"Heroic Couplet." "Like | leaves on ❘ trees the | life of | man | 1 is | found: | | Now green in | youth, I now withering on the ground; || An- other race the following | spring | sup- | plies: They | fall suc- | cessive, and suc- | cessive | rise." | পপ| প। Mi "The way was long, the wind | | | | | | | was cold;| The minstrel | was in- | firm | and old." | 17 | ༄། Quatrain Stanza: "Octosyllabic Couplets." "The spacious | firmament | on high, || With all the | blue e- | thereal | sky, || a shining | frame, | pro- | claim." ||449| Quatrain Stanza: Octosyllabic Lines, rhyming alternately. "The heavens | de- | clare thy | glory, | Lord, | But In every starthy | wisdom | shines; | "Common Metre" Stanza. "Short Metre" Stanza. "To ever | fragrant | meads, | | Where | rich a- | bundance | grows, | His gracious | hand | in- | dulgent | leads, |19| And guards my sweet re- | pose." | And waste its | sweetness on the desert | air." || De-fies the | power | which | crushed thy | temples | Age | shakes A- | thena's | tower, but | spares | gray | Marathon." | Softly sweet, in | Lydian | measures, || Soon he soothed his soul War he | sung, |is| toil | to pleasures.-| and | trouble, |99| Honor, but an | empty | bubble." | 77 | 77 | 66 III. ANAPESTIC METRE. 1. Lines of Three "Anapasts." "How | fleet is a glance of the | mind! ||99| Compared with the ❘ speed of its | flight, || The tempest | it- | self | | lags behind, | 441 And the swift-winged | arrows of light." || 2. Lines of Four "Anapests." “The | evening was glorious; | and | light |◄ through the trees || Played the sunshine and | raindrops, the birds and the breeze; || The landscape out- | stretching in | loveliness, EMPHASIS AND "EXPRESSION." THE analysis of elocution has, in the preceding chapters, been extended so far as to comprehend all the chief topics of practical elocution. The subjects of emphasis and “ expression" have been reserved for the conclusion of this manual, as they properly comprise a virtual review of the whole subject. I. IMPASSIONED EMPHASIS. Emphasis, in its usual acceptation, is limited to mere comparative force of utterance on an accented syllable. The term, properly defined, extends to whatever expedient the voice uses to render a sound specially significant or expressive. Thus, in the scornful challenge which Bolingbroke addresses to Mowbray. "Pale, trembling COWARD! there I throw my gage: The emphasis lies, doubtless, on the word coward, and is concentrated in the syllable cow-, by peculiar force of utterance. But the mere force or loudness used is only one of the many elements of expression which the syllable is made to comprise, in the intensely excited passion implied in the words. Attentive analysis will show that, in what is termed " emphasis," in this instance, there are included all of the following elements of vocal effect: 1st, the mere force or energy of the utterance, which produces the loudness of voice that accompanies violent or vehement excitement of feeling; 2d, the abrupt and explosive articulation with which the accented syllable is shot from the mouth, in the expression of anger and scorn; 3d, the comparatively low pitch on which the syllable cow- is uttered, as contrasted with the high note on the opening word "pale," and which indicates the deep-seated contempt and indignation of the speaker; 4th, the comparatively long duration of the accented syllable and the consequent effect of deliberate and voluntary emotion, as contrasted with the rapid rate of hasty and rash excitement; 5th, the downward "slide," the inseparable characteristic of all impetuous, violent, and angry emotion: 6th, the "pectoral," 'guttural," and strongly aspirated quality" of voice, with which the utterance seems to burst from the chest and throat, with a half-suffocated and hissing sound, peculiarly characteristic of fierce and contemptuous emotion.1 II. UNIMPASSIONED EMPHASIS. It may be thought, however, that, although the emphasis of passion does include many elements, the common emphasis of meaning, in unimpassioned, intellectual communication, may be sufficiently expressed by mere comparative force of accent. This impression, too, will, on examination, be found erroneous. The simplest distinctive emphasis that can be given comprises several points of effect, which are easily detected by analysis.2 1 It may appear, at first view, that this analysis extends beyond emphasis into "expression." But emphasis is, in fact, nothing else than “ expression " concentrated and condensed into an accented syllable. For confirmation of this assertion we may refer to the result, in cases of acknowledged imperfect emphasis, that a failure, as regards the full effect of any one of the above elements, produces the fault. Let the student himself bring the matter to the test of his own observation, by uttering the word "coward" six times in succession, dropping, each time, one of the elements of "expression" enumerated in the preceding analysis; and he will perceive that he loses, in every instance, the emphasis of impassioned Similar illustrations might be drawn from all emotions, in turn. But the verification may be left for the practice of oral illustration, by the student or the teacher. accent. . 2 We may take, for an example of unimpassioned emphasis, the expressions in the moral of the fable of the Discontented Pendulum, "Let any man resolve always to do right now, leaving then to do as it can; and if he were to live to the age of Methuselah, he would never do wrong.” The words "now" and "then," in this passage, are instances of distinctive emphasis; they are marked, 1st, by the usual superior force of utterance which belongs to important and significant words; 2d, by a jerking stress, repeated at the beginning and end of each "tonic" element of sound in the two words, and constituting what, in elocution, is technically termed "compound stress; " 3d, by the comparatively high pitch on which each of these two words is set, relatively to the rest of the sentence; 4th, by a significant turn or "double slide" of voice, termed the " wave," or, perhaps, - in the spirit of very keen and peculiarly marked distinction, by a double turn, constituting a quadruple "slide" and a "double wave,* |