The principles of English metre

Citation preview

The

Principles of

ENGLISH METRE

Oxford London

University

Edinburgh

New Tork Bombay

Toronto

Calcutta

Humphrey Milford

Glasgow

Melbourne

Madras

Press Copenhagen

Cape Town Shanghai

Publisher to the University

\v

The

Principles of

ENGLISH METRE BY

EGERTON SMITH, M.A. Principal

and Professor of English, Krishnagar College

mm

I

?S2>(pH S

.

II

•

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS HUMPHREY MILFORD 1923

.

as

:^ '.^

(5

06

S5

PRINTED IN ENGLAND

PREFACE Before plunging

work

into the detailed

book

for this

thought that a formula might be stated which would cover the whole range of modern English verse but it was I

;

soon evident that no such simple formula was possible, that metrists have assumed a degree of homogeneity which is not actually found, that there was more complexity than

would lead one to expect, that there is an underlying law, but something at once less rigid and more comprehensive than any they had yet stated. Johnson's opinion that the essence of verse is regularity, and their generalizations

'

ornament

'

is often quoted with approval combination effected ? Does it mean now the other law and order prevailing in one part, Bolshevism asserting itself in another that is to say, the

its

how one, now but

is

is

variety

;

this

;

;

verse sometimes rhythmical, sometimes not

?

This position

I should be unwilling to accept, and I prefer to consider, with the poets themselves, that rhythm is an essential of poetry, and that the freedom is within the rhythmic law,

not a violation of

The most

it.

suggestive theorists, I found, were Patmore, Omond for the work of the latter, in

Lanier, and Mr.

—

—

but above all have valued the dicta of poets themselves, and have quoted them freely. Light may be thrown on the subject but by music, phonetics, and experimental psychology I have remembered that metrical law is not identical with, particular,

I

have the greatest admiration

I

;

PREFACE

vi

or even merely part

of,

either phonetic or musical law.

A

separation from my books for three years of military service had the advantage of allowing my ideas to settle down, so that, I hope, no one theory or point of view predominated in my mind when I found it necessary to recast

and rewrite I

found

entirely

what

I

easier to preserve

it

had written before 1916, and an independent judgement in

the work of reconstruction. I

so

had no wish

to introduce controversy, but as there

was

unanimity even on fundamental points I had in to argue many questions ab initio and in a few cases

little

Part

I

;

criticism of

well-known views seemed necessary.

A

critic

once complained that Professor Saintsbury distinguished varieties of rhythmical effect by mere strings of metaphors, '

In the interests of the refuge of the defeated analyst '. clearness I have preferred to incur the imputation of a too pedestrian style, although I have tried to push back the analysis much farther than Professor Saintsbury thinks

and am more likely to be defeated. which I have adopted between different orders of rhythm primary, secondary, and so on is one proper or

The

safe,

distinction

—

—

I think use might well be made, especially in of such topics as blank verse in general and vers treating It is particularly necessary to define litres in particular.

of which

explicitly the looser

what

meant by rhythm ', for the exact and meaningsof this word, upon which so much turns, '

is

are often not held apart

by

metrists.

Prosody has the reputation of being a

profitless study, to idle reason for this is, as One leading only controversy. I have suggested, that theorists have tried to apply one rigid

formula to different types of verse and to poetry at different periods of its development, without recognizing that differ-

PREFACE

vii

ences of poetic aim involve differences of metrical form. Metrical theory cannot without danger divorce itself from the history of poetic form, and I have tried to show how the fundamental principles of verse have been modified by

Chapters IV, XII to XV, XVIII, This has hardly received sufficient recognition, the full exposition of so complex a subject an

different factors, e.g. in

and XIX. tiut

for

an analytical study is required. I have allowed a certain amount of repetition to remain in dealing with the different topics of Part I but I am aware that, had space permitted, I historical as well as

For the sake of clearness

;

might have done much more to exhibit the vital relation which, in the best work, exists between Metrical Form and Poetic Function.

The Glossarial Index contains all the technical terms that have used, together with many that I have not used. Professor J.W. Holme, of Presidency College, Calcutta, has kindly read through my proofs and I have to thank the I

;

staff of the

University

Press

for

their

great care and

vigilance.

