The accents of English syllables as appearing in verse are commonly
classified in two ways: according to degree of intensity, and according
to cause or significance.
Obviously there can be no fixed limits to the number of degrees of
intensity recognized in syllabic accent or stress. It is common to speak
of three such degrees: syllables having accent (stressed), syllables
having secondary accent, and syllables without accent (unstressed).
Schipper makes four groups: Principal Accent (_Hauptaccent_ or
_Hochton_), Secondary Accent (_Nebenaccent_ or _Tiefton_), No Accent
(_Tonlosigkeit_), and Disappearance of Sound (_Stummheit_). In
illustration he gives the word _ponderous_, where the first syllable has
the chief accent, the last a secondary accent, the second no accent;
while in the verse
"Most ponderous and substantial things"
the second syllable is suppressed or silent.
Mr. A. J. Ellis, in like manner, recognized three principal classes of
syllables: those stressed in the first degree, those stressed in the
second degree, and those unstressed.[1] In the following lines from
_Paradise Lost_ he indicated these three degrees, as he recognized them,
by the figures 2, 1, 0, written underneath.
Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit
0 2 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 2
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
0 1 0 2 0 1 0 2 0 2
Brought death into the world, and all our woe,
1 2 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 2
With loss of Eden, till one greater man
0 1 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 2
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,
0 2 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 2
Sing, heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top
2 2 0 2 1 0 0 2 0 1
Of Horeb or of Sinai, didst inspire
0 2 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 2
That shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed
1 2 0 0 2 2 0 2 0 2
In the beginning, how the heavens and earth
0 0 0 2 0 1 0 2 0 2
Rose out of chaos.[2]
2 0 0 2 0
It is worthy of note that the secondary accent seems originally to have
been a more important factor in English verse than it is commonly
considered to be in modern periods. In Anglo-Saxon verse the combination
of a primary stress, a secondary stress, and an unstressed syllable, is
a recognized type. In modern verse the reader is likely to make an
effort to reduce all syllables to the type of either stress or
no-stress. In such a verse as the following, however (from Matthew
Arnold's _Forsaken Merman_),--
"And I lose my poor soul, Merman, here with thee,"--
we may find such a combination as that just referred to as familiar in
Anglo-Saxon rhythm. The syllables "_soul, Merman_" are respectively
cases of primary stress, secondary stress, and no-stress. On this matter
see further the remark of Luick, cited on p. 156, below.
The element of Pitch is not ordinarily included in the treatment of
versification, as it is not ordinarily recognized as having any
significance peculiar to verse. According to Professor J. W.
Bright, however, there is such a thing as a "pitch-accent" which
plays an important part in verse where the word-accent conflicts
with that of the regular metre. Under certain exigencies, he says,
"_un-governed, pre-cisely, re-markable,_ and _Je-rusalem_ ... are
naturally pronounced with a pitch-accent upon the first syllables,
and with the undisturbed expiratory word-accent upon the second. It
will of course be understood that when the word-accent is defined
as expiratory this term does not exclude the inherent pitch of
English stress. Force, quantity, and pitch are combined in our
word-stress (or word-accent), both primary and secondary; but in
the secondary stress used as ictus there is a noticeable change in
the proportions of these elements, the pitch being relatively
increased. An answer is thus won for the question: How do we
naturally pronounce two stresses in juxtaposition on the same word,
or on adjacent words closely joined grammatically? This is further
illustrated in the specially emphasized words of such expressions
as 'The idea!'" where Professor Bright marks the pitch-accent on
the first syllable of "idea," retaining the stress-accent on the
second syllable. In the line
"Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit"
he marks a pitch-accent where the word-stress and metrical stress
are in conflict, that is, on the syllables "dis-" and "and." "The
rhythmic use of 'disobedience,'" he says, "illustrates with its
four syllables (as here used) as many recognizable varieties of
stress. The first syllable has a secondary word-accent, raised to a
pitch-accent for ictus; the second is wholly unaccented; the third
has the chief word-accent, employed as ictus (the accent of the
preceding word, "first," is subordinate to the rhythm); the fourth
has a secondary word-accent which remains unchanged in the thesis."
