ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

no reason for the division into lines. But it would be very wearisome if the sense should require a logical pause, also, at the end of each line. A pleasing relief is afforded by carrying on the meaning, occasionally, from one line to the next, without rhetorical pause. Thus:

Or if Sion hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed

Fast by the oracle of God:- I thence
Invoke thy aid.

- Milton.

Indeed, this has become so decided an evidence of improved taste, that it has been adopted as one test, among others, to distinguish between the earlier and the later plays of Shakespeare. It has been shown that he was much limited, at first, by stopping the sense with the line, but as he advanced in ease of composition, he more frequently carried the meaning over to the following line. Thus the critics speak of END-STOPPED and RUN-ON LINES, respectively. Attention will be paid to this in a later chapter.

CHAPTER V.

VARIETY IN METRE.

1. UNDER this head may be included all the facts relating to the length, correspondence, and grouping of lines. The names of the regular metres, in each kind of rhythm, from one measure up to eight, have already been given in the third chapter. But it is frequently the case that lines in the same poem vary in metre. Lines of the same or of different numbers of units may be grouped together, with more or less of regularity in their correspondence.

The simplest combination of lines related to one another is the couplet. This consists of two consecutive lines, usually rhyming together; as

Know, then, this truth, enough for man to know,
Virtue alone is happiness below.

Three such lines constitute a triplet.

-Pope: Essay on Man.

Distrustful sense with modest caution speaks,
It still looks home, and short excursions makes;
But rattling nonsense in full volleys breaks.

[blocks in formation]

2. Couplets and triplets usually make part of a continuous and undivided poem. When a poem is divided into groups characterized by a definite structure and arrangement, such groups are called stanzas, or, in common speech, verses. Stanzas of three lines. Of equal length:

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

A stanza of four lines is technically known as a quatrain. The lines may be of any rhythm and of any length, and with various kinds of correspondence. The rhymes may occur only in the second and fourth lines, or in the first and third, also; or the first and fourth may rhyme together, and the second and third. This last is the kind of stanza used in Tennyson's "In Memoriam:"

I hold it truth with him who sings
To one clear harp in divers tones,
That men may rise on stepping-stones
Of their dead selves to higher things.

4. To designate the order of rhymes in a stanza, the first letters of the alphabet are usually employed, each letter denoting the same rhyme-sound wherever it occurs. Thus, in the stanza last given, the rhyme-order would be described as abba. It is customary, also, as far as is practicable, to indent, or set in, those lines which rhyme together, at equal distances from the left-hand margin. This, too, is illustrated in the stanza given above.

5. At this point, we may properly give the names of metres usually employed in hymns.

Common metre.

Iambic tetrameter and trimeter:

I sing the mighty power of God,

That made the mountains rise;
That spread the flowing seas abroad
And built the lofty skies.

- I. Watts,

Long metre. Iambic tetrameter:

O thou to whom in ancient time

The lyre of Hebrew bards was strung,
Whom kings adored in songs sublime,

And prophets praised with glowing tongue.

-J. Pierpont.

Short metre. Iambic trimeter, with tetrameter in third

line:

O everlasting Might!

My broken life repair;

Nerve thou my will and clear my sight,

Give strength to do and bear.

- H. Bonar.

Eights and sevens. Trochaic tetrameter, and trimeter with added syllable:

Love divine, all love excelling,

Joy of heaven, to earth come down;

Fix in us thy humble dwelling;

All thy faithful mercies crown.

C. Wesley.

Sevens. Trochaic trimeter, with added syllable:

Slowly, by God's hand unfurled,

Down around the weary world

Falls the darkness. Oh, how still

Is the working of his will!

Eights, sevens, and four.

-W. H. Furness.

Trochaic tetrameter, trimeter

with added syllable, and dimeter in fifth line:

Open now the crystal fountain

Whence the healing waters flow;

Let the fiery, cloudy pillar

Lead me all my journey through.
Strong Deliverer!

Be thou still my strength and shield.

- William Williams.

Sevens and sixes. Iambic trimeter, with added syllable in first and third lines:

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Elevens. Anapæstic trimeter preceded by iambus:

Let goodness and mercy, my bountiful God,
Still follow my steps till I meet thee above!
I seek by the path which my forefathers trod,

Through the land of their sojourn, thy kingdom of love.

-J. Montgomery.

Hallelujah metre. Four lines of iambic trimeter, and four lines of iambic dimeter:

[blocks in formation]
« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »