poetic form necessitates, besides the use of the long and back vowels, that of the subvowels or subtonics, like m, n, ng, l, b, d, and v. Here are examples of the poetic orotund, indicating any thing, not provoking, which stirs one to deep feeling, or, as was stated before, to deep delight, admiration, courage, or determination, as inspired by contemplation of the noble or grand. 66 " Glory to God," unnumbered voices sung; Glory to God," the vales and mountains rung; And to the shepherds sung a Saviour born. -Voyage of Columbus: Rogers. Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this son of York, —Richard III., i., I : Shakespear. Daughter of Faith, awake, arise, illume -Pleasures of Hope: Campbell. Peace and order and beauty draw -Barbara Frietchie: Whittier, All the more impure qualities—the hiss, the guttural, and the pectoral-represent allied emotions. Therefore, in elocution, there is a tendency to combine their effects. It is the same in poetry. Notice the following: And know not that I call'd and drew them thither, On what was pure ! till, cramm'd and gorg'd, nigh burst Of thy victorious arm, well-pleasing Son, Both Sin and Death and yawning Grave, at last -Paradise Lost, 10: Milton. Fret till your proud heart breaks; Go show your slaves how choleric you are, And make your bondmen tremble. Must I budge? Must I observe you? Must I stand and crouch Under your testy humor? By the gods, You shall digest the venom of your spleen Tho' it do split you; for from this day forth I'll use you for my mirth-yea, for my laughter- -Julius Casar, iv., 3: Shakespear. So, too, the poetic pure and orotund naturally go together; for example: For though the giant ages heave the hill And break the shore, and evermore Make and break and work their will; Though worlds on worlds in myriad myriads roll And other forms of life than ours, What know we greater than the soul? On God and godlike men we build our trust. -Ode on Duke of Wellington: Tennyson. Much of the representative beauty of poetry depends on a judicious alternation of these different qualities of sound. Notice this fact as exemplified in the last three quotations, as well as in the fourth and fifth lines of the following, where the poetic orotund is introduced in the midst of an aspirate passage: The bright sun rises to his course, and lights But base ignoble slaves; slaves to a horde Strong in some hundred spearmen, only great -Riensi's Address to Romans: Mitford. CHAPTER XII. EFFECTS OF POETIC QUALITY CONTINUED. Imitative Effects of Letter-Sounds corresponding to Aspirate Quality, representing Serpents, Sighing, Rapidity, Winds, Slumber, Conspiracy, Fear, Frightening, Checking-Guttural Quality, representing Grating, Forcing, Flowing Water, Rattling,, Effort-Pectoral Quality, representing Groaning, Depth, Hollowness-Pure Quality, representing Thinness, Clearness, Sharpness, Cutting-Orotund Quality, representing Fulness, Roundness, Murmuring, Humming, Denying, etc.— These Effects as combined in Various Illustrations of Carving; Dashing, Rippling, and Lapping Water; Roaring; Clashing; Cursing; Shrieking; Fluttering; Crawling; Confusion; Horror; Spite; Scorn; etc. LET us turn now to poetic effects produced by quality corresponding to those of dramatic, as distinguished from discoursive, elocution; and first to the aspirate. In poetry, as in elocution, the repellant aspirate imitates any thing that hisses; for example: He would have spoke, But hiss for hiss returned with forked tongue To his bold riot: dreadful was the din Of hissing through the hall, thick swarming now And dipsas; not so thick swarmed once the soil -Paradise Lost, 10: Millon. The acquiescent aspirate imitates any thing that sighs; for example: She gave me for my pains a world of sighs; She swore.-In faith 't was strange, 't was passing strange, 'T was pitiful, 't was wondrous pitiful ; She wish'd she had not heard it; yet she wish'd That heaven had made her such a man. -Othello, i., 3: Shakespear. But it is possible to go still more into detail than this. As Guest has pointed out in his "History of English Rhythms," developing for that purpose a suggestion made by Bacon, certain letters and combinations of them seem especially adapted for the imitation of certain specific operations. Things, for instance, that fly rapidly, make sounds resembling those of the sibilants. Hence the appropriateness of the following: How quick they wheeled, and flying behind them shot Of their pursuers. -Paradise Reg., 3: Milton. Brushed with the hiss of rustling wings. As bees So do nurses, fountains, and sea-waves, when lulling one to sleep: O Sleep, O gentle Sleep, Nature's soft nurse, how have I frightened thee And steep my senses in forgetfulness? Why rather, Sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs, Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee, |