The Principles of English Versification | Page 3

* * * * *
Combinations. Language, however, when addressed to the eye rather
than to the ear, that is, when written or printed rather than spoken, is
partly a spatial phenomenon; and, as will appear presently, the
arrangement of words and sentences on the formal page is a real factor
in the rhythm of verse. Moreover, most of the rhythms of motion, such
as walking, the ebb and flow of tides, the breaking of waves on the
beach, are composites of temporal and spatial.[1]

+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | [1] One hears
sometimes of 'rhythmic thought' and 'rhythmic | | feeling.' This is
merely a further extension or metaphorical | | usage of the term. In
Othello, for instance, there is a more | | or less regular alternation of the
feelings of purity and | | jealousy, and of tragedy and comedy. In some
of the | | Dialogues of Plato there is a certain rhythm of thought. | | This
usage is fairly included in the Oxford Dictionary's | | definition:
"movement marked by the regulated succession of | | strong and weak
elements, or of opposite or different | | conditions." |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
* * * * *
Sound Rhythm. These elementary generalizations must be narrowed
now to the special phenomena of sound, and then still more particularly
to the sounds of language.
All musical tones, including the phonetic sounds of words, have four
characteristics: pitch, loudness or intensity, quality or tone-color, and
duration. The last, of course, needs no definition.
* * * * *
Pitch is dependent on the number of vibrations per second. The greater
the number of vibrations, the higher the pitch and the more 'acute' the
tone. The lowest pitch recognizable as a tone (as distinguished from
noise) is 8 vibrations a second; the highest pitch the ear can hear is
between 20,000 and 30,000 a second. In normal English speech among
adults the voice ranges from about 100 to 300 vibrations, but in
animated speaking this range is greatly increased.
* * * * *
Loudness is a comparative term for the strength of the sensation of
sound in the ear. It is determined by the energy or intensity of the
vibrations and varies (technically speaking) as the product of the square
of the frequency and the square of the amplitude(I=n^{2}A^{2}). But
for ordinary purposes it is sufficient to regard loudness and intensity as

the same. The distinction, however, is clear in common practice; for
whether one says "father" loudly or quietly, there is a relatively greater
intensity of sound in the first syllable than in the second. In speech this
intensity is called accent or stress.
The third characteristic, variously called quality, timbre, tone-quality,
tone-color, is that which distinguishes sounds of the same loudness and
pitch produced by different instruments or voices. It is the result of the
combination of the partial tones of a sound, that is, of the fundamental
and its overtones. In music, tone-quality is of the utmost importance,
but as an element of speech rhythm it is practically non-existent, and
may be wholly neglected, though it plays, of course, a prominent part
in the oral reading of different persons.[2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | [2] There is,
however, another phenomenon (to be discussed | | later) called by the
same name, 'tone-color,' but having | | only a metaphorical relation to it.
Many words--father, | | soul, ineluctable, for example--have emotional |
| associations which stand to the literal meaning somewhat | | like
overtones to the fundamental. This tone-quality of | | language is one of
the primary and most significant sources | | of poetical effect, but it
should never be confused with the | | musical term on which it is
patterned. | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
What is the relation of these physical attributes of sound to sound
rhythm? The answer lies in a closer examination of the nature of
rhythm, especially as it concerns the rhythm of speech.
Rhythm means measured flow or succession. Now first, in order that
any succession may be measured, there must be something
recognizable which distinguishes one unit from the next. In spatial
rhythms the point of division is almost always easily perceived; hence
the greater difficulty of analyzing the simplest time-rhythms as
compared with the most complex space-rhythms. Moreover, the basis
of measurement, that by which the 'distance' between any point of
division and that which follows it is determined, must, by definition, be
duration of time. Suppose, however, that the time-distance between
successive points of emphasis or division is equal, is the rhythm

therefore necessarily regular? No, because the points of emphasis
themselves may vary in force or energy. Thus if in the following
scheme (´ = point of emphasis; -= equal time-distance):
´-´-´-´-´-´-etc.
every ´ is not of the same value, the result might