The German heart is stout and true, the German arm is strong;
The German foot goes seldom back where armèd foemen throng.
In the phrase "The German heart" the chief emphasis is on "heart," with a slighter emphasis on German. The emphasis is then transferred to "arm" and "foot" through contrast with "heart." To emphasize "German" again would weaken the effect.
Compare the repetition, in the following, of the syllable "un," also of the phrase "this year":
Unwatched along Clitumnus Grazes the milk-white steer; Unharmed the water-fowl may dip In the Volsinian mere.
The harvests of Arretium, This year, old men shall reap, This year young boys in Umbro Shall plunge the struggling sheep; And in the vats of Luna, This year, the must shall foam Round the white feet of laughing girls Whose sires have marched to Rome.
Words and phrases are emphatic quite as often through contrast implied as through contrast expressed. It is evident that such a sentence as: "Will you ride to town to-day?" may have a number of different meanings according to the words emphasized. This difference of meaning is due to an implied contrast. If "you" is emphatic, it is because there is a mental contrast between "you" and some other person. If "ride" is emphatic, it is because riding is being contrasted with walking or driving and so on. The following contain examples of emphasis through implied contrast:
Great things were ne'er begotten in an hour.
But now no sound of laughter was heard among the foes.
As already shown on page [21], the emphasis, in the case of implied contrast, is brought out by the circumflex inflection.