In this capacity, similar qualities of sound indicate coördinated parts
of the verse-structure, thus emphasizing the idea of similarity
(corresponding to that of symmetry in arts expressed in space) which is
at the very basis of rhythmical composition.
Obviously, the similarity may exist between vowel sounds, consonant
sounds, or both; more specifically, it is found either in initial
consonants, in accented vowels, or in accented vowels plus final
consonants. Properly speaking, the term Rime is applicable to all three
cases; the first being distinguished as initial rime or Alliteration
(German _Anreim_ or _Stabreim_); the second as Assonance (_Stimmreim_),
the third as complete Rime (_Vollreim_). English usage commonly reserves
the term Rime for the third class.
i. _Assonance_
Assonance was the characteristic coördinating element in the verse of
the early Romance languages, the Provençal, Old French, and Spanish.
Thus in the _Chanson de Roland_ (eleventh century) we find the verses of
each _laisse_, or strophe, bound together by assonance. Frequently this
develops into full rime by chance or convenience. The following is a
characteristic group of verses from the _Roland_:
Li reis Marsilies esteit en Sarragoce.
Alez en est un vergier soz l'ombre;
Sor un pedron de marbre bloi se colchet:
Environ lui at plus de vint milie homes.
Il en apelet et ses dus et ses contes:
"Odez, seignor, quels pechiez nos encombret.
Li emperedre Charles de France dolce
En cest pais nos est venuz confondre."
The following specimen of Old Spanish verse shows the nature of
assonance as regularly used in that language:
Fablo myo Çid bien e tan mesurado:
"Grado a ti, señor padre, que estas en alto!
Esto me han buelto myos enemigos malos."
Alli pieussan de aguijar, alli sueltan las rriendas.
A la exida de Bivar ovieron la corneja diestra,
E entrando a Burgos ovieron la siniestra.
Meçio myo Çid los ombros e engrameo la tiesta:
"Albricia, Albarffanez, ca echados somos de tierra!"
(_Poema del Cid._ Twelfth century.)
Maiden, crowned with glossy blackness,
Lithe as panther forest-roaming,
Long-armed naiad, when she dances,
On a stream of ether floating,--
Bright, O bright Fedalma!
Form all curves like softness drifted,
Wave-kissed marble roundly dimpling,
Far-off music slowly winged,
Gently rising, gently sinking,--
Bright, O bright Fedalma!
(GEORGE ELIOT: Song from _The Spanish Gypsy_, book i.)
This song was written in avowed imitation of the Spanish verse,
illustrating its prevailingly trochaic rhythm as well as alliteration.
Elsewhere verse bound together only by assonance is almost unknown in
English poetry. In the _Contemporary Review_ for November, 1894, Mr.
William Larminie has an interesting article giving a favorable account
of the use of assonance in Celtic (Irish) verse, and proposing its
larger use in English poetry, as a relief from the--to him--almost
cloying elaborateness of rime.
In the following specimen, assonance seems in some measure to take the
place of rime.
Haply, the river of Time--
As it grows, as the towns on its marge
Fling their wavering lights
On a wider, statelier stream--
May acquire, if not the calm
Of its early mountainous shore,
Yet a solemn peace of its own.
And the width of the waters, the hush
Of the gray expanse where he floats,
Freshening its current and spotted with foam
As it draws to the ocean, may strike
Peace to the soul of the man on its breast,--
As the pale waste widens around him,
As the banks fade dimmer away,
As the stars come out, and the night-wind
Brings up the stream
Murmurs and scents of the infinite sea.
(MATTHEW ARNOLD: _The Future._)
ii. _Alliteration_
Alliteration appears sporadically in the verse of all literary
languages, but as a means for the coördination of verse it is
characteristic of the primitive Germanic tongues.
Hwæt! we nu gehyrdan, hu þæt hælubearn
Þurh his hydercyme hals eft forgeaf,
Gefreode ond gefreoþade folc under wolcnum
Mære meotudes sunu, þæt nu monna gehwylc,
Cwic þendan her wunað, geceosan mot
Swa helle hienþu swa heofones mærþu,
Swa þæt leohte leoht swa ða laþan niht,
Swa þrymmes þræce swa þystra wræce,
Swa mid dryhten dream swa mid deoflum hream,
Swa wite mid wraþum swa wuldor mid arum,
Swa lif swa deað, swa him leofre bið
To gefremmanne, þenden flæsc ond gæst
Wuniað in worulde. Wuldor þæs age
Þrynysse þrym, þonc butan ende!
(CYNEWULF: _Crist._ ll. 586-599. Eighth century.)
