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that of conversation. Even supposing, with some scholars, that in reading they did not scan their verses as we do now, nor even chant them invariably, as some infer was the case, their poetical language was not the same as their spoken language. Aristotle tells us, when mentioning things which it is legitimate for the poet to do, that he can invent new words, that he can expand old ones, either by lengthening vowels or by adding syllables, that he can contract them by shortening vowels or omitting syllables, and that he can alter them in various other ways. Spenser and others since him have applied similar methods to English poetic diction; but, at present, such changes are not considered admissible, except in rare instances, and this because they are recognized to be unnecessary. The fact that they are not admissible in our language, and were admissible in the classic languages, proves that, in one regard at least, our language is superior to them as a medium of metre. The following is a typical English stanza. In it there are no changes from ordinary prose in the arrangement, spelling, or pronunciation of any of the words:

"Tell me not in mournful numbers
Life is but an empty dream,
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem."

—Psalm of Life: Longfellow.

CHAPTER IL

ELOCUTIOK: ITS REPRESENTATIVE ELEMENTS CLASSI FRED.

Pause and Acess-haalyzed, the Former gives us the Element of Duration; the Later gives Luration, Force, Fach, and Quality-Vos ind What ewa Liewent represents in DiscoURSTE ELOCUTIOx, developed from Ejacniavory or Instinctive Modes of Utterance, and in DRAMATIC KLOCUTION, developed from Imitative or Reflective Utterance; and then apply to Poetry-General Statement of What is represented by Duration, Force, Fitch, and Quality; Rhythm the Efect of the First Two, and Tune of the Last Two.

HAVING sufficiently established now the general

fact that certain poetic forms are traceable to the pause and accent of ordinary conversation, we are prepared to pass on and ask what these forms represent? To answer this we must decide first what the pause and accent represent; and, after that, try to determine whether, in any sense, they represent corresponding ideas when developed into the forms of poetry. Let us pursue our inquiry in the order thus suggested.

What the pause and accent represent can be ascertained only by a reference to the principles of elocution. This art, as we know, has the power of producing an almost endless variety of effects, and all these, as a moment's thought will show us, simply by making more or less emphatic the very pauses and accents now engaging our attention. In these, therefore, must be enfolded many possibilities of expression capable of development. Let

us try to ascertain what they are. Looking first, then, at the pause, it is easy to see that its only element is that of duration. We can extend it over longer or shorter time. In accent, however, on comparing the accented and unaccented syllables of words like barbarous, murmuring, tartarize, Singsing, and papa, we can clearly detect four elements. The accented syllable differs slightly from the unaccented-first, in duration: it is sounded in longer time; second, in force: it is sounded with more energy; third, in pitch: it is sounded on a key that, if used in music, would be relatively higher or lower in the musical /94 scale; and fourth, in quality: it is sounded with more fulness or sharpness of tone. Simply by increasing the degree in which any of these elements enter into ordinary accentuation, we can increase the degree of emphasis represented by them. We have noticed, already, how the pause influences the division of consecutive words into verses. As applied to individual words, i. e., when used after or before them, it has evidently the same general effect as the prolongation of a sound; it gives the ideas expressed in the words more duration.

Let us examine now what phases of thought different kinds of duration, force, pitch, and quality are fitted to represent, and see how far they can aid us in determining what can be represented by analogous poetic forms. To attain our end, it will be necessary for us to go to elocution.

All the principles of this art can be classed under two heads, those of discoursive and of dramatic elocution. The first, generally termed the elocution of emphasis, is developed from instinctive methods of expression, and corresponds, in this regard, to words formed from ejaculations. It is used mainly in oratory. The second, generally

termed the elocution of personation, is developed by the reflective powers as a result of impressions received from without. Mimicry, in some form, underlies all its effects; for which reason, it will be seen at once to correspond to words formed as a result of imitation, and to be the phase of delivery used mainly in dramatic acting. Of course, the best elocution combines all the possibilities of the art; but, as a rule, the orator's chief aim is to give expression to his own thoughts; the actor's, to seem properly impressed by thoughts suggested by his surroundings.

In treating of duration, force, pitch, and quality, it will be best to consider, first, the discoursive, and then the dramatic, uses of each; and, in immediate connection with them, to direct attention to the corresponding developments in poetic form. More extended explanations and illustrations of the elocutionary part of this subject may be found in the author's "Orator's Manual." For our present purpose, it will be sufficient to state, briefly, as introductory to what will be unfolded more fully as we go on, that, of the four elements of emphasis to be examined, duration is merely an external effect of sound, while force, pitch, and quality are all essential to the very formation of it; different degrees of force, as we learn from science, being determined by the relative size of the vibrations causing the tone; of pitch, by their relative rapidity; and of quality, by the relative size and rapidity of those compounded together, in order to produce any apparently single tone-almost every tone, as science has ascertained, being a compound.

With reference to the significance of these elements, while it is true that all, in a general way, represent, as has been said, emotive effects, all of them represent also certain peculiar phases of such effects. These, as manifested

in dramatic elocution, of course interpret themselves. In discoursive elocution, duration measures the utterance— that is, it represents the mind's measurement of its ideas,one indication, by the way, of the appropriateness of the poetic term, meters, or measures, which result from giving different kinds of duration to syllables; force energizes utterance; pitch aims it; and quality tempers it. Of the last three, again, force imparts physique to delivery; pitch, intellectuality, and quality, emotion or soul, by which, as has been explained, is meant that balancing and blending of physical and intellectual tendencies which manifest the degree in which the man is master or slave of body or mind. Or, finally, to make a classification as comprehensive as possible of all the factors in our problem, it may be said that duration, in a general way, represents the promptings of the instinctive feelings, and the other three elements those of the reflective feelings. Pure instinct leads to fast time, reflective instinct to slow time, and the general movement or measure is the resultant of both. The degrees of instinctive influence connected with reflective feeling are represented in force; of purely reflective influence, in pitch; and of the equilibrium maintained between the instinctive and reflective influences, in quality. Besides this, it is well to notice that duration and force together are essential to the effects of rhythm, and pitch and quality together to those of tune; rhythm resulting from the measure of time or movement by regularly recurring impulses perceptible in the physical world; and tune from a similar cause, detected only by scientific analysis, operating through vibrations upon our inner nervous and mental organism.

These statements are preliminary. They will be explained and illustrated when the proper time comes-that

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