S'ode a déstra uno squíllo di trómbaA sinístra rispónde uno squíllo:D'ambo i láti calpésto rimbómbaDa caválli e da fánti il terrén.Quinci spúnta per l'ária un vessíllo:Quindi unáltro s'avánza spiegáto:Ecco appáre un drappéllo schieráto;Ecco unáltro che incóntro gli vién.(Manzoni,La battaglia di Maclodio.)
(Translation: "A trumpet call sounds to the right; a trumpet calls answers to the left; all around the earth shakes with the charge of horses and men. Here a standardis broken out to the breeze; there another advances waving; here a line of troops appears, there another rushing against it.")
2. Dodecasyllables: example:
Ruéllo, Ruéllo, divóra la vía,Portáteci a vólo, bufére del ciél.È présso alla mórte la vérgine mía,Galóppa, galóppa, galóppa Ruél.(Prati,Galoppo notturno.)
(Translation: "Ruello, Ruello, as fast as you can! O storm-winds of heaven, lend us your wings; my loved one is lying near death; onward, onward, onward, Ruello!")
3. Eight syllable lines (ottonario): example:
Solitário bosco ombróso,A te viéne afflitto cór,Per trovár qualche ripósoFra i silénzi in quest'orrór.(Rolli,La lontananza.)
(Translation: "O deserted wood! To your shade the sorrowing heart comes to find some rest in your cool silence.")
4. Six syllable lines (senario): example:
Pur báldo di spémeL'uomúltimo giúntoLe céneri prémeD'un móndo defúnto;Incálza di sécoliNonánco matúriI fúlgidi aúgúri.(Zanella,La conchiglia fossile.)
(Translation: "Radiant with hope, the latest comer treads on the ashes of a dead world, pursuing the glowing aspirations of ages not yet ripe.")
Note:In the above selections the vowels in broad-facedtype have been marked with an accent by the child, to indicate the rhythmic beat.
We found, on the other hand, that greater difficulty is experienced by the children in lines where the syllables are in odd-numbers (imparisyllabics), the hardest of the Italian lines being the hendecasyllable, which is a combination of the seven syllable and the five syllable line, fused together with all their great varieties of movement.
We established the following gradation of difficulties:
1. Seven syllable line (settenario): example:
Giàriéde PrímavéraCol súo floríto aspétto,Giàil gráto zéffiréttoSchérza fra l'érbe e i fiór.(Metastasio,Primavera.)
(Translation: "Now already flowery Spring returns; again the lovely zephyrs dance amidst the grass and blossoms.")
2. Five syllable line (quinario): example:
Viváce símboloDéla famíglia,Le dièla trémulaMádre a la fíglia,Le dièla suóceraBuóna a la nuóraNe l'últim'óra.(Mazzoni,Per un mazzo di chiavi.)
(Translation: "As a vivid symbol of the home, they were passed on by the dying mother to her daughter or to her son's wife.")
3. Nine syllable line (novenario): example:
Te tríste! Che a válle t'aspéttanoI giórni di cántici prívi;Ah nó, non dai mórti che t'ámano,Ti guárda, fratéllo, dai vívi.(Cavallotti,Su in alto.)
(Translation: "Alas, for thee, O brother! Yonder, songless days await thee. Ah no, have no fear of the dead: they love thee! The living only shouldst thou fear!")
4. Hendecasyllable: example:
Per me si vánella cittádolénte,Per me si vánell'etérno dolóre,Per me si vátra la perdúta génte.(Dante,Divina Commedia, Inferno.)
(Translation: "Through me ye enter the city of sorrow; through me ye enter the realm of eternal grief; through me ye enter the regions of the damned").
The typical ending of these various lines is the trochee (symbols long dash U,verso piano). The iambic (symbols U long dash,verso tronco) and the dactyllic (symbols long dash UU,verso sdrucciolo) endings (requiring respectively one syllable less and one syllable more than theverso piano) constitute occasional variations. We have found that these rarer lines are recognized rather as curiosities than as difficulties by the children who easily refer them to their respective normal types. They are accordingly presented in our material along with the common verses of trochaic endings. Our illustration of the five syllable line given above showed specimens of the dactyllic ending (sdrucciolo,symbols long dash UU). Here is another example of alternating trochaic (piano) and dactyllic endings:
In címa a unálberoC'éun uccellínoDi nuóvo génere....Che sía un bambíno?(L. Schwarz,Uccellino.)
