[§ 646]. Scansion.—Let the stanza just quoted be read as two lines, and it will be seen that a couplet of ballad metre is equivalent to a line of service metre. Such, indeed, was the origin of the ballad metre. Observe also the pause (marked |) both in the Alexandrine and the service metres. This indicates a question as to where lines end; in other words, how can we distinguish one long line from two short ones.
It may, perhaps, partake of the nature of a metrical fiction to consider that (in all rhyming poetry) the length of the verse is determined by the occurrence of the rhyme. Nevertheless, as the matter cannot be left to the printer only, and as some definition is requisite, the one in point is attended by as few inconveniences as any other. It must not, however, be concealed that lines as short as
It screamed and growled, | and cracked and howled—
it treats as two; and that lines as long as
Where Virtue wants and Vice abounds,
And Wealth is but a baited hook—
it reduces to a single verse.
[§ 647]. In metres of measure a x, the number of syllables is double the number of accents, unless the final rhyme be single; in which case the syllables are the fewest.
In metres of measure x a the number of syllables is double the number of accents, unless the rhyme be double (or treble); in which case the syllables are the most numerous.
Now this view (which may be carried throughout the whole five measures) of the proportion between the accents and the syllables, taken with the fact that it is determined by the nature of the final syllable, indicates a division of our metres into symmetrical (where the number of the syllables is the multiple of the number of accents), and unsymmetrical (where it is not so).