Chapter 7

ENGLISH VERSE

I. ACCENT AND TIME

A.--KINDS OF ACCENT

The accents of English syllables as appearing in verse are commonly classified in two ways: according to degree of intensity, and according to cause or significance.

Obviously there can be no fixed limits to the number of degrees of intensity recognized in syllabic accent or stress. It is common to speak of three such degrees: syllables having accent (stressed), syllables having secondary accent, and syllables without accent (unstressed). Schipper makes four groups: Principal Accent (_Hauptaccent_ or _Hochton_), Secondary Accent (_Nebenaccent_ or _Tiefton_), No Accent (_Tonlosigkeit_), and Disappearance of Sound (_Stummheit_). In illustration he gives the word _ponderous_, where the first syllable has the chief accent, the last a secondary accent, the second no accent; while in the verse

"Most ponderous and substantial things"

the second syllable is suppressed or silent.

Mr. A. J. Ellis, in like manner, recognized three principal classes of syllables: those stressed in the first degree, those stressed in the second degree, and those unstressed.[1] In the following lines from _Paradise Lost_ he indicated these three degrees, as he recognized them, by the figures 2, 1, 0, written underneath.

Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit 0 2 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 2

Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste 0 1 0 2 0 1 0 2 0 2

Brought death into the world, and all our woe, 1 2 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 2

With loss of Eden, till one greater man 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 2

Restore us, and regain the blissful seat, 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 2

Sing, heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top 2 2 0 2 1 0 0 2 0 1

Of Horeb or of Sinai, didst inspire 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 2

That shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed 1 2 0 0 2 2 0 2 0 2

In the beginning, how the heavens and earth 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 2 0 2

Rose out of chaos.[2] 2 0 0 2 0

It is worthy of note that the secondary accent seems originally to have been a more important factor in English verse than it is commonly considered to be in modern periods. In Anglo-Saxon verse the combination of a primary stress, a secondary stress, and an unstressed syllable, is a recognized type. In modern verse the reader is likely to make an effort to reduce all syllables to the type of either stress or no-stress. In such a verse as the following, however (from Matthew Arnold's _Forsaken Merman_),--

"And I lose my poor soul, Merman, here with thee,"--

we may find such a combination as that just referred to as familiar in Anglo-Saxon rhythm. The syllables "_soul, Merman_" are respectively cases of primary stress, secondary stress, and no-stress. On this matter see further the remark of Luick, cited on p. 156, below.

The element of Pitch is not ordinarily included in the treatment of versification, as it is not ordinarily recognized as having any significance peculiar to verse. According to Professor J. W. Bright, however, there is such a thing as a "pitch-accent" which plays an important part in verse where the word-accent conflicts with that of the regular metre. Under certain exigencies, he says, "_un-governed, pre-cisely, re-markable,_ and _Je-rusalem_ ... are naturally pronounced with a pitch-accent upon the first syllables, and with the undisturbed expiratory word-accent upon the second. It will of course be understood that when the word-accent is defined as expiratory this term does not exclude the inherent pitch of English stress. Force, quantity, and pitch are combined in our word-stress (or word-accent), both primary and secondary; but in the secondary stress used as ictus there is a noticeable change in the proportions of these elements, the pitch being relatively increased. An answer is thus won for the question: How do we naturally pronounce two stresses in juxtaposition on the same word, or on adjacent words closely joined grammatically? This is further illustrated in the specially emphasized words of such expressions as 'The idea!'" where Professor Bright marks the pitch-accent on the first syllable of "idea," retaining the stress-accent on the second syllable. In the line

"Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit"

he marks a pitch-accent where the word-stress and metrical stress are in conflict, that is, on the syllables "dis-" and "and." "The rhythmic use of 'disobedience,'" he says, "illustrates with its four syllables (as here used) as many recognizable varieties of stress. The first syllable has a secondary word-accent, raised to a pitch-accent for ictus; the second is wholly unaccented; the third has the chief word-accent, employed as ictus (the accent of the preceding word, "first," is subordinate to the rhythm); the fourth has a secondary word-accent which remains unchanged in the thesis." The conclusion is that "ictus in conflict requires a pitch-accent." (All these quotations are from an article on 'Proper Names in Old English Verse,' in the _Publications of the Modern Language Association_, n.s. vol. vii. No. 3). Professor Bright's theory of pitch-accent is a part of his general theory of opposition to what he calls the "sense-doctrine" of the reading of verse,--that is, the accepted doctrine that the word and sentence accents must ordinarily take precedence of the metrical accent.

