The fundamental principle of the rhythm of English verse (and indeed of
any rhythm) is that _the accents appear at regular time-intervals_. In
practice there is of course great freedom in departing from this
regularity, the equal time-intervals being at times only a standard of
rhythm to which the varying successions of accented and unaccented
syllables are mentally referred. Where the equal time-intervals are
observed with substantial regularity, two sorts of verse are still to
be clearly distinguished: that in which not only the intervals of time
but the numbers of syllables between the accents are substantially equal
and regular, and that in which the number of syllables varies. The
latter class is that of the native Germanic metres; the former is that
of the Romance metres, and of modern English verse as influenced by
them. With the development of regularity in the counting of syllables
there has perhaps also taken place a development of regularity in the
regular counting of the time-intervals. In other words, the modern
English reader, where the number of syllables between accents is
variable, makes the time-intervals as nearly equal as possible by
lengthening and shortening the syllables in the manner permitted by the
freedom of English speech; in early English verse, where the number of
syllables between accents varied very greatly, we cannot be sure that
the time-intervals were so accurately felt or preserved in recitation.
i. _Verse showing fairly regular intervals between accents_
Avoid extremes; and shun the fault of such
Who still are pleas'd too little or too much.
At every trifle scorn to take offence,
That always shows great pride, or little sense:
Those heads, as stomachs, are not sure the best,
Which nauseate all, and nothing can digest.
Yet let not each gay turn thy rapture move;
For fools admire, but men of sense approve:
As things seem large which we through mist descry,
Dulness is ever apt to magnify.
(POPE: _Essay on Criticism_, ll. 384-393.)
Louder, louder chant the lay--
Waken, lords and ladies gay!
Tell them youth and mirth and glee
Run a course as well as we;
Time, stern huntsman! who can baulk,
Staunch as hound and fleet as hawk;
Think of this, and rise with day,
Gentle lords and ladies gay!
(SCOTT: _Hunting Song_.)
Larger constellations burning, mellow moons and happy skies,
Breadths of tropic shade and palms in cluster, knots of Paradise.
(TENNYSON: _Locksley Hall_.)
Wild April, enkindled to laughter and storm by the kiss of
the wildest of winds that blow,
Calls loud on his brother for witness; his hands that were
laden with blossom are sprinkled with snow.
(SWINBURNE: _March_.)
ii. _Verse showing irregular intervals between accents_
Gegr[=e]tte ð[=a] gumena gehwylcne,
hwate helm-berend, hindeman s[=i]ðe,
sw[=æ]se ges[=i]ðas: "Nolde ic sweord beran,
w[=æ]pen t[=o] wyrme, gif ic wiste h[=u]
wið ð[=a]m [=a]gl[=æ]cean elles meahte
gylpe wiðgr[=i]pan, sw[=a] ic g[=i]o wið Grendle dyde;
ac ic ð[=æ]r heaðu-f[=y]res h[=a]tes w[=e]ne,
oreðes ond attres; forðon ic m[=e] on hafu
bord ond byrnan. Nelle ic beorges weard
oferfl[=e]on f[=o]tes trem,
ac unc sceal weorðan æt wealle, sw[=a] unc wyrd get[=e]oð,
Metod manna gehwæs. Ic eom on m[=o]de from,
þæt ic wið þone g[=u]ð-flogan gylp ofersitte.
(_Beowulf_, ll. 2516-2528. ab. 700.)
Ich herde men upo mold make muche mon,
hou he beþ itened of here tilyynge:
gode yeres & corn boþe beþ agon,
ne kepeþ here no sawe ne no song synge.
Nou we mote worche, nis þer non oþer won,
mai ich no lengore lyue wiþ mi lesinge.
Yet þer is a bitterore bit to þe bon,
for euer þe furþe peni mot to þe kynge.[4]
(_The Farmer's Complaint_, ab. 1300; in Böddeker's _Altenglische
Dichtungen_, p. 102, and Wright's _Political Songs_, p. 149.)
