The Principles of English Versification | Page 7

but stress is absent, we more or
less unconsciously supply it; when there are distinct stresses at irregular
intervals we organize them into approximately regular intervals. We
have in us by instinct and by development both the ability and also the
need to draw forth rhythm wherever it is latent. Rhythm becomes one
of our physical and mental pleasures, manifest in primitive dancing and
balladry, sailors' chanteys, and the simple heave-ho's of concerted labor.
It induces economy of effort, and so makes work lighter; and it has,
though perhaps not always, a certain æsthetic value, in making labor
more interesting as well as easier. It is one of the attributes of the god
we worship under the name of System.
* * * * *
Coördination, Syncopation, Substitution. The processes of the
subjective organization of rhythm may best be explained under the
heads of coördination, syncopation, and substitution. Their
application to the particular problems of verse will be apparent at once,
and will, in fact, constitute the bulk of the following pages.
* * * * *
Coördination has two aspects, according as it is thought of simply as
an existing fact or as a process. In the former sense it is the agreement
or coincidence (or the perception of agreement or coincidence) between
the simple normal recurrence of beats and the actual or predetermined
pattern. Thus in the lines
And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies, MILTON, Paradise
Lost, II, 950.
A sable, silent, solemn forest stood, THOMSON, Castle of Indolence,
st. 5.

the 'natural' beat of the words uttered in the most natural and reasonable
manner coincides with the 'artificial' beat of the metrical line.
On the other hand, coordination is the process which results in one's
reduction of irregular beats to an approximately regular series. When
we hear a haphazard succession of drum-taps or the irregular
click-click of the typewriter, most of us soon begin to feel a certain
orderly arrangement, a rhythmical swing in the repeated sounds, a
grouping according to a sort of unit which recurs with nearly equal
intervals. The units are not absolutely equal, but are elastic, allowing of
some contraction and expansion; yet they are so nearly equal, or we
feel them so, that the series seems regular.
Now this process of coördination involves two activities, syncopation
and substitution. The workings of both are highly complex and
somewhat uncertain; they differ greatly in different individuals, and
when analyzed scientifically seem to produce more difficulties than
they explain. But fortunately the outstanding ideas are beyond dispute,
and detailed examination can properly be left to the scientists.
* * * * *
Syncopation is the union, or the perception of the union, of two or more
rhythmic patterns.[8] A familiar example is perhaps the 'three against
two' in music, where one hand follows a tum-te-te, tum-te-te rhythm,
the other a tum-te, tum-te. This complexity, which strikes us as
sophisticated subtlety and is not always easy to reproduce, is in fact
both simple and familiar to the untutored savage. We must remember
that the evolution of language and of music has been for the more part
in the direction of greater simplicity of structure. Primitive music, as
we find it in the undeveloped Indians and Australasians, is often too
complex to be expressed by our regular notation. Another familiar
example of syncopation is the negro dance, in which the "dancer taps
with his feet just half-way between the hand-claps of those who are
accompanying his performance."[9] And of course the commonest
example is the strongly marked syncopation of ragtime.[10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | [8] Cf.

Patterson, p. 3, "... the possibility of preserving | | a certain series of
time intervals, but of changing in | | various ways the nature of the
motions or sensations that | | mark the beats." This may be tested by a
simple experiment. | | With the foot or finger tap evenly, regularly, and
rather | | rapidly. Without changing the regularity of the tapping, but | |
merely by a mental readjustment, the beats may be felt as | | tum-te,
tum-te, tum-te (or te-tum, etc.) or as | | tum-te-te, tum-te-te, tum-te-te (or
te-te-tum, | | etc.), or even as tum-te-te-te, tum-te-te-te (or | | te-te-te-tum,
etc.). It is but a step from this successive | | perception of various
rhythms from the same objective source | | to a combined and
simultaneous perception of them. | | | | [9] Patterson, p. xx, n. 3. | | | | [10]
Experiments have shown that with a little practice one | | can learn to
beat five against seven, and thus actually | | though unconsciously count
in thirty-fives. (Patterson, p. | | 6.) |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
In prose, this syncopation is evident in the apparent recognition, and