The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown (read books for money TXT) 📖

| a sin
    For me [thus] | to sit | and grin
        At him here;
    But the old | three-cor |-ner'd hat,
    And the breech |-es, and | all that,
        Are so queer!

    8.
    And if I | should live | to be
    The last leaf | upon | the tree
        In the spring,—
    Let them smile, | as I | do now,
    At the old | forsak |-en bough
        Where I cling."
        OLIVER W. HOLMES: The Pioneer, 1843, p. 108.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.—Composite verse, especially if the lines be short, is peculiarly liable to uncertainty, and diversity of scansion; and that which does not always abide by one chosen order of quantities, can scarcely be found agreeable; it must be more apt to puzzle than to please the reader. The eight stanzas of this last example, have eight lines of iambic trimeter; and, since seven times in eight, this metre holds the first place in the stanza, it is a double fault, that one such line seems strayed from its proper position. It would be better to prefix the word Now to the fourth line, and to mend the forty-third thus:—

"And should | I live | to be"—

The trissyllabic feet of this piece, as I scan it, are numerous; being the sixteen short lines of monometer, and the twenty-four initial feet of the lines of seven syllables. Every one of the forty—(except the thirty-sixth, "The last leaf"—) begins with a monosyllable which may be varied in quantity; so that, with stress laid on this monosyllable, the foot becomes an amphimac; without such stress, an anapest.

OBS. 2.—I incline to read this piece as composed of iambs and anapests; but E. A. Poe, who has commended "the effective harmony of these lines," and called the example "an excellently well conceived and well managed specimen of versification," counts many syllables long, which such a reading makes short, and he also divides all but the iambics in a way quite different from mine, thus: "Let us scan the first stanza.

    'I s=aw | h~im =once | b~ef=ore
    As h~e | p=ass~ed | b=y th~e | d=oor,
        And ~a- | g=ain

    Th~e p=ave- | m~ent st=ones | r~es=ound
    As h~e | t=ott~ers | =o'er th~e | gr=ound
        W=ith h~is c=ane.'

This," says he, "is the general scansion of the poem. We have first three iambuses. The second line shifts the rhythm into the trochaic, giving us three trochees, with a cæsura equivalent, in this case, to a trochee. The third line is a trochee and equivalent cæsura."—POE'S NOTES UPON ENGLISH VERSE: Pioneer, p. 109. These quantities are the same as those by which the whole piece is made to consist of iambs and amphimacs.

OBS. 3.—In its rhythmical effect upon the ear, a supernumerary short syllable at the end of a line, may sometimes, perhaps, compensate for the want of such a syllable at the beginning of the next line, as may be seen in the fourth example above; but still it is unusual, and seems improper, to suppose such syllables to belong to the scansion of the subsequent line; for the division of lines, with their harmonic pauses, is greater than the division of feet, and implies that no foot can ever actually be split by it. Poe has suggested that the division into lines may be disregarded in scanning, and sometimes must be. He cites for an example the beginning of Byron's "Bride of Abydos,"—a passage which has been admired for its easy flow, and which, he says, has greatly puzzled those who have attempted to scan it. Regarding it as essentially anapestic tetrameter, yet as having some initial iambs, and the first and fifth lines dactylic, I shall here divide it accordingly, thus:—

   "Kn=ow y~e th~e | l=and wh~ere th~e | c=ypr~ess ~and | m=yrtl~e
      Ar~e =em | -bl~ems ~of d=eeds | th~at ~are d=one
                                                   | ~in th~eir cl=ime—
    Where the rage | of the vul | -ture, the love | of the tur | -tle,
      Now melt | into soft | -ness, now mad | -den to crime?
      Know ye the | land of the | cedar and | vine.
      Where the flow'rs | ever blos | -som, the beams | ever shine,
      And the light | wings of Zeph | -yr, oppress'd | with perfume,
      Wax faint | o'er the gar | -dens of Gul | in her bloom?
      Where the cit | -ron and ol | -ive are fair | -est of fruit,
      And the voice | of the night | -ingale nev | -er is mute?
      Where the vir | -gins are soft as the ros | -es they twine,
      And all, | save the spir | -it of man, | is divine?
      'Tis the land | of the East- | 't is the clime | of the Sun—
      Can he smile | on such deeds | as his chil | -dren have done?
      Oh, wild | as the ac | -cents of lov | -ers' farewell,
      Are the hearts | that they bear, | and the tales | that they tell."

