English Verse Part 21

Form all curves like softness drifted, Wave-kissed marble roundly dimpling, Far-off music slowly winged, Gently rising, gently sinking,-- Bright, O bright Fedalma!

(GEORGE ELIOT: Song from _The Spanish Gypsy_, book i.)

This song was written in avowed imitation of the Spanish verse, ill.u.s.trating its prevailingly trochaic rhythm as well as alliteration.

Elsewhere verse bound together only by a.s.sonance is almost unknown in English poetry. In the _Contemporary Review_ for November, 1894, Mr.

William Larminie has an interesting article giving a favorable account of the use of a.s.sonance in Celtic (Irish) verse, and proposing its larger use in English poetry, as a relief from the--to him--almost cloying elaborateness of rime.

In the following specimen, a.s.sonance seems in some measure to take the place of rime.

Haply, the river of Time-- As it grows, as the towns on its marge Fling their wavering lights On a wider, statelier stream-- May acquire, if not the calm Of its early mountainous sh.o.r.e, Yet a solemn peace of its own.

And the width of the waters, the hush Of the gray expanse where he floats, Freshening its current and spotted with foam As it draws to the ocean, may strike Peace to the soul of the man on its breast,-- As the pale waste widens around him, As the banks fade dimmer away, As the stars come out, and the night-wind Brings up the stream Murmurs and scents of the infinite sea.

(MATTHEW ARNOLD: _The Future._)

ii. _Alliteration_

Alliteration appears sporadically in the verse of all literary languages, but as a means for the coordination of verse it is characteristic of the primitive Germanic tongues.

Hwaet! we nu gehyrdan, hu aet haelubearn urh his hydercyme hals eft forgeaf, Gefreode ond gefreoade folc under wolcnum Maere meotudes sunu, aet nu monna gehwylc, Cwic endan her wuna, geceosan mot Swa h.e.l.le hienu swa heofones maeru, Swa aet leohte leoht swa a laan niht, Swa rymmes raece swa ystra wraece, Swa mid dryhten dream swa mid deoflum hream, Swa wite mid wraum swa wuldor mid arum, Swa lif swa dea, swa him leofre bi To gefremmanne, enden flaesc ond gaest Wunia in worulde. Wuldor aes age rynysse rym, onc butan ende!

(CYNEWULF: _Crist._ ll. 586-599. Eighth century.)

This specimen represents the use of alliteration in the most regularly constructed Anglo-Saxon verse. The two half-lines are united into the long line by the same initial consonant in the important syllables. In the first half-line the alliteration is on the two princ.i.p.ally stressed syllables, or on one of them alone (most frequently the first); in the second half-line it is commonly found only on the first. Alliterating unstressed syllables are usually regarded as merely accidental. Any initial vowel sound alliterates with any other vowel sound.

The most regular verse appears in Anglo-Saxon poetry of what may be called the cla.s.sical period,--700 A.D. and for a century following,--represented by _Beowulf_ and the poems of Cynewulf. By the time of aelfric, who wrote about 1000 A.D., there appear signs of a breaking in the regular verse-form. (See Schipper, vol. i. pp. 60 ff.) For example, two alliterative syllables often appear in the second half-line; one half-line may be without alliteration; alliteration may bind different long-lines together; or alliteration may be altogether wanting. There are also additions of many light syllables, resulting almost, as Schipper observes, in rhythmical prose. These tendencies resulted in the wholly irregular use of alliteration appearing in much of the verse of the early Middle English period, ill.u.s.trated in the specimens that follow.

The origins of alliteration in Germanic verse are lost in the general ma.s.s of Germanic origins. It is almost universally regarded as a purely native development, although M. Kawczynski (_Essai Comparatif sur l'Origine et l'Histoire des Rythmes_; Paris, 1889) sets forth the remarkable opinion that the Germans derived their alliteration from the Romans. "We must remember," he says, "the schools of rhetoric existing in Gaul in the sixth and seventh centuries, where alliteration seems to have been held in esteem.... It became more and more frequent in the Latin poetry of the Carlovingian period, and it will suffice to cite here the following verses from Milo of Saint Amand:

'Pastores pec.u.m primi pressique pavore Conspicuos cives carmen caeleste canentes Audivere astris arrectis auribus; auctor Ad terras ...'

It early pa.s.sed to Ireland, and the Irish made use of it in their Latin poetry and in their national poetry. The example of the Irish was followed by the Anglo-Saxons, although these last had derived the same rules from the Latin writers.... The Anglo-Saxons, who sent the second series of apostles to the Germans, taught them the use of alliteration in poetry. The Scandinavians, on their side, learned it also from the Anglo-Saxons." This theory has found no adherents among scholars, and M.

