short vowel sound followed by a double consonantal sound, usually makes a _long_ quant.i.ty;[506] so also does a long vowel like _y_ in _beauty_, before a consonant. The _metrical accents_, which _often differ from the prosaic_, mostly fall upon the heavy sounds; _which must also be prolonged in reading_, and never slurred or lightened, unless to help out a bad verse.

In our language _the groupings of the consonants furnish a great number of spondaic feet_, and give the language, especially its more ancient forms, as in the verse of Milton and the prose of Lord Bacon, a grand and solemn character. One vowel followed by another, unless the first be _naturally made long_ in the reading, makes a short quant.i.ty, as in _th[=e] old_. So, also, a short vowel followed by a single short consonant, gives a short _time_ or _quant.i.ty_, as in _to give_. [Fist] A great variety of rules for the detection of long and short quant.i.ties _have yet to be invented_, or applied from the Greek and Latin prosody. _In all languages they are of course the same_, making due allowance for difference of organization; but it is as absurd to suppose that the Greeks should have a system of prosody differing in principle from our own, as that their rules of musical harmony should be different from the modern. Both result from the nature of the ear and of _the organ of speech_, and are consequently _the same_ in all ages and nations."--_Am. Rev._, Vol. i, p. 488.

OBS. 24.--QUANt.i.tY is here represented as "_time_" only. In this author's first mention of it, it is called, rather less accurately, "_the division into measures of time_." With too little regard for either of these conceptions, he next speaks of it as including both "_time and accent_."

But I have already shown that "_accents_ or _stresses_" cannot pertain to _short_ syllables, and therefore cannot be ingredients of quant.i.ty. The whole article lacks that _clearness_ which is a prime requisite of a sound theory. Take all of the writer's next paragraph as an example of this defect: "The two elements of musical metre, _time_ and _accent_, both together const.i.tuting _quant.i.ty_, are _equally_ elements of the metre of verse. Each _iambic_ foot or metre, is marked by a swell of the voice, concluding abruptly in an _accent_, or _interruption_, on the _last sound_ of the foot; or, [omit this 'or:' it is improper,] in metres of the _trochaic_ order, in such words as _dandy, handy, bottle, favor, labor_, it [the foot] begins with a heavy accented sound, and declines to a faint or light one at the close. The line is thus composed of a series of swells or waves of sound, _concluding and beginning alike_. The _accents_, or points at which the voice is most forcibly exerted in the feet, _being the divisions of time_, by which a part of its musical character is given to the verse, are _usually made to coincide_, in our language, with the accents of the words as they are spoken; which [coincidence] diminishes the musical character of our verse. In Greek hexameters and Latin hexameters, on the contrary, this coincidence is avoided, as tending to monotony and a prosaic character."--_Ibid._

OBS. 25.--The pa.s.sage just cited represents "_accent_" or "_accents_" not only as partly const.i.tuting _quant.i.ty_, but as being, in its or their turn, "_the divisions of time_;"--as being also stops, pauses, or "_interruptions_" of sound else continuous;--as being of two sorts, "_metrical_" and "_prosaic_," which "usually coincide," though it is said, they "often differ," and their "interference" is "very frequent;"--as being "the points" of stress "in the _feet_," but not always such in "the _words_," of verse;--as striking different feet differently, "each _iambic_ foot" on the latter syllable and every _trochee_ on the former, yet causing, in each line, only such waves of sound as conclude and begin "_alike_;"--as coinciding with the long quant.i.ties and "_the prosaic accents_," in iambics and trochaics, yet not coinciding with these always;--as giving to verse "a part of its musical character," yet _diminis.h.i.+ng_ that character, by their usual coincidence with "_the prose accents_;"--as being kept distinct in Latin and Greek, "_the metrical" from "the prosaic_" and their "coincidence avoided," to make poetry more poetical,--though the old prosodists, in all they say of accents, acute, grave, and circ.u.mflex, give no hint of this primary distinction! In all this elementary teaching, there seems to be a want of a clear, steady, and consistent notion of the things spoken of. The author's theory led him to several strange combinations of words, some of which it is not easy, even with his whole explanation before us, to regard as other than _absurd_.

With a few examples of his new phraseology, Italicized by myself, I dismiss the subject: "It frequently happens that _word and verse accent_ fall differently."--P. 489. "The _verse syllables_, like _the verse feet_, differ _in the prosaic and_ [the] _metrical reading_ of the line."--_Ib._ "If we read it by _the prosaic syllabication_, there will be no possibility of measuring the quant.i.ties."--_Ib._ "The metrical are perfectly distinct from the _prosaic properties of verse_."--_Ib._ "It may be called _an iambic dactyl_, formed by the subst.i.tution of two short for one long time in the last portion of the foot. _Iambic spondees and dactyls_ are to be distinguished by the _metrical accent_ falling on the last syllable."--P.

