“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 |