Egerton Smith. Krishnagar College, 1922.

^'

w ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS PART

I

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY RHYTHMLINE STRUCTURE

THE RHYTHMIC ARTS

I.

Page 3

— representative

expression. § 2. Emotional colouring. § 3. Imaginative treatment or idealization. § 4. Differences of medium or material. § 5. Reproduction of imaginative and §

I.

Art

emotional

effect.

§ 6.

Emotional and hedonic function of rhythm.

PRIMARY RHYTHM IN POETRY

H.

.

.

Page

.

Original connexion of dancing, song, and poetry. movement regular in time. § 3. Definition of rhythm. § I.

§ 2. § 4.

5

WaveFeet-

equivalent unitary components of verse. § 5. Organic constituents of verse. § 6. Subjective rhythm. § 7. Rhythmical effect depends on sounds in combination. § 8. Misunderstanding of the foot-

system. for

§ 9.

Arsis and thesis.

marking the

§ 12.

The point

of feet.

ictus.

§

1 1

.

§ 10. Properties of

of division— rising

Addenda.

I.

On

sound available

Ictus variable save in relative position. arsis

and falling rhythm. § 13. Names and thesis. II. On the actual

location of the ictus. III.

PROSE AND VERSE— SECONDARY RHYTHM

Page 18 and Loose of 2. § unsystematic rhythm prose. § Stability of primary rhythm in poetry. § 3. Secondary rhythm lines or verses. § 4. Metrical divisions organic, but distinct from sense-divisions. § 5. Metres defined in terms of feet. § 6. The marking of secondary I.

—

rhythm. IV. §

SUSPENSORY PAUSES-MEDIAL AND FINAL I.

Sense-pauses.

§ 2. Metrical pauses.

§ 3.

Scope

Page 23

for variety.

Strong secondary rhythm— end-stopped verse. § 5. Weaker secondary rhythm— overflow. § 6. Structural importance of over-

§ 4.

ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

X flow.

Varying position of sense-pauses. § 8. Caesura, or metrical pause. § 9. Preference for medial position. §10. Rationale of the caesura. §11. Degrees of pause. §12. Best position for medial pauses. § 13. Masculine and feminine caesura § 7.

internal

—

t

epic caesura or dramatic caesura.

/

§ 14. Elocutionary treatment of

pauses. 4^

METRICAL EQUIVALENCE—TRISYLLABIC SUBSTITUTION

V.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Page 34

Variation from the normal syllabic scheme. § 2. Substitution § of equivalent trisyllabic feet. § 3. Theory of elision or slurring. I.

§ 4. Frequently not applicable. § 5. Unnecessary save in special cases. § 7. Poe's § 6. Milton's elisions not actual but theoretic. § 8.

explanation.

Elision

in

Chaucer.

§ 9.

Quadrisyllable sub-

stitution.

MONOSYLLABIC SUBSTITUTION-COMPENSATORY PAUSE

VI.

§

I.

Monosyllabic

feet.

§ 2. Substitution

Page 42

of silent intervals pre-

§ 3. Necessity of pause between full § 4. Convertibility of silence and sound— compensatory pause. § 5. Sense-pauses available for purposes of equivalence. ' rests '. § 6. Analogy with musical § 7. Compensatory lengthen-

serving equality of duration. stresses.

ing.

§ 8.

of arsis;

Absence of § 10.

&

of

fixed conventional quantities.

whole

feet.

§ 9. Suppression § 12. Sup§ 11. Special cases.

Addendum.

Compensa-

COMBINED SUBSTITUTION AND THE CONDITIONS OF EQUIVALENCE

Page 55

pression of thesis in trisyllabic rhythms. tory pauses.

Vn.

.

§

I.

§ 2.

Combination of monosyllabic and The orthodox explanation trochaic

—

.

trisyllabic substitution. substitution. § 3. Con-

gruity of feet. § 4. The object of scansion. § 5. Rhetoric as a guide to scansion. § 7. Natural con§ 6. Examples discussed. ditions of equivalence. § 9. Alleged § 8. Spondees and pyrrhics. dactylic substitution. if,

VIIL §

I.

I.

Inversion.

II.

Syncopation.

