Category: Poetry
§ 1. Uses of the study of English metre 1 2. Object of the science of metre 1 3. Definition of rhythm 2 4. Distinction between prose and poetry 3 5. Phonetic qualities of syllables 4 6. Definition and use of the word _accent_ 4 7. Classification of accent 5 8. Marks indicating...
§ 1. Uses of the study of English metre 1 2. Object of the science of metre 1 3. Definition of rhythm 2 4. Distinction between prose and poetry 3 5. Phonetic qualities of syllab...
2. CHAPTER II§ 14. General remarks 15 15. Theories on the metrical form of the alliterative line 15 16. The four-beat theory 16 17. The two-beat theory 19 18. Accentuation of Old English 24...
3. CHAPTER III43. Development of the progressive form of the alliterative line 67 44. Nature and origin of the four-beat short-lined metre 69 45. Number of stresses 72 46. Analysis of verse-t...
4. CHAPTER IV§ 52. Homilies and lives of the saints in rhythmical prose. Poems in regular alliterative verse 85 53. Use and treatment of words in alliterative verse 87 54. Examples of allite...
5. CHAPTER V§ 76. Influence of French and Low Latin metres 126 77. The different kinds of line 127 78. The breaking up of long lines 128 79. Heroic verse; tail-rhyme staves 131 80. Differen...
6. CHAPTER VI§ 82. Lines with and without diaeresis 135 83. Effect of diaeresis on modulation 136 84. Suppression of the anacrusis 137 85. Level stress, or 'hovering accent' 138 86. Absence...
7. CHAPTER VII§ 95. General remarks on formative and inflexional syllables 151 96. Treatment of the unaccented _e_ of words of three and four syllables in Middle English 152 97. Special remar...
8. CHAPTER VIII114. Alleged difference in degree of stress among inflexional endings containing _e_ 172 115. Accent in trisyllables and compounds 174 116. Pronunciation of parathetic compounds...
9. CHAPTER IX§ 125. The eight-foot line and its resolution into four-foot lines 183 126. Examples of the four-foot line 183 127. Treatment of the caesura in four-foot verse 185 128. Treatmen...
10. CHAPTER X§ 135. The septenary 192 136. Irregularity of structure of the septenary rhyming line as shown in the _Moral Ode_ 193 137. Regularity of the rhymeless septenary verse of the _Or...
11. CHAPTER XI§ 151. Rhymed five-foot verse in Middle English 209 152. Sixteen types of five-foot verse 210 153. Earliest specimens of this metre 212 154. Chaucer's five-foot verse; treatment...
12. CHAPTER XII§ 160. The beginnings of Modern English poetry 219 161. Blank verse first adopted by the Earl of Surrey 219 162. Characteristics of Surrey's blank verse 221 163. Further develop...
13. CHAPTER XIII§ 181. General remarks; the eight-foot trochaic line 242 182. The seven-foot trochaic line 243 183. The six-foot trochaic line 244 184. The five-foot trochaic line 245 185. The...
14. CHAPTER XIV190. Eight-foot iambic-anapaestic verse 250 191. Seven-foot iambic-anapaestic verse 250 192. Six-foot iambic-anapaestic verse 251 193. Five-foot iambic-anapaestic verse 251 194....
15. CHAPTER XV16. CHAPTER XVI§ 209. The English hexameter 262 210. Structure of the hexameter 263 211. Elegiac verse; the minor Asclepiad; the six-foot iambic line; Phaleuciac verse; Hendecasyllabics; rhyme...
17. CHAPTER I. DEFINITIONS§ 214. Structure of the stanza 270 215. Influence of lyrical forms of Provence and of Northern France on Middle English poetry 271 216. Classification of rhyme according to the...
18. CHAPTER II§ 220. Formation of the stanza in Middle English and Romanic poetry 279 221. Rhyme-linking or 'concatenation' in Middle English 280 222. The refrain or burthen; the wheel and th...
