MEMORANDA I. A METRICAL NOTE A FEW words are needed to explain the metrical terms which are used in this book. This explanation is not intended to set forth a new theory of English verse, nor to discuss the comparative merits of the different theories which have been proposed and defended in the volumes named at the end of this memorandum. The study of English metrics is still in its initial stage. The development of English verse has not followed the line of a strict and well-defined system of metrical law. A large body of poetry has grown up without the conscious adoption of a fixed and universal standard of measurement, or a set of rules with recognized authority. Doubtless this body of poetry has developed in harmony with certain fundamental laws, laws which belong to man's nature and control the sense of pleasure produced in the human mind by the perception of rhythm. They may therefore be called, with propriety, natural laws. But in order to discover what they are, and to arrange them in a system, we must approach the body of English poetry as it already exists, not with a fixed theory, but with an open mind. We must observe and consider the verse-structure of the best poems, those which have given pleasure to the most intelligent readers of English, those which are regarded by competent judges as representative examples of good metrical form. We must read them naturally and simply, not according to arbitrary rules and theories derived from the prosody of other languages, but following the native rhythm of the English tongue. From this reading we must seek to discover the actual balance and flow of the verse, the number and relation of the parts of which it is composed, the nature of the recurring cadence upon which its charm depends. The art of poetry in English is not to be evolved out of the inner consciousness of professors, nor deduced from ancient metrical systems. It is to be studied inductively in the material which has already been produced by the great poets who have written in English. By this inductive study only, we may hope to arrive, in the course of time, at something like an orderly and systematic knowledge of the laws and principles of English verse. But meantime we need certain terms to describe the forms of verse which we are studying, and these terms must be defined in order that they may carry an intelligible meaning. The object of this memorandum is simply to tell the reader why certain metrical terms are used here in preference to others, and what they mean. It is generally admitted to-day that the controlling principle in English verse is not quantity but accent. In this it differs radically from Greek and Latin verse. A line of English poetry does not consist of a certain number of feet, each foot composed of a certain number of syllables of definite length arranged in a certain order. The attempt to read it in that way results in an intolerable sing-song and a most unnatural emphasis. The length of syllables in English is not fixed and unvarying. It is not subject to rule. It frequently changes. The rhythmical value of a syllable depends to a considerable extent upon the accent which is given to it by the meaning of the sentence, or by the structure of the verse, or by both. A line of English poetry is built of a number of accents, recurring at certain intervals, each accent usually carrying with it a group of two or more syllables of varying length. The simplest and most natural way to measure the line, therefore, is not by attributing to it a fixed number of imaginary feet, which in the majority of cases it does not contain, but by counting the points of accent, which are really the structural factors of the verse. These points of accent do not always coincide with the natural emphasis of the sentence, (though the rhythmical flow of the line largely depends upon a preponderance of such coincidences). But sometimes the accents are mainly, if not altogether, metrical in quality, that is to say, they arise from the fact that the sentence is meant to be read not as prose but The best term to denote such a point of metrical emphasis, which may or may not fall upon the same syllable as the rhetorical emphasis, is the word stress. as verse. The clearest, easiest, and shortest way to describe a line of English poetry is not to call it a trimeter or a pentameter or a heptameter verse, but a three-stress or a five-stress or a seven stress verse. The name to be given to the groups of syllables marked and bound together by a stress is more difficult to determine. I will confess that it seems to me unnatural and misleading to call them feet, when the element of definitely arranged quantities, ́essential to a foot in classical prosody, is wanting, or at least uncertain. It appears natural to turn to music for a more accurate and distinctive name. There is a close analogy between the cadence of English verse and the rhythmical structure of music. Take away the element of pitch from a musical measure and it corresponds very nearly to a verse measure. The word bar, which is used in music to describe a group of |