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STUDIES

IN

AMERICAN LITERATURE

INTRODUCTION

AMERICAN LITERATURE must be studied as a branch of English Literature. It is necessary for American students to make it a special object of study because it does not receive due consideration in the manuals of English Literature. But it is important that the student should guard against the mistaken notion that national independence implies literary contrast. Americans speak English with some differences from British English; but if they speak correctly, they speak English. So American authors write English Literature with some differences from British writings; but their writings, if Literature at all, are English Literature. It is of interest for us to determine whether Americans have made a distinct contribution to the great work of English writers. It may be of use for us to learn what is the relation of American writings to the great field of English Literature. In order to do this successfully and in order to

Two Great
Classes

Prose.

appreciate intelligently the work which our best writers have done, we need to know something of the forms which English Literature took before American Literature began to be; and these we now proceed to consider.

All Literature of which we know anything is of Literature. divided into two great classes, called prose and verse. This classification, like all classification of living things or of the products of life, is inexact. Some prose has more of the qualities of verse than has some verse; and there are writings, like some of the poems of Walt Whitman, for example, which it is difficult to put into either class; just as it is difficult for naturalists to tell whether some living things are animals or vegetables. Nevertheless, the distinction between prose and verse is a real and important distinction. The words suggest one of the important elements of difference. Prose comes from the Latin prorsa, meaning straightforward. It is the sort of writing in which one goes straight on until the sentence is complete. Verse is from the Latin versus, a turning. It is the sort of writing in which one turns and begins a new line at certain set points, according to certain rules. Accompanying features of verse are alliteration, or the regular recurrence of the same consonant sound or of similar vowel sounds at the beginning of words or syllables; rhythm, or the regular recurrence of accents in such a manner as to produce a musical effect; and rime, or the regular recurrence of the same vowel sounds at the end of words or syllables

Verse.

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