The septenary, or seven-stress verse (sometimes called the
_septenarius_, from the Latin form of the word) was a familiar measure
of mediæval Latin poetry. There it was more commonly trochaic than
iambic, as in the famous drinking song of the Goliards:
"Meum est propositum in taberna mori:
Vinum sit appositum morientis ori,
Ut dicant cum venerint angelorum chori,
'Deus sit propitius huic potatori!'"
(See the "Confessio Goliae," in _Latin Poems attributed to Walter
Mapes_, ed. Wright, p. 71.)
Another form of the measure is illustrated by some verses quoted by
Schipper:
"Fortunae rota volvitur, descendo minoratus,
Alter in altum tollitur, nimis exaltatus."
In English, naturally enough, the measure always tended to be iambic. In
both Latin and English there was considerable freedom as to the number
of light syllables. It will be noticed that in the specimens just quoted
from the Latin there is rime not only between the ends of the verses but
between the syllables just preceding the cesura. Where this was the case
there was a tendency toward the breaking up of the verse into a quatrain
of verses in four and three stresses, riming _abab_; such septenaries,
indeed, were written at pleasure either in couplets or quatrains. We
shall see the same phenomena in the English forms of the measure. But
the seven-stress rhythm is not easily lost or mistaken, in whatever form
it appears, and has a certain charm which at one time appealed very
widely to metrical taste.
The earliest appearance of the septenary in English is in the _Poema
Morale_, dated about 1170 by Zupitza, by others somewhat later. For a
specimen of this, see p. 127, above. Here there is only end-rime, and
the individuality of the long line is well preserved. There is some
freedom, however, as to the number of light syllables, and some
variation between the iambic and trochaic rhythm.
Blessed beo thu, lavedi, ful of hovene blisse,
Swete flur of parais, moder of miltenisse;
Thu praye Jhesu Crist thi sone that he me i-wisse,
Thare a londe al swo ihc beo, that he me ne i-misse.
(_Hymn to the Virgin_, in Mätzner's _Altenglische Sprachproben_, vol. i.
p. 54.)
Mätzner prints this poem in short lines of four and three stresses, the
cesura making such a division natural enough. The next specimen is also
frequently printed with the same division.
Þiss boc iss nemmnedd Orrmulum, forr þi þatt Orrm itt wrohhte,
annd itt iss wrohht off quaþþrigan, off goddspellbokess fowwre,
off quaþþrigan Amminadab, off Cristess goddspellbokess;
forr Crist ma[gh][gh] þurh Amminadab rihht full wel ben bitacnedd;
forr Crist toc dæþ o rodetre all wiþþ hiss fulle wille;
annd forrþi þatt Amminadab o latin spæche iss nemmnedd
o latin boc spontaneus annd onn ennglisshe spæche
þatt weppmann, þatt summ dede doþ wiþþ all hiss fulle wille,
forþi ma[gh][gh] Crist full wel ben þurrh Amminadab bitacnedd.
(_The Ormulum_, ll. 1-9. ab. 1200.)
In this specimen we have the septenary without rime, a rare form. Orm's
septenaries are also the most regular of the Middle English period,
preserving an almost painful accuracy throughout the 20,000 extant
lines of the poem. In general the measure appears in this period in
combination with alexandrines and other measures, and with much
irregularity. Like the alexandrine, it was sometimes confused with the
long four-stress line. In the well-known poem called "A Little Soth
Sermun" the first line is an unquestionable septenary ("Herkneth alle
gode men and stylle sitteth a-dun"), but presently we find verse of six
stresses, and even short four-stress couplets.
Torne we a[gh]en in tour sawes, and speke we atte frome
of erld Olyver and his felawes, þat Sarazyns habbeþ ynome.
þe Sarazyns prykaþ faste away, as harde as þay may hye,
and ledeþ wiþ hymen þat riche pray, þe flour of chyvalrye.
(_Sir Fyrumbras_, ll. 1104-1107. In Zupitza'S _Alt- und Mittelenglisches
Übungsbuch_, p. 107. ab. 1380.)
In this specimen--from a popular romance--we have the use of cesural
rime as well as end-rime, just as in the Latin specimens cited above.
I tell of things done long ago,
Of many things in few:
And chiefly of this clime of ours
The accidents pursue.
