Eran trecénto, eran gióvani e fórti,
E sóno mórti!
Me ne andávo al mattíno a spigoláre
Quando ho vísto una bárca in mezzo al máre:
Era una bárca che andáva a vapóre,
E alzáva una bandiéra tricolóre.
All'ísola di Pónza s'è fermáta,
È stata un póco e pói si è ritornáta;
S'è ritornáta ed è venúta a térra:
Sceser con l'ármi, e a noi non fécer guérra.
(Prati, La spigolatrice di Sapri.)

(Translation: "There were three hundred, young and strong! And now they are dead! That morning I was gleaning in the fields; I saw a boat at sea,—a steamer flying the white, red and green. It stopped at Ponza, remained a while and then came back—came back and approached the shore. They came ashore in arms, but to us they did no harm").

While the rhythmic accents were being studied, we found that the discovery of the cæsura (interior pause) formed an interesting recreative diversion. In fact this work aroused so much enthusiasm that the children went from exercise to exercise, continuing at study for extended periods, and far from showing signs of weariness, actually increased their joyous application. One little girl, in the first six minutes of her work, marked the cæsura of seventy-six ten-syllable lines without making a mistake. An abundant material is necessary for this exercise. Example:

Dagli atri muscosi, dai fori cadenti,
Dai boschi, dall'arse fucine stridenti,
Dai solchi bagnati di servo sudor,
Un volgo disperso repente si desta,
Intende l'orecchio, solleva la testa,
Percosso da novo crescente rumor.
(Manzoni, Italiani e Longobardi.)

(Translation: "From the damp atria, from the ruined squares, from the forests, from the hissing forges, from the fields bathed with the sweat of slaves, a scattered horde of men suddenly is roused. They listen, lift their heads, startled at this strange increasing roar").

The step forward to the perception of the syllabic units of the line is a purely sensory phenomenon: it is analogous to marking the time of music without taking account of the measure divisions. Syllabiating according to rhythm and beating on the table with the fingers solve even the subtler difficulties such as dieresis and synalepha, in recognizing the rhythmic syllables. Examples:

La | so | mma | sa | pi | en | za e'l | pri | mo A | mo | re

We print this verse in the above form, because it was thus divided by a child in his very first spontaneous effort at syllabiation. As a matter of fact, we present the material normally according to graded difficulties, using over again for this purpose the materials used in the study of accents. At this point also the accents themselves suddenly acquire a new interest, for the child is able to observe on "what syllable they fall." Thus his metrical study approaches completion, for now he can readily acquire the nomenclature of metrics and versification: dodecasyllable, hendecasyllable, etc. Then, combining his knowledge of the numbers of syllables and the location of the rhythmic accents, the child is at the point of discovering the rhythmic laws of verse construction. We were expecting the children to begin producing definitions like the following: "The dodecasyllable line has twelve syllables and four accents which fall on the second, fifth, eighth and eleventh syllables," etc. The spontaneous impulse of the pupils led instead to the construction of "mirrors" or "checkerboards" like the following:

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Decasyllable piano (trochaic) 3d 6th 9th
" tronco (iambic) 3d 6th 9th
Eight syllable piano 3d 7th
" " tronco 3d 7th
Dodecasyllable piano 2d 5th 8th 11th
" tronco 2d 5th 8th 11th