PART VIII.

POETICAL FORM S.

CHAPTER I.

PRELIMINARY STATEMENTS.

DEFINITIONS.

§ 616. POETICAL FORMS are those combinations of language which are characterized by certain specific differences between them and composition in general. These differences relate to the laws of Prosody. Poetry, besides holding much in common with Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric, has certain laws of its own. Grammar aims at the correct use of language for the common understanding of those who speak and write it. Logic addresses the reasoning faculty. Rhetoric endeavors to persuade the will to action. The aim of Poetry is to please, by addressing the imagination, the taste, the sensibilities. In order to give pleasure, it uses the forms of Grammar, of Logic, of Rhetoric, and also those PECULIAR FORMS WHICH ARE INDICATED BY PROSODY. Thus a dactyl, a verse, and a stanza are Poetical forms.

PROSODY.

§ 617. PROSODY, from the Greek рóç (for), ¿dź (song), Latin accentus, originally signified accent. It is now used in a wider sense, and includes not only the doctrines of Accent and Quantity, but also the laws of metrical arrangement.

ACCENT.

§ 618. ACCENT or Stress bears the same relation to poetry in modern languages which Quantity does to that of the Sanscrit, the Greek, and Latin. In the great family of languages called the Indo-European, three made time the index of their rhythm, while all the rest employed accent. It is remarkable that those dialects which now represent the Sanscrit, the Greek, the Latin,

have lost their Temporal, and possess merely the Accentual rhythm. So gradual was the change in the Greek, that even as late as the eleventh century there were authors who wrote indifferently in either rhythm.

Et cantārē părēs ēt | rēspōn|dērē pā|rāti.—VIRGIL. Here the rhythm is formed by Long and Short syllables.

She taught the weak' | to bend', | the proud' | to pray'.-POPE. Here the rhythm is formed by Accented and Unaccented syllables.

QUANTITY.

§ 619. Moreover, in the Classical languages, quantity was measured by the length of the Syllables, while in the English language quantity is measured by the length of the Vowels. Thus both syllables of the word index in Latin are long; both vowels of the same word in English are short. Accordingly, the word forms a Spondee in Latin, and, being accented on the first syllable, a Trochee in English.

It ought, however, to be added, that while there is a difference in respect to Quantity and Accent in Classical versification and English, there is also an agreement, which, in the common statements, is apt to be lost sight of. In both Classical versification and English, time and accent enter as elements, but in different proportions, though in the one, quantity, and in the other, accent or stress, predominates. This may be the better understood from the following statement.

ELEMENTS OF MUSICAL COMPOSITION.

§ 620. There are three elements of musical composition: 1. Time; 2. Acuteness, or its opposite, Gravity; 3. Loudness. Now it is certain that the early poems in Greece were sung, and this must have had an influence on the poetry by the introduction of the three elements of music just mentioned.

The same was true in ancient English. CHAUCER, in his address to Troilus and Cressida, tells us that it was intended "to be read or elles sung," which must relate to the chanting reci tation of the minstrels.

The same qualities exist in spoken sounds. In these sounds.

as in music, they are distinct from one another, and no two are necessarily united. Still, there are natural causes which make it likely that they will be combined under certain conditions. Muscular effort, when made to give loudness, naturally requires time, so that loudness and length often go together. Again, if two syllables of the same time are pronounced with the same quantity of breath, there is a mechanical cause why the acuté should be the louder. Acuteness and loudness will then go together. Equality of time is a condition of this result.

The Greek language differed from the English in one important point. The quantity or time of separate syllables was far more distinctly ascertained, and measured, and expressed in common pronunciation than it is in English.

It is indeed true that in English some verses are longer than others; for every addition of a consonant must lengthen the syllable, whether the consonant be added at the beginning of a syllable, as Ass, lass, glass; or at the end, as Ask, asks, ask’st.

The poet, if his ear is good, will avail himself of the difference in the length of syllables to vary the rhythm of his verse; but, though the effect of his skill may be felt by the reader, the management of quantity in English verse can not be reduced to technical rules: accent must form the law of his rhythm. See Part III., Chapter IV.

METRE.

§ 621. METRE or METER is a general term for the recurrence, within certain intervals, of syllables similarly affected. The metres of the Classical languages consist essentially in the recurrence of similar quantities. English metre essentially consists in the recurrence of syllables similarly accented.

VERSE has been defined as a succession of articulate sounds, regulated by a rhythm so definite that we can readily foresee the results which follow from its application. There is, indeed, also a rhythm met with in prose; but in the latter its range is so wide that we can never anticipate its flow, while the pleasure we derive from verse is founded on this very anticipation. The metrical arrangement of articulate sounds in verse, and not the superior beauty of thought or expression, is the distinctive characteristic of poetry.

Heap on' more wood'! | the wind' | is chill';
But let' it whistle as it will',

We'll keep our Christ' mas mer'\ry still':

Each age has deemed' | the new' -born year'

The fit' test time' | for fes'tal cheer'!-SCOTT.

Here every other syllable is accented, and every other syllable unaccented. When we understand that this is the law of the rhythm, we know what to expect in each successive syllable. It should be added, that it is more important to preserve the same number of accents in lines intended to be of the same measure than the same number of syllables.

"Pa'tience is a virtue that shines' bright' in adversity." Here the accent follows no law, but falls on the 1st, 5th, 8th, 9th, 12th. You can not predict the character of the successive syllables from the law of the rhythm.

The measured extract is POETRY; the unmeasured is PROSE. "There is, however, a partial exception to this law in our ballad metres, where feet of three syllables are frequently intermingled with the ordinary feet of two syllables. When this is the case, the redundant syllables must be devoid of stress and very short, so that they may be pronounced rapidly, and make the time of the trisyllabic foot equal to the time of the common foot. We will take an example from Scorr's Bridal of Triermaine, from the description of the tournament:

"They all' arise' | to fight' | that prize',

They all' arise' | but three';

And still those lov'lers' fame' | survives',

For faith' so con' stant shown':

There were two' | of them loved' | their neigh' bors' wives',

And one of them loved' | his own'.'

When this license is taken frequently, the metre becomes of that species which Mr. GUEST has described under the very disrespectful name borrowed from King James of Scotland, who called them 'tumbling metres.' These tumbling metres seem to have led the way to the construction of verse with a regular anapestic rhythm, of which we have a noble specimen in CAMPBELL'S Lochiel."-Professor MALDEN.

A VERSE is a single line of poetry.

A DISTICH or couplet consists of two verses.