19. CHAPTER III§ 230. Two-line stanzas 288 231. Four-line stanzas, consisting of couplets 288 232. The double stanza (eight lines of the same structure) 289 233. Stanzas of four isometrical li...
20. CHAPTER IV§ 257-8. Four-lined stanzas; Poulter's measure and other stanzas 311 259. Five-lined stanzas 314 260. Shortened tail-rhyme stanzas 316 261. Six-lined stanzas 317 262. Seven-line...
21. CHAPTER V§ 267. Six-lined stanzas 326 268. Seven-lined stanzas; the Rhyme Royal stanza 327 269. Eight-lined stanzas 329 270. Nine-lined stanzas 330 271. Ten-lined stanzas 331 272. Eleven...
22. CHAPTER VI§ 287. Introductory remark 348 288. Six-lined stanzas 349 289. Seven-lined stanzas 351 290-2. Eight-lined stanzas; the Italian _ottava rima_ 352 293. Nine-lined stanzas 355 294....
23. CHAPTER VII24. CHAPTER VIII25. CHAPTER IX§ 306. Origin of the English sonnet 371 307. The Italian sonnet 371 308. Structure of the Italian form illustrated by Watts-Dunton 373 309. The first English sonnet-writers, Sur...
26. CHAPTER X316-7. The madrigal 380 318-9. The terza-rima 381 320-1. The sextain 383 322. The virelay 385 323. The roundel 385 324. The rondeau 387 325. The triolet 388 326. The villanelle...
27. CHAPTER I§ =1.= The study of English Metre is an integral part of English Philology. It is indispensable to the investigator of the history of the language, since it supplies sometimes t...
28. CHAPTER II§ =14. General remarks.= It is highly probable that alliteration was the earliest kind of poetic form employed by the English people. There is no trace in the extant monuments o...
29. vv. 1237-1251, in which Cynewulf speaks in his own person, or Crist591-595, And. 869-871, 890, Gūthl. 801, Phoen. 15-16, 54-55; assonance is found not unfrequently alongside of perfect rhyme, as in Gūthl. 802, Phoen. 53. These places are suffic...
30. CHAPTER III=§ 41. Increasing frequency of Rhyme.= The alliterative line was, as we have seen, the only kind of verse known in English poetry down to the end of the Old English period. In t...
31. CHAPTER IV§ =52.= The progressive or free form of the alliterative line came to an end as early as the middle of the thirteenth century, when it broke up into short rhyming couplets. The...
32. xi. 404), distinguishes between two forms of this type with33. CHAPTER V. INTRODUCTION§ =76.= It was not till about 150 years after the Norman Conquest that foreign metres were introduced in English literature under the influence of French and Low Latin versifica...
34. CHAPTER VI§ =82.= As in Greek and Latin metre, so also in the equal-measured rhythms of Middle and Modern English, it is a general law that the beginning or end of a metrical foot should,...
35. CHAPTER VII§ =95.= As the root-syllables of words (leaving out of account the words of Romanic origin) almost universally retain their full syllabic value, whether occurring in arsis or in...
36. CHAPTER VIII§ =113.= In discussing the English Word-accent and its relationship to rhythmic accent it is necessary to consider the Middle English and the Modern English periods separately,...
37. CHAPTER IX§ =125.=. Among the metres introduced into Middle English poetry in imitation of foreign models, perhaps the oldest is the four-foot verse, rhyming in couplets. This metre may b...
38. CHAPTER X§ =135. The Septenary= is a favourite Middle English metre, going back to a Mediaeval Latin model. It cannot, however, be definitely determined whether this is to be found in th...
39. CHAPTER XI§ =151.= Among all English metres the five-foot verse may be said to be the metre which has been employed in the greatest number of poems, and in those of highest merit.
40. CHAPTER XII§ =160. The Beginnings of Modern English Poetry.= Puttenham, in his _Arte of English Poesie_, i. 31, speaks of Surrey and Wyatt as having originated the modern period of English...
