Perhaps you do not read the poem in this way; mark the stresses for yourself, without looking at the book.
Accept no statements without verifying them.
53A. It will have struck you that you have really been scanning the poem. Hitherto you may have done it by means of the signs – and ˘, taken from Latin prosody, where they stand for "long" and "short." Consider the question which of these two systems of scansion is the more accurate and the more convenient.
53B. It may also strike you that in reading the poem we do not make a pause at the end of each word; and of course we do not read it "all in one breath." How many breaths do you require for reading it slowly? for reading it quickly? What guides you in finding places for your pauses? Take any dozen lines of prose and read them aloud; notice where you pause for breath. The words which are read together in one breath are called a breath group. After considering several passages from this point of view, you will realise that good reading depends to some extent on the choice of suitable places for taking breath. Let your friends read to you, and observe how they manage their breath.
54. We have spoken several times of stress, and you have probably followed without difficulty. What is stress? Utter the series of sounds [´atata], then [a´tata], and [ata´ta].[70] You use more force for the stressed than for the unstressed vowels, that is to say, you put more breath into them. Place your hand close in front of your lips as you say the above sounds, and you will notice a distinct increase of breath as the stressed syllable is uttered.
We use this stress for purposes of emphasis; generally speaking, we expend more breath on those syllables of a word, or words of a sentence, which are more important for the meaning. We may say that English sentence stress is guided by logical considerations. Is this equally true of French? of German? Has anything struck you about the stress in French, or in English as spoken by a Frenchman?
55. Stress, due to force of breath, is not the only means of accentuation at our disposal. We can also produce various effects by changing the pitch of the voice. When the pitch of a voice hardly varies at all, we consider it monotonous. Certain clergymen have acquired the habit of reading the Church service in monotone; consider whether this has any advantage or disadvantage. When there is very great and regular or monotonous variation of pitch in a voice, we call it a "sing-song."
In standard speech there is moderate variation of pitch; it becomes considerable only in dramatic and oratorical declamation, when a skilled use of pitch variations may produce a deeply moving or highly stirring effect, somewhat resembling that produced by song.
Observe the pitch changes in ordinary speech. The most obvious case is the rise of pitch in questions, in contrast with the tendency to lower the pitch in a statement. Even though we have the same order of words as in a statement, this change of pitch alone suffices to show that a question is being asked. Say: You are going out and You are going out? Try to say Are you going out? with the same falling pitch as in You are going out, and observe the strange effect. Determine the changes of pitch in such questions as: Is your brother tall or short? Is your uncle's house in the town or in the country? Notice that joy or any great excitement leads to the use of a higher pitch than usual.