According to cause or significance, accents are commonly classed in three groups: Etymological or Word Accent, Syntactical or Rhetorical Accent, and Metrical Accent. Accents of the first class are due to the original stress of the syllable in English speech; those of the second class are due to the importance of the syllable in the sentence; those of the third class are due to the place of the syllable in the metrical scheme. In the verse

"Mary had a little lamb,"

the first syllable may be said to be stressed primarily for etymological reasons, the seventh primarily for syntactical or rhetorical reasons, and the third (which would not be accented in prose) for metrical reasons.

The general law of English verse is that only those syllables which bear the accent of the first class (that is, which are stressed in common speech), together with monosyllables which on occasion are stressed in common speech, shall be placed so as to receive the metrical stress; and that, if the word-stress and the metrical stress apparently conflict, the metrical stress must yield. Less generally, the rhetorical or syntactical accent in the same way takes precedence of the metrical. In both cases exceptions are of course numerous.

The following are examples of verses showing a conflict between the normal prose-accent and the normal verse-accent, where--as commonly read--the prose- (word-) accent triumphs.

The blessed damozel leaned out _From the gold bar_ of heaven.

(ROSSETTI: _The Blessed Damozel._)

_Love is_ a smoke _raised with_ the fume of sighs; Being purged, a fire _sparkling_ in lover's eyes; Being vexed, a sea _nourished_ with lover's tears.

(SHAKSPERE: _Romeo and Juliet_, I. i. 196 ff.)

Art thou so bare and full of wretchedness, And fear'st to die? _famine_ is in thy cheeks, _Need and_ oppression starveth in thine eyes.

(SHAKSPERE: _ib._ V. i. 68 ff.)

_Till, at_ his second bidding, Darkness fled, _Light_ shone, and order from disorder sprung. _Swift to_ their several quarters hasted then The cumbrous elements--_Earth_, Flood, _Air_, Fire; And this ethereal quintessence of Heaven Flew upward, _spirited_ with various forms, That rolled orbicular, and turned to stars _Numberless_, as thou seest, and how they move.

(MILTON: _Paradise Lost_, iii. 712 ff.)

_She was_ a gordian shape of dazzling hue, Vermilion-spotted, golden, green, and blue; _Striped like_ a zebra, freckled like a pard, _Eyed like_ a peacock, and all crimson barred.

(KEATS: _Lamia_, i. 47 ff.)

_"Boys!"_ shriek'd the old king, but vainlier than a hen _To her_ false daughters in the pool; for none Regarded; neither seem'd there more to say. _Back_ rode we to my father's camp, and found He thrice had sent a herald to the gates.

(TENNYSON: _The Princess_, v. 318 ff.)

Sequestered nest!--this kingdom, limited Alone by one old _populous green_ wall; _Tenanted_ by the ever-busy flies, _Gray crickets and shy lizards and quick spiders_; Each family of the silver-threaded moss-- Which, look through near, this way, and it appears A stubble-field _or a cane-brake_, a marsh Of bulrush whitening _in the_ sun: _laugh now_!

(BROWNING: _Paracelsus_, i. 36 ff.)

On the other hand, we find verses showing a conflict between prose and verse accent, where the verse-accent may be regarded as triumphing wholly or in part. Where this triumph is complete, the accent is said to be _wrenched_; as, for example, in old ballad endings like "north countree."[3] Where there is a compromise effected in reading, the accent is said to be _hovering_; as in one of Shakspere's songs,--

"It was a lover and his lass ... That o'er the green _corn-field_ did pass."

I sat with Love upon a woodside well, Leaning across the water, I and he; Nor ever did he speak nor looked at me, But touched his lute wherein was _audible_ The certain secret thing he had to tell: Only our mirrored eyes met _silently_ In the low wave; and that sound came to be The passionate voice I knew; and my tears fell. And at their fall, his eyes beneath grew hers; And with his foot and with his _wing-feathers_ He swept the spring that watered my heart's drouth. Then the dark ripples spread to waving hair, And as I stooped, her own lips rising there Bubbled with brimming kisses at my mouth.

(ROSSETTI: _Willowwood. House of Life_, Sonnet xlix.)

I wish my grave were growing green, A winding-sheet drawn ower my een, And I in Helen's arms _lying,_ On fair Kirconnell lea.

