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Elements English Prosody E L E M E N T S E N G L I S H P R O S O D Y i CQEKS .5639ZNQZIR ‘FCU? LHiE IflV ‘Sf GUECLR E X P L AN AT O R Y O F T H E V A R IO U S T E R M S U S E D IN “ K N R O C H O E YC O M B . H N R U S K IN L L D O . ' , , H N A Y Q T U DE N T O F C H IS T C H U C H XF D A N D H N A Y O F O OR R R R , O OR ; O OR R C P U S C H R IQ T I C L L E G E X F D OR O , O OR . G E OR G E AL L E N , U N N Y ID R P IN G T N K N T S S E , O O , E . 1 8 8 0 . l W tson an d V ine P rin ters L on d on a n d A lesbu r . H a z el , a , y, , y y F A E P R E C . H AV E n ever hitherto printed any bo o k falling so far short of what I hoped to make it as this sketch of the system of English Prosody ; but I had e I no conc ption , when threw the first notes of it together, what a number of difficult and interesting questions would arise out of the vari a ble conditions of national ear for music, and intention in song . On some of these I have not even touched in the follow — ing pages others are only alluded to ; and even the formal arrangement of elementa ry metre is in co m plete but I cannot delay the long - promised book ‘ I longer, nor do think my time would be well spent in endeavouring to follow out the questions it has suggested to myself. I must leave them to better I is scholars , while still hope that what here done by way of introduction to the systematic criticism of English rhythm may be of some use in checking the versific a io n lawlessness of recent popular t . I have fl been , however, chie y disappointed in finding myself unable to interest any of my musical friends in AC PREF E . obtaining more direct correspondence between verbal I and harmonic intention . arranged the examples hO in of verse here chosen on musical lines , p g that my harmonic friends aforesaid would be good enough either to construct or choose for me passages of pure music which would fit the verses , note to syllable ; but I found them all incredulous or disdainful of the propriety of such correspondence , and bent , un ani m o u sl y, upon establishing a code of abstract sound which should be entirely independent of meaning . I I Merely to show what wanted , have put a few chords to three of the simplest iambic measures and - o r can only pray the reader to excuse use, perhaps, for himself -the otherwise unnecessary apparatus of bar and line . A most interesting letter, lately received from a friend in Sheffield to whom the first proofs of the following pages had been submitted , directing my attention to the difference between the stress - accent - in English verse, the (probably) intonation accent in so - Greek , and the properly called quantity, or dura in exfm so tion , of syllables, should have been printed , had I been able to answer its inquiries satisfactorily . But I know nothing whatever of Greek accentuation , while I believe the stress - accent on English words will be found always to involve delay as well a s a energy or loudness of pronunci tion , and that , at all PREFAC E . e vents in verse , it may be considered as identical with quantity . It is true that the shrillness of a cry , or the strength of a word spoken in brief anger or appeal , will not of course imply the duration of I sound ; nor am at all sure that what , throughout I the following treatise , have called long and short syllables , may not in several , or even frequent instances , be only loud and low ones . But the stated system itself will not be found , for this reason , inaccurate ; and the reader will only have occasion to substitute for the examples in which accent has been mistaken for quantity, others , better u n chosen , of which the rhythmic time may be qu es l t io n ab e. C H AR TR E S I f/z S e teméer 1 880 , S p , . E L E M E N N G L I S H R Y P O S O D . E E ‘ ’ R S differs from prose in being measured , that is to say, divided into groups of words and syllables , which , when the verse is passionless , must be spok en in given tim es ; and when it is passionate, are made more beautiful by certain modes of transgression of their constant law . ‘ ’ The real meaning of the word verse is , a line r ‘ ’ of wo ds which turns at a certain point , as the furrow turns in a ploughed field . It partly, there em otker a r t fore, involves the idea of returning in p fi so of the eld , and has been ordinarily employed ‘ ’ in the sense of stanza . This last word , meaning , h first, the c amber of a house, properly signifies a e piece of a song enclos d or partitioned by itself. In this book I may permit myself to u se the word verse for a rhymed couplet or balanced quatrain but shall generally u se it of all rhythmic com ‘ ’ position ; line for a single measured line ; and z ’ a n z a st for a recurrent group of lines . The music of verse unaccompanied by in stru . 2. ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH PROSODY mental sound , consists in the precision and graceful arrangement of the measured times of utterance; in the beautiful and complete sound o f the syllables — spoken in them , and in the variations of tone and time induced by passion in the reader . Complete ness of sound in a word consists in the precision of it s clear utterance , and in the rightness of the accent expressing the feeling with which it ought to be spoken . Therefore, the measures of verse , while their first h simple function is to please by the sense of r ythm , order, and art, have for second and more important function that of assisting, and in part compelling , clearness of utterance ; thus enforcing with noble ‘ emphasis, noble words and making them , by their audible symmetry , n ot only emphatic , but memorable . ’ ‘ ’ The Greek word metron , measure , has been fo r adopted in all languages , with j ust respect the first masters of poetry, to signify a measured portion of a verse . Each metre, in reality, consists either of actual its syllables completely uttered each in time , or of one or more of such syllables with measured rests , fi lling up the time required , as in bars of music . I shall use in the expression of time , therefore, the ordinary system of musical notation ' a more convenient one may perhaps be afterwards devised , . 3 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH PROSODY . but the use of our accepted musical signs will be at present easiest . Grammarians enumerate more than twenty dif fere n t metres ; but all that are of effective use in English verse are ten ; of which the names and times follow. i . ' s I The full long syllable which , when it used as a perfect metre , may be equal to two of the ‘ ’ syllables called long in ordinary verse . It will be represented by the semibreve , equal to two minims , B e B e r ak , r ak , e e S ea . On thy cold gr y ston s, oh In this couplet, each verse consists of three equal measures, the times of the syllables being indicated ' by the musical notes . I am obliged to s ay that the full long syllable m a is y be equal , instead of that it equal , to two of ordinary length , because it would always depend on the reader ’ s choice to fill up the time with his m terva l voice , or to give an of silence ; but the ' three divisions of the verse would a lways be kept equal ; and the two lines of the couplet would be kept equ a L F Y 4 ELEMENTS d ENGLISH PROSOD . The second line, it will be seen at a glance has its first metre composed of two short syllables with one long one, (two crotchets and a minim ,) an d the other two metres of two long syllables each . These last are a kind of metre rare in English verse ; but of all others the most important to the general system of the poetry of the world . They w therefore follo second in order in our list . S . I I . The pondeus Two syllables so of equal length , uttered deliberately that they may correspond to the time in which a man , walking firmly and serenely, takes two paces . S This metre was called pondeus in Latin , and 77 0128610 77 06 0 9 ( s) in Greek , because it was the measure of the melodies used at the most solemn religious and national ceremonies , accompanied ‘ - f always with the drink of ering, 'to God .
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