The conclusion is that "ictus in conflict requires a pitch-accent."
(All these quotations are from an article on 'Proper Names in Old
English Verse,' in the _Publications of the Modern Language
Association_, n.s. vol. vii. No. 3). Professor Bright's theory of
pitch-accent is a part of his general theory of opposition to what
he calls the "sense-doctrine" of the reading of verse,--that is,
the accepted doctrine that the word and sentence accents must
ordinarily take precedence of the metrical accent.
According to cause or significance, accents are commonly classed in
three groups: Etymological or Word Accent, Syntactical or Rhetorical
Accent, and Metrical Accent. Accents of the first class are due to the
original stress of the syllable in English speech; those of the second
class are due to the importance of the syllable in the sentence; those
of the third class are due to the place of the syllable in the metrical
scheme. In the verse
"Mary had a little lamb,"
the first syllable may be said to be stressed primarily for etymological
reasons, the seventh primarily for syntactical or rhetorical reasons,
and the third (which would not be accented in prose) for metrical
reasons.
The general law of English verse is that only those syllables which bear
the accent of the first class (that is, which are stressed in common
speech), together with monosyllables which on occasion are stressed in
common speech, shall be placed so as to receive the metrical stress; and
that, if the word-stress and the metrical stress apparently conflict,
the metrical stress must yield. Less generally, the rhetorical or
syntactical accent in the same way takes precedence of the metrical. In
both cases exceptions are of course numerous.
The following are examples of verses showing a conflict between the
normal prose-accent and the normal verse-accent, where--as commonly
read--the prose- (word-) accent triumphs.
The blessed damozel leaned out
_From the gold bar_ of heaven.
(ROSSETTI: _The Blessed Damozel._)
_Love is_ a smoke _raised with_ the fume of sighs;
Being purged, a fire _sparkling_ in lover's eyes;
Being vexed, a sea _nourished_ with lover's tears.
(SHAKSPERE: _Romeo and Juliet_, I. i. 196 ff.)
Art thou so bare and full of wretchedness,
And fear'st to die? _famine_ is in thy cheeks,
_Need and_ oppression starveth in thine eyes.
(SHAKSPERE: _ib._ V. i. 68 ff.)
_Till, at_ his second bidding, Darkness fled,
_Light_ shone, and order from disorder sprung.
_Swift to_ their several quarters hasted then
The cumbrous elements--_Earth_, Flood, _Air_, Fire;
And this ethereal quintessence of Heaven
Flew upward, _spirited_ with various forms,
That rolled orbicular, and turned to stars
_Numberless_, as thou seest, and how they move.
(MILTON: _Paradise Lost_, iii. 712 ff.)
_She was_ a gordian shape of dazzling hue,
Vermilion-spotted, golden, green, and blue;
_Striped like_ a zebra, freckled like a pard,
_Eyed like_ a peacock, and all crimson barred.
(KEATS: _Lamia_, i. 47 ff.)
_"Boys!"_ shriek'd the old king, but vainlier than a hen
_To her_ false daughters in the pool; for none
Regarded; neither seem'd there more to say.
_Back_ rode we to my father's camp, and found
He thrice had sent a herald to the gates.
(TENNYSON: _The Princess_, v. 318 ff.)
Sequestered nest!--this kingdom, limited
Alone by one old _populous green_ wall;
_Tenanted_ by the ever-busy flies,
_Gray crickets and shy lizards and quick spiders_;
Each family of the silver-threaded moss--
Which, look through near, this way, and it appears
A stubble-field _or a cane-brake_, a marsh
Of bulrush whitening _in the_ sun: _laugh now_!
(BROWNING: _Paracelsus_, i. 36 ff.)
On the other hand, we find verses showing a conflict between prose and
verse accent, where the verse-accent may be regarded as triumphing
wholly or in part. Where this triumph is complete, the accent is said to
be _wrenched_; as, for example, in old ballad endings like "north
countree."[3] Where there is a compromise effected in reading, the
accent is said to be _hovering_; as in one of Shakspere's songs,--
"It was a lover and his lass ...
That o'er the green _corn-field_ did pass."
