But a long succession of such end-stopt lines, as they are called, becomes monotonous. To avoid this, the pause disappears, as in the following. "But in the world's sea do not like cork sleep Fishes glide, leaving no print where they pass, Lines without final pauses are called run-on lines, or unstopt. Sometimes the French term is employed-enjambement, carrying the sense over from line to line. Besides the final pause, there must be in all lines of over four accents-and, as a rule, in those of four accents-a metrical pause which divides the rhythm." By putting this pause, the caesura as it is often termed, in different positions, poets are able to give a pleasing variety to the rhythm. "Sweet || are the uses of adversity." “And see || the revolution of the times Make mountains level, || and the continent RIME. Rime-the word is still frequently written rhymeis the recurrence of the same sound at intervals, and regu' at the end of lines. with hare or hair, not with fear. Yet usage allows the so-called eye-rimes; as move and love, door and poor, grove and love. Note that what may appear a faulty rime now, may have been a perfect rime when written. An example of this is the wellknown couplet of Pope "Here thou, great Anna, whom three realms obey, Dost sometimes counsel take-and sometimes tea." These are single rimes, also termed male and masculine. But there are double rimes, also termed female and feminine, as glóry-story; and triple rimes, as tenderly-slénderly. In double and triple rimes the first syllables alone are accented and obey the rules of perfect rime; the other syllables are unaccented and agree completely. "'Twas vain: the loud waves lashed the shore, Many double and triple rimes are ingenious, and are frequently employed for comic purposes. "In short, she turns out a complete Lady Bountiful, Filling with drugs and brown Holland the county full." “While, treading down rose and ranunculus, You Tommy-make-room-for-your-uncle us, Troop, all of you, man or homunculus." Sometimes two words within the same line are made to Rime must not be regarded as merely ornamental. It affords delight to the ear by its musical accord; it marks definitely the end of the line; and it makes the rhythm of the verse stand out more distinctly. ALLITERATION. When several words close together begin with the same letter, we have alliteration, or head-rime. In Old English poetry alliteration-not end-rime-and accent were the essentials of versification. The last great example of its use is in the fourteenth century-The Vision of Piers the Plowman. It has, however, continued as a poetic embellishment, often with fine effect, but often overdone. Instances will readily be found in Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, Campbell, Coleridge, Scott, Shelley, Tennyson, Swinburne. "Tis thine, O Glenullin, whose bride shall await, Like a love-lighted watchfire, all night at the gate." "Like a glow-worm golden In a dell of dew." "The long low dune and lazy plunging sea." ASSONANCE. In this kind of rime only the vowel sounds agree; as mate-shape, feel-need. It is common in Spanish poetry, and occurs occasionally in English; as in the ballad Edom o' Gordon. "O bonnie, bonnie was her mouth, And clear, clear was her yellow hair, It may be added that end-rime, alliteration, and assonance are all found in proverbial sayings. "Fast bind, fast find." "Kith and kin." "A stitch in time saves nine." GROUPS OF LINES. A couplet consists of two lines riming together. When a couplet makes complete sense, it is often called a distich, especially if it expresses some pithy saying. Three lines riming together form a triplet or tercet. A stanza means the smallest group of lines in any metre showing all the characteristic features of the metre. It may contain four lines, or five, and so on. Examples will be found below: p. 298 sqq. Instead of stanza the word verse is sometimes used. This is confusing; for verse also bears the meaning of line, and of poetry generally. C. ENGLISH METRES. The most common metre in English is the iambic; and of the iambic the favourite is the five-foot line, or pentameter. This line is used for various subjects, from easy narrative to severe and sublime epic. From the latter use it is called Heroic. It may be rimed, or unrimed. BLANK VERSE. When we speak of blank verse we mean poetry written in the five-foot iambic line unrimed. Introduced in English by Surrey in the sixteenth century, it was adopted by Marlowe and Shakespeare for drama, and by Milton for epic. Variety is given to it by adding, or taking away, syllables; by intermixing run-on lines with end-stopt; by varying the position of the caesura; and by inversion of stress. Blank verse will be found in the following: Marlowe, Edward II.; Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, and other dramas; Milton, Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained; Young, Night Thoughts; Thomson, The Seasons; Cowper, The Task; Wordsworth, The Prelude, The Excursion; Keats, Hyperion; Byron, Manfred; Tennyson, Enoch Arden, The Princess, Idylls of the King; M. Arnold, Balder Dead, Sohrab and Rustum. For examples, see chap. XII. THE HEROIC COUPLET. This is the name given to the iambic pentameter, or decasyllabic, riming in couplets. It is very common in narrative and didactic poems; as Chaucer, Prologue, Knight's Tale, and others; Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, Religio Laici; Pope, passim; Goldsmith, The Traveller, The Deserted Village; Cowper, Table Talk, Truth, Hope; Keats, Endymion; Byron, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, Lara, The Corsair; W. Morris, Jason. For examples, see chap. XII. This metre is sometimes varied by a triplet, as the following from Pope's Essay on Criticism. "But true expression, like th' unchanging Sun, It gilds all objects, but it alters none." In the same poem Pope illustrates and condemns the practice of introducing a six-foot line, or Alexandrine, among the five-foot lines. "Then, at the last and only couplet fraught With some unmeaning thing they call a thought, A needless Alexandrine ends the song That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along." N.B. The term Alexandrine is said to have originated in the use of a six-foot line in the French romance of Alexander. IAMBIC PENTAMETER STANZAS. 1. Quatrain, or stanza of four lines riming alternately-denoted by abab. Dryden's Annus Mirabilis, and Gray's Elegy are examples. The following stanza is from Annus Mirabilis. "Then in some close-pent room it crept along, 2. Sextain, or stanza of six lines, riming a babcc; in other words, a quatrain followed by a couplet. Wordsworth's Laodamia is in this measure; e.g. "Of all that is most beauteous-imaged there In happier beauty; more pellucid streams, An ampler ether, a diviner air, And fields invested with purpureal gleams; Climes which the sun, who sheds the brightest day Another example is Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis. |