"Even in thy pitch of pride,
Here, in thy hold, thy vassals near,
I tell thee thou 'rt defied!
And if thou said'st I am not peer
To any lord in Scotland here,
Lowland or Highland, far or near,
Lord Angus, thou hast lied '"
REMARK 1.—In our attempt to imitate nature it is important to avoid affectation, for to this fault even perfect monotony is preferable.
REMARK 2.—The strength of the voice may be increased by practicing with different degrees of loudness, from a whisper to full rotundity, taking care to keep the voice on the same key. The same note in music may be sounded loud or soft. So also a sentence may be pronounced on the same pitch with different degrees of loudness. Having practiced with different degrees of loudness on one key, make the same experiment on another, and then on another, and so on. This will also give the learner practice in compass,
VII. POETIC PAUSES.
In poetry we have, in addition to other pauses, poetic pauses. The object of these is simply to promote the melody.
At the end of each line a slight pause is proper, whatever be the grammatical construction or the sense. The purpose of this pause is to make prominent the melody of the measure, and in rhyme to allow the ear to appreciate the harmony of the similar sounds.
There is, also, another important pause, somewhere near the middle of each line, which is called the caesura or caesural pause. In the following lines it is marked thus (||):
EXAMPLES.
There are hours long departed || which memory brings,
Like blossoms of Eden || to twine round the heart,
And as time rushes by || on the might of his wings,
They may darken awhile || but they never depart.
REMARK.—The caesural pause should never be so placed as to injure the sense. The following lines, if melody alone were consulted, would be read thus: