The Project Gutenberg eBook ofEnglish Verse: Specimens Illustrating its Principles and HistoryThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: English Verse: Specimens Illustrating its Principles and HistoryAuthor: Raymond MacDonald AldenRelease date: May 5, 2010 [eBook #32262]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Louise Pattison and theOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH VERSE: SPECIMENS ILLUSTRATING ITS PRINCIPLES AND HISTORY ***
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: English Verse: Specimens Illustrating its Principles and HistoryAuthor: Raymond MacDonald AldenRelease date: May 5, 2010 [eBook #32262]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Louise Pattison and theOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Title: English Verse: Specimens Illustrating its Principles and History
Author: Raymond MacDonald Alden
Author: Raymond MacDonald Alden
Release date: May 5, 2010 [eBook #32262]
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Louise Pattison and theOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH VERSE: SPECIMENS ILLUSTRATING ITS PRINCIPLES AND HISTORY ***
SPECIMENS ILLUSTRATING ITS PRINCIPLESAND HISTORY
CHOSEN AND EDITEDBYRAYMOND MACDONALD ALDEN, PH.D.Associate Professor in Leland Stanford JuniorUniversity
logo
NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
Copyright, 1903,BYHENRY HOLT & CO.
TOmy Father and MotherWHO HAVE GIVENBOTH THE INSPIRATION AND THE OPPORTUNITYFOR ALL MY STUDIES
The aim of this book is to give the materials for the inductive study of English verse. Its origin was in certain university courses, for which it proved to be necessary—often for use in a single hour's work—to gather almost numberless books, some of which must ordinarily be inaccessible except in the vicinity of large libraries. I have tried to extract from these books the materials necessary for the study of English verse-forms, adding notes designed to make the specimens intelligible and useful.
Dealing with a subject where theories are almost as numerous as those who have written on it, it has been my purpose to avoid the setting forth of my own opinions, and to present the subject-matter in a way suited, so far as possible, to the use of those holding widely divergent views. In the arrangement and naming of the earlier sections of the book, some systematic theory of the subject—accepted at least tentatively—was indeed indispensable; but I trust that even here those who would apply to English verse a different classification or terminology may be able to discard what they cannot approve and to make use of the specimens from their own standpoint. Even where (as in these introductory sections) the notes seem to overtop the text somewhat threateningly, they are invariably intended—as the type indicates—to be subordinate. Where it has been possible to do so, I have preferred to present comments on the specimens in the words of other writers, and have not confined these notes to opinions with which I wholly agree, butonly to those which seem worthy of attention. My own views on the more disputed elements of the subject (such as the relations of time and accent in our verse, the presence of "quantity" in English, and the terminology of the subject) I have reserved for Part Three, where I trust they will be found helpful by some readers, but where they may easily be passed over.
To classify the materials of this subject is peculiarly difficult, and one who tries to solve the problem will early abandon the hope of being able to follow any system with consistency. Main divisions and subdivisions will inevitably conflict and overlap. For practical purposes, basing my arrangement in part on that found convenient in university lectures (which it will be seen is not altogether unlike that followed by Schipper in hisEnglische Metrik), I have divided the specimens of verse into two main divisions, each of which is suggested by a word in the sub-title of the book. Part One contains specimens designed to illustrate the principles of English verse, arranged in topical order. Part Two contains specimens designed to illustrate the history of the more important forms of English verse, arranged—in the several divisions—in chronological order. Part Three has already been spoken of. Part Four contains extracts from important critical writers on the place and function of the verse-element in poetry,—matters which give us theraison d'êtrefor the whole study of versification.
If there had ever been hope of making the collection of specimens fairly complete, even in a representative sense, this would have been dissipated by the discovery, during the very time of the book's going through the press, of a number of additional specimens which itseemed wicked to omit. Doubtless every reader will miss some favorite selection which might well have been included, and suggestions as to important omissions will be received gratefully. The attempt has been to put students on the track of all the more important lines of development of English verse, and to indicate, by including a considerable number of specimens from early periods, the continuity of this development from the times of our Saxon forefathers to our own.
Little consistency can be claimed for the practice observed in the matter of modernizing texts that date from transition periods like the sixteenth century. In some cases the text has been modernized, or retained in its original form, according as it seemed well to emphasize either the permanent significance or the historical position of the specimen in question. In other cases the form of the text was determined merely by the best edition accessible for purposes of reproduction.
Dates have been appended to the specimens in those sections where chronology is a significant element. It has not always been possible to verify these dates with thoroughness, or to distinguish between the date of writing and that of publication; but it is hoped that inaccuracies of this sort will at least not be found of a character to misrepresent the historical relations of the specimens. Dates are not ordinarily given for the poems of writers still living.
In the notes on the specimens I have tried to distinguish between material likely to be useful for all students of the subject and that going more into detail, which is intended only for advanced or special students. Notes of the second class are printed in smaller type. Therehas been no attempt to give the notes of a bibliographical character any pretension to completeness. One may well hesitate to add, in this direction, to the admirable material presented in theMethods and Materials of Literary Criticismof Professors Gayley and Scott.