(Translation: "There's a very strange little bird up in that tree! Why, it's a little child!")
In the following decasyllables, the trochaic ending alternates with the iambic (tronco):
Lungi, lúngi, su l'áli del cántoDi qui lúngi recáre io ti vó'Là, ne i cámpi fioríti del sántoGange, un luógo bellíssimo, io só.(Carducci,Lungi, lungi.)
(Translation: "I will take thee far, far away on the wings of my song: there, among the flowery fields of the sacred Ganges, I know of a beautiful spot").
Some difficulty arose, however, when we came to lines with alternations of parisyllables and imparisyllables; though this new movement aroused real enthusiasm among the children, who greeted it as a new and strange music. It often happened that after the pleasurable effort of analyzing a poem with lines alternating in this way, the pupils would choose as "recreation" the study of lines of even-numbered syllables. Here is an example of the new type:
Eran trecénto, eran gióvani e fórti,E sóno mórti!Me ne andávo al mattíno a spigoláreQuando ho vísto una bárca in mezzo al máre:Era una bárca che andáva a vapóre,E alzáva una bandiéra tricolóre.All'ísola di Pónza s'è fermáta,È stata un póco e pói si è ritornáta;S'è ritornáta ed è venúta a térra:Sceser con l'ármi, e a noi non fécer guérra.(Prati,La spigolatrice di Sapri.)
(Translation: "There were three hundred, young and strong! And now they are dead! That morning I was gleaning in the fields; I saw a boat at sea,—asteamer flying the white, red and green. It stopped at Ponza, remained a while and then came back—came back and approached the shore. They came ashore in arms, but to us they did no harm").
While the rhythmic accents were being studied, we found that the discovery of the cæsura (interior pause) formed an interesting recreative diversion. In fact this work aroused so much enthusiasm that the children went from exercise to exercise, continuing at study for extended periods, and far from showing signs of weariness, actually increased their joyous application. One little girl, in the first six minutes of her work, marked the cæsura of seventy-six ten-syllable lines without making a mistake. An abundant material is necessary for this exercise. Example:
Dagli atri muscosi, dai fori cadenti,Dai boschi, dall'arse fucine stridenti,Dai solchi bagnati di servo sudor,Un volgo disperso repente si desta,Intende l'orecchio, solleva la testa,Percosso da novo crescente rumor.(Manzoni,Italiani e Longobardi.)
(Translation: "From the damp atria, from the ruined squares, from the forests, from the hissing forges, from the fields bathed with the sweat of slaves, a scattered horde of men suddenly is roused. They listen, lift their heads, startled at this strange increasing roar").
The step forward to the perception of the syllabic units of the line is a purely sensory phenomenon: it is analogous to marking the time of music without taking account of the measure divisions. Syllabiating according torhythm and beating on the table with the fingers solve even the subtler difficulties such as dieresis and synalepha, in recognizing the rhythmic syllables. Examples:
La | so | mma | sa | pi | en | za e'l | pri | mo A | mo | re
We print this verse in the above form, because it was thus divided by a child in his very first spontaneous effort at syllabiation. As a matter of fact, we present the material normally according to graded difficulties, using over again for this purpose the materials used in the study of accents. At this point also the accents themselves suddenly acquire a new interest, for the child is able to observe on "what syllable they fall." Thus his metrical study approaches completion, for now he can readily acquire the nomenclature of metrics and versification:dodecasyllable,hendecasyllable, etc. Then, combining his knowledge of the numbers of syllables and the location of the rhythmic accents, the child is at the point of discovering the rhythmic laws of verse construction. We were expecting the children to begin producing definitions like the following: "The dodecasyllable line has twelve syllables and four accents which fall on the second, fifth, eighth and eleventh syllables," etc. The spontaneous impulse of the pupils led instead to the construction of "mirrors" or "checkerboards" like the following:
12345678910111213Decasyllablepiano(trochaic)3d6th9th"tronco(iambic)3d6th9thEight syllablepiano3d7th" "tronco3d7thDodecasyllablepiano2d5th8th11th"tronco2d5th8th11th
The additional step to using the symbols of metrics was an easy one, and a graphic diagram resulted much as follows:
table
table of syllables
The next development is a complete study of the stanza or strophe in the form of a summary; the number of lines, the rhymes, the accents, number and location of the syllables. Todistinguishbetween the stanzas is also to classify them, which becomes a pleasing task for the children.
