another a trochee and so, what one reads as an iamb, another may read as a pyrrhic. The notation which I have borrowed from Mr A. J. Ellis to distinguish degrees of stress (0, 1, 2, written under the syllable) makes it possible to interpose an intermediate foot between a trochee and spondee. Thus, in the following lines Among daughters | of men | the fairest found 2 0 There are more things | in heaven | and earth, | Horatio 2 'daughters' is an undoubted trochee, with strong stress on the first syllable, no stress on the last; but 'more things' has a stress on both syllables, though a greater stress on the first, as I read it; and it is a matter of indifference whether we call it trochee or spondee. Even a complete line, if considered by itself alone, may leave the reader in doubt as to whether he should pronounce it iambic or trochaic, anapaestic or dactylic: nay, at times it may be necessary to examine carefully the rest of the poem, before we can decide what is the predominant metre which gives its character to the whole. In conclusion I have to return my sincerest thanks to the friends who have been kind enough to look through my proofs, especially to Mr W. J. Courthope, Mr J. R. Mozley, and Sir George Young, to whom I am indebted for many useful criticisms and suggestions. ما ENGLISH METRE. CHAPTER I. ACCENT, RHYTHM, FOOT, METRE. ENGLISH verse is distinguished from English prose by the regular recurrence of the stress or accent1. Every word of two syllables has a stress, either on the first syllable as 'píty,' 'rólling,' 'rébel' (the noun), or on the second as 'resoúnd,' 'foretéll,' 'rebél' (the verb). In a 1 I use these words as synonyms, preferring the first, because it is free from any confusion with the French or Greek accent. It is however convenient to employ such terms as 'accented,' 'unaccented,' 'accentuation.' I mark the stress either by the accent above the syllable, acute for stronger, grave for weaker stress, or by the use of the symbols o, 1, 2 written under the syllable, o denoting the absence of stress, 1 denoting a weaker and 2 a stronger stress. It is not, of course, meant by this that there are just three distinctly marked degrees of stress, and no more. In the mouth of a good reader stress varies indefinitely. But even such a rough classification as 'no stress, weak stress, strong stress' is of great value in describing the rhythmical effect of a line. The symbols – and ~, which are properly used to denote long and short syllables, are also not unfrequently used to denote accented and unaccented syllables, irrespective of the length of the syllable, as 'midnight'; though in it the accented syllable has a short vowel and the unaccented a long vowel. |