Thou high director of the same,
Assist mine artless pen,
To write the gests of Britons stout,
And acts of English men.
(WILLIAM WARNER: _Albion's England_, ll. 1-8. 1586.)
Here we have the measure in its "resolved" or divided form, printed as
short four-stress and three-stress lines, although with rime only at the
seventh stress. Compare the "common metre" of modern hymns:
"Must I be carried to the skies
On flowery beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize
And sailed through bloody seas?"
As when about the silver moon, when air is free from wind,
And stars shine clear, to whose sweet beams, high prospects, and the
brows
Of all steep hills and pinnacles, thrust up themselves for shows,
And even the lowly valleys joy to glitter in their sight,
When the unmeasured firmament bursts to disclose her light,
And all the signs in heaven are seen, that glad the shepherd's heart;
So many fires disclosed their beams, made by the Trojan part,
Before the face of Ilion, and her bright turrets show'd.
A thousand courts of guard kept fires, and every guard allow'd
Fifty stout men, by whom their horse eat oats and hard white corn,
And all did wishfully expect the silver-throned morn.
(CHAPMAN: _Iliad_, book VIII. 1610.)
Chapman's translation of _Iliad_ is the longest modern English poem in
septenaries. Professor Newman, however (whose translation gave rise to
Matthew Arnold's lectures _On Translating Homer_), used the same measure
unrimed and with feminine endings; thus,--
"He spake, and yelling, held afront the single-hoofed horses."
Arnold objected to Chapman's measure that "it has a jogging rapidity
rather than a flowing rapidity, and a movement familiar rather than
nobly easy."
Rejoice, oh, English hearts, rejoice! rejoice, oh, lovers dear!
Rejoice, oh, city, town and country! rejoice, eke every shire!
For now the fragrant flowers do spring and sprout in seemly sort,
The little birds do sit and sing, the lambs do make fine sport;
And now the birchen-tree doth bud, that makes the schoolboy cry;
The morris rings, while hobby-horse doth foot it feateously;
The lords and ladies now abroad, for their disport and play,
Do kiss sometimes upon the grass, and sometimes in the hay.
(BEAUMONT: _The Knight of the Burning Pestle_, IV. v. ab. 1610.)
Here the septenary is introduced in the May-day song of Ralph, the
London apprentice, doubtless because of its popularity for such
unliterary verse.
In somer, when the shawes be sheyne,
And leves be large and long,
Hit is full mery in feyre foreste
To here the foulys song.
(_Ballad of Robin Hood and the Monk_, in Gummere's _English Ballads_, p.
77.)
It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
"By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?" ...
... He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
(COLERIDGE: _The Ancient Mariner_, ll. 1-4, 614-617. 1798.)
These specimens show the ballad stanza, which is made of a sort of
septenary resolved into short lines of four and three accents. It is
often assumed that the measure was derived from the Latin septenary; but
owing to the difficulty of supposing that a foreign metre should have
been adopted for the most popular of all forms of poetry, some scholars
prefer to think that the ballad stanza of this form is the same as that
in which all lines have four accents (see specimen on p. 157, above),
the last accent of the second and fourth lines having dropped off by
natural processes. On the ballad stanzas in general, see Gummere's
_English Ballads_, Appendix II. p. 303. Compare with the present
specimens the metre of Cowper's _John Gilpin_.
That cross he now was fastening there, as the surest power and best
For supplying all deficiencies, all wants of the rude nest
In which, from burning heat, or tempest driving far and wide,
The innocent boy, else shelterless, his lonely head must hide.
(WORDSWORTH: _The Norman Boy_. 1842.)
This is a rare instance of the use of the long septenary in
nineteenth-century poetry. Certainly in Wordsworth's verses the metrical
effect cannot be called happy; the measure is made especially clumsy by
the introduction of hypermetrical light syllables. In the succeeding
specimen the same measure is used with feminine ending.
O poets, from a maniac's tongue was poured the deathless singing!
O Christians, at your cross of hope a hopeless hand was clinging!
O men, this man in brotherhood your weary paths beguiling,
Groaned inly while he taught you peace, and died while ye were smiling!
(ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING: _Cowper's Grave_. 1833.)