ample, p. 51, Extract No. 4. 2. Example, p. 46, Extract No. 2. 3. Example, p. 55, Extract No. 2.)

RULE XVII.-Pathos requires pure tone, soft force, high pitch, median stress, slow movement, plaintive inflections, gentle emphasis, moderate pauses. (Example, p. 47, Extract No. 1.)

RULE XVIII-Grief requires pure tone, soft force, high pitch, median stress, slow movement, plaintive inflections, gentle emphasis, moderate pauses. (Example, p. 48, Extract No. 3.)

RULE XIX.-Indignation requires orotund quality, strong force, middle pitch, thorough stress, quick movement, earnest inflections, strongest emphasis, full pauses.

RULE XX.-Bold Declamation requires orotund quality, full force, low pitch, moderate movement, strong emphasis, earnest inflections, moderate pauses.

"From out the forest prance

A trampling troop-I see them come!
A thousand horse-and none to ride!-
With flowing tail, and flying mane,
Wide nostrils, never stretched by pain,
Mouth bloodless to the bit or rein,
And feet that iron never shod,
And flanks unscarred by spur or rod-
A thousand horse-the wild, the free-
Like waves that follow o'er the sea,
Came quickly thundering on;-
They stop-they start-they snuff the air,
Gallop a moment here and there,

Approach, retire, wheel round and round,
Then plunging back with sudden bound,
They snort-they foam-neigh-swerve aside,
And backward to the forest fly,

By instinct, from a human eye."

VERY SLOW MOVEMENT.

[THE EPITAPH IN GRAY'S "ELEGY."]

Here rests his head upon the lap of earth,

A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown;
Fair Science frowned not on his humble birth,
And Melancholy marked him for her own.

Large was his bounty and his soul sincere;
Heaven did a recompense as largely send;
He gave to Misery all he had-a tear;

He gained from Heaven-'twas all he wished-a friend.

No further seek his merits to disclose,

Or draw his frailties from their dread abode, (There they alike in trembling hope repose,)

The bosom of his Father and his God.

VERY LOW FITCH.

(BOOK OF JOB, iv. 13-18.)

In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on man,
Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake.
Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up:

It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof; an image was before mine eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying,

Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his Maker?

VERY HIGH PITCH.

[FROM ALEXANDER'S FEAST.-DRYDEN.]

Now strike the golden lyre again;

A louder yet, and yet a louder strain.
Break his bands of sleep asunder,

And rouse him like a rattling peal of thunder.

VERY LOUD FORCE.

[OLD IRONSIDES.—HOLMES.]

Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high;
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky;
Beneath it rung the battle-shout,

And burst the cannon's roar;

The meteor of the ocean air

Shall sweep the clouds no more!

Oh, better that her shattered hulk
Should sink beneath the wave;
Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
And there should be her grave.
Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail,

And give her to the god of storms-
The lightning and the gale!

VERY SOFT FORCE.

[FROM TENNYSON'S NEW YEAR'S EVE.]

You'll bury me, my mother, just beneath the hawthorn shade,
And you'll come sometimes and see me where I am lowly laid.
I shall not forget you, mother, I shall hear you when you pass,
With your feet above my head in the long and pleasant grass.

Good-night, good-night! when I have said good-night for evermore,
And you see me carried out from the threshold of the door;
Don't let Effie come to see me till my grave be growing green:
She'll be a better child to you than ever I have been.

Good-night, sweet mother; call me before the day is born.
All night I lie awake, but I fall asleep at morn;

But I would see the sun rise upon the glad new year;
So, if you're waking, call me, call me early, mother dear.

ON READING POETRY.

The reading of Poetry, as distinguished from the reading of Prose, is indicated by the metrical melody of verse. The voice yields itself to the harmony of recurrent accent, and similarity of sound, together with the measured succession of a given "quantity" or length of corresponding syllables. In some instances the reading approaches the effect of chanting in music; and though it never becomes song, much less sing-song, the entrancing melody of poetical numbers, if the sentiment admits of it, flows with all the sweet and soothing charm of music.

