A
bastard anapaest, whose nature I now need be at no trouble in
explaining, will of course occur now and then in an anapaestic rhythm.
[A brief discussion of diacritical marks has been eliminated. Ed.]
I began the "processes" by a suggestion of the spondee as the
first step towards verse. But the innate monotony of the spondee has
caused its disappearance as the basis of rhythm from all modern
poetry. We may say, indeed, that the French heroic- the most
wretchedly monotonous verse in existence- is to all intents and
purposes spondaic. But it is not designedly spondaic, and if the
French were ever to examine it at all, they would no doubt pronounce
it iambic. It must be observed that the French language is strangely
peculiar in this point- that it is without accentuation and
consequently without verse. The genius of the people, rather than
the structure of the tongue, declares that their words are for the
most part enunciated with a uniform dwelling on each syllable. For
example we say "syllabification." A Frenchman would say
syl-la-bi-fi-ca-ti-on, dwelling on no one of the syllables with any
noticeable particularity. Here again I put an extreme case in order to
be well understood, but the general fact is as I give it- that,
comparatively, the French have no accentuation; and there can be
nothing worth the name of verse without.
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