English Verse Part 3

(_b_) Pauses filling the time of syllables.

A second cla.s.s of silent time-intervals, or pauses, is to be distinguished from the cesural pause by the fact that in this case the time of the pause is counted in the metrical scheme. Pauses of this cla.s.s correspond to rests in music; and as in the case of such rests, their occurrence is exceptional.

Of fustian he wered a gipoun ? Al bismotered with his habergeoun.

For him was lever have at his beddes heed ? Twenty bokes, clad in blak or reed.

(CHAUCER: Prologue to _Canterbury Tales_, 75 f. and 293 f.)

This omission of the first light syllable is characteristic of Chaucer's couplet and of Middle English verse generally. (See Schipper, vol. i. p.

462, and ten Brink's _Chaucer's Sprache und Verskunst_, p. 175.) In modern verse it is not usually permitted.

The time doth pa.s.s, ? yet shall not my love.

(WYATT: _The joy so short, alas!_)

The omitted syllable following the medial pause is closely parallel to that at the beginning of the verse.

Stay! ? The king hath thrown his warder down.

(_Richard II_, I. iii. 118.)

Kneel thou down, Philip. ? But rise more great.

(_King John_, I. i. 161.)

In drops of sorrow. ? Sons, kinsmen, thanes.

(_Macbeth_, I. iv. 35.)

Than the soft myrtle. ? But man, proud man.

(_Measure for Measure_, II. ii. 117.)

These specimens of pauses in Shakspere's verse indicate the natural varieties of dramatic form. In such cases the pause often occurs between speeches, or where some action is to be understood as filling the time; as in the second instance, where the accolade is given in the middle of the line. (See Abbott's _Shakespearian Grammar_, pp. 413 ff.)

? Break, ? break, ? break, On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!

And I would that my tongue could utter The thoughts that arise in me.

(TENNYSON: _Break, Break, Break._)

In Lanier's _Science of English Verse_, p. 101, this stanza is represented in musical notation, with rests, to show that rhythm "may be dependent on silences."

Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to mind?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And auld ? lang ? syne?

(BURNS: _Auld Lang Syne._)

Here the syllables "auld" and "lang" may be regarded as lengthened so as to fill the time of the missing light syllables. So in many cases there is a choice between compensatory lengthening and compensatory pause.

Thus ? said the Lord ? in the Vault above the Cherubim, Calling to the angels and the souls in their degree: "Lo! Earth has pa.s.sed away On the smoke of Judgment Day.

That Our word may be established shall We gather up the sea?"

Loud ? sang the souls ? of the jolly, jolly mariners: "Plague upon the hurricane that made us furl and flee!

But the war is done between us, In the deep the Lord hath seen us-- Our bones we'll leave the barracout', and G.o.d may sink the sea!"

(KIPLING: _The Last Chantey._)

This is an instance of a pause forming a regular part of the verse-rhythm. Thus in the first verse of each stanza the second and sixth syllables are omitted, and the result gives the characteristic effect of the rhythm. In measures where there is regular catalexis (that is, where the last light syllable of the verse is regularly omitted) the phenomenon is really of the same kind.

These, these will give the world another heart, And other pulses. Hear ye not the hum Of mighty workings?---- Listen awhile, ye nations, and be dumb.

(Keats: _Sonnet to Haydon_.)

Call her once before you go,-- Call once yet!

In a voice that she will know,-- "Margaret! Margaret!"

Children's voices should be dear (Call once more) to a mother's ear; Children's voices, wild with pain,-- Surely she will come again!

Call her once, and come away; This way, this way!...

Come, dear children, come away down: Call no more!

One last look at the white-walled town, And the little gray church on the windy sh.o.r.e; Then come down!

She will not come, though you call all day; Come away, come away!

(MATTHEW ARNOLD: _The Forsaken Merman_.)

In this specimen no attempt has been made to indicate the pauses, as different readers would interpret the verse variously. It will be found that this whole poem is a study in delicate changes and arrangements of time-intervals. The four stresses characteristic of the rhythm can be accounted for in such short lines as the second and tenth, properly read.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Transactions of the Philological Society_, 1875-76.

[2] According to a more elaborate system Mr. Ellis recognized nine varieties of force or stress, which he named in order as follows: subweak, weak, superweak, submean, mean, supermean, substrong, strong, superstrong. In like manner he named nine degrees each of length, pitch, weight, and silence. Length and Silence are both terms of duration of time. The meaning of Weight has not been generally understood, nor is the term ordinarily recognized. Mr. Ellis described it as "due to expression and mental conceptions of importance, resulting partly from expression in delivery, produced by quality of tone and gliding pitch, and partly from the mental effect of the constructional predominance of conceptions." On this whole scheme of Mr. Ellis's, Mr. Mayor remarks interestingly: "Whilst I admire, I with difficulty repress a shudder at the elaborate apparatus he has provided for registering the minutest variations of metrical stress. Not only does he distinguish nine different degrees of force, but there are the same number of degrees of length, pitch, silence, and weight, making altogether forty-five varieties of stress at the disposal of the metrist ... If the a.n.a.lysis of rhythm is so terribly complicated, let us rush into the arms of the intuitivists and trust to our ears only, for life is not long enough to admit of characterizing lines when there are forty-five expressions for each syllable to be considered." (_Chapters on English Metre_, p. 69.)

[3] The term "wrenched" was used originally, it would seem, as one of reprobation. Thus Puttenham, in his _Arte of English Poesie_ (1589), said; "There can not be in a maker a fowler fault, than to falsifie his accent to serve his cadence, or by untrue orthographie to wrench his words to helpe his rime." (Arber ed., p. 94.)

[4] It is interesting to compare with these irregular lines another stanza of similar form, of about the same date, from an Elegy on Edward I., in Boddeker's Collection, p. 140, and Wright's _Political Songs_, p.

246.

Alle at beo of huerte trewe, a stounde herkne to my song of duel, at de ha diht vs newe (at make me syke ant sorewe among!) of a knyht, at wes so strong, of wham G.o.d ha don ys wille; me unche at de ha don vs wrong, at he so sone shal ligge stille.

The comparatively great regularity of the measures in this second stanza is due to the fact that it was under the syllable-counting influence of the French, being in fact a translation of a French original.

[5] Leigh Hunt said that "Coleridge saw the mistake which had been made with regard to this measure, and restored it to the beautiful freedom of which it was capable, by calling to mind the liberties allowed its old musical professors the minstrels, and dividing it by _time_ instead of _syllables_." (See the entire pa.s.sage on _Christabel_, in the Introduction, on "What is Poetry?", to _Imagination and Fancy_. For a criticism of the metrical structure of _Christabel_, see Robert Bridges's _Milton's Prosody_ (ed. 1901, pp. 73-75).)

II. THE FOOT AND THE VERSE