I have resisted strenuously all temptation to choose or to annotate specimens on general grounds of æsthetic enjoyment, apart from the distinct study of verse-forms. Yet it would be useless to deny having sometimes made choice of particular verses, all other considerations being equal, for their poetic or literary value over and above their prosodical. I shall not claim for the collection what Boswell did for Dr. Johnson's Dictionary, that "he was so attentive in the choice" of the illustrative passages "that one may read page after page ... with improvement and pleasure;" yet I may say that, so far from fearing that the enjoyment of any poem will be injured by a proper attention to the elements of its metrical form, it is my hope that many a haunting verse may linger, a perpetual possession of beauty, in the memory of the student who first found it here classified under a technical name.
Many obligations are to be acknowledged to scholars of whose advice I have availed myself. Most kindly aid has been received from Professor G. L. Kittredge and Dr. Fred N. Robinson, of Harvard University; from Professor Felix E. Schelling, of the University of Pennsylvania; from my friend, Mr. H. P. Earle, of Stanford University; and from my colleague, Dr. Ewald Flügel. My obligation to Schipper's monumental works on English verse will be obvious to every scholar. They suggested many of the specimens of verse-forms, and are also represented by translations or paraphrases in thenotes; references to Schipper, without full title, are to theEnglische Metrik,—the larger work. I have also made thankful use of Mr. John Addington Symonds's essays on Blank Verse, and of Professor Corson'sPrimer of English Verse,—both somewhat unscientific but highly suggestive works. The section on Artificial French Forms obviously owes very much to Mr. Gleeson White'sBallades and Rondeaus. A book to which my obligation is out of all proportion to the number of actual quotations from it is Mr. J. B. Mayor'sChapters on English Metre. This modest but satisfying volume seemed to me, when I first was taking up the study of English verse, to be a grateful relief from the thorny and often fruitless discussions with which the subject had been overgrown; and in returning to it again and again, I have never failed to renew the impression. Its suggestions underlie a good part of the system of classification and terminology adopted for this book. The new and enlarged edition came to hand too late for use, but I was able to include references to it in the notes.
I must also record thanks to those authors and publishers who have courteously given permission for the reproduction of their publications: to Mr. John Lane, for permission to quote from the works of Mr. William Watson and Mr. Stephen Phillips; to Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin and Company, for permission to make extracts from the poems of Mr. William Vaughn Moody and from Mr. Stedman'sNature and Elements of Poetry; to Macmillan and Company, Limited, of London, for permission to make extracts from Professor Butcher'sAristotle's Theory of Poetryand from Mr. Courthope'sLife in Poetry and Law in Taste; to Professor F. B. Gummere and TheMacmillan Company of New York, for permission to quote from the former'sBeginnings of Poetry; to the Lothrop Publishing Company of Boston, for permission to reprint Mr. Clinton Scollard's villanelle, "Spring Knocks at Winter's Frosty Door," from the volume entitledWith Reed and Lyre; to Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, for permission to reprint her rondeau, "A Man must Live," from the volume entitledOn This Our World(published by Small, Maynard and Company); to Dr. Samuel Minturn Peck, for permission to reprint one of the triolets called "Under the Rose," from his volume entitledCap and Bells; to the Frederick A. Stokes Company, for permission to reprint Mr. Frank D. Sherman's "Ballade to Austin Dobson," from the volume entitledMadrigals and Catches. Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, Mr. W. E. Henley, and Mr. Edmund Gosse have given generous permission to quote freely from their poems. Mr. Henley was also good enough to suggest the choice of the rondeau from his "Bric-à-Brac"; and Mr. Gosse, whose unfailing courtesy follows up his numerous published aids to students of English poetry, has also added some personal notes on the history of the heroic couplet.
Finally, it should be said that a considerable part of the studies resulting in this book was carried on while the editor held the Senior Fellowship in English on the Harrison Foundation in the University of Pennsylvania. If, therefore, the book should prove of service to any, the fact will be a single additional tribute to the munificence of that foundation.
