The opening of 'MacFlecknoe' is a model in this respect (see p. 248). Three leading words are finely placed; and 'obey' is as good as any other there possible.

Repetitions of like vowel-sounds, where other conditions of perfect rhyme are neglected, get the name of Assonances. These have no regular place in English poetry, as they have in some other languages, but they are occasionally found instead of rhymes in old ballads. For example :

And Cloudesly lay ready there in a cart,

Fast bound, both foot and hand;
And a strong rope about his neck,
All ready for to hang.

Shakespeare has :

Earth's increase and foison plenty,
Barns and garners never empty —

Spring come to you at the farthest
At the very end of harvest.

Two lines or verses rhyming together in succession form. a couplet; three, a triplet or tercet. Groups of four lines, which may rhyme in various combinations, are called quatrains. A stanza is the least group of lines involving all the peculiarities of metre and arrangement of rhymes characteristic of the piece wherein it enters.

KINDS OF VERSE.

The elements for constructing the various kinds of verse common in English poetry have now been mentioned. They are the five measures repeated to make lines of various length: not seldom, compounded with one another; occasionally, made harmonious by alliteration; and, in most kinds of poetry, fitted with rhyming closes. The Rhyme, by its very nature, supposing at least two lines or verses, practically determines what special forms the versification shall assume; in the absence of rhyme, the versification is complete within the single line.

This last case of simple unrhymed metrical combination is best disposed of by itself, before the more intricate rhymed forms are noticed. It is the Blank Verse, called also Heroic, and belongs to English literature. The name Heroic arises from its employment in the High Epic, where it takes the place of the classical hexameter. It is composed of five

Iambic measures, as seen in the appended extract from
Milton: -

High on' a throne' of royal State.'' which far
Outshone the wealth' of Ormuz and' of Ind',
Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand
Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold—

Young, Thomson, Wordsworth, and Tennyson also make use of Blank Verse, although the lines of each have a distinct ring or rhythm, dependent for the most part upon their management of the natural pauses.

In the Drama, a somewhat looser form of Blank Verse is in common use, varied occasionally by rhyming couplets. Frequently, the verse is hypermetrical by one or even two syllables. Thus :—

Most potent, grave, | and rev' rend Si gniors ;
My very noble and approv'd | good masters.

The combinations that are formed to meet the necessities, or gain the advantage, of Rhyme, are so exceedingly numerous, that it will be impossible to allude to more than a few of the common forms, associated with well marked kinds of composition. In these the Iambic measure is found largely to preponderate.

Iambic Octosyllabics, of four measures, or eight syllables, in couplets rhyming at the close.

As

Lord Mar' mion turn'd,' | well was' | his need'
And dash'd' | the rowels in' | his steeď.

This form is employed in Byron's Tales, in Hudibras, &c. Scott varies it often by lines of six syllables, or runs it into triplets. Other poets write triplets in stanzas. Quatrains in stanzas, rhyming by couplets or alternately, are exceedingly common.

Tennyson's In Memoriam has made famous an old combination of eight-syllabled lines, with four accents and iambic movement. The stanza has four lines, 1 and 4, and 2 and 3 rhyming together.

Heroic Couplets, five iambic measures rhymed.

Know well thyself | presume not God | to scan;
The pro per study of mankind | is man.

Chaucer, Marlowe, Dryden, Pope, Cowper, &c., have used this metre; Swinburne and William Morris have made great

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311

use of it for narrative poetry. Like the last, it is occasionally run into triplets, which may form stanzas.

Several more complex combinations are formed out of rhyming heroics.

Four lines, rhyming alternately, make the Elegiac Stanza, --found in Gray's' Elegy,' Dryden's Annus Mirabilis,' &c.

Let not | Ambition mock | their useful toil,
Their homely joys and destiny | obscure;
Nor gran deur hear with a | disdain ful smile
The short and simple annals of the poor.

Seven heroic lines, the five first rhyming at intervals and the two last in succession, give the Rhyme Royal of Chaucer and the Elizabethan writers.

But, oh the dole ful sight | that then | we see !

We turned our look, and on the other side

A grisly shape of Famine mought we see :

With greedy looks, and gaping mouth, that cried

And roared for meat, as she should there have died:

Her body thin and bare as any bone,

Whereto was left nought but the case alone.

