Poetry differs from prose in three particulars: in its _purpose_, in its
_style_, and in its _form_.
The chief object of poetry is to give pleasure. Of all literature it is
the most spontaneous because addressed particularly to the feelings.
It has its own diction and imagery, conforming to the order, gradations
and subtleties of its thought. Like other forms of genius, too, it is
permitted certain liberties and variations of language or expressions in
order to avoid monotony and maintain the life and music of the verse.
These are more strictly rhetorical, however, and next in importance to
the poetic _content_ is poetic _form_.
By poetic _form_ we mean the mould and measure whereby, in English,
poetry gets itself into the expression adapted to produce its designed
effect.
=Metre.=--All impassioned language, as in eloquence for instance, tends
to fall into a more or less regular rhythmic swing. In poetry, which is
both impassioned and imaginative, this rhythm is timed to definite
lengths and called _metre_, which is the Greek word for measure.
The unit of poetic measure is the foot. A foot is a combination of
syllables, two or three distinguished, after the Greek, as long and
short, but more truly accented and unaccented, because our syllabic
values, unlike the Greek, are more accentual than quantitative. A
variety of poetic feet are employed in English, whose names and values
are derived from Greek prosody.
POETIC FEET.--For brevity of description a notation is used to designate
the foot: the sign (―) for a long, and (◡) for a short syllable. The
kinds of feet in most common English use, here marked by their signs and
illustrated by a word, are: Iambic or Iambus, a short and a long (◡ ―,
e. g. forbid); Trochaic or Trochee, a long and a short (― ◡, e. g.
lightly); Spondaic or Spondee, two longs (― ―, e. g. all day);
Anapestic, two shorts and a long (◡ ◡ ―, e. g. arabesque); and Dactylic,
a long and two shorts (― ◡ ◡, e. g. silently).
Other feet, such as Tribrach, three shorts (◡ ◡ ◡, e. g. rapidly);
Amphibrach, short long short (◡ ― ◡, e. g. tremendous), and Amphimacer,
long short long (― ◡ ―, e. g. undismayed), are used less frequently, and
only as blends with other measures.
VERSE.--The first combination of poetic feet results in the verse or
line, somewhat analogous to the clause in a prose sentence. The word
verse means by derivation a _turning_; perhaps because where it reaches
a certain designed length the writer turns back and begins a new line.
The kinds of verse employed are named by Greek names according to the
number of feet they contain; and along with this, if the measure is
fully described, is named the kind of foot.
The same notation as given above is kept up through the line, the feet
being separated by an upright line. Thus, taking the Iambic foot as
unit, we note: Monometer, one-measure, or one foot long (◡ ―); Dimeter,
two-measure (◡ ― | ◡ ―); Trimeter, three-measure (◡ ― | ◡ ― | ◡ ―);
Tetrameter, four-measure (◡ ― | ◡ ― | ◡ ― | ◡ ―); Pentameter,
five-measure (◡ ― | ◡ ― | ◡ ― | ◡ ― | ◡ ―); and Hexameter, six-measure,
(◡ ― | ◡ ― | ◡ ― | ◡ ― | ◡ ― | ◡ ―). English names are sometimes used,
as 8 and 7, or fourteeners.
A few poetic lines may here be given, with their notation, by way of
illustration:
◡ ― ◡ ― ◡ ― ◡ ―
I wan|dered lone|ly as | a cloud
(Iambic tetrameter)
― ◡ ― ◡ ― ◡ ― ◡
Heard the | lapping | of the | water
(Trochaic tetrameter)
― ◡ ◡ ― ◡ ◡ ― ◡ ◡ ― ◡ ◡ ―
This is the | forest pri|meval; the | murmuring | pines
◡ ◡ ― ◡
and the | hemlocks
(Dactylic hexameter)
◡ ― ◡ ◡ ― ◡ ◡ ― ◡ ◡ ―
Oh, young | Lochinvar | is come out | of the West
(Anapestic tetrameter)
― ◡ ◡ ― ◡ ◡
One more un|fortunate
(Dactylic dimeter)
◡ ― ◡ ― ◡ ― ◡ ― ◡ ―
This was | the no|blest Ro|man of | them all
(Iambic pentameter)
At some place within a long line, pentameter or hexameter, occurs a
natural pause, called the _cæsura_. The continual varying of the place
of the cæsura is one means of breaking up the monotony to which blank
verse (Iambic pentameter unrhymed) tends.
=Stanzas.=--The next step of procedure as the combination of poetic
elements goes on from the single verse, is some form of _stanza_
structure.