CONSTITUTION OF THE ICTUS—WEIGHT AND ACCENT Function

materialized of

Addenda.

accent:

of

the

ictus

to

mark

by means of weight or emphasis. {a)

physical,

{b)

physiological,

§ 3. {c)

Page 65 § 2.

periodicity.

Ictus

Constitution

psychological.

ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS § 4.

Degrees of

ing to function

words

(ii)

;

stress or weight.

—

:

(i)

Stresses classified accordNative words, (3) Romance Syntactical accent, (/3) Rhetorical §

Word-accent,

Sentence-stress, (a)

xi

5.

(a)

accent (iii) Metrical stress. § 6. Mental beat not always represented externally by full accent. § 7. Mental beat the essentfal, and often sufficient in itself. § 8. Usually materialized, but arsis requires only relative degree of weight. § 9. Availability of secondary accents for ictus carried to extremes. § 10. Assumption of pitchaccent. § II. Light and heavy feet. § 12. Hovering or level stress. ;

§ 13. Alternative explanation recognizing relative nature of metrical § 14. Wrenched accent. § 15. Recession of accent in

stress.

Milton § 18.

;

&

§ 16.

Summary

:

in

Shakespeare.

Conflict of accent

in

17.

QUANTITY

IX.

ballads.

Wrenching — §counterpoint of rhythms.

Page 84

Alleged structural unimportance of quantity in English verse. § 2. Quantity in classical verse. § 3. Meanings of quantity. § 4. Absence in English of conventionally fixed quantities with simple ratios. § 5. Presence of natural quantities with various lengths. (a) the § 6. P'unction of quantity in English verse duration of feet § 7. (/3) its connexion with the ictus. § 8. General, I. Addenda. Relations though not essential, concomitance. between stress and quantity, {a) Experimental evidence, {b) The classicist view. II. Poe on quantity. §

I.

:

;

....

HYPERCATALECTIC VERSE

X.

Page 95

Feminine endings. § 2. Anacrusis. § 3. Filling up of pauses produces continuity of movement. § 4. Hypermetrical syllables at §

I.

the internal break.

VARIETY IN VERSE

XI.

Page 99

Periodicity marked by weight. § 2. Scope for variety without violation of regularity. § 3. Relation of concrete rhythms to the normal metrical type. § 4. Value of metrical §

I.

Summary.

variety which

preserves equivalence. § 5. Uniformity amidst diaeretic verse. § 7. Variadiversity. § 6. The theoretic normal tions in heroic verse {a) syllabic variation, (i) omission (a) of

—

—

thesis, (3) or of arsis, (7) or of

addition (iii)

and omission

extra

(/) pause,

foot (i)

;

final,

{c)

{b)

;

weight

(ii)

both

;

(ii)

addition

hypercatalexis, ;

medial;

(i)

;

(iii)

final,

combined

(ii)

medial,

smoothness {g) relation between metrical

{d)

speed

;

{e)

;

ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

xii

and speech-units. § 8. Adjustment of natural speechrhythms to metrical scheme. § 9. Verse governed by metrical law as distinct from phonetic musical law. units

Jfc

XII.

THE SYLLABIC THEORY OF VERSE

Page iii

.

regularity and alternating verse. § 3. Numbers. § 4. Elizabethan revolt against syllabic restrictions. § 5. Eighteenth-century reaction to syllabic

§

I.

Numerical equality

and alternating

rule

§ 7. Application of

the

'

'

pitch-accent

Dependence on the

verses.

in

stress.

§ 2. Syllabic

§ 6.

Milton's

fictitious

elision theory.

§ li.

Value of syllabism.

SONG-VERSE AND SPEECH-VERSE

^ XIII.

syllabism.

syllabism in scansion. § 8. Its connexion with theory ; § 9. & with hovering stress. § 10.

Page 118

.

§ Varying degrees of rhythmical precision in verse. § 2. kinds of verse— approximating to music or to prose speech I.

;

Two § 3.

&

dominated by the sound-scheme or the thought-scheme. § 4. Absolute dominance of rhythm in music and song. § 5. Compromise in lyric poetry. § 6. Lyric verse set to musical accompaniment. § 7. Illustrations of song verse. § 8. Change of time-signature in

song, and approximate periodicity in speech-verse. § 9. True songverse in Moore. §10. Requirements of vocalization. §11. Melodic § 12. Self-contained music of requirements of the poetic lyric. Shelley's lyric verse. of form and content.