I will speake out aloude, I care not who heare it:
Sirs, see that my harnesse, my tergat and my shield
Be made as bright now as when I was last in fielde,
As white as I shoulde to warre againe to-morrowe;
For sicke shall I be but I worke some folke sorow.
Therefore see that all shine as bright as Sainct George,
Or as doth a key newly come from the smiths forge.
(N. UDALL: _Ralph Roister Doister_, IV. iii. 13-19. 1566.)
To this, this Oake cast him to replie
Well as he couth; but his enemie
Had kindled such coles of displeasure,
That the good man noulde stay his leasure,
But home him hasted with furious heate,
Encreasing his wrath with many a threat:
His harmefull Hatchet he hent in hand,
(Alas! that it so ready should stand!)
And to the field alone he speedeth,
(Aye little helpe to harme there needeth!)
Anger nould let him speake to the tree,
Enaunter his rage mought cooled bee;
But to the roote bent his sturdie stroake,
And made many wounds in the waste Oake.
(SPENSER: _Shepherd's Calendar, February_. 1579.)
Through many a dark and dreary vale
They passed, and many a region dolorous,
O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp,
Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death--
A universe of death, which God by curse
Created evil, for evil only good;
Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature breeds,
Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things,
Abominable, inutterable, and worse
Than fables yet have feigned, or fear conceived.
(MILTON: _Paradise Lost_, II. 618 ff. 1667.)
The night is chill; the forest bare;
Is it the wind that moaneth bleak?
There is not wind enough in the air
To move away the ringlet curl
From the lovely lady's cheek--
There is not wind enough to twirl
The one red leaf, the last of its clan,
That dances as often as dance it can,
Hanging so light, and hanging so high,
On the topmost twig that looks up at the sky.
(COLERIDGE: _Christabel_, Part I. 1816.)
In his Preface to this poem Coleridge said: "The metre of the
_Christabel_ is not, properly speaking, irregular, though it may seem so
from its being founded on a new principle; namely, that of counting in
each line the accents, not the syllables. Though the latter may vary
from seven to twelve, yet in each line the accents will be found to be
only four. Nevertheless this occasional variation in number of syllables
is not introduced wantonly, or for the mere ends of convenience, but in
correspondence with some transition, in the nature of the imagery or
passion." The verse is accurately described, but it has frequently been
pointed out as curious that Coleridge should have spoken of it as
"founded on a new principle," when the principle in question was that of
native English verse from the earliest times.[5]
For other specimens of verse showing irregularity in the number of
syllables between the accents, see Part Two, under Non-syllable-counting
Four-stress Verse.
iii. _Silent Time-intervals between Syllables (Pauses)_
(a) Pauses not filling the time of syllables.
Most English verses of more than eight syllables are divided not only
into the time-intervals between the accents, but also into two parts
(which Schipper calls "rhythmical series") by the _Cesura_. The Cesura
is a pause not counted out of the regular time of the rhythm, but
corresponding to the pauses between "phrases" in music, and nearly
always coinciding with syntactical or rhetorical divisions of the
sentence.
The medial cesura is the typical pause of this kind, dividing the verse
into two parts of approximately equal length. In much early English
verse, and in French verse, this medial cesura is almost universal; in
modern English verse (and in that of some early poets, notably Chaucer)
there is great freedom in the placing of the cesura, and also in
omitting it altogether. The importance of this matter in the history of
English decasyllabic verse will appear in Part Two.
