As in
mathematics two units are required to form number, so rhythm (from the
Greek arithmos, number) demands for its formation at least two feet.
Beyond doubt, we often see such lines as
Know ye the-
Land where the-
lines of one foot, and our Prosodies admit such, but with impropriety,
for common sense would dictate that every so obvious division of a
poem as is made by a line, should include within itself all that is
necessary for its own comprehension, but in a line of one foot we
can have no appreciation of rhythm, which depends upon the equality
between two or more pulsations. The false lines, consisting
sometimes of a single caesura, which are seen in mock Pindaric odes,
are, of course, "rhythmical" only in connection with some other
line, and it is this want of independent rhythm, which adapts them
to the purposes of burlesque alone. Their effect is that of
incongruity (the principle of mirth), for they include the blankness
of prose amid the harmony of verse.
My second object in quoting Byron's lines was that of showing how
absurd it often is to cite a single line from amid the body of a
poem for the purpose of instancing the perfection or imperfection of
the lines rhythm. Were we to see by itself
Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle,
we might justly condemn it as defective in the final foot, which is
equal to only three, instead of being equal to four short syllables.
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