PART VI.-VERSIFICATION.

CHAPTER I.-PRIMARY FORMS OF FOOT AND VERSE.

LESSON LXXIII.

The teacher is referred for fuller treatment to the following:-Gummere, Poetics; Parsons, English Versification; Corson, Primer of English Verse; Lanier, Science of English Verse. The great work is Guest, A History of English Rhythms.

Verse. The most artistic form of composition in words is verse, the chosen medium of poetry. Verse is the form of composition in which the language is rhythmical according to a constantly repeating pattern.

I. Stress-Word-stress.-Notice the pronunciation of any word of two or more syllables and we see that the ictus, emphasis, or stress of the voice, distinguishes syllables into two classes.

feud'al; uphold'; paragraph; un folding.

The syllable having the stress (feud—, —hold, par -fold) is termed the stressed syllable, also called the accented, or heavy syllable. The syllable not having the stress (-al, up—, —a graph, un—ing) is termed the unstressed syllable, also called the unaccented, or light syllable.

The symbol here used for a stressed syllable is /; for an unstressed, x.

It will be noticed on looking at words like in grat' it ude', con' form a' tion, cir cum stant'i al' it y', that words of more than three syllables have not only a main stressed syllable (marked ') but also one or more syllables (marked ') with less stress than the main syllable, but with more than the unstressed syllables. Such syllables (\) have what is called a secondary stress.

Sentence-stress. It will be noticed, too, that words. as they form part of spoken language enter into similar relation with each other as the syllables of words.

It was a heavy club' made out of an oak branch.

In the early years of the nine teenth century there lived at the village of Rav enloe a lin en -weav er, named Si las Mar ner.

Notice that where the stress in the sentence falls on dissyllables it falls only on those syllables that have the word-stress.

II. Metre. The question now arises, What effect will be produced if these stressed and unstressed syllables and stressed and unstressed words-these wavelets and hollows of sound-are arranged after a repeating pattern?

1. Study the following line:

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day.

We may mark the pattern of this line:

The unstressed syllable or word is followed by a stressed syllable or word giving a repeating pattern × /, and this pattern or foot is repeated five times in the line.

II. Study the following line:—

Ere the steamer bore him Eastward, Sleary was engaged to marry.

The pattern, or foot, is a stressed syllable followed by

an unstressed syllable ( / × ), and the pattern is repeated eight times.

III. Study the following line:

But we steadfastly gazed on the face that was dead.

It may be marked :

The pattern or foot is two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable (× × /), and the foot is repeated four times.

IV. Study the following line:

Bird of the wilderness! blithesome and cumberless.

The pattern or foot is one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables (/ × ×), and it is repeated four times.

v. Study the following line:

O talk not to me of a name great in story.

It may be marked:—

The pattern or foot is a stressed syllable preceded and followed by an unstressed syllable (× / ×), and the pattern is repeated four times.

Such arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables constitutes verse.

The pattern is usually spoken of as a foot and the whole movement of verse-composition is called metre or

measure.

III. Kinds of Feet.-Names are given to each particular foot:

I. x, iam' bic metre (each foot an iambus). II., trochaic metre (each foot a trochee, pr. trōk'ē).

III. × ×, anapæstic metre (each foot an anapæst).

IV. × ×, dactyllic metre (each foot a dactyl).

v. × ×, amphibrachic metre (each foot an amphibrach).

VI. There is also a spondaic metre (each foot a spondee), made of two stresses of almost equal weight; e.g., cornfield.

NOTE. The spondaic measure does not really occur in English verse. English spondees are as a rule trochees, but the term is useful in considering the hexameters; see below.

IV. Kinds of Line or Verse.-A metrical line is called a verse. The pattern, or foot, or measure occurs one or more times in the line, and the number of times of its occurrence in the line is marked by a special term:I. One foot to the line, or monom'eter (Gr. monos, single).

Beware, I (1).

Sleeping, 1 (/ ×).

My Mary, 1 (× / ×).

II. Two feet to the line or dim'eter (Gr. di-dis, twice). No enemy, 2 (× /).

Perishing, gloomily, 2 (/ × ×).

Thy vows are all broken, 2 (× / ×).

III. Three feet to the line, or trim'eter (Gr. treis,

three).

And feed his sacred flame, 3 (× /).

A feeling of sadness and longing, 3 (× / ×).

IV. Four feet to the line, or tetram'eter (Gr. tetra— in compounds--four):—

I heard a thousand blended notes, 4 (× /).

To his music, plants, and flowers, 4 (/ ×).

The days of our youth are the days of our glory, 4 (× / ×).

v. Five feet to the line, or pentam'eter (Gr. pente, five).

There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, 5 (× /).

VI. Six feet to the line, or hexam'eter (Gr. hex, six). Ere ceased th' inhuman shout which hailed the wretch who won, 6 (× /).

The iambic hexameter is sometimes called Alexandrine.

VII. Seven feet to the line, septenar'ius or sep'tenary (Lat. septem, seven).

O could I feel as I have felt, or be what I have been, 7 (× /).

VIII. Eight feet to the line, or octonarius or octonary (Lat. octo, eight).

Long he pondered o'er the question in his scantly furnished quarters, 8 (/ ×).

NOTE. To avoid these learned terms, it is quite proper to speak of a monometer line as a one-accent line, dimeter as a two-accent line, trimeter as a three-accent line, etc. Or, counting the syllables of the line, to call the line eight-syllable or octosyllabic, ten-syllabic or decasyllable, etc.

The Classical Hexameter.-One measure from Greek and Latin poetry has exercised a great influence on English poetry-the hexameter. The classical hexameter, as in the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Æneid,