This specimen represents the use of alliteration in the most regularly
constructed Anglo-Saxon verse. The two half-lines are united into the
long line by the same initial consonant in the important syllables. In
the first half-line the alliteration is on the two principally stressed
syllables, or on one of them alone (most frequently the first); in the
second half-line it is commonly found only on the first. Alliterating
unstressed syllables are usually regarded as merely accidental. Any
initial vowel sound alliterates with any other vowel sound.
The most regular verse appears in Anglo-Saxon poetry of what may be
called the classical period,--700 A.D. and for a century
following,--represented by _Beowulf_ and the poems of Cynewulf. By the
time of Ælfric, who wrote about 1000 A.D., there appear signs of a
breaking in the regular verse-form. (See Schipper, vol. i. pp. 60 ff.)
For example, two alliterative syllables often appear in the second
half-line; one half-line may be without alliteration; alliteration may
bind different long-lines together; or alliteration may be altogether
wanting. There are also additions of many light syllables, resulting
almost, as Schipper observes, in rhythmical prose. These tendencies
resulted in the wholly irregular use of alliteration appearing in much
of the verse of the early Middle English period, illustrated in the
specimens that follow.
* * * * *
The origins of alliteration in Germanic verse are lost in the general
mass of Germanic origins. It is almost universally regarded as a purely
native development, although M. Kawczynski (_Essai Comparatif sur
l'Origine et l'Histoire des Rythmes_; Paris, 1889) sets forth the
remarkable opinion that the Germans derived their alliteration from the
Romans. "We must remember," he says, "the schools of rhetoric existing
in Gaul in the sixth and seventh centuries, where alliteration seems to
have been held in esteem.... It became more and more frequent in the
Latin poetry of the Carlovingian period, and it will suffice to cite
here the following verses from Milo of Saint Amand:
'Pastores pecum primi pressique pavore
Conspicuos cives carmen caeleste canentes
Audivere astris arrectis auribus; auctor
Ad terras ...'
It early passed to Ireland, and the Irish made use of it in their Latin
poetry and in their national poetry. The example of the Irish was
followed by the Anglo-Saxons, although these last had derived the same
rules from the Latin writers.... The Anglo-Saxons, who sent the second
series of apostles to the Germans, taught them the use of alliteration
in poetry. The Scandinavians, on their side, learned it also from the
Anglo-Saxons." This theory has found no adherents among scholars, and M.
Kawczynski's illustrations are probably most useful in emphasizing the
natural pleasure in similarity of sound found among all peoples. See
below, on the related question of the origin of end-rime.
ðe leun stant on hille, and he man hunten here,
oðer ðurg his nese smel, smake that he negge,
bi wilc weie so he wile to dele niðer wenden,
alle hise fet steppes after him he filleð,
drageð dust wið his stert ðer he steppeð,
oðer dust oðer deu, ðat he ne cunne is finden,
driveð dun to his den ðar he him bergen wille.
(_The Bestiary_, from MS. Arundel. In Mätzner's _Altenglische
Sprachproben_, vol. i. p. 57.)
See also the specimen from Böddeker, p. 14, above.
Cristes milde moder, seynte Marie,
mines lives leome, mi leove lefdi,
to þe ich buwe and mine kneon ich beie,
and al min heorte blod to ðe ich offrie.
(_On God Ureisun of ure Lefdi._ In Morris's _Old English Homilies_,
first series, p. 191. Zupitza's _Alt-und Mittelenglisches Übungsbuch_,
p. 76.)
Kaer Leir hehte þe burh: leof heo wes þan kinge.
þa we an ure leod-quide: Leirchestre cleþiað.
[gh]eare a þan holde dawen: heo wes swiðe aðel burh.
& seoððen þer seh toward: swiðe muchel seorwe.
þat heo wes al for-faren: þurh þere leodene væl.
Sixti winter hefde Leir: þis lond al to welden.
þe king hefde þreo dohtren: bi his drihliche quen.
nefde he nenne sune: þer fore he warð sari.
his manscipe to holden: buten þa þreo dohtren.
þa ældeste dohter haihte Gornoille: þa oðer Ragau.
þa þridde Cordoille.
(LAYAMON: _Brut_, ll. 2912-2931. Madden ed., vol. i. p. 123. ab. 1200.)
The _Brut_ of Layamon represents typically the transition period, when
alliteration and end-rime were struggling for the mastery in English
verse. Schipper points out that we find in the poem four kinds of lines:
1. Simple alliterative lines in more or less strict adherence to the old
rules.