One little girl, who was making a summary study of four terzets of Dante, suddenly called the teacher to inform her with an expression of complete surprise: "See, the rhyme always begins at the last accent!" She had before her:
Per me si va nella città dolente;Per me si va nell'eterno dolore;Per me si va tra la perduta gente.Giustizia mosse il mio alto fattore;Fecemi la divina potestate,La somma sapienza e il primo amore.Dinanzi a me non fur cose create....(Dante: Inscription over Gate of Hell.)
So in metrics also the children, following the natural inclinations of their growth, pass from sensory discipline, to intelligent cognition, and graphic representation. Then they become the "explorers of their environment," the "discoverers" of general laws.
* * *
Translator's Note: The basis of Italian verse is in the syllable count, and the rhythmic accent. In English verse, however, the question of the syllable count is dependent on a much more complex consideration: syllable length; and syllable length, in its turn, is conditioned not only by the phonetic situation in and around the syllable, but by rhetorical stress as well. It is clear that SignoraMontessori's experiments on the simpler Italian line have little direct bearing, save as an illustration of method, on the pedagogy of English Metrics. For whereas, the principal classifications of Italian lines involve merely the problem of syllabiation (complicated by dieresis and synalepha), with a numerical terminology (quinario,ottonario,decasillabo, etc.), the study of English versification demands an analysis of measure (feet) and of number of feet, with a terminology relative to each: trochee, iambus, dactyl, spondee, anapest, etc., hexameter, pentameter, etc., to mention only the most obvious elements of a science which, applied even to simple English verse, soon becomes extremely complicated. How much, then, of the study of English metrics, beyond the elementary concepts of stanza and rhyme, should be included in the Montessori Advanced Method, and what order of presentation of facts should be followed, still remains to be experimentally determined.
However, the most illuminating fact, as regards method, which detaches from Signora Montessori's experiments with metrical forms, is thatlong parisyllablesare more readily analyzed by children than imparisyllables; and secondly thatshortimparisyllables prove easier than long imparisyllables. We might wish more explicit evidence that the hardest parisyllable is easier, therefore morenatural, than the easiest imparisyllable—implied in Signora Montessori's presentation of this subject. Even so, her conclusions are interesting, and from more than one point of view. It will be recalled that the most ancient and the most fortunate of the meters used in French, Spanish, and Provençal poetry is precisely the decasyllable (Song of Roland, the ProvençalBoecis, etc.), whereas the favorite line of old Italian popular poetry was the octo-syllabicverse. These are both parisyllables, though the succession oftheses, or rhythmic beats, is not quite analogous to that of the modern Italian verses used in this experiment. It would seem, in fact, as though the children initiated by Signora Montessori into metrical studies, were actually traversing the earlier experiences of their Latin race.
Doubtless the reason why the parisyllable submits more readily to rhythmic analysis than imparisyllables, is that when the syllables are in even numbers, the line tends to reduce to two simple rhythmic groups—the decasyllable to groups of 4 and 6, with two rhythmic beats in each group; the dodecasyllable to groups of 6 and 6 (therefore of 3 and 3 and 3 and 3); the octosyllables to groups of 4 and 4; the six syllable to groups of 3 and 3. The imparisyllables on the contrary are rarely capable of such division—of suchmonotony, if you wish. They lend themselves to more complex rhythm, especially to "paragraphic" treatment. They are distinctly the rhythms of erudite, "cultivated," "literary" poetry.
We should suspect, accordingly, that what appears in the above experiments aslengthis in realityreducibilityto simpler forms; and that lines capable of such reduction should be given first in an adaptation of Signora Montessori's method. It is, however, highly improbable that in English, where the only constant element in rhythm is the stress and not the syllable count, the line compounded of two simpler rhythmic groups should prove easier for the child than either of those simpler groups themselves. We see no reason to assume, for instance, than an eight-stress line, reducible to two four-stress lines, should be more readily analyzed than a four-stress line; or that a seven-stress line, reducible to a four-stress anda three-stress line, should be easier than either one of these. In fact, the predominance of these simpler elements in the English feeling for these longer groups is indicated by the fact that such compound lines are commonly broken into their constituent parts when printed (cf.The Ancient Mariner), even in cases where the isolation of these parts is not emphasized and rendered natural by rhyme. It will be observed that in the Montessori experiment the order of presentation was first, three-stress (anapestic), then four-stress (iambic), then two-stress (iambic) lines. This situation happens to correspond to that found in the commonest popular English verse, which gives undoubted preference, as witness our nursery rimes, to three-stress and four-stress iambics. Two-stress lines constitute in reality four-stress lines divided by rhyme; just as, in poems of distinctly literary savor, the two-stress line is further reducible by interior rhyme to two one-stress lines.
