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X.–On the Scansion of English Poetry

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X.–On the Scansion of English Poetry 484 4 X.-ON THE SCANSION OF ENGLISH POETRY. By the Rev. Professor W. W. SKEAT,Litt.D. [Read at a Meeting of the Philological Society, Friday, January 14, 1898.) IN the Introduction to vol. vi of my edition of Chaucer, at p. lxxxii, I introduced some observations on the natural method of reading English poetry; which, a8 I pointed out in a footnote at p. lxxxiv, were not original, but founded on an anonymous book entitled ‘‘ Accent and Rhythm,” published at Edinburgh, by Blackwood, in 1888. I wish to offer an apology to those who are unwilling to discard the usual methods of scansion in which we have all been brought up. I do not wish to insist upon the necessity of adopting a new system. But I wish to point out the fact, which I shall presently prove, vie., that the old system does not enable us to discriminate between various types of verse, whereas the natural method of grouping the syllables around the accented syllables with which, in actual pronunciation, they are associated, does enable us to do this. In other words, I am not asking anyone to adopt a new system of scansion, but I am endeavouring to bring forward a method which will enable us to distinguish om type of verse from another, and to enumerate the exact number of different types which a line of given length and a gven number of accents is capable of assuming. The usual method of scansion of English poetry, which divides the line into feet of equal length, is of small actual value. It is artificial, and conceals the facts which it ought rather to display. English poetry depends wholly upon accent, and can only be studied by considering the effects of accent. In pronouncing English words, there are found to be four forms of what I shall call an accent-group, i.e., a group of syllables in which only one accent occurs, THE SCANSION OF ENGLISH POETRY-PROF. SKEAT. 485 These groups are exemplified by the four words following, viz,, Tone, Ascent, Cadence, and Extension; and I shall use these words as names for the accent-group which they respectively exemplify ; or we can denote them, more briefly still, by t, a, c, e. The same groups may be denoted by the symbols - v- Y -; where the symbol - denotes a strongly accented, and - an unaccented syllable, without any reference to the question as to whether the syllable is short or long. Accent and length are quite distinct; thus, in the word Egypt, the second syllable is certainly unaccented, but may be considered as long because of the time which its pronunciation demands, or because the vowel occurs before the letter group pt. All accents are not equal; in fact, English often employs sentence-stress as well as word-stress, giving sometimes as many as three or four different intensities of stress; indeed, I have seen it asserted that there are more still. But, for practical purposes, it is sufficient to consider two intensities of stress, Fiz., the strong accent and the weak, the primary and the secondary. In some words of three syllables, and in words containing more than three syllables, both these accents occur. The weaker accent may conveniently be denoted by the symbol -; i.e., by a fine stroke instead of a thick one. Examples are: mkrime‘nt, -W -., indigncition, - -; in- genCitj, - --. Or these groups can be denoted respectively by ct’, C‘C, fel’, where the dash denotes that the accent is weak. It frequently happens that syllables that were once fully pro- nounced have been reduced to mere glides. For example, the word o-pin-i-on was once quadrisyllabic, and many consider it as such to this day. Nevertheless, in rapid talk, and even in our best poetry, it is usually a mere Extension; and is pronounced as o-pinyon; pW. I cannot now enlarge upon the vast number of results which such a notation as the above enables us to apprehend with ease and clearness. But, by way of practical example, I proceed to analyse the ordinary English metrical line that contains five accents. The normal form is one of five successive Ascents, as in Gold- smith’s example- And-fools who-came to-scoff, remain’d to-pray. This may be denoted by U- w - ..- - ; or by aaaaa. 