The
meeting of these two feet, to be sure, is an accident not contemplated
in the definition now discussed; for this definition, in demanding a
"regular alternation of syllables differing in quantity," insists on a
regular succession of similar feet. But here is an example:
Sing to me / Isabelle.
This is the opening line of a little ballad now before me which
proceeds in the same rhythm- a peculiarly beautiful one. More than all
this:- English lines are often well composed, entirely, of a regular
succession of syllables all of the same quantity:- the first line, for
instance, of the following quatrain by Arthur C. Coxe:
March! march! march!
Making sounds as they tread,
Ho! ho! how they step,
Going down to the dead!
The [first line] is formed of three caesuras. The caesura, of
which I have much to say hereafter, is rejected by the English
Prosodies, and grossly misrepresented in the classic. It is a
perfect foot- the most important in all verse- and consists of a
single long syllable; but the length of this syllable varies.
It has thus been made evident that there is not one point of the
definition in question which does not involve an error, and for
anything more satisfactory or more intelligible we shall look in
vain to any published treatise on the topic.
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