§ 13. Speech-verse. § 14. Correspondence Addetidtcm. On pitch-relations in song and

lyric verse.

THE METRES OF ENGLISH VERSE Page 131 Iambic basis of speech-verse. § 2. Due to cadences latent in words and phrases, § 3. But falling rhythm sometimes suggested.

-^ XIV.

.

§ I.

§ 4.

Five-foot line the staple.

§ 5. Its

scope for variety.

§ 6. In-

fluence of syllabism. § 7. The four-foot line in rapid and lyrical verse. § 9. The alexandrine § 8. Scott's defence of it. tendency

—

to bipartition. lyric.

§ 10.

Longer

§ 12. Anapaestic verse

abilities for speech-verse.

§ 15.

Narrow range

lines.

—

its

§ 14.

§ 11. Shorter

iambic lines in

&

consequent dis-

speed;

The

of substitution.

§ 13.

characteristic four-foot § 16.

line-

Trochaic measures

—

§ 17. The characteristic individuality of the tripping movement. four-foot line. § 19. Types of § 18. Longer and shorter measures.

variation.

§ 20. Difficulties of dactylic measures.

§ 21.

Paeonic

ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

xiii

—

metres major and minor rhythms. § 22. Rising and falling rhythms combined. § 24. Special function § 23. Indeterminate rhythms. of trisyllabic rhythms.

XV. A.

IMITATION OF CLASSICAL METRES The Hexameter

§ I.

The Tudor

Page 150 Confusion between Necessity for conventional rules of

pseudo-classical revival.

accent and quantity.

§ 3.

Page 150

.

§ 2.

quantitative pronunciation. § 4. But the resultant verse not a natural rhythm to the English ear. § 5. Preponderance of consonants in Latin. English. § 6. Determination of length by position in § 7. Assumes a combination and continuity of sound not habitual in English. § 8. Naturalized hexameters only possible in analogical form. § 10. Clough's purely § 9. Deficiency in spondaic effect. accentual hexameters. § 11. Reproduction of classical hexameter effect

by Calverley— concurrence

of accent

and 7tahiral quantity.

Summary. The Lyric Metres

§ 12.

B.

§ 13. § 15.

Page 157

Musical structure of Greek

lyric

metres.

Hendecasyllabics. § 16. Alcaics. Adde^iduin. The so-called

§ 18. Elegiacs.

*

§ 14. Sapphics.

§ 17. Other metres. combative accent' in

pseudo-classical verse.

PART

II

SECONDARY AND TERTIARY RHYTHM— RIME AND STANZA RIME Page 169 Functions of rime, (i) Structural, (a) to signalize ends of lines (secondary rhythm), O) to mark grouping of lines into stanzas (tertiary rhythm); (ii) Melodic; (iii) Rhetorical— to reinforce natural

XVI. §

I.

emphasis.

§ 2.

Alliteration

—

its

kinds.

§ 3. Its

functions

in

Modern and Old English. § 4. Internal alliteration. § 5. Assonance. § 7. Classification of imperfect rimes. § 6. Full rime— definition. § 8.

Classification

of full

of rime-sounds. repetition.

§

§ 13.

rimes.

§ 9.

Extended rime.

§ 10.

A

§11. Broken rime. §12. Arrangements Internal rime its arrangements. § 14. Initial

proposed nomenclature.

15. Refrain.

—

ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

xiv

......

THE STANZA

XVII.

Page 194

The

couplet. § 3. Value of stanzaic structure. § 4. Length of stanza. § 5. Scope for harmonic comstanzas. bination. § 6. Rimeless § 7. Stanzaic enjambement. § 8. Conventional stanza divisions. §

Stanza defined.

I.

§ 2.

VERS LIBRES Page 203 Indeterminate secondary rhythm § 2. & tertiary rhythm. § 3. Irregular lines and paragraphs in Lycidas. § 4. Importance of a base-metre. § 5. Value of rime. § 6. Obedience to an internal law. § 8. Principle of recur§ 7. Suitability for wilder romantic themes. rence essential in some form. § 9. The phrase as metrical unit. Addendum. The origins of Vers Litres § 10. Illustrations.

