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.