In poetical reading as well as in prose, the emotion to be expressed decides the character of the utterance; and the skillful writer adapts not only the words, but also the metre, to the sentiment to be uttered.

For instance, the following passage from Dryden's "Ode on St. Cecilia's Day," is said to be one of the finest specimens of adaptation of the metre to the subject to be found in the English language;-the true reading of it would prove it to be so:

"Softly sweet in Lydian measures,

Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures.
War, he sung, is toil and trouble,
Honor but an empty bubble;

Never ending, still beginning,
Fighting still, and still destroying,

If the world be worth thy winning,
Think, Oh! think it worth enjoying;
Lovely Thaïs sits beside thee;

Take the good the gods provide thee!"

If we contrast with this the effect of harsh and broken sounds, as in Browning's description of a horse-race, we shall see that the extremes of poetical expressions are as varied and distinct as in the reading of prose. The movement should be very quick, with full force.

"We kept the great pace

Neck by neck, stride by stride, never changing our place;

I turned in my saddle and made its girths tight,

Then shortened each stirrup, and set the pique right,

Rebuckled the cheek-strap, chained slacker the bit,

Nor galloped less steadily Roland a whit.

The broad sun above laughed a pitiless laugh,

'Neath our feet broke the brittle bright stubble like chaff."

Or again, if we read those sweet lines of Proctor, "To a Flower," we appreciate the exceeding beauty and delicacy of feeling, condensed as it never could be in prose, and as gentle and refined as the subject apostrophized. Read with soft force and slow movement.

"Dawn, gentle flower,

From the morning earth!
We will gaze and wonder
At thy wondrous birth!

Bloom, gentle flower!

Lover of the light,

Sought by wind and shower,
Fondled by the night!

Fade, gentle flower!

All thy white leaves close;
Having shown thy beauty,
Time 'tis for repose.

Die, gentle flower,

In the silent sun!

So, all pangs are over,
All thy tasks are done!

Day hath no more glory,

Though he soars so high;

Thine is all man's story,

'Live, and love, and die!"

Again, in contrast, read the tumultuous clash and clangor of certain syllables found in that wondrous specimen of poetic composition,-Southey's "Fall of Lodore." Read with quick movement.

"Grumbling and rumbling and tumbling,

Clattering and battering and shattering,

And flushing and rushing and brushing and gushing,
And flapping and rapping and clapping and slapping,
And thumping and bumping and flumping and jumping,
And thrashing and clashing and flashing and splashing,
And so never-ending,

But always descending,

Sounds and motions for ever and ever are blending,
All at once and all o'er,

With a mighty uproar;

And this way the water comes down at Lodore."

The following general rules guide, in part, the true reading of poetry.

The character of the metre is to be brought out by the distinct force of its emphatic syllables. But this emphasis is never to be made repulsive by being carried too far--a beauty in the style may thus easily become a defect.

A slight pause is to be made at the end of a line even where the sense is not completed. In some instances a word may change its ordinary sound for the purpose of forming

the rhyme, thus:

6

"In slumbers of midnight the sailor boy lay;

His hammock swung loose at the sport of the wind,
But watch-worn and weary his cares flew away,

And visions of happiness danced o'er his mind."

The inflections are, usually, not so direct and forcible as in prose reading, but have a more gentle expression.

As verse aims at beauty and melody, as contrasted with the abrupt and sententious irregularities of prose, the voice should be rich and pure, and pleasing in its sounds. The distinct articulation of every syllable, with special attention given to the time which each should fill, forming most carefully the unemphatic syllables, secures the greatest excellence in expression.

The general rule, however, before referred to, that the expression depends entirely upon the emotion to be uttered, is the true guide to the proper reading of poetry. Rules and directions having been already given to guide these expressions in reading, the pupil is possessed of the means for the successful study of the art of reading poetry. The above rules guide, also, the reading of blank verse.