491.

SECTION IV.--THE KINDS OF VERSE.

The princ.i.p.al kinds of verse, or orders of poetic numbers, as has already been stated, are four; namely, _Iambic, Trochaic, Anapestic_, and _Dactylic_. Besides these, which are sometimes called "_the simple orders_"

being unmixed, or nearly so, some recognize several "_Composite orders_" or (with a better view of the matter) several kinds of mixed verse, which are said to const.i.tute "_the Composite order_." In these, one of the four princ.i.p.al kinds of feet must still be used as the basis, some other species being inserted therewith, in each line or stanza, with more or less regularity.

PRINCIPLES AND NAMES.

The diversification of any species of metre, by the occasional change of a foot, or, in certain cases, by the addition or omission of a short syllable, is not usually regarded as sufficient to change the denomination, or stated order, of the verse; and many critics suppose some variety of feet, as well as a studied diversity in the position of the caesural pause, essential to the highest excellence of poetic composition.

The dividing of verses into the feet which compose them, is called _Scanning_, or _Scansion_. In this, according to the technical language of the old prosodists, when a syllable is wanting, the verse is said to be _catalectic_; when the measure is exact, the line is _acatalectic_; when there is a redundant syllable, it forms _hypermeter_.

Since the equal recognition of so many feet as twelve, or even as eight, will often produce different modes of measuring the same lines; and since it is desirable to measure verses with uniformity, and always by the simplest process that will well answer the purpose; we usually scan by the princ.i.p.al feet, in preference to the secondary, where the syllables give us a choice of measures, or may be divided in different ways.

A single foot, especially a foot of only two syllables, can hardly be said to const.i.tute a line, or to have rhythm in itself; yet we sometimes see a foot so placed, and rhyming as a line. Lines of two, three, four, five, six, or seven feet, are common; and these have received the technical denominations of _dim'eter, trim'eter, tetram'eter, pentam'eter, hexam'eter_, and _heptam'eter_. On a wide page, iambics and trochaics may possibly be written in _octom'eter_; but lines of this measure, being very long, are mostly abandoned for alternate tetrameters.

ORDER I.--IAMBIC VERSE.

In Iambic verse, the stress is laid on the even syllables, and the odd ones are short. Any short syllable added to a line of this order, is supernumerary; iambic rhymes, which are naturally single, being made double by one, and triple by two. But the adding of one short syllable, which is much practised in dramatic poetry, may be reckoned to convert the last foot into an amphibrach, though the adding of two cannot. Iambics consist of the following measures:--

MEASURE I.--IAMBIC OF EIGHT FEET, OR OCTOMETER.

_Psalm XLVII, 1 and 2_.

"O =all | y~e p=eo | -pl~e, cl=ap | y~our h=ands, | ~and w=ith | tr~i=um | -ph~ant v=oi | -c~es s=ing; No force | the might | -=y power | withstands | of G.o.d, | the u | -niver | -sal King."

See the "_Psalms of David, in Metre_," p. 54.

Each couplet of this verse is now commonly reduced to, or exchanged for, a simple stanza of four tetrameter lines, rhyming alternately, and each commencing with a capital; but sometimes, the second line and the fourth are still commenced with a small letter: as,

"Your ut | -most skill | in praise | be shown, for Him | who all | the world | commands, Who sits | upon | his right | -eous throne, and spreads | his sway | o'er heath | -en lands."

_Ib._, verses 7 and 8; _Edition bound with Com. Prayer_, N. Y., 1819.

_An other Example_.

"The hour | is come | --the cher | -ish'd hour, When from | the bus | -y world | set free, I seek | at length | my lone | -ly bower, And muse | in si | -lent thought | on thee."

THEODORE HOOK'S REMAINS: _The Examiner_, No. 82.

MEASURE II.--IAMBIC OF SEVEN FEET, OR HEPTAMETER.

_Example I.--Hat-Brims_.

"It's odd | how hats | expand [ their brims | as youth | begins | to fade, As if | when life | had reached | its noon, | it want | -ed them | for shade."

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES: _From a Newspaper_.

_Example II.--Psalm XLII_, 1.

"As pants | the hart | for cool | -ing streams, | when heat | -ed in | the chase; So longs | my soul, | O G.o.d, | for thee, | and thy | refresh | -ing grace."

EPISCOPAL PSALM-BOOK: _The Rev. W. Allen's Eng. Gram._, p. 227.