OBS. 4.—These lines this ingenious prosodist divides not thus, but, throwing them together like prose unpunctuated, finds in them "a regular succession of dactylic rhythms, varied only at three points by equivalent spondees, and separated into two distinct divisions by equivalent terminating cæsuras." He imagines that, "By all who have ears—not over long—this will be acknowledged as the true and the sole true scansion."—E. A. Poe: Pioneer, p. 107. So it may, for aught I know; but, having dared to show there is an other way quite as simple and plain, and less objectionable, I submit both to the judgement of the reader:—

"Kn=ow y~e th~e | l=and wh~ere th~e | c=ypr~ess ~and | m=yrtl~e ~are | =embl~ems ~of | d=eeds th~at ~are | d=one ~in th~eir | cl=ime wh~ere th~e | r=age ~of th~e | v=ult~ure th~e | l=ove ~of th~e | t=urtl~e n~ow | m=elt ~int~o | s=oftn~ess n~ow | madd~en t~o | crime. Kn=ow y~e th~e | l=and ~of th~e | c=ed~ar ~and | v=ine wh~ere th~e | fl=ow'rs ~ev~er | bl=oss~om th~e | b=eams ~ev~er | sh=ine wh~ere th=e | l=ight w~ings =of | z=eph=yr ~op | -pr=ess'd w~ith p~er | -f=ume w=ax | f=aint ~o'er th~e | g=ard~ens ~of | G=ul ~in h~er | bl=oom wh~ere th~e | c=itr~on ~and | =oli~ve ~are | f=air~est ~of | fr=uit ~and th~e | v=oice ~of th~e | n=ight~ing~ale | n=ev~er ~is | m=ute wh~ere th~e | v=irg~ins ~are | s=oft ~as th~e | r=os~es th~ey | tw=ine =and | =all s~ave th~e | sp=ir~it ~of | m=an ~is d~i- | v=ine 't~is th~e | l=and ~of th~e | E=ast 't~is th~e | cl=im~e ~of th~e | S=un c~an h~e | sm=ile ~on s~uch | d=eeds ~as h~is | ch=ildr~en h~ave | d~one =oh w=ild ~as th~e | =acc~ents ~of | l=ov~ers' f~are- | w=ell ~are th~e | h=earts th~at th~ey | be=ar and th~e | t=ales th~at th~ey | t=ell."—Ib.

OBS. 5.—In the sum and proportion of their quantities, the anapest, the dactyl, and the amphibrach, are equal, each having two syllables short to one long; and, with two short quantities between two long ones, lines may be tolerably accordant in rhythm, though the order, at the commencement, be varied, and their number of syllables be not equal. Of the following sixteen lines, nine are pure anapestic tetrameters; one may be reckoned dactylic, but it may quite as well be said to have a trochee, an iambus, and two anapests or two amphimacs; one is a spondee and three anapests; and the rest may be scanned as amphibrachics ending with an iambus, but are more properly anapestics commencing with an iambus. Like the preceding example from Byron, they lack the uniformity of proper composites, and are rather to be regarded as anapestics irregularly diversified.

THE ALBATROSS.

"'Tis said the Albatross never rests."—Buffon.