XVIII. §

I.

;

.

BLANK VERSE PARAGRAPH STRUCTURE

XIX. §

Plasticity of blank verse

I.

rhythm indeterminate.

tiary

freedom.

harmonic

Its

and com-

blank

structural units. § 4. Adaptability of § 5. Capacities for organization in musical paragraphs.

Ter-

§ 2.

§ 3. Necessity for elastic

prehensive of

Page 213

—form without uniformity.

§ 6.

verse.

Dangers

§ 8. Organic Organic amplification in Shakespeare's paragraphs. § 10. Cumulative principle in Shelley. emotional § 12. Marlowe's paragraphs § II. His free overflow. its

§ 7.

periodic structure of Milton's verse.

possibilities.

§ 9.

—

unity.

§ 14. Disastrous § 15.

The

neglect

of

I.

§ 2.

Couplets

[a)

:

Tercets— terza rima.

quatrains.

XXI.

;

{e)

line

§ 2.

drama.

Page 227

.

.

;

{d) with enclosing rime

;

(/)

;

—In

monorimed

§ 5. Six-line stanzas.

THE LONGER STANZAS schemes,

later

{c)

asymmetrical schemes

§ 4. Five-line stanzas.

Page 243 other Chaucerian rime-royal, {b) other Ottava stanzas eight{b) rima, {a) Eight-line

§1. Seven-line stanzas: schemes.

five-foot,

{b)

with alternate rime, (i) intermittent rime— Ballad measure

Memoriain stanza

in

Tennyson.

longer metres. §3. Quatrains: {a) with couplet rime; isometrical, (ii) anisometrical [c] with

four-foot,

\b)

of varied effects.

secondary rhythm

principle of loose extension in

THE SHORTER STANZAIC FORMS

XX. §

command

§ 13. Shakespeare's versatile

.

.

.

.

{a)

:

(i)

narrative,

(ii)

lyrical.

other schemes.

§ 3. Nine-line § 4.

stanzas

:

Ten-line stanzas.

{a) Spenserian stanza, {b) § 6. Twelve-line stanzas. § 5. Eleven-line stanzas.

ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS WHOLE POEMS OF FIXED STRUCTURE

XXII.

—A. THE SONNET

4

§

xv

Poems

I.

of fixed structure.

Page 262 § 2.

sonnet— its thought-structure. structure.

Its

§ 5.

divisions.

§ 7.

§ 6.

bipartition.

sonnet.

The

§ 3.

Italian

Correspondence with verse-

§ 4.

rime-scheme.

Its

The

§ 8.

The

quatrain and tercet

Avoidance of

final couplet.

§ 9. Modifications of the Italian sonnet— (a) Milton, (/3) Sidney and Wordsworth. § 10. The Shakespearian sonnet. § 11. Its frequent

bipartition.

§ 12.

The Spenserian

A dde?tdt0n.

sonnet.

ThtXtngih

of the sonnet.

XXIII.

WHOLE POEMS OF FIXED STRUCTURE —B. THE ODE

§

Ode

I.

defined.

§ 2.

stanzas of fixed structure. detailed structure

.

.

.

.

.

§ 4.

True Pindaric Ode

— symmetrical

Page 276

.

Lesbian or Horatian Ode.

—

its

§ 3.

Longer

parts.

§ 5. Its

arrangement of unequal members.

§ 6. Congreve's exposition of its true principles. § 7. Modifications of the Pindaric scheme. § 8. Irregular or pseudo-Pindaric odes.

WHOLE POEMS OF FIXED STRUCTURE — C. CONVENTIONAL ROMANCE FORMS

XXIV. § I.

Roniance

nelle. § 7.

lyric

schemes based on the

§ 4. Ballade. § 9. § 8. Triolet.

§ 3. Sestina.

Roundel.

§ 5.

refrain.

Rondel.

Summary.

§ 6.

Page 284 § 2. Villa-

Rondeau.

Addendum. The

Pantoum.

CONCLUSION APPENDICES I.

Representation of

Page 294

Rhythm;

(A) Scansional,

(B) Graphical II.

Additional Notes

GLOSSARIAL INDEX OF TERMS INDEX OF NAMES

....

Page 297 Page 301 Page 303 Page 325