Is it the wind that moaneth bleak?
There is not wind enough in the air
To move away the ringlet curl
From the lovely lady's cheek,-
There is not wind enough to twirl
The one red leaf, the last of its clan,
That dances as often as dance it can,
Hanging so light, and hanging so high,

On the topmost twig that looks up at the sky.

-Christabel: Coleridge.

CHAPTER VII.

ELOCUTIONARY AND POETIC REGULARITY OF FORCE.

Regularity of Force, combining its Instinctive with Reflective Tendencies, and representing Emotive Influence-Abrupt and Smooth Force, as used in Elocution-Irregular and Regular Accentuation corresponding to them in Poetry-Abruptness in Short and Long Lines-Imitative Effects, etc.

THIS

HIS subject of changes in metre introduces us, naturally, to the third way in which force on different words may differ—namely, in regularity. It may be abrupt or smooth, each respectively representing the amount of mere instinct or of reflection in the emotion accompanying the momentum. Abrupt force indicates interruption, excitement, vehemence, anger; smooth force continuity, satisfaction, gentleness, delight. The poetic equivalent for the first seems to be found in lines in which there is a break in the regularity of the rhythm, either because two accented syllables are brought together, or a larger number of unaccented ones than the rhythm warrants. For instance, we must all perceive the abrupt effects produced by the first syllables of Battering, and belching, and by the word Far in the following, coming, respectively, as they do, immediately after the accented words, sob, wide, and flame:

I will not cease to grasp the hope I hold

Of saintdom, and to clamor, mourn, and sob,
Battering the gates of heaven with storms of prayer.

-St. Simeon Stylites: Tennyson.

The gates that now

Stood open wide, belching outrageous flame

Far into chaos.

-Paradise Lost, 10: Milton.

Notice, too, the abrupt effects occasioned by the three unaccented syllables Are the in-, and the two With im-, in the following:

I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair.

Are the indentures drawn? shall we be gone?

-1 Henry IV., iii., 1: Shakespear.

On a sudden open fly,

With impetuous recoil and jarring sound

Th' infernal doors.

-Paradise Lost, 2: Milton.

Abruptness is sometimes characteristic of the entire metre of a poem. In these cases, it is usually produced in connection with the pauses between the lines. At times it results from ending one line with an accented syllable, and beginning the next with another, as in these:

Every day brings a ship,
Every ship brings a word;

Well for those who have no fear,

Looking seaward well assured
That the word the vessel brings

Is the word they wish to hear.

-Letters: Emerson.

Here let us sport,
Boys, as we sit.
Laughter and wit
Flashing so free.
Life is but short;
When we are gone,
Let them sing on

Round the old tree.

-The Mahogany Tree: Thackeray.

Firwant height ingate'

Vis there a nan tismaveri *
You though the mitiers sev
Inme une ad iunderet ;
Theas not a nake sny,
Theirs not u aan way,
Theirs at a fo and fie.
Inns the valley if feath

Rode the ax utred

-Curge of the Lagit Brgate: Tempson

Lo, he leader in these gorous was
Now so glorious burial slowly borne,
Bullowed by the brave of other lands.
He on whom from both her open hands
Lavish honor showered all her stars.

-The on the Duke of Welangtan : Teaysan.

Up the street came the rebel tread,
Bronewall Jackson riding ahead.

Under his slouched hat, left and right
He glanced: the oid fag met his sight.

"Halt!"-the dust-brown ranks stood fast.
"Fire!"-out blazed the rifle blast.

-Barbara Fretchie : Whittier.

At times, this abrupt effect is produced by ending a line with an unaccented syllable and beginning the next with another one, e g.:

As she lay on her death-bed,

The bones of her thin face, boys,

As she lay on her death-bed,

I don't know how it be, boys,

When all 's done and said;

But I see her looking at me, boys,

Wherever I turn my head.

-Tommy's Dead: Dobell

The fountains mingle with the river,

And the rivers with the ocean;

The winds of heaven mix forever

With a sweet emotion.

-Love's Philosophy: Shelley.

With deep affection

And recollection

I often think of

Those Shandon bells;

Whose sound so wild would,

In the days of childhood,
Fling round my cradle

Their magic spells.

-The Bells of Shandon: F. Mahony.

They lock them up and veil and guard them daily;
They scarcely can behold their male relations ;
So that their moments do not pass so gaily

As is supposed the case with northern nations.

-Beppo: Byron.

As characteristic abruptness in verse is produced in connection with the pauses at the ends of the lines, the shorter the lines are, the more frequent are the instances of abrupt force, and the more do the verses seem to manifest the sort of nervous energy which this represents. Compare the quotations above in which the lines are long with those in which they are short; or compare the two following stanzas:

Where corpse-light

Dances bright,

Be it by day or night,

Be it by light or dark,

There shall corpse lie stiff and stark.

-Halcro's Verses in The Pirate: Scott,

Not in vain the distance beacons, Forward, forward let us range,
Let the old world spin forever down the ringing grooves of change.
-Locksley Hall: Tennyson.

This latter couplet has almost the effect of perfect regularity of rhythm, which, as has been said, characterizes