The consideration of this last equality would give birth immediately
to the idea of stanza,* that is to say, the insulation of lines into
equal or obviously proportional masses. In its primitive (which was
also its best) form the stanza would most probably have had absolute
unity. In other words, the removal of any one of its lines would
have rendered it imperfect, as in the case above, where if the last
line, for example, be taken away there is left no rhyme to the
"dutiful" of the first. Modern stanza is excessively loose, and
where so, ineffective as a matter of course.
* A stanza is often vulgarly, and with gross impropriety, called a
verse.
Now, although in the deliberate written statement which I have
here given of these various systems of equalities, there seems to be
an infinity of complexity so much that it is hard to conceive the mind
taking cognisance of them all in the brief period occupied by the
perusal or recital of the stanza, yet the difficulty is in fact
apparent only when we will it to become so. Any one fond of mental
experiment may satisfy himself, by trial, that in listening to the
lines he does actually (although with a seeming unconsciousness, on
account of the rapid evolutions of sensation) recognise and
instantaneously appreciate (more or less intensely as his is
cultivated) each and all of the equalizations detailed.
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