PART ONE
ENGLISH VERSE
I. ACCENT AND TIME
A.—KINDS OF ACCENT
The accents of English syllables as appearing in verse are commonly classified in two ways: according to degree of intensity, and according to cause or significance.
Obviously there can be no fixed limits to the number of degrees of intensity recognized in syllabic accent or stress. It is common to speak of three such degrees: syllables having accent (stressed), syllables having secondary accent, and syllables without accent (unstressed). Schipper makes four groups: Principal Accent (Hauptaccent or Hochton), Secondary Accent (Nebenaccent or Tiefton), No Accent (Tonlosigkeit), and Disappearance of Sound (Stummheit). In illustration he gives the word ponderous, where the first syllable has the chief accent, the last a secondary accent, the second no accent; while in the verse
"Most ponderous and substantial things"
the second syllable is suppressed or silent.