The Principles of English Versification | Page 3

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." | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
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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.
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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.
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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 be (?′?′= twice as much emphasis as ?′;?′?′?′ = three times as much):
?′?′-?′-?′?′?′-?′?′-?′?′?′-etc.
and this could not be called regular. A simple illustration of this is the difference in music between 3/4 time, where we count 1?′ 2 3, 1?′ 2 3, 1?′ 2 3 and 6/4 or 6/8 time, where we count 1?′?′ 2 3 4?′