Kawczynski's ill.u.s.trations are probably most useful in emphasizing the natural pleasure in similarity of sound found among all peoples. See below, on the related question of the origin of end-rime.

e leun stant on hille, and he man hunten here, oer urg his nese smel, smake that he negge, bi wilc weie so he wile to dele nier wenden, alle hise fet steppes after him he fille, drage dust wi his stert er he steppe, oer dust oer deu, at he ne cunne is finden, drive dun to his den ar he him bergen wille.

(_The Bestiary_, from MS. Arundel. In Matzner's _Altenglische Sprachproben_, vol. i. p. 57.)

See also the specimen from Boddeker, p. 14, above.

Cristes milde moder, seynte Marie, mines lives leome, mi leove lefdi, to e ich buwe and mine kneon ich beie, and al min heorte blod to e ich offrie.

(_On G.o.d Ureisun of ure Lefdi._ In Morris's _Old English Homilies_, first series, p. 191. Zupitza's _Alt-und Mittelenglisches ubungsbuch_, p. 76.)

Kaer Leir hehte e burh: leof heo wes an kinge.

a we an ure leod-quide: Leirchestre cleia.

?eare a an holde dawen: heo wes swie ael burh.

& seoen er seh toward: swie muchel seorwe.

at heo wes al for-faren: urh ere leodene vael.

Sixti winter hefde Leir: is lond al to welden.

e king hefde reo dohtren: bi his drihliche quen.

nefde he nenne sune: er fore he war sari.

his manscipe to holden: buten a reo dohtren.

a aeldeste dohter haihte Gornoille: a oer Ragau.

a ridde Cordoille.

(LAYAMON: _Brut_, ll. 2912-2931. Madden ed., vol. i. p. 123. ab. 1200.)

The _Brut_ of Layamon represents typically the transition period, when alliteration and end-rime were struggling for the mastery in English verse. Schipper points out that we find in the poem four kinds of lines:

1. Simple alliterative lines in more or less strict adherence to the old rules.

2. Lines combining alliteration and rime or alliteration and a.s.sonance.

3. Lines showing rime or a.s.sonance, without alliteration.

4. Four-stress lines with neither rime nor alliteration.

The present specimen shows the preference for alliteration; that on p.

127, below, represents the introduction of rime.

In a somer seson . whan soft was the sonne, I shope me in shroudes . as I a shepe were, In habite as an heremite . unholy of workes, Went wyde in this world . wondres to here.

Ac on a May mornynge . on Malverne hulles Me byfel a ferly . of fairy me thou?te; I was wery forwandred . and went me to reste Under a brode banke . bi a bornes side, And as I lay and lened . and loked in the wateres, I s...o...b..ed in a slepyng . it sweyved so merye.

(WILLIAM LANGLAND (?): _Piers the Plowman_, Prologue, ll. 1-10. B-text.

Fourteenth century.)

_Piers the Plowman_ represents the revival of the alliterative long line, with fairly strict adherence to the old rules, by contemporaries of Chaucer, in the fourteenth century. For this verse, see further in Part Two, pp. 155, 156.

Apon the Midsumer evin, mirrest of nichtis, I muvit furth allane, neir as midnicht wes past, Besyd ane gudlie grene garth, full of gay flouris, Hegeit, of ane huge hicht, with hawthorne treis; Quhairon ane bird, on ane bransche, so birst out hir notis That never ane blythfullar bird was on the beuche harde: Quhat throw the sugarat sound of hir sang glaid, And throw the savar sanative of the sueit flouris; I drew in derne to the dyk to dirkin eftir myrthis; The dew donkit the daill, and dynarit the foulis.

(WILLIAM DUNBAR: _The Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo_, ll. 1-10. Ed.

Scottish Text Society, vol ii. p. 30.)

See notes on Dunbar as a metrist, in this edition, vol. i. pp.

cxlix and clxxii, and T. F. Henderson's _Scottish Vernacular Literature_, pp. 153-164.

Alliteration as an organic element of verse was especially favored in the North country, and its popularity in Scotland--ill.u.s.trated in the present specimen from Dunbar--considerably outlasted its use in England.

The famous words of Chaucer's Parson will be recalled:

"But trusteth wel, I am a Southren man, I can nat geste--rum, ram, ruf--by lettre."

We find King James, as late as 1585 (_Reulis and Cautelis_), giving the following instructions: "Let all your verse be Literall, sa far as may be, ... bot speciallie Tumbling verse for flyting. By Literall I meane, that the maist part of your lyne sall rynne upon a letter, as this tumbling lyne rynnis upon F:

_Fetching fude for to feid it fast furth of the Farie._"