486 THE SCANSION OF ENGLISH POETRY-PROF. SKEAT, . The ordinary books on English prosody recognise this type and no other; but it is easy to show that, as a matter of fact, there are fifteen other equivalent types, making sixteen types in all. They can be best arranged as follows :- (a) Four types beginning with two Ascents, viz., aaaaa; aaaet; aaeta; aaect. 1. v- V-. v- - V-. 3. v- V-. - - V-. 2. V- V-. V- --. 4. V- V-. *w -V-. (6) Four types beginning with an Ascent and an Extension, viz., aetaa ; aetet ; aecta; aecct. (c) Four types beginning with an Extension and a Tone, viz., etaaa ; etaet ; eteta ; etect. 9. Y-V-. Y- v- V-. 11. YY-. y-v - V-. 10. Y-u-. v- --. 12. ---. v-w Y-. (d) Four types beginning with an Extension and a Cadence, viz., ectaa ; ectet ; eccta ; eccct. 13.- Y. - v- V-. 15.~~-v. -v- V-. 14. v-v -v. - v-v-. 16. WY -v. Y Y -. No more varieties are possible, as long as the regular type with which we started is strictly adhered to ; but our poets, for the sake of variety, have largely increased the number of available types by slightly departing from the normal type. Of these varieties, the commonest is the well-known one obtained by the substitution of a Cadence for an Ascent in the first accent-group in the line. I need not go into this matter any further at present, I have only to say here, that whenever this license occurs in a line of type 1, I still reckon such a line as belonging to type 1, and as a mere variant of it. It can easily be distinguished by writing some small letter after it; it might, for example, THE SCANSION OF ENGLISH POETRY-PROF. SKEAT. 487 be called la. This enables us to reduce all five-accent lines to sixteen types, which is at least sixteen times as good as the usual method, which reduces them all to one ! I may observe, that I consider the caesura1 pause as taking place, normally, after the fourth syllables in the types 1-4, 9-12 ; and after thejfth syllable in the types 5-8, 13-16. Any variation in the position of the cmsura can easily be observed, and, if desired, indicated by stating the number of the accent-group at the end of which the cllosura occurs. Its normal place is at the end of the eecond accent-group; but if it occurs at the end of the third accent-group, it can be denoted by placing (3) within marks of parenthesis. It will now be seen that we hace, under our complete control, a system by which we can most exactly indicate the precise form of any fice-accent line. For example, the very short formula “la (3) ” precisely indicates that the line consists of a Cadence, followed by four Ascents, in which the caesura1 pause occurs at the end of the third accent-group, i.e. after the sixth syllable; giving caa :aa. It is now perfectly easy to analpe any given poem in the five-accent metre with a precision hitherto unattainable. I select for the experiment the beautiful poem known as Gray’s Elegy, as being of a convenient length. It contains 128 lines, disposed in 32 stanzas, each of four lines. As it may prore of interest to take each stanza by itself, I shall adopt the division by stanzas. The result of the analysis of stanza 1 is as follows: First line, lO(3); second, 11; third, 14; fourth, 3. This may be more shortly written in the following form, Viz. : 1.-lO(3). 11. 14. 3. Similarly, we can express the rest of the stanzas in a very succinct manner : 2.-7 (3). 4. 6a. 14. 6.-3. 14. 9. 3. 3.-8a (1). 9c.I 14 (1). 8. 7.-6a. 11. 13(3). 2. 4.-6 (3). 2.’ 6~(3).6. 8.-6~. 11. 10~.7 (3). 5.-12. 14. 6. 6. 9.-5 (3). 5. 4. 5d. 1 The italic e denotes that the third accent-grou has a Cadence for an Ascent. Similarly, an italic d denotes the use of a CaAnce in the fourth foot. 2 The group is muny is equivalent to a mere Ascent, of which it forms a melodious variation. So also FUZZ mnlzy in stanza 14, lines 1, 3; whilst irzgenucus in stanza 18, line 2, is reducible to an Extension. 488 THE SCANSION OF ENGLISH POETRY-PROF. SKEAT. 10.-1. lO(3). 6(3). 13. 22.-3 (1, 4). 15 (3). 6a. 7 (4). 11.-12. 6~.10. 9. 23.-3. 11. 2a. 6a. 12.-3. 6. 3a (3). 6 (3). 24.-6 (1). 3~.8 (1). 13. 13.-10 (3). la. 10 (3). 7 (3). 2*5.-7~(4). 5~.5~(3). 2. 14.-3. 6(3). 1. 6. 26.-4u. 3(1, 4). 11. 2(3). 15.-14. 13. 7 (3). 14 (1). 27.-3. 7~(3).13 (1, 3). 2. 16.-7 (3). 3 (3). 14. 6. 28.-6. 2. 9. 1. 17.-3. 13. 3. 3(3). 29.-5(1,3). 5@(3). 1(2,4).
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