It may be safely pronounced a capital defect in the composition of verse, to put a low word, incapable of an accent, in the place where this accent should be: this bars the accent altogether. No single circumstance contributes more to the energy of verse, than to put an important word where the accent should be, a word that merits a peculiar emphasis. In a line expressive of what is humble or dejected, it improves the resemblance between the sound and sense to exclude the capital accent. In these deep sôlitudes || and awful cells Accents are not, like syllables, confined to a certain number: some lines have no fewer than five, and there are lines that admit not above one. This variety depends entirely on the different powers of the component words: particles, even where they are long by position, cannot be accented; and polysyllables, whatever space they occupy, admit but one accent. Polysyllables have another defect, they exclude the full pause, and few of them can find place in the construction of English verse. Blank verse has so many circumstances in common with rhyme, that its peculiarities may be brought within a narrow compass. With respect to form, it differs from rhyme in rejecting the jingle of similar sounds, which purifies it from a childish pleasure. The peculiar advantage of blank verse is, that it is at liberty to attend the imagination in its boldest flights. Rhyme necessarily divides verse into couplets: each couplet makes a complete musical period, the parts of which are divided by pauses, and the whole summed up by a full close at the end: the melody begins anew with the next couplet; and in this manner a composition in rhyme proceeds couplet after couplet. From the correspondence and concord that subsist between sound and sense, it is a plain inference, that if a couplet be a complete period, with regard to melody, it ought regularly to be the same with regard to sense. As it is difficult to support such strictness of composition, licenses are indulged, which must be used with discretion, to preserve some degree of concord between the sense and the music: there ought never to be a full close in the sense, but at the end of a couplet; and there ought always to be some pause in the sense at the end of every couplet: the same period, as to sense, may be extended through several couplets; but each couplet ought to contain a distinct member, distinguished by a pause in the sense as well as in the sound; and the whole ought to be closed with a complete cadence. Rules such as these confine rhyme within narrow bounds: a thought of any extent, cannot be reduced within its compass; the sense must be curtailed and broken into parts, to make it square with the curtness of the melody; and beside, short periods afford no latitude for inversion. I have examined this point with the stricter accuracy, to give a just notion of blank verse; and to show that a slight difference in form may produce a great difference in substance. Blank verse has the same pauses and accents with rhyme, and a pause at the end of every line, like that which concludes the first line of a couplet. In a word, the rules of melody in blank verse, are the same that obtain with respect to the first line of a couplet; but being disengaged from couplets, there is access to make every line run into another, precisely so as to make the first line of a couplet run into the second. There must be a musical pause at the end of every line; but this pause is so slight as not to require a pause in the sense: and accordingly the sense may be carried on with or without pauses, till a period of the utmost extent be completed by a full close both in the sense and the sound: there is no restraint, other than that this full close be at the end of a line. Hence the fitness of blank verse for inversion; and consequently the lustre of its pauses and accents. In the second section of this chapter it is shown, that nothing contributes more than inversion to the force and elevation of language: the couplets of rhyme confine inversion; nor would the elevation of inversion, in rhyme, accord with the humbler tone of that sort of verse. The loftiness of Milton's style supports admirably the sublimity of his subject: and this loftiness arises chiefly from inversion. Shakspeare deals little in inversion: his blank verse is a sort of measured prose, perfectly well adapted to the stage, where labored inversion is highly improper, because in dialogue it never can be natural. That superior power of expression which verse acquires by laying aside rhyme, is not the only ground for preferring blank verse: it possesses more extensive and complete melody. Its music is not confined to a single couplet; but takes in a great compass, so as to rival music properly so called. The interval between its cadences may be long or short; and, by that means, its melody, with respect both to richness and variety, is far superior to that of rhyme, and superior even to that of the Greek and Latin hexameter. Of this observation no person can doubt who is acquainted with the Paradise Lost: in which work there are indeed many careless lines; but at every turn the richest melody as well as the sublimest sentiments are conspicuous. English hexameter would be destitute of melody, unless by artful pronunciation; because of necessity the bulk of its sounds must be arbitrary. The pronunciation is easy in a simple movement of alternate long and short syllables; but would be perplexing and unpleasant, in the diversified movement of hexameter verse. In modern tongues, rhyme has become universal among men as well as children; and it cannot have such currency without some foundation in human nature. In fact, it has been successfully employed by poets of genius, in their serious and grave compositions, as well as in those which are more light and airy. Rhyme, which connects two-verse lines by making them close with two words similar in sound, rouses the mind, and produces an emotion moderately gay without dignity or elevation; like the murmuring of a brook gliding through pebbles, it calms the mind when perturbed, and gently raises it when sunk. These effects are scarce perceived when the whole poem is in rhyme; but are extremely remarkable by contrast, in the couplets that close the several acts of our later tragedies; the tone of the mind is sensibly varied by them, from anguish, distress, or melancholy, to some degree of ease and alacrity. Having described the impression that rhyme makes on the mind, I proceed to examine whether there be any subjects to which rhyme is peculiarly adapted, and for what subjects it is improper. Grand and lofty subjects, which have a powerful influence, claim precedence in this inquiry. In the chapter of Grandeur and Sublimity, it is established that a grand or sublime object inspires a warm enthusiastic emotion, disdaining strict regularity and order. This emotion is different from that inspired by the moderately enlivening music of rhyme. Supposing then an elevated subject to be expressed in rhyme, what must be the effect? The intimate union of the music with the subject, produces an intimate union of their emotions; one inspired by the subject, tends to elevate and expand the mind; and one inspired by the music, which tends to prevent all elevation above its own pitch. The cheering and enlivening power of rhyme is still more remarkable in poems of short lines, where the rhymes return upon the ear in a quick succession: for which reason rhyme is perfectly well adapted to gay, light, and airy subjects. For that reason, such frequent rhymes are very improper for any severe or serious passion: the disso nance between the subject and the melody is very sensibly felt. Rhyme is not less unfit for anguish or deep distress, ⚫than for subjects elevated and lofty; and for that reason has been long disused in the English and Italian tragedy. In a work where the subject is serious, though not elevated, rhyme has not a good effect, as in the Essay on Man. Sportive love, mirth, gaiety, humor, and ridicule, are the province of rhyme. The boundaries assigned it by Nature, were extended in barbarous and illiterate ages; and in its usurpations it has long been protected by custom: but taste in the fine arts, as well as in morals, improves daily, and makes a progress toward perfection, slow indeed, but uniform; and there is no reason to doubt that rhyme, in Britain, will in time be forced to abandon its unjust conquest, and to confine itself within its natural limits. REVIEW. From what does the distinction between prose and verse arise? What does the difference between them resemble? What five things are important to verse? Which are essential to it? For what three things are pauses important? What is meant by the key-note? What by accenting a syllable? What is cadence? How are syllables classified? What is their relative length? Upon what word does the voice rest longer than usual? What sort of word sinks below the key-note in pronunciation ? What are the two kinds of English heroic verse? How is the former distinguished? What is a couplet? How is the latter distinguished? What does every line consist of? What are the exceptions? Give examples of the first exception-of the other. What is an Alexandrine line?-its use? May most monosyllables be pronounced long or short? What is the arrangement of English heroic verse? What is the exception? Give an example. What imperfection in English verse is mentioned? |