The simplest approach to the stanza, employed principally in what is
called Heroic verse, is the couplet (also called the Heroic couplet),
two lines, Iambic pentameter, rhymed, and generally pausing at the end
of the second line. They form only partially a stanza, however, because
these couplets go on, according to the requirements of the thought, to
group themselves in paragraphs after the manner of prose. Pope is the
great master of the heroic couplet.
Sometimes, if the lines are long, a poem is made up of couplet stanzas,
as in Tennyson’s _Locksley Hall_.
There are certain standard stanza structures, such as the Elegiac
stanza, four lines Iambic pentameter, rhymed either in pairs or
alternately, of which Gray’s _Elegy_ (rhymed alternately) is the type;
the Ballad stanza, four lines Iambic pentameter and trimeter
alternating, with second and fourth lines rhymed together, sometimes
also first and third; various hymn stanzas, designated Long Metre (L.
M.), Common Metre (C. M.), Short Metre (S. M.), 8 and 7, 6 and 4, etc.,
which can be studied in any hymn-book; and most elaborate of all, the
Sonnet, a fourteen-lined stanza which is also a whole poem, with a
rather intricate rhyme scheme.
Generally speaking, however, the liberties and varieties of stanza
structure, as to kind of measure, length of line and stanza itself,
combination of long and short line, and rhyme scheme, is almost
unlimited.
RHYME.--A new poetic element enters into the stanza: the element of
_rhyme_. The most prominent regulative feature of English lyric verse,
perhaps, is the rhyme by which recurring periods are grouped.
Technically speaking, there are three kinds of rhyme, only one of which
plays an important, or at least essential part, in modern English
poetry.
1. _Beginning rhyme_, or alliteration (e. g. the mother of months),
which in Anglo Saxon poetry was the main principle of verse, but is now
introduced only furtively and delicately.
2. _Middle rhyme_, or assonance, wherein only the vowels rhyme (e. g.
blarney, charming), which is introduced with even more caution than
alliteration.
3. _End-rhyme_, which is so constant and essential a principle of the
stanza that it needs no further definition here.
In the skillful management and disposition of the end-rhymes, to produce
its poetic effects without monotony or undue obtrusiveness, there is
room for the finest poetic taste and workmanship. On single rhymes (e.
g. face, embrace), double rhymes (e. g. rally, sally), and triple rhymes
(e. g. pentameter, sham metre), which explain themselves, there is no
occasion to enlarge.
The arrangement of lines in a stanza is indicated, in brief notation, by
letters of the alphabet. Thus _a a b b_ indicates a four-line stanza in
which the first and second lines rhyme, and the third and fourth; _ab
ab_, a stanza in which the rhymes alternate; _a b b a_, a stanza like
that of Tennyson’s _In Memoriam_, in which this arrangement is reversed.
In this way, with the use of the other notation mentioned, a complete
description of poetic construction, from foot to stanza, may be made in
very short space.
HOW RHYTHM IS APPLIED.--Lyric poetry, of which the type is the song; was
originally designed to be associated with music. It is in this class of
poetry, especially, that the stanza form and the rhyme system prevail;
but besides the song and the ballad, which most suggest musical
accompaniment, there are the ode, the elegy, the sonnet, the didactic
poem, and many others, with which music, except in the natural melody of
the verse, has little to do.
In epic poetry, the vehicle of great national deeds and ideals, and the
enshrining of deep religious and moral truths, the verse employed is
generally blank verse (i. e. unrhymed verse), in paragraphs instead of
stanzas, and generally Iambic pentameter. For less sublime or universal
purposes, however, this epic class has been enlarged to include
narrative and romantic poetry, often rhymed, as in Chaucer’s _Canterbury
Tales_ and Scott’s _The Lady of the Lake_; and sometimes in stanzas, as
in Spencer’s _Fairy Queene_.
Dramatic poetry, designed for representation on the stage, and written
in blank verse of a less severe and rigid artistic kind than in the
epic, is modeled more after the natural rhythm of impassioned speech.
The range and tone of such dramatic verse is very generous and elastic;
from the free and colloquial, as in Browning’s dramatic monologues, up
to the so-called closet drama, designed to be read rather than played,
wherein the artistic demands are as subtle and exacting as in the epic,
and the sentiment generally more intense.
While, therefore, the ancient classification remains fundamental and
true, the modern art of printing and the discontinuance of the custom of
reading aloud, have operated to enlarge the scope of poetry within these
elemental lines till every requirement of impassioned and imaginative
utterance is freely open to it, in vital and enduring forms.