English: Composition and Literature

by W. F. Webster

We may take a step further. There are many times when some sudden change of thought, some strong emotion forces a poet to break the smooth rhythm, that the verses may harmonize with his feeling. Such a variation is like an exclamation or a dash thrown into prose. The following is taken from “Annabel Lee.” The regular foot has the accent on the last syllable. It is anapestic, in tetrameters and trimeters. But note the shudder in the third line when the accent is changed on the word “chilling.” The music and the thought are in perfect harmony.

“And this was the reason that, long ago,

In this kingdom by the sea,

	^		^			^	^
eighth note	quarter note	eighth note	quarter note	eighth note	eighth note	eighth note	quarter note	eighth note
A	wind	blew	out	of	a	cloud,	chil	ling

My beautiful Annabel Lee;

So that her highborn kinsman came

And bore her away from me

[279] To shut her up in a sepulchre

In this kingdom by the sea.”

	^		^			^	^
eighth note	quarter note	eighth note	quarter note	eighth note	eighth note	eighth note	quarter note	eighth note
A	wind	blew	out	of	a	cloud,	chil	ling

Another beautiful example is found in the last stanza of the same poem. It is in the first two feet of the fifth line. Here the regular accent has yielded to an accent on the middle syllable and there are two amphibrachs. Notice, too, how it is almost impossible to tell in the next foot whether the accent goes upon the second or upon the third syllable. It is hovering between the form of the first two feet and the anapest of the last foot.

“For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

	^			^			^	^			^
eighth note	eighth note	eighth note	eighth note	eighth note	eighth note	eighth note	eighth note	eighth note	eighth note	eighth note	eighth note
And	so,	all	the	night-	tide,	I	lie	down	by	the	side

Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,

In her sepulchre there by the sea

In her tomb by the sounding sea.”

	^			^			^	^			^
eighth note	eighth note	eighth note	eighth note	eighth note	eighth note	eighth note	eighth note	eighth note	eighth note	eighth note	eighth note
And	so,	all	the	night-	tide,	I	lie	down	by	the	side

As has already been said, the iambus is the common foot of English verse. It is made of a short and a long syllable. At the beginning of a poem an unaccented syllable seems weak; and so very frequently the first foot of a poem is trochaic; often the first two or three feet are of this kind. At such a place the irregularity does not strike one. The following is an illustration:—

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quarter note	eighth note	eighth note	quarter note	eighth note	quarter note	eighth note	quarter note
“Un	der	a	spread	ing	chest	nut	tree

	^		^		^
eighth note	quarter note	eighth note	quarter note	eighth note	quarter note
The	vil	lage	smith	y	stands;

[280] The smith, a mighty man is he,

With large and sinewy hands;

And the muscles of his brawny arms

Are strong as iron bands.”

^			^		^		^
quarter note	eighth note	eighth note	quarter note	eighth note	quarter note	eighth note	quarter note
“Un	der	a	spread	ing	chest	nut	tree

	^		^		^
eighth note	quarter note	eighth note	quarter note	eighth note	quarter note
The	vil	lage	smith	y	stands;