3. Modification of the Normal Form of Verse due to Rhyme.
Verse Pause in Rhymed Material.
There are as wide, isolated variations as in the case of unrhymed material. As compared with unrhymed verse, the pause is in general decidedly shorter. The verse pauses of the feminine rhymes are generally much like those of the end rhymed material. But there are very few cases of the verse pause being as short as the foot pause—only four cases in sixty (6.6 per cent.). See Table IX.
This wide variation of the verse pause and its occasional equivalence to the foot pause in rhymed verses is in accord with the notion that the rhyme in some way brings the verse to a close by a process more rapid than that in unrhymed material.
The introduction of rhyme seems to be favorable to the division of a stanza into two parts by producing an unusually long verse pause after the second verse. Of 43 unrhymed stanzas there are 19 which show a decidedly long pause at the close of some one of the verses. But of these 19 cases, only 8 (18 per cent.) have the break at the close of the second verse. Of 64 rhymed stanzas, 29 show the division, and of this 29, 22 (34 per cent.) have the break at the close of the second verse.
Influence of the Rhymes on Intensities.
The intensities at the close of the verse, without rhyme, may be slightly greater than within the verse. The dynamic shading of the verse is elastic, and a variety of forms is possible, a decrescendo at the close of the verse is not unusual (cf. Table VIII.). But when the rhyme is introduced the general dynamic form of the verse is fixed, and in the material measured this is true not only of the verses in a stanza which contain the rhyme but of other verses in the same stanza.
Of the 32 verses containing rhymes in Table X., but four verses are exceptions to the rule of an increase of intensity on the rhyme. There are two cases of double, alternating rhymes where it is doubtful if the subject actually felt one of the alternating rhymes. This increase of intensity on the rhyme is not confined to that particular syllable or foot; often, as indicated by the italics, the influence of the accent makes itself felt earlier in the verse.
TABLE X.
INTENSITIES OF IAMBIC TETRAMETER WITH END RHYME (SHOWING INCREASED INTENSITY OF THE RHYMING SYLLABLE). ALSO AVERAGE LENGTH OF THE FIRST THREE SONANTS, TOGETHER WITH THE LENGTH OF THE LAST SONANT.