They pretend to no analysis; they propose nothing like system;
they make no attempts at even rule; everything depends upon
"authority." They are confined, in fact, to mere exemplification of
the supposed varieties of English feet and English lines- although
in no work with which I am acquainted are these feet correctly given
or these lines detailed in anything like their full extent. Yet what
has been mentioned is all- if we except the occasional introduction of
some pedagogue-ism, such as this borrowed from the Greek Prosodies:
"When a syllable is wanting the verse is said to be catalectic; when
the measure is exact, the line is acatalectic; when there is a
redundant syllable, it forms hypermeter." Now, whether a line be
termed catalectic or acatalectic is, perhaps, a point of no vital
importance- it is even possible that the student may be able to
decide, promptly, when the a should be employed and when omitted,
yet be incognizant, at the same time, of all that is worth knowing
in regard to the structure of verse.
A leading defect in each of our treatises (if treatises they can
be called) is the confining the subject to mere Versification, while
Verse in general, with the understanding given to the term in the
heading of this paper, is the real question at issue. Nor am I aware
of even one of our Grammars which so much as properly defines the word
versification itself.
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