In the early Elizabethan period the impression was still general
that there should be a regular medial cesura. Spenser seems to have
been the first to imitate the greater freedom of Chaucer in this
regard. See the Latin dissertation on Spenser's verse of E. Legouis
(_Quomodo E. Spenserus_, etc., Paris, 1896), and the summary of its
results by Mr. J. B. Fletcher in _Modern Language Notes_ for
November, 1898. "Spenser," says Mr. Fletcher, "revived for 'heroic
verse' the neglected variety in unity of his self-acknowledged
master, Chaucer." In Gascoigne's _Notes of Instruction concerning
the making of verse or ryme in English_ (1575), we find: "There are
also certayne pauses or restes in a verse whiche may be called
Ceasures.... In mine opinion in a verse of eight sillables, the
pause will stand best in the middest, in a verse of tenne it will
be placed at the ende of the first foure sillables; in a verse of
twelve, in the midst.... In Rithme royall, it is at the wryters
discretion, and forceth not where the pause be untill the ende of
the line." This greater liberty allowed the rime royal is doubtless
due to the influence of Chaucer on that form. For Gascoigne's
practice in printing his verse with medial cesura, even without
regard to rhetorical divisions, see the specimen given below.
Another interesting Elizabethan account of the cesura is found in
Puttenham's _Arte of English Poesie_ (1589), where the writer
compares the verse-pause to a stop made by a traveler at an inn for
rest and refreshment. (Arber's Reprint, p. 88.)
_Specimen of French alexandrine, showing the regular medial cesura:_
Trois fois cinquante jours le général naufrage
Dégasta l'univers; en fin d'un tel ravage
L'immortel s'émouvant, n'eût pas sonné si tôt
La retraite des eaux que soudain flot sur flot
Elles gaignent au pied; tous les fleuves s'abaissant.
Le mer rentre en prison; les montagnes renaissent.
(DU BARTAS: _La Première Semaine_. 1579.)
See further, on the character of the French alexandrine and its medial
cesura, in Part Two, under Six-stress Verse.
_Specimen of early blank verse printed with regular medial cesura:_
O Knights, O Squires, O Gentle blouds yborne,
You were not borne, al onely for your selves:
Your countrie claymes, some part of al your paines.
There should you live, and therein should you toyle,
To hold up right, and banish cruel wrong,
To helpe the pore, to bridle backe the riche,
To punish vice, and vertue to advaunce,
To see God servde, and Belzebub supprest.
You should not trust, lieftenaunts in your rome,
And let them sway, the scepter of your charge,
Whiles you (meane while) know scarcely what is don,
Nor yet can yeld, accompt if you were callde.
(GASCOIGNE: _The Steel Glass_, ll. 439 ff. 1576.)
For specimens of regular medial cesura, and of variable cesura, in
modern verse, see under the Decasyllabic Couplet and Blank Verse, in
Part Two.
The Cesura is called _masculine_ when it follows an accented syllable.
(For examples, see previous specimen from Gascoigne.) It is called
_feminine_ when it follows an unaccented syllable. Two varieties of the
feminine cesura are also distinguished: the Lyric, when the pause occurs
inside a foot; _e.g._:
"This wicked traitor, whom I thus accuse;"
the Epic, when the pause occurs after an extra (hypermetrical) light
syllable; _e.g._:
"To Canterbury with ful devout corage."
"But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor lives."
The "epic" cesura is quite as characteristic of dramatic blank verse as
of epic.
The pause occurring at the end of a line is equally regular with the
medial pause, and corresponds in the same way to a phrase-pause in
music. It is an element of the same character, then, as the cesura,
though not bearing the same name. It coincides less closely than the
cesura with syntactical and rhetorical pauses. When there is no
corresponding syntactical or rhetorical pause at the end of the line (in
other words, when the metrical pause marking the end of the verse cannot
be prominently represented in reading without interfering with the
expression of the sense), the line is said to be "run-on." Such an
ending is also called _enjambement_. The importance of this distinction
between "end-stopped" and "run-on" lines will appear in the notes on the
Decasyllabic Couplet and Blank Verse, in Part Two.
(_b_) Pauses filling the time of syllables.
