XXII.

MAIN.

We now come to the most novel section of the subject, that where feet are superseded entirely, their place supplied by the accents bounding a rhapsodic dance along at uneven distances, guided only by the expression.

It was before observed that the principle of feet in general, as first supplanting the old alliterative system, is rather to be explained as a device to reduce the powers of the accent to a minimum for the attainment of smoothness than aught else; as the nearer and more regular accents fall, the less their proportionate force.

This system of comparatively weak accentual power it is proposed to supplement by another, where accent in all its strength as a torrent is master of the occasion. The number of main beats being four in each line, the consequent descriptive term is four-main.

Síng unto Jehóvah, for he hath tríumphed glóriously,

The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea;

He hath proved himself my strength and my salvation hath my God, The God of my fathers, exalt ye high his name.

Jehovah, Jehovah, is a mighty man of war:

Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea,
Egypt and her king the waters he hath poured over them;
Overhead of them the waters, as a stone they sank.

Thy right hand, Jehovah, hath shown glorious in power,
Thy right hand, Jehovah, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.
Wondrously hast thou overthrown the proud in their uprising,
Swiftly were they consumed before thee in thy wrath.

With the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together,

On a heap the floods upon either hand stood up,

The depths become dry land in the heart of the sea:

The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake,

My soul shall delight itself in the abundance of the spoil:
I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them—
Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea swallowed them,
They sank as lead in the surging waters.

Who is like unto thee, O Jehovah, among the Gods?
Fearful of name, and wonderful in works.

The nations shall hear, they shall no more stand;
Sorrow shall take hold upon the inhabitants of Palestina.
Then shall the dukes of Edom be stricken with amazement,
Trembling shall fall upon the mighty men of Moab;
The dwellers of Canaan their souls shall melt away,

Dumb-foundered at thy deeds, at the greatness of thine arm.
But the people of thy redemption thou shalt mightily bring in,
Theirs shalt thou make the land of the inheritance of their foes;
Where shall thy Sanctuary, thy holy Sanctuary, be established,
The seat of thy kingdom from everlasting to everlasting.

And Miriam the prophetess with a timbrel in her hands,
She and the women all with timbrels in their hands,
Answering took up the song of thanksgiving and of praise:
Sing unto Jehovah, for he hath triumphed gloriously,
The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

Even with as little alteration as this, anything of the rhapsodic kind falls into this metre. Many of the verses above are identical with the actual Bible forms, the metre ordering itself by its own force.

Of course there is no possible arrangement of words which, by help of the hover, may not be apportioned into some kind of feet, the above example included; but it is affirmed that this is main, and that no other ruling will meet the occasion.

Note a peculiarity that the verse takes upon itself the form of a couplet; very rarely, indeed, that of a triplet. With exception of an occasional opening line before the metre gets under weigh, each verse must have a parallel, or appear lame; we thus get a certain connection between this verse and midabout.

Another reason why four-main must be held distinct from the ordinary metric system is this: on observation, in spite of its length, the verse cannot be said to have the cesura in the ordinary acceptation, except that which at last is so powerful, it forms the lines into couplets. Yet, on the other hand, every main accent may be said to have its attendant

pause, and the movement consequently to be made by short cesural sections:

:

Sing unto Jehovah | for he hath triumphed gloriously,
The horse and his rider | hath he thrown into the sea.

Consider the short cesural member to form an integer like a foot, and four-main is no other than that twice double. The perception of this may lessen surprise should this principle of proportion be found to have been made use of in widely different languages.

The oft-commented parallelism of Hebrew poetry cannot be of very different nature from midabout and main, the parallel of structure further carried out in the thought, so that the members have more or less an equivalence of meaning. The suitability this method displays for rendering the poets of Palestine or exalted discourse, of any sort, is astonishing. The present writer has applied it to the whole of the book of Job.

Again, the old alliterative measure of the Anglo-Saxon must infallibly have developed into this but for the introduction of rhyme, which paved the way to regular feet, a style since upheld to the exclusion of all other, by oversedulous regard for the classics.

The four following lines, and others similar, owe all the admiration they have gained to the like cesural structure :—

Warms in the sun, || refreshes | in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, || and blossoms in the trees,

Lives through all life, || extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided, || operates | unspent.

An evident affinity in structure may be remarked between main, the alliterative, and interior rhyme formations, all adopting the same sort of twice double arrangement, following the road traced for them by the rhythmic force, which works thus in cesural divisions.

It was with four-main in mind that further notice was not taken at the time of how the hover might be used to diversify verses in march-metre of greater length than five feet. But suppose we construct a verse of six feet, the accents occurring in their places but for the hover, if the note be stirring the

verse rises into main at once, and nothing is gained by keeping it to nominal feet only hampering its variability :

Loud as a trumpet clang in rapturous appeal

Sounded the voice of the Fardarter from his throne.

The foot structure has only a chance when the tone is any way subdued, instancing the inferiority of foot to main :

Borne on the melancholy streaming of the wind

A note which fell with dying softness on the ear,

These two samples are identical in structure, though certainly few would suppose it.

Perhaps the strangest feature of the whole is that the same verse will often appear unobjectionable as main :—

Wondrously hast thou overthrown | the proud | in theír uprising.

But weak if reckoned by metric feet :

Wondrously hást | thou ó verthrown | the proud | in their | uprís íng.

Can any argument be founded on this, it is that foot measurement bears too hard, is unjust to the powers of the language. Indeed the writer of main will find it, in a great measure, necessary to avoid falling into a regular foot formation, as productive of results too smoothly weak to stand.

It was seen how little change was required to adopt the song of Moses to this metre; as little would be required for the Psalms or any other portion of Hebrew poetry. But it should be borne in mind that the Psalms, as they at present stand, are actually in a kind of verse already.

What is the following but the kind of Ossianic free-song referred to before:

When God heard this he was wroth and took sore displeasure at Israel, So that he forsook the tabernacle in Silo; even the tent that he had pitched among men.

He delivered their power into captivity, and their beauty into the enemy's

hand.

He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.

The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given

in marriage.

Their priests were slain with the sword; and there were no widows to make lamentation.-Ps. lxxviii. 60.

Or the following, unchanged save for mere points of rendering not affecting the metre, what is it but main in lines of varying length ?

By the waters of Babylon we sát down and wépt,
When we remembered thée, O Zíon.

Ás for our hárps we hángèd them úp

Upón the willow-branches bý.

When they who led us cáptive requíred of us a sóng
And mélody in our heaviness:

Síng us one of the sóngs of Zíon.

Hów should we sing the Lord's song in a stránge land!
If I forget thee, O Jerúsalem,

Máy my right hánd forgét her cunning.

Jerúsalem, of thée unmíndful

Let my tongue cleáve to the roof of my mouth.
Remember the children of Édom, O Lord,

That day of thy Cíty how they cried,

Dówn with it, down with it, éven to the ground!
Thou too, O daughter of Bábylon perdítioned,
Happy he who sérveth thee éven as thou hast ús:
A bléssing on hím who táketh thy children,

And dásheth them against the stónes.-Ps. cxxxvii.

Whether this kind of arrangement be open here to the charge of not being distinct enough in ordering of the lines, like that quoted from Shelley's 'Queen Mab,' is another question. The slight stricture there passed does not, however, seem to apply in this instance, but the untrammeled cadencing of the great rhythmic force to determine the point sufficiently.

A strain like the above when unadorned is adorned the most, infinitely preferable to any of the clinking ballads made upon it, be they by whom they may. Even Byron's genius here, perforce, encountered a rebuff.

To point still further the connection between verse and prose, note how Wilkie Collins, in his tale of ‘Armadale,