A Study of Versification |
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Page 33
... sense from line to line while still keeping the structure distinct . Here again the appeal is to the ear and not to the eye ; the poet may choose to print his lines to suit his own whim ; but the way in which he presents them does not ...
... sense from line to line while still keeping the structure distinct . Here again the appeal is to the ear and not to the eye ; the poet may choose to print his lines to suit his own whim ; but the way in which he presents them does not ...
Page 36
... sense may require a pause in the middle of a line . The very fault found with these octosyllabic lines is that they slip away too fluently , and run easily into a monotonous singsong . " We need only recite a brief passage from either ...
... sense may require a pause in the middle of a line . The very fault found with these octosyllabic lines is that they slip away too fluently , and run easily into a monotonous singsong . " We need only recite a brief passage from either ...
Page 37
... sense of effort and fatigue will soon be the conse- quence " ; but this is rarely felt because there is a break or a pause generally about the middle of the line , which serves as a breathing - place . " This gives a degree of relief ...
... sense of effort and fatigue will soon be the conse- quence " ; but this is rarely felt because there is a break or a pause generally about the middle of the line , which serves as a breathing - place . " This gives a degree of relief ...
Page 41
... sense will best bring out the rhythm . " If a line satisfies the ear , when it is read naturally with full regard to its con- tent , then it is a good line prosodically ; since there can be no other test . If it fails to satisfy the ear ...
... sense will best bring out the rhythm . " If a line satisfies the ear , when it is read naturally with full regard to its con- tent , then it is a good line prosodically ; since there can be no other test . If it fails to satisfy the ear ...
Page 42
... sense — Displease us if the ear once take offence . We have seen already that in the iambic penta- meter the poet is at liberty to add a short syllable at the end of his line : To be , or not to be : that is the question . We have seen ...
... sense — Displease us if the ear once take offence . We have seen already that in the iambic penta- meter the poet is at liberty to add a short syllable at the end of his line : To be , or not to be : that is the question . We have seen ...
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Common terms and phrases
accepted alliteration anapestic artist asserted attention Austin Dobson ballade beauty blank verse breath Browning Browning's Byron's called charm chosen colliteration composed consonants dactylic declared delight double rimes Dryden effect employed English poetry English verse example feel final line fixed form foot four lines hearer heart heptameter heroic couplet hexameter iambic pentameter iambs iambus kiss language less long syllables Longfellow's Lowell lyric lyrist mate melody meter metrical metrist Milton never nursery-rimes o'er once pair of rimes passage pause play poem poet poet's poetic license Pope prose quatrain refrain repetition rhythm rhythmic rime-scheme rondeau Rose Shakspere Shakspere's short syllable single rime sometimes song sonnet sound speech spondee stanza substitution sweet Swinburne Swinburne's technic Tennyson thee theme Théodore de Banville thou thought tion trimeter triolet trochaic trochee true tune unrimed versification villanelle vowel vowel-sound wind words write
Popular passages
Page 46 - Their van will be upon us Before the bridge goes down; And if they once may win the bridge, What hope to save the town ? ' Then out spake brave Horatius, The Captain of the gate : 'To every man upon this earth Death cometh soon or late; And how can man die better Than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers And the temples of his Gods...
Page 100 - But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of those who were older than we — Of many far wiser than we — And neither the angels in heaven above, Nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE : For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE...
Page 202 - And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail, And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal ; And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord ! A SPIRIT PASS'D BEFORE ME.
Page 27 - KNOW ye the land where the cypress and myrtle Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime? Where the rage of the vulture, the love of the turtle, Now melt into sorrow, now madden to crime...
Page 114 - HAIL to thee, blithe spirit ! Bird thou never wert, That from heaven, or near it, Pourest thy full heart In profuse strains of unpremeditated art Higher still and higher From the earth thou springest Like a cloud of fire; The blue deep thou wingest, And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.
Page 234 - Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits, and Are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on ; and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.
Page 98 - AH, WHAT avails the sceptred race! Ah ! what the form divine ! What every virtue, every grace ! Rose Aylmer, all were thine. Rose Aylmer, whom these wakeful eyes May weep, but never see, A night of memories and of sighs I consecrate to thee.
Page 111 - FAIR stood the wind for France When we our sails advance, Nor now to prove our chance Longer will tarry; But putting to the main, At Caux, the mouth of Seine, With all his martial train, Landed King Harry.
Page 73 - Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows, And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows ; But when loud surges lash the sounding shore, The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar : When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, The line too labours, and the words move slow : Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain, Flies o'er the unbending corn, and skims along the main.
Page 113 - Go, lovely Rose! Tell her, that wastes her time and me, That now she knows, When I resemble her to thee, How sweet and fair she seems to be. Tell her that's young And shuns to have her graces spied, That hadst thou sprung In deserts, where no men abide, Thou must have uncommended died. Small is the worth Of beauty from the light retired: Bid her come forth, Suffer herself to be desired, And not blush so to be admired.