41. CHAPTER XIII§ =181.= Trochaic metres, which, generally speaking, are less common in English poetry than iambics, were not used at all till the Modern English Period. The old metrical writer...
42. iii. 101:Generally speaking this metre is used in continuous verse in such a way that masculine and feminine couplets are intermixed without regular order;[172] when it is used in stanza...
43. CHAPTER XIV§ =189.= The =iambic-anapaestic rhythm= has been touched on before in connexion with the four-stressed verse (cf. § 72) which was developed from the alliterative long line, and...
44. CHAPTER XV§ =206.= Non-strophic anisometrical combinations of rhymed verse consist of lines of different metres, rhyming in pairs, and recurring in a definite order of succession. One of...
45. CHAPTER XVI§ =209. The English hexameter.= Of all imitations of classical metres in English the best known and most popular is the hexameter. In the history of its development we have to d...
46. Part i, pp. 67-85). Matthew Arnold's method too proved impracticable(_On Translating Homer_, London, 1862); he attempted and recommended the regulation of the rhythm of the verse by the accent and at the same time sought not to neglect the quant...
47. CHAPTER I. DEFINITIONS§ =214.= The strophe in ancient poetry, and the stanza in mediaeval and modern analogues and derivatives of that poetic form, are combinations of single lines into a unity of wh...
48. CHAPTER II§ =220.= On the model of the Provençal and Northern French lyrics, where the rhyme was indispensable in the construction of stanzas, rhyme found a similar employment in Middle E...
49. Book II, chap. vi).In Romanic poetry the tripartite structure sometimes was carried on also through the whole song, it being composed either of three or six stanzas (that is to say, of three equal...
50. PART II51. CHAPTER III§ =230. Two-line stanzas.= The simplest bipartite equal-membered stanza is that of two isometrical verses only. In the Northern English translation of the Psalms (_Surtees Socie...
52. CHAPTER IV§ =251.= These different kinds of stanzas may be conveniently treated together, since they are closely allied with each other, in that both of them--the indivisible stanzas usua...
53. CHAPTER V§ =267.= In the anisometrical stanzas (which might, as being the older species, have been treated of first) the distinction between the first and the last part of the stanza (_f...
54. vii. 507):_Prometheus, forming Mr. Day, Carv'd something like a man in clay. The mortal's work might well miscarry; He, that does heaven and earth control, Alone has power to form a soul,...
55. iii. 590):_Upon a bank with roses set about, Where turtles oft sit joining bill to bill, And gentle springs steal softly murm'ring out, Washing the foot of pleasure's sacred hill; There l...
56. PART III57. CHAPTER VI§ =287. Introductory remark.= At the very beginning of the Modern English period the poetry of England was strongly influenced by that of Italy. Among the strophic forms used by...
58. CHAPTER VII§ =297.= One of the most important Modern English stanzas is the Spenserian, so called after its inventor. This stanza, like the forms discussed in the last chapter, but in a st...
59. CHAPTER VIII§ =301.= The Spenserian stanza stands in unmistakable connexion with Spenser's highly artistic and elaborate =Epithalamium stanza= (Globe Ed. 587-91) inasmuch as the last line,...
60. CHAPTER IX§ =306. Origin of the English Sonnet.= In early Provençal and French poetry certain lyric poems are found which were called _Son_, sometimes _Sonet_, although they had neither a...
61. CHAPTER X§ =316.= The =madrigal=, an Italian form (It. _mandriale_, _madrigale_, from _mandra_ flock), is a pastoral song, a rural idyl. The Italian madrigals of Petrarch, &c., are short...
62. ii. 60-8), a poem in which he has given one of the most brilliantspecimens of his skill in rhyming. It consists of twelve twelve-lined stanzas and a six-lined envoy. The first two stanzas rhyme _a b c A B d C e f E D F_, _F a f D A C b e c E...