therefore the effect of a climax. The anapestic foot is more rapid in movement than the iambic, but it, also, is adapted to the quiet, meditative spirit.

At the close of the day | when the ham | let is still.

The Dactyl is the three-syllable foot that corresponds to the trochee, an anti-climax. It is the opposite of the anapest. Longfellow's Evangeline is written partly in dactylic measure.

This is the ❘ forest primeval. The | murmuring | pines and the | hem

Bearded with moss, and in | garments | green, indistinct in the | twi

Stand like Druids of | eld, with | voices | sad and prophetic, ! X Stand like harpers | hoar, with | beards that | rest on their | bosom.

The brightness of the dactylic movement is toned down here by the use of the trochaic measure, which has but one quick, unaccented syllable.

The Amphibrach is not often used. It is a three-syllable foot, with the accent in the middle.

X X 1 X X 1 x X I X
There came to the beach a poor exile | of Erin,

X X

The dew on his thin robe | lay heavy and chill.

- THOMAS CAMPBELL.

The second line here has no final unaccented syllable.

We have said that the poetic foot is, like the musical measure, an exact time unit. But to pronounce a line with

such exact marking of the accents and time units would be to scan it, not to read it. Good poetry, like good music, must be interpreted with expression. And the best poetry is full of variations and slight irregularities that serve to bring out more forcibly the thought which the words express. Some rhetoricians prefer to call poetry rhythmical rather than metrical, thus indicating that there is an exact time interval between the accents, but stating nothing with regard to the number or length of syllables that occupy this interval. Read aloud one of the rather mechanically constructed couplets from Pope's Essay on Man.

Know then thyself, presume | not God | to scan
X / X

The proper stud | y of | mankind | is man.

This poem is addressed chiefly to the intellect, and the somewhat wooden character of the meter is not, therefore, a very serious defect. Compare this with a few lines from Coleridge's Christabel.

[It] is not, properly speaking, irregular, though it may seem so from being founded on a new principle, namely that of counting in each line the accents, not the syllables. Though the latter may vary from seven to twelve, yet in each line the accents will be found to be only four. Never

theless, the occasional variation in number of syllables is not introduced wantonly, but in correspondence with some transition in the nature of the imagery or passion.

The correspondence of sound and meaning in the passage quoted is thus explained by Johnson (Forms of English Poetry, page 31):

The slow iambics in the first line suggest quiet night. The second line is more drowsy. The spondee, 'red leaf,' makes the movement slow and halts the line. 'Of its clan,' anapest, however, imparts movement. In the third line the iambics and anapests give more liveliness. The fourth line is more rapid still, and in the fifth the iambus and three anapests correspond to the idea of restless movement. *

In a sentence, we may say that the movement is slow when the poet speaks of the quiet, windless night, and rapid when he speaks of the quick, dancing motion of the leaf. Thus it is evident that in good poetry variation is not made merely for the sake of variation, but to bring out some particular shade of thought or feeling. The poet is the master, not the slave, of his meter.

Observe the vivid suggestion to the imagination, and the accompanying emotional effect obtained by reversing the position of the accents in these lines from Poe's Annabel Lee. X 1 X X

A wind | blew out | of a cloud, | chilling

My beautiful Annabel Lee.

That, the wind came out of a cloud by night,
X 1 X X / X X

Chilling and killing | my Ann | abel Lee.

Clayton Hamilton, in his Materials and Methods of Fiction (pages 206, 207), has the following paragraph:

*From Forms of English Poetry. Copyright, 1904, by Charles F. Johnson. Permission of American Book Company, publishers.

The appeal of rhythm to the human ear is basal and elemental; the style depends for its effect more on mastery of rhythmic phrase than upon any other individual detail. In verse, the technical problem is two-fold: first, to suggest to the ear of the reader a rhythmic pattern of standard regularity; and then, to vary from the regularity suggested as deftly and as frequently as may be possible without ever allowing the reader for a moment to forget the fundamental pattern. In prose, the writer works with greater freedom; and his problem is therefore at once more easy and more difficult. Instead of starting with a standard pattern, he has to invent a web of rhythm which is suited to the sense he wishes to convey; and then, without ever disappointing the ear of the reader by unnecessarily withholding an expected fall of rhythm, he must shatter every inkling of monotony by continual and tasteful variation.*

The subject of prose rhythm is rather subtle for the elementary student, and is not, therefore, discussed in this volume. If the teacher or a more advanced student wishes to take up the subject, he will do well to begin with Genung's Working Principles of Rhetoric, pages 210-220, and Lewis's Principles of English Verse, Chapter I.

"The appeal of rhythm to the human ear" is so "basal and elemental” that it is acknowledged by the most primitive man and the youngest child. To the undeveloped mind the appeal of rhythm alone is sufficient, without regard to sense, as our nursery and nonsense rimes prove. Children are pleased with verses rich in devices for securing rhythm and melody, but absolutely wanting in thought. Many of our old ballads contain meaningless lines, repeated again and again, often at regular intervals, solely for their movement and "jingle."

Variations between iambic and anapestic feet and between trochaic and dactylic are particularly common, and make no change in the rhythm, because the relative position of accented and unaccented syllables remains the same. The

* The quotation from Hamilton is made by kind permission of Doubleday, Page and Company, publishers of the book quoted.

anapest and the dactyl present two very quick unaccented syllables for the longer unaccented one of the iambus and trochee; in the terms of the following paragraphs, two eighth notes for one quarter. That is, the meter is varied without disturbing the rhythm, which is secured by maintaining equal time intervals between the accents.

Some persons find it helpful to mark the movement of poetry with the musical notation. The following examples of this method are taken from Genung's Working Principles of Rhetoric and Winchester's Principles of Literary Criticism.

34

The literary critic, like the musician, would say here that

Half

a league, half a league half a league on

J.

All

in the valley of death Rode the six hun-dred.*

* Used by permission of Ginn & Co.

** Used by permission of The Macmillan Company.

on ! **