Dissertation V.
Of the Construction of English Verse.—Pauses.—Expression.—Of reading Verse.
Of the Construction of English Verse
As poetry has ever been numbered among the fine arts, and has employed the pens of the first geniuses in all nations, an investigation of the subject must be gratifying to readers of taste. And it must be the more agreeable, as it has been much neglected, and the nature and construction of English verse have frequently been misunderstood.
Most prosodians who have treated particularly of this subject, have been guilty of a fundamental error, in considering the movement of English verse as depending on long and short syllables, formed by long and short vowels. This hypothesis has led them into capital mistakes. The truth is, many of those syllables which are considered as long in verse, are formed by the shortest vowels in the language; as strength, health, grand. The doctrine, that long vowels are requisite to form long syllables in poetry, is at length exploded, and the principles which regulate the movement of our verse, are explained; viz. accent and emphasis. Every emphatical word, and every accented syllable, will form what is called in verse, a long syllable. The unaccented syllables, and unemphatical monosyllabic words, are considered as short syllables.
But there are two kinds of emphasis; a natural emphasis, which arises from the importance of the idea conveyed by a word; and an accidental emphasis, which arises from the importance of a word in a particular situation.
The first or natural emphasis belongs to all nouns, verbs, participles and adjectives, and requires no elevation of voice; as,
“Not half so swift the trembling doves can fly.”
The last or accidental emphasis is laid on a word when it has some particular meaning, and when the force of a sentence depends on it; this therefore requires an elevation of voice; as,
“Perdition catch my soul—but I do love thee.”
So far the prosody of the English language seems to be settled; but the rules laid down for the construction of verse, seem to have been imperfect and disputed.
Writers have generally supposed that our heroic verse consists of five feet, all pure Iambics, except the first foot, which they allow may be a Trochee. In consequence of this opinion, they have expunged letters from words which were necessary; and curtailed feet in such a manner as to disfigure the beauty of printing, and in many instances, destroyed the harmony of our best poetry.
The truth is, so far is our heroic verse from being confined to the Iambic measure, that it admits of eight feet, and in some instances of nine. I will not perplex my readers with a number of hard names, but proceed to explain the several feet, and show in what places of the line they are admissible.
An Iambic foot, which is the ground of English numbers, consists of two syllables, the first short and the second long. This foot is admitted into every place of the line. Example, all Iambics.
“Whĕre slāves ŏnce mōre thĕir nātĭve lānd bĕhōld,
Nŏ fiēnds tŏrmēnt, nŏ chrīstiăns thīrst, fŏr gōld.”
Pope.
The Trochee is a foot consisting of two syllables, the first long and the second short. Example.
“Wārms ĭn the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees.”
Pope.
The Trochee is not admissible into the second place of the line; but in the third and fourth it may have beauty, when it creates a correspondence between the sound and sense.
“Eve rightly call’d mōthĕr of all mankind.”
“And staggered by the stroke, drōps thĕ large ox.”
The Spondee is a foot consisting of two long syllables. This may be used in any place of the line.
1. “Gōod līfe be now my task, my doubts are done.”
Dryden.
2. “As some lōne moūntain’s monstrous growth he stood.”
Pope.
But it has a greater beauty, when preceded by a Trochee.
“Lōad thĕ tāll bārk and launch into the main.”
3. “The mountain goats cāme bōunding o’er the lawn.”
4. “He spoke, and speaking in prōud trīumph spread,
The long contended honors of her head.”
Pope.
5. “Singed are his brows, the scorching lids grōw blāck.”
Pope.
The Pyrrhic is a foot of two short syllables; it is graceful in the first and fourth places, and is admissible into the second and third.
1. “Nŏr ĭn the helpless orphan dread a foe.”
Pope.
2. ——“On they move,
Indissŏlŭbly firm.”——Milton.
3. “The two extremes appear like man and wife,
Coupled togethĕr fŏr the sake of strife.”
Churchill.
But this foot is most graceful in the fourth place.
“The dying gales that pant ŭpŏn the trees.”
“To farthest shores the ambrosial spirit flies,
Sweet to the world and gratefŭl tŏ the skies.”
The Amphibrach is a foot of three syllables, the first and third short, and the second long. It is used in heroic verse only when we take the liberty to add a short syllable to a line.
“The piece you say is incorrect, wh̆y tāke ĭt,
I’m all submission, what you’d have ĭt, māke ĭt.”
This foot is hardly admissible in the solemn or sublime stile. Pope has indeed admitted it into his Essay on Man:
“What can ennoble sots or slaves ŏr cōwărds,
Alas! not all the blood of all thĕ Hōwărds.”
Again:
“To sigh for ribbands, if thou art sŏ sīll̆y,
Mark how they grace Lord Umbra or Sĭr Bīll̆y.”
But these lines are of the high burlesque kind, and in this stile the Amphibrach closes lines with great beauty.
The Tribrach is a foot of three syllables, all short; and it may be used in the third and fourth places.
“And rolls impetŭoŭs tŏ the subject plain.”
Or thus:
“And thunders down impetŭoŭs tŏ the plain.”
The Dactyl, a foot of three syllables, the first long and the two last short, is used principally in the first place in the line.
“Fūrĭoŭs he spoke, the angry chief replied.”
“Mūrmŭrĭng, and with him fled the shades of night.”
The Anapæst, a foot consisting of three syllables, the two first short and the last long, is admissible into every place of the line.
“Căn ă bōsŏm sŏ gēntlĕ rĕmāin,
Unmoved when her Corydon sighs?
Will a nymph that is fond of the plains,
These plains and these valleys despise?
Dear regions of silence and shade,
Soft scenes of contentment and ease,
Where I could have pleasingly stay’d,
If ought in her absence could please.”
The trissyllabic feet have suffered most by the general ignorance of critics; most of them have been mutilated by apostrophes, in order to reduce them to the Iambic measure.
Thus in the line before repeated,
“Murmuring, and with him fled the shades of night,”
we find the word in the copy reduced to two syllables, murm’ring, and the beauty of the Dactyl is destroyed.
Thus in the following:
“On every side with shadowy squadrons deep,”
by apostrophizing every and shadowy, the line loses its harmony. The same remark applies to the following:
“And hosts infuriate shake the shudd’ring plain.”
“But fashion so directs, and moderns raise
On fashion’s mould’ring base, their transient praise.”
Churchill.
Poetic lines which abound with these trissyllabic feet, are the most flowing and melodious of any in the language; and yet the poets themselves, or their printers, murder them with numberless unnecessary contractions.
It requires but little judgement and an ear indifferently accurate, to distinguish the contractions which are necessary, from those which are needless and injurious to the versification. In the following passage we find examples of both.
“She went from op’ra, park, assembly, play,
To morning walks and pray’rs three times a day;
To part her time ’twixt reading and bohea,
To muse and spill her solitary tea;
Or o’er cold coffee trifle with the spoon,
Count the slow clock, and dine exact at noon;
Divert her eyes with pictures in the fire,
Hum half a tune, tell stories to the ’squire;
Up to her godly garret after sev’n,
There starve and pray, for that’s the way to heav’n.”
Pope’s Epistles.
Here e in opera ought not to be apostrophized, for such a contraction reduces an Amphibrachic foot to an Iambic. The words prayers, seven and heaven need not the apostrophe of e; for it makes no difference in the pronunciation. But the contraction of over and betwixt is necessary; for without it the measure would be imperfect.