TIME AS MOVEMENT AND QUANTITY.

In lines like the last the feet are numbered by the accents, and so they are in trisyllabic measure.

"For the moon never béams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Ánnabel Lée,

And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes

Of my beautiful Annabel Lee.”

The number of accents is the same in these lines; but the movement and time mark the difference in the rhythm and measure. Time is the chief element in the measurement of verse.

The standard time, as fast or slow, varies, as in prose, with the spirit of the poem; but the relative time in verse is metric, that is to say, the several feet which flow together in a given logical group should have an equal share of the time given to that group. One whole group may be joyous, and the next group may be sad, and so the general time change suddenly from fast to slow but the associated feet may and should be measured with equable time, if the poet's chosen words allow of it; and if they do not allow of this, then the verse is not musical, and the sense alone should be read.

THE FINAL AND CESURAL PAUSES.

Pauses in verse, as in prose, are used to separate the ideas. The lines are usually separated from each other by a pause demanded by the sense. But when the sense would group the last of one line with the first of the next line, the sense and rhythm both forbid any final pause.

The voice should linger

on the final foot long enough to give its full metric quantity, but no break is allowable.

"Ready to be

The bride of the gray old sea."

In the last example the quantity of the foot "to be" is lengthened to fill the metric time, and to mark the rhyme with "sea."

In Bryant's "Forest Hymn," in "five-foot" iambic verse, several consecutive lines flow on with no final pause.

"For his simple heart

Might not resist the sacred influences,
Which from the stilly twilight of the place,
And from the gray old trunks that high in heaven
Mingled their mossy boughs, and from the sound
Of the invisible breath that swayed at once
All their green tops, stole over him and bowed
His spirit with the thought of boundless power
And inaccessible majesty. Ah, why
Should we, in the world's riper years, neglect
God's ancient sanctuaries, and adore
Only among the crowd, and under roofs

That our frail hands have raised?"

The "

THE CESURAL PAUSE.

cæsura "is a peculiar pause of the sense in the line which breaks a foot, one part of which foot flows with the group before the pause, and the other part of the same foot flows with the group after the pause.

This cæsura does not affect the rhythm or reading of verse any more than other pauses. It affects the scanning merely. This cæsural foot is often made of two short and unaccented syllables, and is then marked by time only.

The time of the natural pauses of emphasis, and pauses which separate the ideas, is counted in reading the lines only so far as it is needed to equalize the measure. When thus needed, the pause affects the measure like a rest in music.

"When Frée dom-from her móun | tain height

Unfurled her stándard
|

-

to | the air,

She tóre the ázure róbe of níght,

And sét the stárs of glóry there!"

In the second foot of the first, and in the third foot of the second line occurs the casural foot, unaccented. In reading these lines, a rest equivalent to a short syllable is needed in the cæsural feet.

"When Free | dom ~ from | her mōun | tăin height

Unfurled her stand | ărd to the air."

The poet in this example has utilized the short pause, making it an essential part of the measure, and the lines musical. In the other lines the syllables alone fill the measure.

Sometimes the pause of emphasis is likewise used as a proportional part of the measure of a line.

"Hárk! | 'tis the voice of the móun | tain,
And it speaks to our heart | in its príde,
And it tells of the bear | ing of heroes

Who com passed its sum | mits and died."

Observe the use of the emphatic monosyllabic foot “hark,” and of the dissyllabic foot at the beginning of the last line "who com." Such feet are allowed, by poetic usage, when they can take the same time as the regular feet have.

It is not claimed that all lines can be thus exactly measured. The pause is often extra time and arbitrary in the verse.

When the regular rhythm will give the sense it should be assumed to be the poet's reading. In the lines

"Lives of great men áll remind us

We can make our lives sublíme,"

the trochaic reading must be preferred, which gives the sense by a strong accent on "we," and preserves the rhythm in harmony with the other lines.

"We can make our lives sublime" gives the sense only.

An agreeable variety in the flow of verse is often introduced into dissyllabic measure by the use of a foot of three syllables.

“ And whát | is so ráre | as a dáy | in Júne ?

Thén if éver come pér | fect days;

Then Heaven tries the earth | if it bé | in túne,

And over it sóft | ly her warm | ear láys."

The measure of time is the same in the first line as if written thus: "And what | so rare | as days | in June."

Yet the added syllables give a pleasing rhythmic variety, which makes half the charm of the verse. Note, also, that the second line begins with trochaic feet and ends with iambic; thus still further varying the rhythmic beauty. And in the third line the accents of the first two feet come together. If read rapidly this would break the melody roughly on the ear. But the natural pause on the emphatic word "Heaven" gives time to change the rhythm without offence.

Sometimes these exceptional "feet" are used to give variety to the verse and often to accommodate the sense.

The trisyllabic measure often begins or ends with a foot of two syllables and sometimes of one long syllable.

66

Ōh, yoúng | Lochinvár | is come oút | from the West!"

"Dear Fá | ther, take cáre | of thy chíl | dren, the boys."

The unaccented syllable in the first foot is "long," and equals in metric time the two unaccented syllables in the standard foot.

"Déar to each | heart are the | námes of the | bráve; Résting in glóry, how | sweetly they | sléep! Déw-drops at | évening fall | sóft on each | gráve,

Kindred and strangers bend | fondly to | wéep."

These dactylic lines end with a foot of one accented syllable, which, being at the end of the line and emphatic, can be agreeably prolonged to fill the standard time.

Sometimes the emphasis of the sense overmasters the regular metric accent.

"Has there án y old fél | low got mixed with the boys?" I would be the regular accentuation; yet the word "old" is the most emphatic syllable in the line, being in contrast to "boys," and must therefore take the strong accent of sense, thus,

"Has there án | y óld fel | low got mixed | with the boys ?”

The change does not affect the time of the measure, only the rhythm, by putting the accent on the middle syllable in the second foot.

Iambic lines very often begin with a trochaic foot.

Úp from | the méad | ow rích | with córn,

Cléar in the cool | Septém ber mórn."

When consecutive trisyllabic words occur in an iambic or trochaic line, they give in reading the rhythmic variety of the other measure.

“ Beaúti | ful Év | elyn Hópe | is déad.”

This line may be scanned in several ways, yet in natural reading it takes this form best,

“Beaútiful | Évelyn | Hópe — | is déad,”

with two "6 dactyls," one "monosyllabic" foot, and one iambic. This is the natural grouping of the words and sense, and better preserves the music of the verse.

Finally, GROUP the words so as best to give the SENSE. VARY

THE ACCENT in force and place to give the sense.

Suit the gen

eral time to the general spirit of each group. But let the feet associated in any given group be read with the SAME relative EQUABLE TIME, as far as the poet's words will allow.

In a word, read the SENSE ALWAYS, read the measure when you can.