EXERCISES
A. Mark the accented and unaccented syllables in the following selections, and name the kind of verse:—
1.
Build me straight, O worthy Master!
Stanch and strong, a goodly vessel
That shall laugh at all disaster
And with wave and whirlwind wrestle.
—Longfellow.
2.
I know not where His islands lift
Their fronded palms in air,
I only know I cannot drift
Beyond His love and care.
—Whittier.
3.
For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar.
—Tennyson.
4.
Chanting of labor and craft, and of Wealth in the pot and the
garner;
Chanting of valor and fame, and the man who can, fall with the
foremost,
Fighting for children and wife, and the field which his father
bequeathed him,
Sweetly and solemnly sang she, and planned new lessons for
mortals.
—Kingsley.
5.
Have you read in the Talmud of old,
In the Legends the Rabbins have told,
Of the limitless realms of the air,
Have you read it,—the marvelous story
Of Sandalphon, the Angel of Glory,
Of Sandalphon, the Angel of Prayer?
—Longfellow.
B. 1. Find three poems written in iambic verse, and three written in trochaic verse.
2. Write at least one stanza, using iambic verse.
3. Write at least one stanza, using the same kind of verse that you find in Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade."
4. Write two anapestic lines.
+111. Variation in Rhythm.+—The name given to a verse is determined by the foot which prevails, but not every foot in the line needs to be of the same kind. Just as in music we may substitute a quarter for two eighth notes, so may we in poetry substitute one foot for another, provided it is given the same amount of time.
Notice in the following that the rhythm is perfect and the beat regular, although a three-syllable anapest has been substituted in the second line for a two-syllable iambus:—
U | U | U | U | U |
Beneath those rugged elms, that yew tree's shade,
U | U | U | U U | U |
Where heaves the turf in many a moldring heap,
U | U | U | U |U |
Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,
U | U | U | U | U |
The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.
The following from Evangeline illustrates the substitution of trochees for dactyls:—
U U | U | U U | U U | U U | U |
Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers forever departed.
U U | U | U U | U | U U| U
Scattered like dust and leaves, when the mighty blasts of October
U U | U U | U | U U | U U | U |
Seize them and whirl them aloft, and sprinkle them far o'er the ocean.
U U | U U | U U | U U | U U | U
Naught but tradition remains of the beautiful village of Grand-Pre.
It is evident that one foot can be substituted for another if the accent is not changed. Since both the iambus and the anapest are accented on the last syllable, they may be interchanged. The trochee and the dactyl are both accented on the first syllable and may, therefore, be interchanged.
There are some exceptions to the general rule that in substituting one foot for another the accented syllable must be kept in the same part of the foot. Occasionally a poem in which the prevailing foot is iambic has a trochee for the first foot of a line in order that it may begin with an accented syllable. At the beginning of a line the change of accent is scarcely noticeable.
U | U | U |U | Over the rail my hand I trail.
U | U | U | U | Silent the crumbling bridge we cross!
But if the reader has once fallen into the swing of iambic verse, the substitution of a trochee will bring the accent at an unexpected place, interrupt the smooth flow of the rhythm, and produce a harsh and jarring effect. Such a change of accent is justified only when the sense of the verse leads the reader to expect the changed accent, or when the emphasis thus given to the sense of the poem more than compensates for the break in the rhythm produced by the change of accent.
Another form of metrical variation is that in which there are too few or too many syllables in a foot. This generally occurs at the end of a line, but may occur at the beginning. If a syllable is added or omitted skillfully, the rhythm will be unbroken.
When the feet are accented on the last syllable,—that is, when the verse is iambic or anapestic,—an extra syllable may be added at the end of a line.
U |U U |U _ | U
I stood on the bridge at midnight,
U U | U |U U _ |
As the clocks were striking the hour;
U U | U | U _|U
And the Moon rose o'er the city,
U | U | U _ |
Behind the dark church tower.
—Longfellow.
U | U |U | U | U | U |
Girt round with rugged moun[tains], the fair Lake Constance lies,
U | U | U | U | U |U |
In her blue heart reflect[ed] shine back the starry skies;
U | U | U | U |U | U |
And watching each white cloud[let] float silently and slow,
U | U | U | U | U | U |
You think a piece of heav[en] lies on our earth below.
—Adelaide A. Procter.
In the second illustration the extra syllables have the same relative position in the metrical scheme as in the first, though they appear to be in the middle of the line. The pauses fill in the time and preserve the rhythm unbroken.
When the feet are accented on the first syllable—as in trochaic or dactylic verse—a syllable may be omitted from the end of a line as in the second and fourth below.
U U | U U | U U| U | Up with the lark in the first flush of morning,
U U | U U | U U | |
Ere the world wakes to its work or its play;
U U| U U | U U | U |
Off for a spin to the wide-stretching country,
U U | U U | U U| |
Far from the close, stifling city away.
Sometimes we find it necessary to suppress a syllable in order to make the rhythm more nearly perfect. Syllables may be suppressed in two ways: by suppressing a vowel at the end of a word when the next word commences with a vowel; by suppressing a vowel within a word. The former method is termed elision, and the latter, slurring.
U | U |U | U | U _ |
Thou glorious mirror where the Almighty's form
U U
U |U | U _ | U
Glasses itself in tempests.
—Byron.
An accented syllable often takes the place of an entire foot. This occurs most frequently at the end of a line, but it is sometimes found at the beginning. Occasionally whole lines are formed in this way. If a pause or rest is made, the rhythm will be unbroken.
u | u | u _ |
Break, break, break,
U U | U | U _ |
On thy cold gray stones, O sea!
U U | U U | U _|U
And I would that my tongue could utter
U | U U |U _|
The thoughts that arise in me.
—Tennyson.
We frequently find verses in which a syllable is lacking at the close of the line; we also find many verses in which an extra syllable is added. Verse that contains the number of syllables required by its meter is said to be acatalectic; if it contains more than the required number of syllables, it is said to be hypercatalectic; and if it lacks a syllable, it is termed catalectic. It is difficult to tell whether a line has the required number of syllables or not when it is taken by itself; but by comparing it with the line prevailing in the rest of the stanza we are enabled to tell whether it is complete or not. Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is written in iambic pentameter verse. Knowing this, we can detect the hypercatalectic and catalectic lines.
U | U | U | U | U _ |
You all did see that on the Lupercal
U | U | U |U | U _|
I thrice presented him a kingly crown
U | U |U | U | U _| U
Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?
U | U | U | U | U
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious.
—Shakespeare.
+112. Cesura.+—Besides the pauses caused by rests or silences there is the cesural pause which needs to be considered in reading verse. A cesura is a pause determined by the sense. It coincides with some break in the sense. It is found in different parts of the verse and may be entirely lacking. Its observance does not noticeably interfere with the rhythm. In the following selection it is marked thus: ||.
U | U | U | U |
The sun came up || upon the left,
U| U | U _ |
Out of the sea || came he;
U | U | U | U |
And he shone bright, || and on the right
U | U | U _ |
Went down || into the sea
—Coleridge.
Lives of great men || all remind us
We can make our lives || sublime,
And, departing, || leave behind us,
Footprints || on the sands of time.
—Longfellow.
Read the selections on page 197 so as to indicate the position of the cesural pauses.
+113. Scansion.+—Scansion is the separation of a line into the feet which compose it. In order to scan a line we must determine the rhythmic movement of it. The rhythmic movement determines the accented syllables. Sometimes in scanning, merely the accented syllables are marked. Usually the whole metrical scheme is indicated, as in the examples on page 199.