Eight heroics, the first six rhyming alternately and the last two in succession, compose the Italian Ottava Rima. This combination is found in translations, and in Don Juan.

The other father had a weak lier | child,
Of a soft cheek, and aspect delicate;
But the boy bore up long, and with a mild
And patient spirit held aloof his fate!
Little he said, and now and then he smiled

As if to win a part from off the weight

He saw increasing on his father's heart,

With the deep deadly thought that they must part.

The Sonnet consists of fourteen heroic lines, with a peculiar arrangement of the rhymes, not, however, always strictly observed.

The Spenserian stanza of Spenser, Beattie, and Byron is an English combination of eight heroics rhyming at intervals, and followed by a rhyming Alexandrine of twelve syllables.

The lion would not leave | her desolate,

But with her went along, as a strong guard
Of her chaste person, and a faithful mate
Of her sad troubles and misfortunes hard:

Still when she slept, he kept both watch and ward;

And when she waked, he waited diligent

With humble service to her will prepared;
From her fair eyes he took | commandément,
And ever by her looks | conceived her | intent.

The Alexandrine, of six iambic measures, and rhyming in couplets, is employed by itself in Drayton's Polyolbion'.

Seven iambic measures, rhyming in couplets, form the common Service metre of psalms and hymns, and also the Ballad metre.

Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in generations all, Before thou ever hadst | brought forth || the mountains great or small.

As the middle pause falls regularly after the fourth measure, it is customary to write the couplet as a stanza of four lines; in the following example, the first and third lines are made to rhyme :

Soft as the dew from heaven descends,

His gentle accents fell:

The modest stranger lowly bends,

And follows to the cell.

A single example of Trochaic Combination may be quoted:

Onward, onward may we press

Through the path of duty;
Virtue is true happiness,

Excellence, true beauty.

Minds are of celestial birth;

Make we then a heaven of earth.

Great as is the number of existing models, English poets have still large scope for new and original combinations.

The critical examination of Metre, no less than the entire flow of melodious verse, presupposes a view of its efficacy in poetical composition.

The following are the chief principles in metre :—

I. The condition of mind under an unusual degree of emotional fervour, is suited by the metrical form of language, in company with the characteristic diction of poetry. For one thing, the more excited we are, the less able are we to accommodate our movements to a complicated type; as in pronouncing a sentence where the rhythm changes at every word. We feel it a satisfaction and a relief to fall into a simple and easy alternation of emphasis, as in the regular measures of poetry. Hence the tendency to regularity

PRINCIPLES OF METRICAL EFFECT.

313

of rhythm already mentioned as observable in rhetorical prose.

II. A new pleasure is imparted by the regularity of metre, corresponding to what arises from symmetrical arrangements in the other Fine Arts.

This greatly extends the sphere of metrical language, and accounts for its being employed when the emotional tone is not at any high pitch. It also constitutes a poetical merit, of no small amount, in compositions that may be wanting in melodious flow of vowels and consonants, as in the poems of Scott.

III. Metre, Rhyme, and Alliteration, being highly artificial, afford scope for ingenuity in verbal construction, and thus permit the same species of gratification as Wit in its purest form of Word-play. The adaptations to a complicated scheme of verse, not to speak of the aid that may be thereby rendered to the conveyance of meaning, demand a considerable exertion of verbal skill; and, when successful, are proportionally admired.

The poet is supposed to choose a scheme of metre that is, on the whole, suited to his theme and his manner of treatment. The propriety of this choice must justify itself by the effect.

It is found, however, as a matter of fact, that poets very frequently depart from the prevailing type of their chosen metre. The departures from the regular form of blank verse in Milton make up a very large fraction of his lines. This has given rise to questions as to the proper scansion of these variations; in which metrists differ in opinion. Compare Guest, Masson, and Mayor, on the scansion of Paradise Lost.

Assuming that a certain metre has been chosen as most agreeable to a poet's conception of suitability, both to his subject and to the emotional strain that he aims at keeping up, we may assign conjecturally the following reasons for departing from it:-Firstly, the variation may chance to be more in harmony with the feeling than the regular form. Secondly, the strict adherence to the type will occasionally be found monotonous, so that a change is welcome. Thirdly, there may be a conflict with the melody as otherwise regarded; that is to say, the successions of words, syllables and letters, on which depends the agreeable flow of language, whether in verse or in prose. Fourthly,