In epic poetry, the vehicle of great national deeds and ideals, and the enshrining of deep religious and moral truths, the verse employed is generally blank verse (i. e. unrhymed verse), in paragraphs instead of stanzas, and generally Iambic pentameter. For less sublime or universal purposes, however, this epic class has been enlarged to include narrative and romantic poetry, often rhymed, as in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Scott’s The Lady of the Lake; and sometimes in stanzas, as in Spencer’s Fairy Queene.
Dramatic poetry, designed for representation on the stage, and written in blank verse of a less severe and rigid artistic kind than in the epic, is modeled more after the natural rhythm of impassioned speech. The range and tone of such dramatic verse is very generous and elastic; from the free and colloquial, as in Browning’s dramatic monologues, up to the so-called closet drama, designed to be read rather than played, wherein the artistic demands are as subtle and exacting as in the epic, and the sentiment generally more intense.
While, therefore, the ancient classification remains fundamental and true, the modern art of printing and the discontinuance of the custom of reading aloud, have operated to enlarge the scope of poetry within these elemental lines till every requirement of impassioned and imaginative utterance is freely open to it, in vital and enduring forms.
WORDS AND PHRASES FROM THE MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGES.
Including proverbs, maxims, quotations, mottoes, idioms, allusions, references, and numerous terms used in law, literature, cookery, the drama, social life, and everyday affairs.
KEY TO PRONUNCIATION
ä, as in farm, father; ȧ, as in ask, fast; a, as in at, fat; ā, as in day, fate; â, as in care, fare; e, as in met, set; ē, as in me, see; ẽ, as in her, ermine; i, as in pin, ill; ī, as in pine, ice; o, as in not, got; ō, as in note, old; ô, as in for, fought; oo, as in cook, look; ōō, as in moon, spoon; u, as in cup, duck; ū, as in use, amuse; û, as in fur, urge; th, as in the, though; y, as in yet, you; ow, as in cow, now; ng, as in sing, ring; ch, as in church, choose.
FOREIGN SOUNDS
ö cannot be exactly represented in English. The English sound of u in burn is perhaps the nearest equivalent to ö. ü cannot be exactly represented in English. The English sound of u in luke and duke resembles the original sound of ü. N represents the nasal tone (as in French) of the preceding vowel, as in encore (äN-kôr´). K represents ch, as in German ich, ach. zh, sound of s in pleasure. j and g before i or e in Spanish, strongly aspirated h.