The Principles of English Versification

The Principles of English
Versification, by

Paull Franklin Baum This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at
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Title: The Principles of English Versification
Author: Paull Franklin Baum
Release Date: May 7, 2007 [EBook #21342]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE PRINCIPLES OF ENGLISH VERSIFICATION
BY
PAULL FRANKLIN BAUM

[Illustration]
CAMBRIDGE
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1924
LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
COPYRIGHT, 1922
BY HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Third printing
PRINTED AT THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
CAMBRIDGE, MASS., U. S. A.
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's
note | | | | The following symbols have been used in the text: | | | | [~] a
musical rest | | | | [U] an unstressed syllable | | | | [#] stressed syllable | | |
| [`] grave accent over the preceding unstressed syllable | | | | [)x] x with
breve | | | | [=x] x with macron | | | | ^{x} superscript x | | | | [OE] Latin
capital ligature OE |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
TO C. H. N. B.

PREFACE
Most of the older discussions of English versification labored under
two difficulties: an undue adherence to the traditions of Greek and
Latin prosody more or less perfectly understood, and an exaggerated
formalism. But recently the interest and excitement (now happily

abated) over free-verse have reopened the old questions and let in upon
them not a little light. Even today, however, a great deal of metrical
analysis has wrecked itself on the visible rocks of a false accuracy, and
it is therefore not only out of caution but also out of mere common
sense that we should eschew the arbitrary, even at the risk of vagueness
and an 'unscientific' admission of uncertainty. For the only great and
annihilating danger of writing on versification is dogmatism. Our
theorists, both old and new, are first tempted and then possessed with
their theories--all else becoming wrong and intolerable. In the
following pages I have perhaps erred in a too frequent insistence on
doubts and perplexities; perhaps also, on occasion, in a too plain
statement of opinion where judgments are bound to differ--sic se res
habent.
Now it is plain that rhythm is one of the ultimate facts of nature and
one of the universal principles of art; and thus versification, which is
the study of the rhythms of verse, is both a science and an art. But it
differs from the other sciences in that its phenomena are not 'regular'
and reducible to law, but varying and subject to the dictates, even the
whims, of genius; inasmuch as every poem involves a fresh fiat of
creation. Of course, no poet when he is composing, either in the
traditional "fine frenzy" or in the more sober process of revision, thinks
of prosody as a science, or perhaps thinks of it at all. If he did he would
go mad, and produce nothing. But the phenomena remain, nevertheless,
and the analysis of them becomes for us a science.
This analysis has what Bacon would call two inconveniences. The first
is complexity. The various ways in which the formal rhythms of verse
combine with the infinitely modulated rhythms of natural prose
produce a resultant which is complicated to the last degree and which
almost precludes orderly exposition. No system has been devised to
express it. The simpler ones fail through omission of important
difficulties, the more elaborate totter under their own weight. And thus
the Gentle Reader is either beguiled by false prophets--looks up and is
not fed--or loses heart and saves himself by flight. There is, to be sure,
an arcanum of prosodic theory which is the province of specialists. It
has its place in the scheme of things; but it is no more necessary for the

genuine enjoyment of Milton (or the 'moderns') than a knowledge of
the formulae for calculating the parallax of Alpha Leonis is necessary
for enjoying the pillared firmament. We must then compromise with a
system which reveals the existence of all the phenomena and tries to
suggest their interrelated workings.
The other inconvenience is that of seeming to deny the real poetry by
our preoccupation with its metrical expression. "Under pretence that we
want to study it more in detail, we pulverize the statue." This is an old
charge, and our answer is easy. For, however it may be with the statue,
a poem is never pulverized; it is still there on the page! No amount of