   "Wh~ere th~e f=ath | -~oml~ess w=aves | in magnif | -icence toss,
    H=omel~ess | ~and h=igh | soars the wild | Albatross;
    Unwea | -ried, undaunt | -ed, unshrink | -ing, alone,
    The o | -cean his em | -pire, the tem | -pest his throne.
    When the ter | -rible whirl | -wind raves wild | o'er the surge,
    And the hur | -ricane howls | out the mar | -iner's dirge,
    In thy glo | -ry thou spurn | -est the dark | -heaving sea,
    Pr=oud b=ird | of the o | -cean-world, home | -less and free.
    When the winds | are at rest, | and the sun | in his glow,
    And the glit | -tering tide | sleeps in beau | -ty below,
    In the pride | of thy pow | -er trium | -phant above,
    With thy mate | thou art hold | -ing thy rev | -els of love.
    Untir | -ed, unfet | -tered, unwatched, | unconfined,
    Be my spir | -it like thee, | in the world | of the mind;
    No lean | -ing for earth, | e'er to wea | -ry its flight,
    And fresh | as thy pin | -ions in re | -gions of light."
       SAMUEL DALY LANGTREE: North American Reader, p. 443.

OBS. 6.—It appears that the most noted measures of the Greek and Latin poets were not of any simple order, but either composites, or mixtures too various to be called composites. It is not to be denied, that we have much difficulty in reading them rhythmically, according to their stated feet and scansion; and so we should have, in reading our own language rhythmically, in any similar succession of feet. Noticing this in respect to the Latin Hexameter, or Heroic verse, Poe says, "Now the discrepancy in question is not observable in English metres; where the scansion coincides with the reading, so far as the rhythm is concerned—that is to say, if we pay no attention to the sense of the passage. But these facts indicate a radical difference in the genius of the two languages, as regards their capacity for modulation. In truth, * * * the Latin is a far more stately tongue than our own. It is essentially spondaic; the English is as essentially dactylic."—Pioneer, p. 110. (See the marginal note in §3d. at Obs. 22d, above.) Notwithstanding this difference, discrepance, or difficulty, whatever it may be, some of our poets have, in a few instances, attempted imitations of certain Latin metres; which imitations it may be proper briefly to notice under the present head. The Greek or Latin Hexameter line has, of course, six feet, or pulsations. According to the Prosodies, the first four of these may be either dactyls or spondees; the fifth is always, or nearly always, a dactyl; and the sixth, or last, is always a spondee: as,

   "L=ud~er~e | qu=æ v=el | -l=em c~al~a | -m=o p=er | -m=is~it ~a
                                                    | -gr=est=i."—Virg.

   "Inf=an- | d=um, R=e | -g=in~a, j~u | -b=es r~en~o | -v=ar~e d~o
                                                    | -l=or=em."—Id.

Of this sort of verse, in English, somebody has framed the following very fair example:—

   "M=an ~is ~a | c=ompl=ex, | c=omp=ound | c=omp=ost, | y=et ~is h~e
                                                          | G=od-b=orn."

OBS. 7.—Of this species of versification, which may be called Mixed or Composite Hexameter, the most considerable specimen that I have seen in English, is Longfellow's Evangeline, a poem of one thousand three hundred and eighty-two of these long lines, or verses. This work has found admirers, and not a few; for, of these, nothing written by so distinguished a scholar could fail: but, surely, not many of the verses in question exhibit truly the feet of the ancient Hexameters; or, if they do, the ancients contented themselves with very imperfect rhythms, even in their noblest heroics. In short, I incline to the opinion of Poe, that, "Nothing less than the deservedly high reputation of Professor Longfellow, could have sufficed to give currency to his lines as to Greek Hexameters. In general, they are neither one thing nor another. Some few of them are dactylic verses—English dactylics. But do away with the division into lines, and the most astute critic would never have suspected them of any thing more than prose."—Pioneer, p. 111. The following are the last ten lines of the volume, with such a division into feet as the poet is presumed to have contemplated:—

   "Still stands the | forest pri | -meval; but | under the | shade of its
                                                               | branches
    Dwells an | -other | race, with | other | customs and | language.
    Only a | -long the | shore of the | mournful and | misty At | -lantic
    Linger a | few A | -cadian | peasants, whose | fathers from | exile
    Wandered | back to their | native | land to | die in its | bosom.
    In the | fisherman's | cot the | wheel and the | loom are still | busy;
    Maidens still |