The Principles of English Versification | Page 2

analyzing can injure the poem. If we think it has injured us, even then
we err, and need only recall our natural aversion to hard labor. In nearly
every instance it was the work and not the analysis that bothered us.
This is a small book and therefore not exhaustive. And since it is as
elementary, especially in the treatment of the principles of rhythm, as is
consistent with a measure of thoroughness, the apparatus of mere
learning has been suppressed, even where it might perhaps seem
needed, as in footnote references to the scientific investigations on
which part of the text is based. I have consulted and used, of course, all
the books and articles I could find that had anything of value to offer;
but I have rarely cited them, not because I wish to conceal my
indebtedness, but because there is no room for elaborate documentation
in such a book as this. On the other hand, I owe a very great deal, both
directly and indirectly, to Professor Bliss Perry--although my
manuscript was finished before I saw his Study of Poetry; and this debt
I wish to acknowledge most fully and gratefully.
In lieu of a formal bibliography, I think it sufficient (in addition to the
footnotes that occur in their proper place) to refer the reader to the
larger works of Schipper and Saintsbury, to the smaller volumes of
Professor Perry and Professor R. M. Alden, and particularly to Mr. T. S.
Omond's English Metrists, 1921.
P. F. B.

CONTENTS
PAGE I. RHYTHM 3 II. RHYTHM OF PROSE AND VERSE 22 III.
METRE 49 IV. METRICAL FORMS: 1. THE LINE 69 2. THE
STANZA 88 3. BLANK VERSE 133 4. FREE-VERSE 150 5.
EXOTIC FORMS 159 V. MELODY, HARMONY, AND
MODULATION 165 GLOSSARIAL INDEX 207
CHAPTER I
RHYTHM
Rhythm, in its simplest sense, is measured motion; but by various
natural extensions of meaning the word has come to be used almost as
a synonym of regularity of variation. Whatever changes or alternates
according to a recognizable system is said to be rhythmic, to possess
rhythm. In this sense, rhythm is one of the universal principles of
nature. We find it in the stripes of the zebra, the indentation of leaves,
the series of teeth or of crystals, the curves of the horizon; in the tides,
the phases of the moon, the rising and setting of the sun, the recurrence
of seasons, the revolutions of planets; in the vibrations of color, sound,
and heat; in breathing, the throbbing of the pulse, the stride of walking.
All action and reaction whatever is rhythmic, both in nature and in man.
"Rhythm is the rule with Nature," said Tyndall; "she abhors uniformity
more than she does a vacuum." So deep-rooted, in truth, is this
principle, that we imagine it and feel it where it does not exist, as in the
clicking of a typewriter. Thus there is both an objective rhythm, which
actually exists as rhythm, and a subjective rhythm, which is only the
feeling of regularity resulting from a natural tendency of the mind to
'organize' any irregularity that we meet.
There are two fundamental forms of rhythm, though these are not
altogether mutually exclusive, (1) spatial, and (2) temporal.
* * * * *
Spatial Rhythms. The simplest spatial rhythm is a series of equidistant
points--

. . . . . . . . . .
More complex forms are the succession of repeated designs in
mouldings and wainscotings (for example, the alternation of egg and
dart), the series of windows in a wall, or of the columns of a Greek
temple, or of the black and white keys of a piano. Still more complex is
the balanced arrangement of straight lines and curves in a geometrical
design, as in certain Oriental rugs or the Gothic rose windows. And
probably the most complex spatial rhythms are those of the facades of
great buildings like the Gothic cathedrals or St. Mark's of Venice,
where only the trained eye perceives the subtleties of alternation and
balance.
* * * * *
Temporal Rhythms. Temporal rhythms, apart from those of planetary
motion, the alternation of seasons, and the like (which are called
rhythmic by a metaphorical extension of the term), manifest themselves
to us as phenomena of sound; hence the two concepts time-rhythm and
sound-rhythm are commonly thought of as one and the same.
The simplest form is the tick-tick-tick of a watch or metronome. But
such mechanical regularity is comparatively rare, and in general the
temporal rhythms are all highly complex composites of sounds and
silences. Their highest manifestations are music and language. The
rhythm of language, and a fortiori that of verse, is therefore primarily a
temporal or sound rhythm, and as such is the particular subject of the
following pages.