Accent.—This term, which is perhaps the principal centre of dispute in matters prosodic and which, even outside strict prosody, is not a little controversial, may be defined, as uncontroversially as possibly in the words of a highly respectable book of reference,[154] "A superior force of voice, or of articulative effort, upon some particular syllable." It is prosodically used as equivalent (with some slight differences) to "stress," and is regarded by a large—perhaps the most numerous—school as constituting the foundation-stone of English prosody. The inconveniences and insufficiencies of this view will be found constantly indicated throughout this book. On the question, almost more debated, what constitutes, and in different languages and times has constituted, accent itself—whether it is loudness, duration, "pitch," or what not of sound—no pronouncement has been or will be attempted in this volume.
Acephalous.—A term applied to a line in which the first syllable, according to its ordinary norm or form, is wanting, as in Chaucer's
ʌ Twen|ty bo|kès clad | in blak | or reed.
Acrostic.—An arrangement, not perhaps strictly prosodic, by which the initial syllables of the lines of a poem make words or names of themselves, as in Sir John Davies's Astræa, where these initials in every piece make "Elizabetha Regina." The process is now chiefly confined to light verse; but there is nothing to be said against it, unless the sense is strained or perverted to get the letters.
Alcaic.—A Greek lyrical measure, used by and named after the famous lyrical poet Alcæus, but most familiar in the slightly altered Latin form of Horace. Like all these forms, it is only a curiosity in English, and, even as such, has shared the endless and hopeless controversies as to accentual and quantitative metre. No one, however, is ever likely to get nearer to the real thing than Tennyson in
Me rather all that bowery loneliness,
The brooks of Eden mazily murmuring,
And bloom profuse, and cedar arches,
Charm as a wanderer out in Ocean.
The strict Horatian form (the last syllables being, as usual, common) is:
̄ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̆ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̆
̄ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̆ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̆
̄ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆
̄ ̆ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̆.
Alexandrine.—A line of twelve syllables or six iambic feet. This measure (traditionally said to have taken its name from the Old French poem on Alexander) became the favourite metre for the chansons de geste or long narrative poems in that language, and then practically the staple of French verse to the present day. But though it is early traced—as a whole or as two halves—in English, it never established itself as a continuous metre with us. Only two pieces of importance, Drayton's Polyolbion and Browning's Fifine at the Fair, so employ it. On the other hand, it is constantly found scattered about early English verse; appears—questionably according to some, unquestionably according to the present writer—in Chaucer; was an ingredient in the "poulter's measure" (v. inf.), so popular with the poets of the second and third quarters of the sixteenth century; was used by Sidney continuously in sonnet; forms, as a concluding line, the distinguishing feature of the great Spenserian stanza; is very frequent in Shakespeare and the other Elizabethan dramatists; and was adopted by Dryden (though latterly, and then not quite always, rejected by Pope) as a relief and variation to the heroic couplet. It also supplies a frequent ingredient in Pindaric verse and in various lyrical stanzas. For its perfection it almost requires a central cæsura at the sixth syllable.