The following quotation from Milton shows how the principle of agreement and conflict is carried out in longer passages: That proud honor claimed Azazel as his right, a cherub tall: Who forthwith from the glittering staff unfurled A shout that tore Hell's conclave, and beyond In the phrasing of this passage, printed below, when two successive phrases continue the same movement of their own they are printed together. The reader in studying this phrasing must bear in mind that the rhythm of the whole passage, which is blank verse, is normally iambic (~ / ~ / ~ /). 1 2 3, 4 5, 6 7 8 9, 10 11 12 13 14 That proud honor claimed Azazel, as his right, a cherub tall: Who forthwith from the glittering staff unfurled The imperial ensign; Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind With gems and golden luster || rich emblazed, all the while Sonorous metal blowing martial sounds: 15, 16 At which || the universal host up-sent A shout 17 18 19 that tore Hell's conclave, and beyond Frightened the reign of Chaos and old Night. The passage here, taken from its context, which has an already established iambic rhythm, begins with a trochaic phrase. This is checked by the simple anapest, as his right, and, the next two phrases, the 3rd and 4th, being iambic, restore the agreement of movement and phrasing. The 5th and 6th phrases are anapestic, suggestive of the subject. The 7th, full high advanced, again restores the iambic. The 8th phrase is dactylic, but easily runs into anapestic at the end of the line. The next two lines and a half (phrases 9-13) except for the 12th phrase, bring us back into agreement with the basic iambic character of the poem, which has been greatly endangered by the direct conflict of the phrasing of the preceding lines. The ending of the 13th phrase leads into the strong trochaic effect of the 14th, blowing martial sounds. The 15th and 16th restore the iambic for a moment. The spondaic character of the 17th gives a stirring emphasis, which leads to a complete smashing of the established rhythm and movement, again suggestive of the subject, in the remarkable line that closes the verse paragraph, Frightened the reign of Chaos and old Night. One of the pleasures the reader has in great verse like this is the alternating struggle and agreement of the ever varying phrasing of the poet, with the movement which, when once established, is constantly present subjectively to the reader. The whole matter of phrasing is inexact; it cannot be classified and discussed with the precision that meter can, for different readers will feel a different movement in the same prose phrase. The general principle of its support of, or conflict with both meter and movement, is, however, of the utmost importance; for it is by means of phrasing that the poets have produced some of the finest effects in our verse. It is through phrasing that the individuality of verse stands out, and makes it possible for the student to distinguish easily the work of Shakespeare from that of Milton, or Browning, or Tennyson, even when the poems compared are in the same meter and rhythmical pattern. There will be occasion to say more on this subject later. CHAPTER VII RIME The greater part of English verse since Chaucer is rimed.1 The only important exception is blank verse (unrimed iambic pentameter). Besides this, there are a few scattered examples such as the hexameters of Clough and Longfellow, Browning's One Word More, Longfellow's Hiawatha, Swinburne's Sapphics, etc. Tennyson's Tears, Idle Tears is an exceptionally beautiful use of lyric blank verse: Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean, Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail, That sinks with all we love below the verge, So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more. Other interesting unrimed lyrics are Collins's Ode to Evening, Lamb's Old Familiar Faces, and Longfellow's Bells of Lynn. Rime, as used by the majority of English versifiers, may be defined as the identity, or close similarity, of sounds at the ends of two or more lines of verse. The stressed vowels and all consonants that follow should be alike, or very 1 The origin of rime in the poetry of modern Europe has been variously attributed to Arabian, Celtic, and Medieval Latin verse by different investigators. Others hold that it may be indigenous to several literatures. These theories are summarized in C. F. Richardson's A Study of English Rhyme. Hanover: 1909, pp. 34-66. nearly alike; and the preceding consonants should be different. For instance, feel: heal; feeling: healing; feelingly: healingly are rimes. Meant and lament, however, are not sanctioned by the best usage. Such rimes are called identical rimes. Prate, crate and great are not considered identical rimes, for double consonants (pr, cr, gr, sl, pl, bl, etc.), as far as rime is concerned, count as single. As rime is a matter that concerns the ear and not the eye, eight, skate, and bait satisfy us, but through and plough do not. Rimes to lines ending with stress are called masculine, e. g. Come and trip it as you go, On the light fantastic toe. Rimes to lines with light endings are called feminine, or double rimes, e. g. 2 Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures, Whilst the landskip round it measures. Rimes to lines with a double feminine ending are called triple, or trisyllabic rimes, e. g. One more unfortunate, Weary of breath, Rashly importunate, Gone to her death! (Hood: Bridge of Sighs.) Since the beginning of rimed verse in English the theory has been that rime should exactly fit the definition stated above; the practice of poets, however, has at times varied far from this. Because certain important common words, home, heaven, river, etc., have few satisfactory rimes, it has become customary to accept come, even, and ever as mates for them. Tennyson, for instance, has paired more: poor; curse: horse; wood: flood; own: crown; tune: moon; * Also called penultimate rimes. one: alone: gone; waist: rest; stars: wars. Changes like these on the riming vowel have been used occasionally by all the great English poets. Professor Richardson, in his Study of English Rhyme, has made very interesting lists of these variations in representative poets from the beginning of the use of rime to the present day. These lists give one the impression that the poets have treated rime in a very casual and negligent way, but one must remember that Professor Richardson's book is chiefly a study of the exceptions to exact usage, and that most great poets have been consistently careful in their rimes. There are one or two imperfect rimes which have become conventions in verse. For example, it is not uncommon to find by rimed with silently, heavenly, etc., and come rimed with home. These were formerly correct rimes which the poets have been slow to relinquish even though changes in pronunciation have made them imperfect. In the case of wind riming with find, mind, etc., we actually preserve in verse reading an older pronunciation which long ago became obsolete in prose. Pope's riming join with wine, and tea with obey was in accordance with the pronunciation of his period. Aside from a few such cases, what variation in rime may be permitted is purely a matter of individual taste, not something about which one can dogmatize. The usage of the best poets very rarely allows a change in the consonants, though the words may be lengthened, shortened, or even altered. Mrs. Browning, whose fondness for false rimes led her into unpardonable vagaries, is guilty of ladies: babies; angels: candles; burden: disregarding; calmly: palm-tree; Goethe: duty; panther: saunter; valleys: palace. Surely Pope could not bring against Mrs. Browning this criticism which he brought against his contemporaries: While they ring round the same unvaried chimes, |