R. M. A.Stanford University, California,November, 1902.
PART ONEPAGEI.Accent and Time3A.—Kinds of Accent3B.—Time-intervals11i. Regular intervals between accents12ii. Irregular intervals13iii. Silent intervals (pauses)16II.The Foot and the Verse24One-stress iambic25Two-stress iambic26Two-stress trochaic27Two-stress anapestic28Two-stress dactylic30Two-stress irregular31Three-stress iambic32Three-stress trochaic33Three-stress anapestic34Three-stress dactylic37Four-stress iambic37Four-stress trochaic37Four-stress anapestic39Four-stress dactylic40Five-stress iambic41Five-stress trochaic41Five-stress anapestic42Five-stress dactylic42Six-stress iambic43Six-stress trochaic43Six-stress anapestic43Six-stress dactylic44Seven-stress iambic44Seven-stress trochaic45Seven-stress anapestic45Seven-stress dactylic46Eight-stress iambic46Eight-stress trochaic46Eight-stress anapestic48Eight-stress dactylic48Combinations and Substitutions49i. Different feet regularly combined49ii. Individual feet altered55III.The Stanza62Tercets63Quatrains69Refrain Stanzas78Various Stanza-formsabccb91ababb91aabbb91aabcdd91aaaabb92ababab92ababcc92ababbcc (Rime royal)93ababcca95ababccb95abababab96ababbaba96ababbcbc96ababccdd97abababcc (ottava rima)98aabaabbab101ababcccdd101ababbcbcc (Spenserian stanza)102abababccc107aabaabcc107ababbcbcdd107aabbbcc108ababababbcbc108aabccbddbeebffgggf109ababccdeed111aabccbddbeeb111abcbdcdceccce112IV.Tone-quality113A.—As a Structural Element113i. Assonance113ii. Alliteration116iii. End-rime121Double and triple rime128Broken rime131Internal rime132B.—As a Sporadic Element (Tone-color)135PART TWOI.Four-stress Verse151A.—Non-syllable-counting151B.—Syllable-counting (Octosyllabic Couplet)160II.Five-stress Verse174A.—-The Decasyllabic Couplet174B.—Blank Verse213III.Six-stress and Seven-stress Verse252A.—The Alexandrine (Iambic Hexameter)252B.—The Septenary259C.—The "Poulter's Measure"265IV.The Sonnet267A.—The Regular (Italian) Sonnet270B.—The English (Shaksperian) Sonnet290V.The Ode298A.—Regular Pindaric299B.—Irregular (Cowleyan)307C.—Choral323VI.Imitations of Classical Metres330A.—Lyrical Measures331B.—Dactylic Hexameter340VII.Imitations of Artificial French Lyrical Forms358A.—The Ballade360B.—The Rondeau and Rondel368i. "Rondel" type369ii. "Rondeau" type371C.—The Villanelle376D.—The Triolet381E.—The Sestina383PART THREEThe Time-element in English Verse391PART FOURThe Place and Function of the Metrical Element in Poetry413Aristotle413Sir Philip Sidney416Samuel Johnson417Wordsworth417Coleridge420Shelley422William Hazlitt423Leigh Hunt425Theodore Watts426Edmund Gurney427W. J. Courthope429E. C. Stedman432F. B. Gummere433APPENDIXTable illustrating the History of the Heroic Couplet437
Theaccents of English syllables as appearing in verse are commonly classified in two ways: according to degree of intensity, and according to cause or significance.
Obviously there can be no fixed limits to the number of degrees of intensity recognized in syllabic accent or stress. It is common to speak of three such degrees: syllables having accent (stressed), syllables having secondary accent, and syllables without accent (unstressed). Schipper makes four groups: Principal Accent (HauptaccentorHochton), Secondary Accent (NebenaccentorTiefton), No Accent (Tonlosigkeit), and Disappearance of Sound (Stummheit). In illustration he gives the wordponderous, where the first syllable has the chief accent, the last a secondary accent, the second no accent; while in the verse
"Most ponderous and substantial things"
"Most ponderous and substantial things"
the second syllable is suppressed or silent.
Mr. A. J. Ellis, in like manner, recognized three principal classes of syllables: those stressed in the first degree, those stressed in the second degree, and those unstressed.[1]In the following lines fromParadise Losthe indicated these three degrees, as he recognized them, by the figures 2, 1, 0, written underneath.
Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit0 2 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 2Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste0 1 0 2 0 1 0 2 0 2Brought death into the world, and all our woe,1 2 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 2With loss of Eden, till one greater man0 1 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 2Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,0 2 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 2Sing, heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top2 2 0 2 1 0 0 2 0 1Of Horeb or of Sinai, didst inspire0 2 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 2That shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed1 2 0 0 2 2 0 2 0 2In the beginning, how the heavens and earth0 0 0 2 0 1 0 2 0 2Rose out of chaos.[2]2 0 0 2 0
It is worthy of note that the secondary accent seems originally to have been a more important factor in English verse than it is commonly considered to be in modern periods. In Anglo-Saxon verse the combination of a primary stress, a secondary stress, and an unstressed syllable, is a recognized type. In modern verse the reader is likely to make an effort to reduce all syllables to the type of either stress or no-stress. In such a verse as the following, however (from Matthew Arnold'sForsaken Merman),—
"And I lose my poor soul, Merman, here with thee,"—
"And I lose my poor soul, Merman, here with thee,"—
we may find such a combination as that just referred to as familiar in Anglo-Saxon rhythm. The syllables "soul, Merman" are respectively cases of primary stress, secondary stress, and no-stress. On this matter see further the remark of Luick, cited on p.156, below.