(_Fair Helen_; old ballad.)

For the stars and the winds are unto her As raiment, as songs of the _harp-player._

(SWINBURNE: Chorus in _Atalanta in Calydon._)

Nothing is better, I well think, Than love; the hidden _well-water_ Is not so delicate to drink: This was well seen of me and her.

(SWINBURNE: _The Leper._)

These wrenched accents are characteristic of one phase of the so-called "pre-Raphaelite" poetry of the Victorian period; in part, no doubt, they are due to the influence of the old ballads. My colleague Professor Newcomer has suggested that they are partly due, also, to a dislike for the combative accent which would occur where two heavy syllables came together (accented as commonly) in a compound like "harp-player."

Of special interest are the examples of wrenched and hovering accent found in the verse of Sir Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey,--more especially in Wyatt. These mark the time when the syllable-counting principle was coming into prominence in English verse, under the new culture of the days of Henry VIII. The first conscious followers of this principle seem to have given it such prominence that a verse seemed good to them if it contained the requisite number of syllables, whether the accents conformed to any regular system or not. In the case of Wyatt we can also compare the original forms of many of his poems, as preserved in manuscript, with the revised forms as printed in Tottel's Miscellany (1557). (See Dr. Flügel's transcriptions from the Wyatt Mss., in _Anglia_, vol. xviii.) The following is the octave of one of the sonnets, as found in the Ms.:

"Avysing the bright bemes of these fayer Iyes where he is that myn oft moisteth and wassheth the werid mynde streght from the hert departeth for to rest in his woroldly paradise And fynde the swete bitter under this gyse what webbes he hath wrought well he parceveth whereby with himselfe on love he playneth that spurreth with fyer: and bridillith with Ise."

(_Anglia,_ xviii. 465.)

Compare this with the revised form in Tottel's edition:

"Avisyng the bright beames of those fayre eyes, Where he abides that mine oft moistes and washeth: The weried mynd streight from the hart departeth, To rest within hys worldly Paradise, And bitter findes the swete, under this gyse. What webbes there he hath wrought, well he preceaveth Whereby then with him self on love he playneth, That spurs wyth fire, and brydleth eke with yse."

(Arber Reprint, p. 40.)

It appears that this revision was the work of the editor, who had a better sense of true English rhythm than the poet himself. Alscher, however, in his work on Wyatt, contends that Wyatt doubtless revised his own verses so as to give them their finished form. (See _Sir Thomas Wyatt und Seine Stellung_, etc., p. 49.) Other lines in Wyatt's verse where the number of syllables is counted but where the accents are faulty, are these:

"The long love that in my thought I harbour."

"And there campeth displaying his banner."

"And there him hideth and not appeareth."

"For good is the life, ending faithfully."

Another large group of hovering accents is that formed by French words with such terminations as _-our_, _-ance_, _-ace_, _-age_, _-ant_, _-ess_. In such cases the original tendency of the word was to accent the final syllable; but the general tendency of English accents being recessive, the words often passed through a transitional period when the accent was variable or "hovering." The first of the four lines just quoted shows us a word of this character.

For an interesting presentation of certain phases of the laws of stress in English verse, see Robert Bridges's _Milton's Prosody_ (ed. 1901), Appendix J, "on the Rules of Stress Rhythms."

B.--TIME-INTERVALS

The fundamental principle of the rhythm of English verse (and indeed of any rhythm) is that _the accents appear at regular time-intervals_. In practice there is of course great freedom in departing from this regularity, the equal time-intervals being at times only a standard of rhythm to which the varying successions of accented and unaccented syllables are mentally referred. Where the equal time-intervals are observed with substantial regularity, two sorts of verse are still to be clearly distinguished: that in which not only the intervals of time but the numbers of syllables between the accents are substantially equal and regular, and that in which the number of syllables varies. The latter class is that of the native Germanic metres; the former is that of the Romance metres, and of modern English verse as influenced by them. With the development of regularity in the counting of syllables there has perhaps also taken place a development of regularity in the regular counting of the time-intervals. In other words, the modern English reader, where the number of syllables between accents is variable, makes the time-intervals as nearly equal as possible by lengthening and shortening the syllables in the manner permitted by the freedom of English speech; in early English verse, where the number of syllables between accents varied very greatly, we cannot be sure that the time-intervals were so accurately felt or preserved in recitation.

i. _Verse showing fairly regular intervals between accents_

Avoid extremes; and shun the fault of such Who still are pleas'd too little or too much. At every trifle scorn to take offence, That always shows great pride, or little sense: Those heads, as stomachs, are not sure the best, Which nauseate all, and nothing can digest. Yet let not each gay turn thy rapture move; For fools admire, but men of sense approve: As things seem large which we through mist descry, Dulness is ever apt to magnify.

