It only remains to say that the detailed study of Anglo-Saxon metres is now everywhere based upon the masterly investigations of Sievers (Paul-Braune, Beiträge, X ff.), which have shown much more method and regularity in our old rhythm than had been attributed to it by earlier researches. Nevertheless, what is said in § 2, Chap. VII, of this book, though needing correction in detail, is fairly true to the spirit of Anglo-Saxon poetry. HAVERFORD COLLEGE, 23 December, 1890. F. B. G. TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I.—The Epic. Epic Poetry. Written Epic. Later PAGE CHAPTER VI.—Rhythm. Quantity. Accent. Pauses. Rime. INTRODUCTION. POETRY belongs with music and dancing, and is opposed to the arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture. The latter class is concerned with rela tions of space; we see and touch and measure its products. But the former class has for main principle the idea of motion, of succession, and therefore deals with relations of time. In fact, the three arts-poetry, music, dancing-were once united as a single art." Little by little, their paths diverged; but for the oldest times they were inseparable. The principle governing. this single early art was harmony. Harmony consists really in repetition, just as two or more parallel lines agree or harmonize because one repeats the conditions of the other. So in poetry, or music, or dancing, a certain succession of accents, or notes, or steps is repeated, thus establishing the relation of harmony. To be sure, this harmony of recurrence is found to some extent in all speech; in poetry, however, it is carried to a system, and under the name rhythm or metre is the distinguishing and necessary mark of poetry. Aristotle and his school maintained that "invention" was the soul of poetry. The substance, say they, is the main thing. But later criticism asserts that in poetry the form (metre) is the_principal_requisite. A late writer has declared that "metre is the first and only condition absolutely demanded by poetry." |