Note the pauses after "reign," and "English" (second example).
In such examples as the following where the meaning is obvious, the pauses after "them," "one," "weary," and "wounded," make prominent the important idea following:
And 'mongst them Count de Lorge, with one he hoped to make his bride.
The weary to sleep and the wounded to die.
When preparing to read a selection, it is of great importance to make the leading thoughts stand out clearly in the mind so that we may be able to present them one by one. The poem Barbara Frietchie (p. [113.]) could be divided into paragraphs with some such titles as the following: (1) the town of Frederick and its surroundings, (2) the approach of the army, (3) the tearing down of the flags, (4) the raising of Barbara Frietchie's flag, (5) Stonewall Jackson and his men, and so on. Each of the paragraphs is a complete section of the poem, and requires a well-marked pause before passing on to the next one.
Grouping. In the extract from The Glove and the Lions, used above to illustrate pause, the mental pictures and important ideas are suggested in nearly every ease by a single word. Ideas are, however, suggested as often by groups of words as by single words. These groups are treated as single words, and may take pauses before or after them as the case may be. The reader, who is thinking as he reads, will group together words that express one idea, or symbolize one picture, presenting these ideas and pictures to himself and to the listener one by one, and separating by a pause, of greater or less length, those not closely connected.
A slouched leather cap|| half hid his face| bronzed by the sun and wind| and dripping with sweat.|| He wore a cravat twisted like a rope|| coarse blue trousers| worn and shabby| white on one knee| and with holes in the other;|| an old ragged gray blouse| patched on one side with a piece of green cloth| sewed with twine;|| upon his back| was a well-filled knapsack,|| in his hand| he carried an enormous knotted stick;|| his stockingless feet| were in hobnailed shoes;|| his hair was cropped|| and his beard long.
Here the double vertical lines mark off groups of words which express one idea or symbolize one picture, and which are therefore each separated from the other by a well-marked pause. The single vertical lines indicate a shorter pause between the subdivisions of each group. The phrase "an old ragged gray blouse patched on one side with a piece of green cloth sewed with twine" presents one picture by itself, and is separated from the context by a long pause, but each detail in this picture is presented in turn to the mind's eye, hence the shorter pauses after "blouse," "cloth," and "twine."
The reader should be careful not to allow pause and grouping to produce a jerky effect, thus interfering with the rhythm. This applies especially to poetry, which demands, in order to preserve the rhythm, that the caesural pause should not be slighted, and that there should be a more or less marked pause at the end of each line:
And they had trod the Pass once more, and stoop'd on either side
To pluck the heather from the spot where he had dropped and died.