A second class of silent time-intervals, or pauses, is to be
distinguished from the cesural pause by the fact that in this case the
time of the pause is counted in the metrical scheme. Pauses of this
class correspond to rests in music; and as in the case of such rests,
their occurrence is exceptional.
Of fustian he wered a gipoun
[^] Al bismotered with his habergeoun.
For him was lever have at his beddes heed
[^] Twenty bokes, clad in blak or reed.
(CHAUCER: Prologue to _Canterbury Tales_, 75 f. and 293 f.)
This omission of the first light syllable is characteristic of Chaucer's
couplet and of Middle English verse generally. (See Schipper, vol. i. p.
462, and ten Brink's _Chaucer's Sprache und Verskunst_, p. 175.) In
modern verse it is not usually permitted.
The time doth pass, [^] yet shall not my love.
(WYATT: _The joy so short, alas!_)
The omitted syllable following the medial pause is closely parallel to
that at the beginning of the verse.
Stay! [^] The king hath thrown his warder down.
(_Richard II_, I. iii. 118.)
Kneel thou down, Philip. [^] But rise more great.
(_King John_, I. i. 161.)
In drops of sorrow. [^] Sons, kinsmen, thanes.
(_Macbeth_, I. iv. 35.)
Than the soft myrtle. [^] But man, proud man.
(_Measure for Measure_, II. ii. 117.)
These specimens of pauses in Shakspere's verse indicate the natural
varieties of dramatic form. In such cases the pause often occurs
between speeches, or where some action is to be understood as filling
the time; as in the second instance, where the accolade is given in the
middle of the line. (See Abbott's _Shakespearian Grammar_, pp. 413 ff.)
[^] Break, [^] break, [^] break,
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.
(TENNYSON: _Break, Break, Break._)
In Lanier's _Science of English Verse_, p. 101, this stanza is
represented in musical notation, with rests, to show that rhythm "may be
dependent on silences."
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld [^] lang [^] syne?
(BURNS: _Auld Lang Syne._)
Here the syllables "auld" and "lang" may be regarded as lengthened so as
to fill the time of the missing light syllables. So in many cases there
is a choice between compensatory lengthening and compensatory pause.
Thus [^] said the Lord [^] in the Vault above the Cherubim,
Calling to the angels and the souls in their degree:
"Lo! Earth has passed away
On the smoke of Judgment Day.
That Our word may be established shall We gather up the sea?"
Loud [^] sang the souls [^] of the jolly, jolly mariners:
"Plague upon the hurricane that made us furl and flee!
But the war is done between us,
In the deep the Lord hath seen us--
Our bones we'll leave the barracout', and God may sink the sea!"
(KIPLING: _The Last Chantey._)
This is an instance of a pause forming a regular part of the
verse-rhythm. Thus in the first verse of each stanza the second and
sixth syllables are omitted, and the result gives the characteristic
effect of the rhythm. In measures where there is regular catalexis (that
is, where the last light syllable of the verse is regularly omitted) the
phenomenon is really of the same kind.
These, these will give the world another heart,
And other pulses. Hear ye not the hum
Of mighty workings?----
Listen awhile, ye nations, and be dumb.
(Keats: _Sonnet to Haydon_.)
Call her once before you go,--
Call once yet!
In a voice that she will know,--
"Margaret! Margaret!"
Children's voices should be dear
(Call once more) to a mother's ear;
Children's voices, wild with pain,--
Surely she will come again!
Call her once, and come away;
This way, this way!...
Come, dear children, come away down:
Call no more!
One last look at the white-walled town,
And the little gray church on the windy shore;
Then come down!
She will not come, though you call all day;
Come away, come away!
(MATTHEW ARNOLD: _The Forsaken Merman_.)
In this specimen no attempt has been made to indicate the pauses, as
different readers would interpret the verse variously. It will be found
that this whole poem is a study in delicate changes and arrangements of
time-intervals. The four stresses characteristic of the rhythm can be
accounted for in such short lines as the second and tenth, properly
read.