English Verse. Raymond Macdonald Alden
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Inversion of accent (substituted trochee).
Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death,
Gorged with the dearest morsel of the earth.
(Shakspere: Romeo and Juliet, V. iii. 45 f.)
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.
(As You Like It, II. i. 16 f.)
The watery kingdom whose ambitious head
Spits in the face of heaven.
(Merchant of Venice, II. vii. 44 f.)
Long lines of cliff breaking have left a chasm.
(Tennyson: Enoch Arden.)
There whirled her white robe like a blossomed branch
Rapt to the horrible fall: a glance I gave, No more; but woman-vested as I was Plunged; and the flood drew; yet I caught her; then Oaring one arm, …
(Tennyson: The Princess.)
Stabbed through the heart's affections to the heart! Seethed like a kid in its own mother's milk! Killed with a word worse than a life of blows!
(Tennyson: Merlin and Vivien.)
He flowed
Right for the polar star, past Orgunje, Brimming, and bright, and large; then sands begin, …
(Matthew Arnold: Sohrab and Rustum.)
Hypermetrical syllable (substituted anapest).
Let me see, let me see, is not the leaf turn'd down?
(Shakspere: Julius Cæsar, IV. iii. 271.)
Leviathan, which God of all his works
Created hugest that swim the ocean stream.
(Milton: Paradise Lost, I. 201 f.)
This passage was one of those where Bentley made himself ridiculous in his edition of Milton. "To smooth it" he changed the lines to read—
"Leviathan, whom God the vastest made
Of all the kinds that swim the ocean stream,"—
not perceiving, what Cowper pointed out, that Milton had designedly used "the word hugest where it may have the clumsiest effect. … Smoothness was not the thing to be consulted when the Leviathan was in question."
So he with difficulty and labour hard Moved on, with difficulty and labour he.
(ib. II. 1021 f.)
The sweep
Of some precipitous rivulet to the wave.
(Tennyson: Enoch Arden.)
The sound of many a heavily galloping hoof.
(Tennyson: Geraint and Enid.)
I wish that somewhere in the ruin'd folds, …
Or the dry thickets, I could meet with her
The Abominable, that uninvited came.
(Tennyson: Œnone.)
Do you see this square old yellow book I toss I' the air, and catch again, and twirl about By the crumpled vellum covers; pure crude fact—
(Browning: The Ring and the Book, I.)
That plant
Shall never wave its tangles lightly and softly As a queen's languid and imperial arm.
(Browning: Paracelsus, I.)
A distinction should be made between these hypermetrical syllables which change the character of the foot from dissyllabic to trisyllabic, and syllables (in a sense hypermetrical) which are slurred or elided in the reading. The word radiance, for example, is regarded as trisyllabic in prose, but in the verse—
"Girt with omnipotence, with radiance crowned,"
it is made dissyllabic by instinctive compression, and in no proper sense makes an anapest of the fifth foot. Of the same character are the numerous cases where a vowel is elided before another vowel—especially the vowel of the article the.[7] On the elisions of Milton's verse, see Mr. Robert Bridges's Milton's Prosody; on those of Shakspere's verse, see Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar. In modern verse the use of elision and slurring is ordinarily that found in common speech.
Omitted syllable (substituted iambus).
As a vision of heaven from the hollows of ocean, that none but a god might see, Rose out of the silence of things unknown of a presence, a form, a might, And we heard as a prophet that hears God's message against him, and may not flee.
(Swinburne: Death of Richard Wagner.)
See also specimens on pp. 42, 43, 48, above.
Mr. Mayor considers the question as to how far substitution of other than the typical foot may be carried in a verse, without destroying the genuineness of the fundamental rhythm. His conclusions are these:
(1) The limit of trochaic substitution is three feet out of five, with the final foot iambic; or two out of five, if the fifth foot is inverted.
(2) A spondee is allowable in any position; the limit is four out of five, with either the fourth or fifth foot remaining iambic.
(3) A pyrrhic may occur in any position; the limit is three out of five, with the other feet preferably spondees.
(4) The limit for trisyllabic substitution is three out of five.
(Chapters on English Metre, chap. V.)
Professor Corson discusses the æsthetic effect of these changes from the typical metre: "The true metrical artist … never indulges in variety for variety's sake. … All metrical effects are to a great extent relative—and relativity of effect depends, of course, upon having a standard in the mind or feelings. … Now the more closely the poet adheres to his standard—to the even tenor (modulus) of his verse—so long as there is no logical nor æsthetic motive for departing from it, the more effective do his departures become when they are sufficiently motived. All non-significant departures weaken the significant ones. … The normal tenor of the verse is presumed to represent the normal tenor of the feeling which produces it. And departures from that normal tenor represent, or should represent, variations in the normal tenor of the feeling. Outside of the general law … of the slurring or suppression of extra light syllables, which do not go for anything in the expression, an exceptional foot must result in emphasis, whether intended or not, either logical or emotional. … A great poet is presumed to have metrical skill; and where ripples occur in the stream of his verse, they will generally be found to justify themselves as organic; i.e. they are a part of the expression."
(Primer of English Verse, pp. 48–50.)
On the æsthetic symbolism of various metrical movements, see G. L. Raymond's Poetry as a Representative Art, pp. 113 ff.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] The