The pause has nothing to do with succession of ideas. It would make little difference how long the pause after “plain” if it were read with a rising inflection. This principle must never be lost sight of.
Pupils who should know better frequently make mistakes of the kind we have been discussing, in reading the following passage:
In the furrowed land
The toilsome and patient oxen stand;
Lifting the yoke-encumbered head,
With their dilated nostrils spread,
They silently inhale
The clover-scented gale,
And the vapors that arise
From the well-watered and smoking soil.