I sat with Love upon a woodside well,
Leaning across the water, I and he;
Nor ever did he speak nor looked at me,
But touched his lute wherein was _audible_
The certain secret thing he had to tell:
Only our mirrored eyes met _silently_
In the low wave; and that sound came to be
The passionate voice I knew; and my tears fell.
And at their fall, his eyes beneath grew hers;
And with his foot and with his _wing-feathers_
He swept the spring that watered my heart's drouth.
Then the dark ripples spread to waving hair,
And as I stooped, her own lips rising there
Bubbled with brimming kisses at my mouth.
(ROSSETTI: _Willowwood. House of Life_, Sonnet xlix.)
I wish my grave were growing green,
A winding-sheet drawn ower my een,
And I in Helen's arms _lying,_
On fair Kirconnell lea.
(_Fair Helen_; old ballad.)
For the stars and the winds are unto her
As raiment, as songs of the _harp-player._
(SWINBURNE: Chorus in _Atalanta in Calydon._)
Nothing is better, I well think,
Than love; the hidden _well-water_
Is not so delicate to drink:
This was well seen of me and her.
(SWINBURNE: _The Leper._)
These wrenched accents are characteristic of one phase of the so-called
"pre-Raphaelite" poetry of the Victorian period; in part, no doubt, they
are due to the influence of the old ballads. My colleague Professor
Newcomer has suggested that they are partly due, also, to a dislike for
the combative accent which would occur where two heavy syllables came
together (accented as commonly) in a compound like "harp-player."
Of special interest are the examples of wrenched and hovering
accent found in the verse of Sir Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of
Surrey,--more especially in Wyatt. These mark the time when the
syllable-counting principle was coming into prominence in English
verse, under the new culture of the days of Henry VIII. The first
conscious followers of this principle seem to have given it such
prominence that a verse seemed good to them if it contained the
requisite number of syllables, whether the accents conformed to any
regular system or not. In the case of Wyatt we can also compare the
original forms of many of his poems, as preserved in manuscript,
with the revised forms as printed in Tottel's Miscellany (1557).
(See Dr. Flügel's transcriptions from the Wyatt Mss., in _Anglia_,
vol. xviii.) The following is the octave of one of the sonnets, as
found in the Ms.:
"Avysing the bright bemes of these fayer Iyes
where he is that myn oft moisteth and wassheth
the werid mynde streght from the hert departeth
for to rest in his woroldly paradise
And fynde the swete bitter under this gyse
what webbes he hath wrought well he parceveth
whereby with himselfe on love he playneth
that spurreth with fyer: and bridillith with Ise."
(_Anglia,_ xviii. 465.)
Compare this with the revised form in Tottel's edition:
"Avisyng the bright beames of those fayre eyes,
Where he abides that mine oft moistes and washeth:
The weried mynd streight from the hart departeth,
To rest within hys worldly Paradise,
And bitter findes the swete, under this gyse.
What webbes there he hath wrought, well he preceaveth
Whereby then with him self on love he playneth,
That spurs wyth fire, and brydleth eke with yse."
(Arber Reprint, p. 40.)
It appears that this revision was the work of the editor, who had a
better sense of true English rhythm than the poet himself. Alscher,
however, in his work on Wyatt, contends that Wyatt doubtless
revised his own verses so as to give them their finished form. (See
_Sir Thomas Wyatt und Seine Stellung_, etc., p. 49.) Other lines in
Wyatt's verse where the number of syllables is counted but where
the accents are faulty, are these:
"The long love that in my thought I harbour."
"And there campeth displaying his banner."
"And there him hideth and not appeareth."
"For good is the life, ending faithfully."
Another large group of hovering accents is that formed by French
words with such terminations as _-our_, _-ance_, _-ace_, _-age_,
_-ant_, _-ess_. In such cases the original tendency of the word was
to accent the final syllable; but the general tendency of English
accents being recessive, the words often passed through a
transitional period when the accent was variable or "hovering." The
first of the four lines just quoted shows us a word of this
character.
For an interesting presentation of certain phases of the laws of
stress in English verse, see Robert Bridges's _Milton's Prosody_
(ed. 1901), Appendix J, "on the Rules of Stress Rhythms."