(POPE: _Essay on Criticism_, ll. 384-393.)

Louder, louder chant the lay-- Waken, lords and ladies gay! Tell them youth and mirth and glee Run a course as well as we; Time, stern huntsman! who can baulk, Staunch as hound and fleet as hawk; Think of this, and rise with day, Gentle lords and ladies gay!

(SCOTT: _Hunting Song_.)

Larger constellations burning, mellow moons and happy skies, Breadths of tropic shade and palms in cluster, knots of Paradise.

(TENNYSON: _Locksley Hall_.)

Wild April, enkindled to laughter and storm by the kiss of the wildest of winds that blow, Calls loud on his brother for witness; his hands that were laden with blossom are sprinkled with snow.

(SWINBURNE: _March_.)

ii. _Verse showing irregular intervals between accents_

Gegr[=e]tte ð[=a] gumena gehwylcne, hwate helm-berend, hindeman s[=i]ðe, sw[=æ]se ges[=i]ðas: "Nolde ic sweord beran, w[=æ]pen t[=o] wyrme, gif ic wiste h[=u] wið ð[=a]m [=a]gl[=æ]cean elles meahte gylpe wiðgr[=i]pan, sw[=a] ic g[=i]o wið Grendle dyde; ac ic ð[=æ]r heaðu-f[=y]res h[=a]tes w[=e]ne, oreðes ond attres; forðon ic m[=e] on hafu bord ond byrnan. Nelle ic beorges weard oferfl[=e]on f[=o]tes trem, ac unc sceal weorðan æt wealle, sw[=a] unc wyrd get[=e]oð, Metod manna gehwæs. Ic eom on m[=o]de from, þæt ic wið þone g[=u]ð-flogan gylp ofersitte.

(_Beowulf_, ll. 2516-2528. ab. 700.)

Ich herde men upo mold make muche mon, hou he beþ itened of here tilyynge: gode yeres & corn boþe beþ agon, ne kepeþ here no sawe ne no song synge. Nou we mote worche, nis þer non oþer won, mai ich no lengore lyue wiþ mi lesinge. Yet þer is a bitterore bit to þe bon, for euer þe furþe peni mot to þe kynge.[4]

(_The Farmer's Complaint_, ab. 1300; in Böddeker's _Altenglische Dichtungen_, p. 102, and Wright's _Political Songs_, p. 149.)

I will speake out aloude, I care not who heare it: Sirs, see that my harnesse, my tergat and my shield Be made as bright now as when I was last in fielde, As white as I shoulde to warre againe to-morrowe; For sicke shall I be but I worke some folke sorow. Therefore see that all shine as bright as Sainct George, Or as doth a key newly come from the smiths forge.

(N. UDALL: _Ralph Roister Doister_, IV. iii. 13-19. 1566.)

To this, this Oake cast him to replie Well as he couth; but his enemie Had kindled such coles of displeasure, That the good man noulde stay his leasure, But home him hasted with furious heate, Encreasing his wrath with many a threat: His harmefull Hatchet he hent in hand, (Alas! that it so ready should stand!) And to the field alone he speedeth, (Aye little helpe to harme there needeth!) Anger nould let him speake to the tree, Enaunter his rage mought cooled bee; But to the roote bent his sturdie stroake, And made many wounds in the waste Oake.

(SPENSER: _Shepherd's Calendar, February_. 1579.)

Through many a dark and dreary vale They passed, and many a region dolorous, O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp, Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death-- A universe of death, which God by curse Created evil, for evil only good; Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature breeds, Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, Abominable, inutterable, and worse Than fables yet have feigned, or fear conceived.

(MILTON: _Paradise Lost_, II. 618 ff. 1667.)

The night is chill; the forest bare; Is it the wind that moaneth bleak? There is not wind enough in the air To move away the ringlet curl From the lovely lady's cheek-- There is not wind enough to twirl The one red leaf, the last of its clan, That dances as often as dance it can, Hanging so light, and hanging so high, On the topmost twig that looks up at the sky.