Iambic:
O lét the sólid groúndNot faíl beneáth my feétBefóre my lífe has foúndWhat sóme have foúnd so sweét.Tennyson.
The moúntain sheép are sweéter,But the válley sheép are fátter;We thérefore deémed it meéterTo cárryóff the látter.We máde anéxpedítion;We mét an hóst and quélled it;We fórced a stróng posítion,And kílled the mén who héld it.Peacock.
Trochaic:
Haíl to theéblithe spírit!Bírd thou néver wért,Thát from heáven or neár itPoúrest thýfull heárt....Shelley.
Anapestic:
I am mónarch ofáll I survéy;My ríght there is nóne to dispúte;From the céntre all roúnd to the seáI am lórd of the fówl and the brúte.Cowper.
Dactyllic:
Thís is a spráy the bird clúng to,Máking it blóssom with pleásure,Ère the high treé-tops she sprúng to,Fít for her nést and her treásure.[10]Browning.
Iambic:
Examples: Byron,The Prisoner of Chillon;Scott,The Lady of the Lake;Milton,Il pensieroso.
We coúld not móve a síngle páce,We coúld not seéeachóther's fáceBut wíth that pále and lívid líghtThey máde us strángersín our síght....Byron.
Trochaic:
Examples: Longfellow,Hiawatha;George Eliot,The Spanish Gipsy.
Wéstward, wéstward, HíawáthaSaíled intóthe fiéry súnset,Saíled intóthe púrple vápors,Saíled intóthe dúsk ofévening.
This line is much more common in its catalectic form:
Háste thee nýmph and bríng with théeJést and yoúthful jóllitý,Quíps and cránks and wánton wíles,Nóds and bécks and wreáthed smíles....Milton,L'Allegro.
Anapestic:
Examples: Goldsmith,Retaliation;Byron,The Destruction of Sennacherib.
The smáll birds rejoíce in the greén leaves retúrning,The múrmuring streámlet winds cleár through the vále.Burns.
Dactyllic:
Examples: Byron,Song of Saul;Dryden,An Evening's Love.
Áfter the pángs of a désperate lóver,Whén day and níght I have síghed all in vaín,Áh what a pleásure itís to discóverÍn her eyes píty, who caúses my páin.Dryden.
Iambic:
Examples: Herrick,To the Lark;Shakespeare,Midsummernight's Dream(Bottom's Song).
The ráging rócksAnd shívering shócksShall breák the lócksOf príson gátes.Shakespeare.
Trochaic:
Examples: George Eliot,The Spanish Gipsy;Campion,Art of Poesie.
Coúld I cátch thatNímble traítor,Scórnful Laúra,Swíft-foot Laúra,Soón then woúld ISeék avéngement.Campion.
Anapestic:
Examples: Shelley,Arethusa;Scott,The Lady of the Lake(Coronach).
He is góne on the moúntain,He is lóst to the fórest,Like a súmmer-dried foúntain,When our neéd was the sórest.Scott.
Dactyllic:
Examples: Tennyson,Charge of the Light Brigade;Longfellow,Saga of King Olaf.
Cánnon to ríght of them,Cánnon to léft of them,Cánnon in frónt of them,Vólleyed and thúndered.
Iambic:
Example:
Thus ÍPass býAnd díeAsóneUnknównAnd góne.Herrick.
Iambic:
Examples: Howe,Battle Hymn of the Republic;Byron,Stanzas for Music;Kipling,Wolcott Balestier;Coleridge,The Ancient Mariner.
Mine eyés have seén the glóryóf the cómingóf the Lórd.Howe.
Trochaic:
Example: Swinburne,Clear the Way.
Cleár the wáy, my lórds and láckeys, yoúhave hád your dáy.Hére you háve youránswer, Éngland's yeáagaínst your náy.
Anapestic:
Example: Swinburne,The Birds.
Comeón then ye dwéllers by náture in dárkness and líke to the leáves' generátions.
Dactyllic:
Example: Anonymous.
