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two fundamental principles,-a. Action and remission, accented and unaccented; b. All measures in the same movement in equal times: then, since pulsation involves remission, and is the source and means of connected utterance,

a.

Make every measure begin with an accent or a pause;

b. Make every accent begin a measure.

With this single, simple, and natural type of measure, and the measure of silence for occasional need, the correct rhythm of any passage, whether prose or verse, may be scored and read. The subject of rhythm is thus stripped of its mantle of complexity and mystery. We are done at once with the superfluities of iambus, anapest, pyrrhic, amphibrach, amphimacer, and spondee; which have no other use and mission in the world but to fill the back pages of the grammar, and make students devoutly thankful that Greek and Latin are dead languages. Dead, possibly, of too much prosody.

THE FORMS OF MEASURE.

The following are the possible measures of speech. 1.

The Double Measure, ax, consisting of one accented, followed by one unaccented, syllable-the simplest type of pulsation and remission, next after the radical and vanish of the syllabic concrete. Mr. Murdoch calls it the Common Measure. It is the trochee of the prosodists. The words,

Final, spirit, mental, glitter,

if spoken in fluent, equable succession, will illustrate a rhythm of Double Measure.

2.

The Single Measure, a, consists of a single syllable of long quantity, filling the time of the whole measure; the pulsative action being at the radical of the vowel, and the remission on

the vanish of the syllable. The first two measures of 'Ossian's Address to the Sun',

O thoul that rollest a-l bove, 71

may serve to illustrate this form; also, the measures, 'dream,' 'seem,' in the stanza from 'The Psalm of Life', discussed above.

3.

The Triple Measure, axx, is made up of an accent and two enclitics; as,—

4.

Impetus, myriad, visible, galaxy, spirited.

The Quadruple Measure, axxx, consists of an accent and three enclitics; as,

5.

Spiritual, valuable, peremptory, admirable.

The Accelerated Measure, axxxx, axxxxx, consists of an accent and four, or sometimes five or more, enclitics; as,

Spiritually, peremptorily.

Such measures are very rare, outside the hurry and clutter of careless colloquial speech.

6.

In the Strong Imperfect Measure, a 7, and the Weak Imperfect Measure, 7 x, xx, 7 xxx, the remiss or the pulsative portion is wanting, its time being filled with a pause.

By the judicious use of imperfect measures, the adjustment of emphatic and grouping pauses is facilitated, and the rhythm is rendered organic; as,

Perfect love 7 casteth out 17 A-1 way! - 7 a-l way! |

fear. I

7 and on wel dash! |

RHYTHM, AS AFFECTED BY EMPHASIS.

A simple example will serve to illustrate how readily measure and rhythm adapt themselves to changes of emphasis.

Note, and take advantage of the fact, that, so long as none of its words is emphatic, the phrase, 'go with us to the,' can be spoken as one accelerated measure; or it may be divided into two measures, by the introduction of a short pause after 'us'; the latter rhythm being, of course, the more leisurely.

Henry says he will go with us Wednesday. I

to the park 717 next

Henry says he will go with us to the park next 7 Wednesday. I

Henry says he will go with us to the park next Wednesday.

Henry says he will go with us to the park next Wednesday. I

Henry says 17 he will go with us to the park next Wednesday. I

Henry says he will go with us to the park next Wednesday. |

Henry says he will go with us to the park next Wednesday. I

Henry says hel will gol with us to the park next Wednesday. I

Henry says 17 hel will go with us to the park next Wednesday. I

Several of the above cases might be embodied in a single reading; but any reading of the sentence whatever-declarative, interrogative, exclamatory, sarcastic, petulant, somber, bright, can be and should be, made rhythmical.

Study and master the impatient rush of the rhythm, in the last sentence of this example from Carlyle:

Be no longer a chaos.

Produce! produce! Were it but the pitifulest infini-ltesimall fraction of al Product, I—I Y pro-lduce it! I

The effect of impetuosity depends, in the utterance, upon the two quadruple measures, 'were it but the,' 'fraction of a,' and, coming between them, the remarkable accelerated measure, 'pitifulest infini-,' consisting of the accent and six enclitics; the secondary accent of the syllable 'in-' being suppressed. The triple measure, '-tesimal,' contributes its share to the Marathon rush of the sentence.

'Pitifulest infini-' could, of course, be separated, and 'infini-' read as a measure; but, so read, the sound of the sentence would not echo the 'divine fury' of its thought.

COLLOQUIAL LICENSE.

Through the slurring of secondary and unemphatic accents, that is, by throwing them into the remiss, or enclitic, part of the measure, as in the case of 'infini-', above,—and the omission or slighting of some of the grouping pauses; the rhythm of easy, familiar colloquy has fewer measures and a more rapid and tripping movement than belong to sedate and serious discourse. An audible comparison of the two following scores of the same sentence will illustrate this differ

ence.

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pro-Inounced it Ito you, Itrippingly on the tongue; - but if you [mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-lcrier spoke my lines. I Speak the speech, I pray you, pro-Inounced it to you, -trippingly

1-but

Ido, lines. I

if youl mouth it, I as many

as I

on the tongue; of your players

I had as lief | the town-lcrier -spoke my

THE ADAPTATION OF MEASURE TO THOUGHT,
IN VERSE AND PROSE.

The rhythm of verse is more regular than that of prose, from the predominance of some one kind of measure; nevertheless, the beauty and fitness of poetic rhythm is largely dependent on the deft introduction of other measures than the prevailing one. Both perfect and imperfect measures are thus utilized. A strict adherence to one unvarying measure would render the reading aloud of verse unendurably monotonous; and unless verse is said or sung, it is virtually a dead language.

By the introduction of two triple measures into a rhythm grounded on double measure, Longfellow beautifully images rapid descent, and at the same time gracefully varies the movement, in the following stanza, from "The Bridge.'

I saw her bright reflection in the wa-ters under

me.

Like a golden goblet,

fall- ing And

sinking in- to the sea.

The following more extended passage, in blank verse, from Tennyson's 'The Passing of Arthur', still further shows the skillful employment of variform measures, in order that the rhythm of utterance shall coincide with the rhythm of thought and feeling. For our purpose, I disregard the conventional presentation of the text in verse form, line by line; but the opening of each line is indicated by the usual capital letter.

and| ran, |—|

| Then quickly rose Sir Bedi-lvere, And leaping down the ridges lightly, - plunged A

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