5. Emphasis of Inflections.-There is what might be called a natural (or usual) way of modulating or turning the voice in ordinary expression, which gives no emphasis. The same expression may be made very emphatic by a change of inflection.

"I am going home." It is natural to speak these words in an even tone and to drop the voice at the close of the sentence. This gives no emphasis, but simply indicates that the sentence is finished.

Any variation from the usual way of speaking, whether in time, quality, quantity, force, pause, or inflection, gives emphasis

"I am going home."

“On you` and on your children` be thē pēril ōf thē īnnōcēnt blōōd which shall be shed this day`."

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· Hence`, home`, you idle creatures'; get you home`.”

"I said an elder soldier, not a better'."

"My father's trade? Ah, really, that's too bad.

My father's trade? Why, blockhead, are you mad?

My father, sir, did never stoop so low

He was a gentleman, I'd have you know."

"The heavens declare the glory of Gōd, and the firmāmēnt shōwēth his handiwork."

These various inflections add to the emphasis of force or give an emphasis of their own. Sarcasm, astonishment, sorrow, sublimity, and awe depend for their proper emphasis more on time, speed, quality, and inflection than on mere force.

POETRY.

Poetic Form.-It is difficult to define poetry, but its form is well understood. A great deal of so-called poetry is simply prose put into poetical form. Any ordinary fact can be made to assume that form, but it will be as far from being poetry as ever.

An old mill once stood at the foot of the hill.

At the foot of the hill

Once there stood an old mill.

The prose fact has taken on the poetic form, but it is still prose. It is said that poetry always, unites fiction with meter; but if this were true the " Thanatopsis" would be prose, since it contains the grandest facts clothed in poetic expression.

There may be poetry in the form of prose as well as prose in the form of poetry, since poetry is rather the im-pression than the ex-pression of the exalted mind.

Any one can learn the mechanics of poetry, and almost any one can change the prose to the poetic form; but the true poet is "born, not made," and no practice or study could have evolved

"The conscious water saw its God and blushed"

out of the simple story of the Marriage Feast in Galilee.

Poetic form consists of lines beginning with capital letters, with the syllables arranged according to certain rules in regular numbers called feet.

It has two divisions: Rhyme and Blank Verse. In Rhyme the terminating syllables, including the last accented syllables, in two or more lines, correspond in sound. In Blank Verse there are no rhyming words.

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A verse is a line arranged in poetic form.

NOTE. The word verse " has four uses: 1. A poetic line. A short division of any composition. 3. A poem. 4. A stanza. The last use is considered incorrect, but it is almost universal among the masses, and, as the meaning of a word comes from the masses generally, it may be expected that the technical meaning of verse will disappear in its second meaning.

Poetic Feet.-A standard poetic foot contains two or three syllables, one of which is long, and is named according to the arrangement of its long and short syllables.

The accented syllables are considered long ( ̄), and the unaccented ones short (~). There are four standard feet in English verse, as follows:

Regular Feet.—

Iambus

Trochee

Anapest Dactyl

"Hark to the bird's morning echo of happiness."

All English poetry is founded on one or another of these standard feet, and there is no poem in the language consisting entirely of the irregular feet that are used to break the monotony of the standard measure.

In the following examples the irregular feet are shown as they occur in connection with the regular feet.

Broken Feet.--Broken (or parts of) feet are often used to great

advantage, but only a single syllable is used in this way. In many cases the understood words would make the foot perfect. "Break, | break, | break

On thy cold gray stones, | O sea!"

Break is imperative. Do thou is grammatically understood. When supplied, it makes the measure regular, but spoils the verse. "Dawn on our | darkness and | lend us thine | aid."

"The storm was long, and in wild | commotion
It swept into mountains the billowy ocean."

In the first extract a long syllable ends the line. In the last extract a short syllable is used. Both are broken feet.

In a few cases some writers admit a foot having four syllables, giving the four the same metric time as three.

"The Assyrian came down | like the wolf | on the fold."

Generally, however, if not always, this irregularity comes under what is called poetic license, which allows poets to unite two syllables in a single utterance, or to make two syllables of one.

"The sacred bower | of that | renowned bard."

Bower is here pronounced bow'r, and ed in renowned is made a separate syllable.

On every side | with shadowy squadrons deep

And hosts infuriate shake | the shuddering ground."

Here the last two syllables of every, shadowy, infuriate, and shuddering are to be sounded as one syllable, or the first syllable should be sounded so rapidly as to seem a part of the second. Sometimes the meter will help to give the exact meaning by

showing the accented words, and at other times the accented words will show the meter.* The two should be studied together.

Poetic Movement.-There is a certain movement in poetic forms, a peculiar flow of words, a regular irregularity of sounds, that attracts nearly every one, so that a poem in an unknown language, properly read, pleases, something like sweet music; but to be pleased with music and to appreciate it are two very different things. To "like to read poetry," and to have even the slightest appreciation of exalted sentiment, may be as different as are poetry and prose.

To be a true lover of poetry one must be a poet in his innermost nature; and to study poetry, or to read it fairly well, one must enter into the mood of the poet himself.

Varieties of Poetry. The principal divisions, or classes, of poetic composition are the Epic, the Lyric, and the Dramatic. The ballad belongs to Epic poetry. The Lyric includes the varieties of song, the hymn, the anthem, the ode, the elegy, and the sonnet. Drama embraces tragedy and comedy. Didactic and satirical compositions form a class by themselves, but are sometimes excluded from the ranks of poetry. The Epic form is the highest type, since it includes the Drama with narration. The characters are made to speak and to act with sustained interest.

The gifts and qualities essential to the greatest poets are, in their order first, imagination, combined with action and character; next, feeling and thought; fancy, the next; and wit, the last. Thought alone does not make a poet. The mere conclusions of the understanding are only intellectual facts. Feeling, being a sort of thought without the process of thinking, may be the basis of a low class of poetry, which may please the beginner, but is discarded as he grows into a knowledge of and a love for the higher forms of poetic thought.

*The terms Short Meter, Long Meter, Common Meter, etc., as used in hymn-books, indicate the number of Iambic feet found in the lines of lyric poetry, to be sung to music corresponding in accent and syllables.