Out of the kíngdom of Chríst shall be gáthered byángels o'er Sátan victórious,All that offéndeth, that liéth, that fáileth to hónor his náme ever glórious.
Iambic(alexandrine):
Example: Wordsworth,The Pet Lamb.
The déw was fálling fást, the stárs begán to blínk;I heárd a voíce: it saíd, "Drink, prétty creáture, drínk!"
Trochaic:
Example: Swinburne,The Last Oracle.
Kíng, the wáys of heáven befóre thy feét grow gólden;Gód, the soúl of eárth is kíndled wíth thy gráce.
Anapestic:
Examples: Tennyson,Maud;Swinburne,The Garden of Cymodoce.
And the rúshing báttle-bolt sáng from the threé-decker oút of the foám.Tennyson.
Dactyllic:
Examples: Swinburne,Hesperia;Longfellow,Evangeline.
Thís is the fórest priméval; the múrmuring pínes and the hémlocksBeárded with móss and with gárments greén, indistínct in the twílight.Longfellow.
Iambic:
Example: William Webbe,Discourse of English Poetrie.
Where vírtue wánts and více aboúnds, there weálth is bút a baíted hoók.
Trochaic:
Examples: Tennyson,Locksley Hall;Poe,The Raven.
Ópen thén I flúng the shútter, whén with mány a flírt and flútter,Ín there stépped a státely rávenóf the saíntly dáys of yóre.Poe.
Anapestic:
Example: Swinburne,March.
Ere fróst-flower and snów-blossom fáded and féll, and the spléndor of wínter had pássed out of síght,The waýs of the woódlands were faírer and stránger than dreáms that fulfíl us in sleép with delíght.
Dactyllic:
Example: Longfellow,Golden Legend, 4.
Ónward andónward the híghway rúns to the dístant cíty, impátiently beáringTídings of húman jóy and disáster, of lóve and háte, of dóing and dáring.
Iambic(Heroic pentameter):
Examples: Milton,Paradise Lost;Bryant,Thanatopsis, etc., etc.
Sweet Aúburn, lóveliest víllageóf the plaínWhere heálth and beaúty cheér the láboring swaín ...Goldsmith.
Trochaic:
Examples: Browning,One word more;Tennyson,The Vision of Sin.
Thén methoúght I heárd a méllow soúnd,Gátheringúp fromáll the lówer groúnd.
Anapestic:
Examples: Browning,Saul;Tennyson,Maud.
We have próved we have heárts in a caúse: we are nóble stíll.Tennyson.
Dactyllic:
Very rare in English.
. . . . . . .
While the remainder of the exercises in syllabication and graphic transcription, as described by Dr. Montessori, would seem to follow naturally on the above exercises in the analysis of line stress, it is clear that additional attention must be given to questions of terminology. For the metrical syntheses performed in the tables at the end of the preceding section will not be possible for English poetry unless the child is able to identify the kinds of feet and the kinds of lines. We suggest accordingly two supplementary drills with the card system familiar to the child from his exercises in grammar. The first consists of a list of words, each on a separate card,with the tonic accent marked. Each word with its accent represents a foot (iambus, trochee, anapest, dactyl), indicated on the card in graphic transcription beneath the word:
wóndering
symbols
Corresponding to each word is another card bearing simply the graphic transcription and the name of the foot. The exercise, of the greatest simplicity, is to pair off the cards, arranging the words in a column on the table, putting after each the card that describes it. The cards, when properly arranged, read as follows:
betweénsymbolsiambussymbolsmóthersymbolstrocheesymbolsdisrepútesymbols-anapestanapestsymbols-anapestwónderfulsymbolsdactylsymbols
A second stage of this exercise consists in offering a similar series of cards where, however, the word-cards are without the indication of the tonic accent and without the graphic transcription of the measure:
suggestsymbolsiambusaccentsymbolstrocheeunderneathsymbols-anapestanapestmetricalsymbolsdactyl
An identical exercise is possible for whole lines. The first stage consists of naming the lines accompanied bythe metrical transcription with cards containing simply the transcription and the name of the meter; in the second stage, the same lines are given but on cards without the graphic transcription: for example:
GowhereglorywaitstheeTrochaic trimeterdashbrevedash brevedashbrevetrochaic tri
TheAssyriancamedownlikethewolfonthefoldAnapestic tetrameterbrevesymbolsbrevedashbrevebrevedashbrevebrevedashsymbols anapestic tetrameter