(COLERIDGE: _Christabel_, Part I. 1816.)

In his Preface to this poem Coleridge said: "The metre of the _Christabel_ is not, properly speaking, irregular, though it may seem so from its being founded on a new principle; namely, that of counting in each line the accents, not the syllables. Though the latter may vary from seven to twelve, yet in each line the accents will be found to be only four. Nevertheless this occasional variation in number of syllables is not introduced wantonly, or for the mere ends of convenience, but in correspondence with some transition, in the nature of the imagery or passion." The verse is accurately described, but it has frequently been pointed out as curious that Coleridge should have spoken of it as "founded on a new principle," when the principle in question was that of native English verse from the earliest times.[5]

For other specimens of verse showing irregularity in the number of syllables between the accents, see Part Two, under Non-syllable-counting Four-stress Verse.

iii. _Silent Time-intervals between Syllables (Pauses)_

(a) Pauses not filling the time of syllables.

Most English verses of more than eight syllables are divided not only into the time-intervals between the accents, but also into two parts (which Schipper calls "rhythmical series") by the _Cesura_. The Cesura is a pause not counted out of the regular time of the rhythm, but corresponding to the pauses between "phrases" in music, and nearly always coinciding with syntactical or rhetorical divisions of the sentence.

The medial cesura is the typical pause of this kind, dividing the verse into two parts of approximately equal length. In much early English verse, and in French verse, this medial cesura is almost universal; in modern English verse (and in that of some early poets, notably Chaucer) there is great freedom in the placing of the cesura, and also in omitting it altogether. The importance of this matter in the history of English decasyllabic verse will appear in Part Two.

In the early Elizabethan period the impression was still general that there should be a regular medial cesura. Spenser seems to have been the first to imitate the greater freedom of Chaucer in this regard. See the Latin dissertation on Spenser's verse of E. Legouis (_Quomodo E. Spenserus_, etc., Paris, 1896), and the summary of its results by Mr. J. B. Fletcher in _Modern Language Notes_ for November, 1898. "Spenser," says Mr. Fletcher, "revived for 'heroic verse' the neglected variety in unity of his self-acknowledged master, Chaucer." In Gascoigne's _Notes of Instruction concerning the making of verse or ryme in English_ (1575), we find: "There are also certayne pauses or restes in a verse whiche may be called Ceasures.... In mine opinion in a verse of eight sillables, the pause will stand best in the middest, in a verse of tenne it will be placed at the ende of the first foure sillables; in a verse of twelve, in the midst.... In Rithme royall, it is at the wryters discretion, and forceth not where the pause be untill the ende of the line." This greater liberty allowed the rime royal is doubtless due to the influence of Chaucer on that form. For Gascoigne's practice in printing his verse with medial cesura, even without regard to rhetorical divisions, see the specimen given below.

Another interesting Elizabethan account of the cesura is found in Puttenham's _Arte of English Poesie_ (1589), where the writer compares the verse-pause to a stop made by a traveler at an inn for rest and refreshment. (Arber's Reprint, p. 88.)

_Specimen of French alexandrine, showing the regular medial cesura:_

Trois fois cinquante jours le général naufrage Dégasta l'univers; en fin d'un tel ravage L'immortel s'émouvant, n'eût pas sonné si tôt La retraite des eaux que soudain flot sur flot Elles gaignent au pied; tous les fleuves s'abaissant. Le mer rentre en prison; les montagnes renaissent.

(DU BARTAS: _La Première Semaine_. 1579.)

See further, on the character of the French alexandrine and its medial cesura, in Part Two, under Six-stress Verse.

_Specimen of early blank verse printed with regular medial cesura:_

O Knights, O Squires, O Gentle blouds yborne, You were not borne, al onely for your selves: Your countrie claymes, some part of al your paines. There should you live, and therein should you toyle, To hold up right, and banish cruel wrong, To helpe the pore, to bridle backe the riche, To punish vice, and vertue to advaunce, To see God servde, and Belzebub supprest. You should not trust, lieftenaunts in your rome, And let them sway, the scepter of your charge, Whiles you (meane while) know scarcely what is don, Nor yet can yeld, accompt if you were callde.

(GASCOIGNE: _The Steel Glass_, ll. 439 ff. 1576.)

For specimens of regular medial cesura, and of variable cesura, in modern verse, see under the Decasyllabic Couplet and Blank Verse, in