SUBTLETIES OF VERSIFICATION
The more one writes the better he becomes acquainted with what might be
called "the tricks of the trade." These "tricks," "helps," or "devices"
can be explained only in a general way. Most of them each verse maker
must learn for himself, but there are some broader strokes which can be
more easily traced and pointed out and which are governed by fixed
rules.
Perhaps the most noticeable of these is alliteration. By alliteration is
meant the succession of two or more words whose initial sounds are
identical or very similar.
"The _rich, ripe rose_ as with incense streams"
is a good example.
Through alliteration certain effects are produced which would otherwise
be impossible. Instances will occur to every reader. To quote only one
example:
"When dandelions fleck the green
And robins' songs _throb through_ the trees."
In these two lines by William Allen White, the two "th"s, though out of
place in most verse, here express the "throbbing" idea perfectly.
Alliteration at the beginning of accented syllables is very useful in
humorous verse, helping along the rhythm and binding the lines together.
The use of onomatopoetic words, words whose sound signifies the sense,
is so common that we seldom give it a thought. We have the "splash" of
water; the "bang" of a gun; the "crackle" of branches and so on
indefinitely. In verse this idea is carried a step farther. Lines are
constructed not only with the purpose of conveying a given idea, as in
prose, but with the additional end of strengthening this idea and
impressing it on the mind of the reader through the choice and
arrangement of the words.
"Up a _high hill_ he _heaves_ a _huge_ round stone."
In this the successive "h" sounds suggest the hard breathing and labor
of the ascent.
Browning imitates the sound of galloping in the meter of his ride from
Ghent to Aix.
"I sprang to the stirrup and Joris and he,
I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three."
Tennyson is full of such turns as this:
"Where lay the bones of ancient men,
Old knights, and over them the sea-wind sang,
_Shrill, chill_, with flakes of foam."
The two words certainly give a most wonderful impression of the shriek
of the cold sea-wind.
Instances of this sort might be added indefinitely but these are enough
to give the general idea. As a rule the best use of any device of this
purpose is served when it is not too apparent; when it produces the
effect without calling attention to the means.
In a certain sort of languishing verse of the mystical type an effect of
quaintness and dreaminess is produced by emphasizing the last syllables
of words whose accent by right falls on a previous syllable. This is
done by pairing them with pronounced rhymes. For instance, "tears"
rhymes with "barriers," "her" with "well-water" and so on. It must be
understood that, as an attempt to rhyme, this sort of thing is not to be
countenanced, but it is perfectly allowable when it is used to obtain a
certain effect.
Take this stanza from Whitman's "Song of the Broad-Axe," one of the few
specimens we have of his attempts at rhyme and meter. It is a true
barbaric chant whose full-mouthed syllables reproduce in little the
blows of the axe.
"Weapon shapely, naked, wan,
Head from the mother's bowels drawn,
Wooded flesh and metal bone, limb only one and lip only one,
Gray blue leaf by red-heat grown, helve produced from a little seed sown,
Resting the grass amid and upon,
To be leaned and to lean on."
Though our English verse largely disregards the quantity or length of a
syllable, in some lines this must be considered as well as accent. A
light meter and stanza may very easily be spoiled by the introduction of
a too-strong word. For instance, "gnarled," "strength," "thrust," and so
on are very much longer than "may," "well," "the," "for," and many other
of the one-syllabled words. When a line scans correctly but "somehow
sounds wrong," in nine cases out of ten the fault can be traced to a
long syllable that should have been short or a short syllable that
should have been long.
VI
THE QUATRAIN AND SONNET