APPENDIX.

ON ENGLISH METRES.

THERE exists no work of any authority, so far as I am aware, upon the metres used by our poets, except Dr. Guest's History of English Rhymes, which is too long and too intricate for general In the absence then of better guidance, the following brief description and classification of English metres may be of use to students.

use.

Metre is the arrangement into verse of definite measures of sounds, definitely accented. Thus the hexameter is the arrangement in lines of six equivalent quantities of sound, called feet, each of which consists, or has the value, of two long syllables, and is accented on the first syllable. The heroic metre, when strictly regular, is the arrangement in rhymed couplets of five feet, each foot being equivalent to an iambus (a short and a long syllable), and accented on the last syllable. In practice, spondees and trochees are often introduced, the accent is often laid on the first syllable of a foot, and there are frequently not more than four, sometimes not more than three, accents in a line.

Rhyme is the regular recurrence in metre of similar sounds. There are four principal kinds; the perfect, the alliterative, the assonantal, and the consonantal. In the perfect rhyme, the rhyming syllables correspond throughout; in other words, they are identical. It is common in French poetry, but rare in English, e. g.:

Selons divers besoins, il est une science

D'etendre les liens de notre conscience.-MOLIÈRE.

The alliterative rhyme is the correspondence of the initial consonants of the rhyming syllables. This is the ordinary rhythm of the Anglo-Saxon, and also of the Scandinavian poetry, e. g. :—

Eadward kinge, engla hláford

Sende sothfæste sawle to criste

On godes wæra, gast haligne.

These lines, which represent the most common of Anglo-Saxon rhythms, have each four accents, and either three or two rhyming syllables, which are always accented. When the rhyming syllables begin with vowels, these vowels are usually different, though not always.

The assonantal rhyme is the correspondence of the vowels merely in the rhyming syllables. It is of two kinds in the first the vowel ends the syllable; in the second, it is followed by a consonant, or a consonant and vowel. The first kind occurs continually in English poetry; the, second, never; but it is a favourite rhyme with the Spanish poets. Examples :

(1) If she seem not so to me,

What care I how good she be?

(2) Ferid los, cavalleros, por amor de caridad;

Yo soy Ruy Diaz el Cid, Campeador de Bibar.2

Ballad of the Cid.

The consonantal rhyme is the ordinary rhyme of English poetry it is the correspondence of the vowel and the final consonant or consonants in the rhyming syllables. Examples :

Golden boys and girls all must,

Like chimney sweepers, come to dust.

All that has been said hitherto applies only to single rhymes, the masculine rhyme of the Italians. The double, or feminine rhyme, which is the ordinary rhyme of Italian poetry, is also

From Guest's Rhythms, ii. 70. His translation is,

King Edward, lord of the Engle,

Sent his righteous soul to Christ,

(In God's promise trusting) a spirit holy. 2 Smite them, knights, for the love of charity; I am Ruy Diaz the Cid, champion of Bivar.

common with us. The first syllables form always a consonantal or assonantal (No. 1.) rhyme, the second syllables a perfect rhyme. Examples:

Ecco da mille voci unitamen-te,

Gerusalemme salutar si sen-te.-Tasso. Geru. Liber.

And join with thee calm Peace and Qui-et,

Spare Fast, that oft with Gods doth di-et.

In the triple rhyme, called sdrucciola by the Italians, the first syllables follow the same rule as in the double rhyme; the second and third must be, in English poetry at least, perfect rhymes. Example:

Kings may be blest, but Tam was glo-ri-ous,

O'er all the ills of life victo-ri-ous.

Before proceeding further, it is necessary to enumerate the principal kinds of feet used in English poetry. A long syllable is represented by the mark (-), a short syllable by the mark (~).1 Two short syllables are equivalent to, or have the metrical value of, one long syllable; except at the end of a line, where one, two, and even occasionally three short syllables may be introduced ex abundanti, or by way of redundancy; and must be considered as having no metrical value. The feet most used are,—

The spondee (-)

The iambus (~~)

The trochee (~~)

The dactyl (~~)
The anapæst (~~~)

The amphiambus2 (~ - ~)

' In English poetry, length or quantity depends almost entirely upon accent. Accented syllables are long, unaccented short. In Greek and Latin poetry, as is well known, quantity is something intrinsic in each syllable, and depends upon the nature of the vowel and the consonant or consonants following it. Our ears, trained to mark the accents only, take little notice of this kind of quantity; yet those poets who utterly neglect it, are felt to write roughly and unmelodiously, though most of us could not explain distinctly the grounds of the feeling. A Roman ear could not have endured such a dactyl as far in the, because to it the in would be made irredeemably long by position. This we scarcely notice; but even an English ear would stumble at such a dactyl as, e. g., far midst the.

2 Using the analogy of the Homeric démas àμpikúπeλλоν I have, for the

NN

English metres may be divided into, 1. the unrhymed; 2. the rhymed. The first, in which a comparatively small portion of our poetry is written, may be quickly disposed of. They are of three kinds, hexameters, blank verse, and choral metres.. The general rule governing the formation of English hexameters has been already given; it need only be added that the last or sixth foot must always be a spondee, and the fifth ordinarily a dactyl, though a spondee is also admissible. Example:

Felt she in myriad | springs her sources | far in the mountains | Stirring, collecting, | heaving, uprising, | forth out-flowing. —CLOUGH

Blank verse is a continuous metre, consisting, in its most perfect form, of lines containing five iambuses, each iambus being accented on the last syllable. In other words, it is a decasyllabic metre, having the second, fourth, sixth, eighth, and tenth syllables accented. We have not space to discuss here all the variations from this form, which are numerous; but the student will find the subject ably handled in Johnson's papers in the Rambler on Milton's versification. The following examples illustrate the principal variations, which affect, 1. The position of the accents; 2. their number; 3. the termination of the line:

When down along | by pleasant Tem|pe's stream | (1)

Left for repentance, none | for pardon left | (2)

In-fi-nite wrath, and in fi-nite despair |

How overcome this dire | ca-lam-ity |

(3)

To the | last syl-lable of ❘ recor-|ded tíme | (4)

Tomorrow and tomorrow and | tomor-|row | (5)
Who

can | be wise, | amazed, | temperate, | and fu-|ri-ous | (6)

In (1), a strictly regular line, the accents are five in number, and occupy their normal positions. In (2) they are still five, but the first syllable is accented instead of the second. In each of the two examples of (3) there are but four accents, differently placed

sake of convenience, substituted this term for the more usual' 1'amphibrachys.' from which it is impossible to form an adjective.