RESTS IN VERSE.
“There is another point, which properly comes under the head of time, in rhythmical reading, and the due observance of which is essential to the melody of verse: that is the rests or pauses peculiar to verse, viz.:
The Cæsural Rest, to divide the line; and
The Rest at the Close of each line.
“The duration of each of these pauses or rests is equal to that of the short rhetorical pause; subject, of course, to be increased by the pause of sense.
“‘The cæsural pause may fall,’ says Blair, ‘in heroic verse, after the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, or the seventh syllable.’
“The placing it is the poet’s business: it is the Elocutionist’s to mark it in delivery. But if its introduction would be absolutely repugnant to sense and just elocution, the poet must bear the fault, and his line lose some portion of its melody by the omission; for sense cannot be sacrificed to sound.
“The rest at the end of the line suggests itself, and must not be omitted: the sense will most frequently enforce it; when it does not, a rest must nevertheless be made by a suspension of voice at the end of each line, equal to the short pause in Elocution.
EXAMPLE.
Achilles’ wrath, | to Greece the direful spring |
Of woes unnumbered, | heav’nly goddess sing!
EXERCISES.
“The following verses in heroic measure—that is, consisting of ten syllables to each line, the syllables being (with occasional variations, which are allowed) alternately light and heavy—I have marked with the cæsural pause and rest at the end of the line. Let the student read them aloud, marking these pauses, and duly observing time, rhythm, and poetical intonation.
The Temple of Fame.—Pope.
Four faces had the dome, | and every face |
Of various structure | but of equal grace!
Four brazen gates | on columns lifted high, |
Salute the different quarters | of the sky.
Here fabled chiefs, | in darker ages born, |
Or worthies old, | whom arms or arts adorn, |
Who cities rais’d, | or tam’d a monstrous race, |
The walls, | in venerable order, | grace:
Heroes | in animated marble | frown, |
And legislators seem | to speak in stone.
Westward | a sumptuous frontispiece | appear’d |
On Doric pillars | of white marble rear’d, |
Crown’d with an architrave | of antique mould, |
And sculpture rising | on the roughen’d gold.
In shaggy spoils | here Theseus was beheld, |
And Perseus, dreadful | with Minerva’s shield:
There great Alcides, | stooping with his toil, |
Rests on his club, | and holds th’ Hesperian spoil:
Here Orpheus sings; | trees wooing to the sound, |
Start from their roots, | and form a shade around:
Amphion there | the loud creating lyre |
Strikes, and behold | a sudden Thebes aspire!
Cythæron’s echoes | answer to his call, |
And half the mountain | rolls into a wall:
There might ye see | the lengthening spires ascend, |
The dome swell up, | the widening arches bend, |
The growing towers | like exultations rise, |
And the huge columns | heave into the skies.
Melody and Cadence require that in reading poetry the inflections be more smooth, or less angular, than in prose. To make the inflections as sharp as they often are in ordinary composition, would interfere with that easy and graceful flow which is the chief charm of poetical composition. But while cadence adds much to the beauty of poetical expression, it must not be carried so far as to supersede the just inflection and emphasis which the sense demands. To do so, would be to give to the reading a sing-song tone and sameness, both unmeaning and disagreeable. Melody may be said to relate to the whole verse in poetry; cadence applies only to the closing line or phrase.
[3] Pronouns used as antecedents, and also relatives, when their antecedents are not expressed, should obviously be pronounced with a certain degree of emphatic force; as, “He that runs may read.” “Who seeks for glory often finds a grave.” “What man has done, man can do.”
[4] The following is Mr. J. Sheridan Knowles’s account of emphasis:—“Emphasis is of two kinds, absolute and relative. Relative emphasis has always an antithesis expressed or implied: absolute emphasis takes place when the peculiar eminence of the thought is solely, singly considered.
’Twas base and poor, unworthy of a peasant,
To forge a scroll so villainous and loose,
And mark it with a noble lady’s name.
Here we have an example of relative emphasis; for, if the thought were expressed at full, it would stand thus:—Unworthy not only of a gentleman, but of a peasant.
’Twas base and poor, unworthy of a man,
To forge a scroll so villainous and loose,
And mark it with a noble lady’s name.
Here we have an example of absolute emphasis; for, if the thought were expressed at full, it would stand thus:—Unworthy a being composed of such perfections as constitute a man.” Mr. Knowles adds: “I apprehend that, notwithstanding all that has been written on the subject, the true definition of emphasis remains still to be discovered.”
[5] Single emphasis, is when there is one pair of words opposed to each other in a sentence; Double emphasis, when there are two pairs; and Treble, when there are three.