while repetition takes a more artistic form in the vernacular:[[470]]—
Come, my darling, come to me!
I am waiting long for thee:
I am waiting long for thee,
Come, my darling, come to me!
Lips so sweet of red-rose grain,
Come and make me well again:
Come and make me well again,
Lips so sweet of red-rose grain!
Incremental repetition, then, as it is found in traditional ballads, lies midway between two extremes, one communal and one artistic. Behind it is the indefinite iteration, unchanged, of primitive song; before it is the repetition of artistic parallelism which is crossed by variation, mainspring of the poetic dialect. Iteration is the spontaneous expression of emotion, and begins in the throng; it lies at the root of all rhythm, cadence, and consent; variation is the assertion of art, of progress, of the individual. These are the two great elements of poetry. Variation could take place in two ways. The communal singer had his stock of communal refrains and the like, derived from tradition of the singing and dancing throng; for communal purposes he could have added his own stanzas, just as Burns did in modern days. There was the chorus:—