sound and rhythm to the subject, in Spenser's description of the Satyrs accompanying Una to the cave of Sylvanus :

So from the ground she fearless doth arise,
And walketh forth without suspect of crime.
They, all as glad as birds of joyous prime,
Thence lead her forth, about the dancing round,
Shouting and singing all a shepherd's rhyme;

And with green branches strewing all the ground,
Do worship her as queen with olive garland crown'd.
And all the way their merry pipes they sound,
That all the woods and doubled echoes ring:
And with their horned feet do wear the ground,
Leaping like wanton kids in pleasant spring:
So towards old Sylvanus they her bring,
Who with the noise awaked, cometh out.

Faery Queen, b. i. c. vi.

On the contrary, there is nothing either musical or natural in the ordinary construction of language. It is a thing altogether arbitrary and conventional. Neither in the sounds themselves, which are the voluntary signs of certain ideas, nor in their grammatical arrangements in common speech, is there any principle of natural imitation or correspondence to the individual ideas, or to the tone of feeling with which they are conveyed to others. The jerks, the breaks, the inequalities, and harshnesses of prose, are fatal to the flow of a poetical imagination, as a jolting road or stumbling horse disturbs the reverie of an absent man. But poetry makes these odds all even. It is the music of language answering to the music of the mind; untying, as it were, "the secret soul of harmony." Wherever any object takes such a hold of the mind, by which it seeks to prolong and repeat the emotion, to bring all other objects into accord with it, and to give the same movement of harmony, sustained and continuous, or gradually varied according to the occasion, to the sounds that express it-this is poetry. There is a deep connection between music and deep-rooted passion. In ordinary speech we arrive at a certain harmony by the modulations of the voice: in poetry the same thing is done systematically by a regular collocation of syllables.-Lect. i.]

SECTION IV.
Versification.

457. THE music of verse, though handled by every grammarian, merits more attention than it has been honored with. It is a subject intimately connected with human nature; and to explain it thoroughly, several nice and delicate feelings must be employed. But before entering upon it, we must see what verse is, or, in other

456. Poetry in its matter and form. In its mode of conveyance.-Milton's idea of poetry -The ordinary construction of language. Illustration of poetry.

words, by what mark it is distinguished from prose; a point not so easy as may at first be apprehended. It is true, that the construction of verse is governed by precise rules; whereas prose is more loose, and scarce subjected to any rules. But are the many who have no rules, left without means to make the distinction? and even with respect to the learned, must they apply the rule before they can with certainty pronounce whether the composition be prose or verse? This will hardly be maintained; and therefore instead of rules, the ear must be appealed to as the proper judge. But by what mark does the ear distinguish verse from prose? The proper and satisfactory answer is, That these make different impressions upon every one who hath an ear. This advances us one step in our inquiry.

["Poetry," remarks Sir Joshua Reynolds, "addresses itself to the same faculties and the same dispositions as painting, though by different means. The object of both is to accommodate itself to all the natural propensities and inclinations of the mind. The very existence of poetry depends on the license it assumes of deviating from actual nature, in order to gratify natural propensities by other means, which are found by experience full as capable of affording such gratification. It sets out with a language in the highest degree artificial, a construction of measured words, such as never is, and never was, used by man. Let this measure be what it may, whether hexameter or any other metre used in Latin or Greek-or rhyme, or blank verse, varied with pauses and accents, in modern languages, -they are all equally removed from nature, and equally a violation of common speech. When this artificial mode has been established as the vehicle of sentiment, there is another principle in the human mind to which the work must be referred, which still renders it more artificial, carries it still further from common nature, and deviates only to render it more perfect. That principle is the sense of congruity, coherence, and consistency, which is a real existing principle in man, and it must be gratified. Therefore, having once adopted a style and a measure not found in common discourse, it is required that the sentiments also should be in the same proportion elevated above common nature, from the necessity of there being an agreement of the parts among themselves, that one uniform whole may be produced.

To correspond, therefore, with this general system of deviation from nature, the manner in which poetry is offered to the ear, the tone in which it is recited, should be as far removed from the tone of conversation, as the words of which that poetry is composed, &c. Works, vol. ii. Discourse xiii.]

Taking it then for granted, that verse and prose make upon the

457. Verse, as distinguished from prose. The ear discriminates.-Ren arks of Sir Joshua Reynolds.--How a musical impression is produced by language. The names given to a period producing such impression.

eat different impressions, nothing remains but to explain this dif ference, and to assign its cause. To this end, I call to my aid an observation made above upon the sound of words, that they are more agreeable to the ear when composed of long and short syllables, than when all the syllables are of the same sort: a continued sound in the same tone, makes not a musical impression: the same note successively renewed by intervals is more agreeable, but still makes not a musical impression. To produce that impression, variety is necessary as well as number: the successive sounds or syllables must be some of them long, some of them short; and if also high and low, the music is the more perfect. The musical impression made by a period consisting of long and short syllables arranged in a certain order, is what the Greeks call rhythmus, the Latins numerus, and we melody or measure. Cicero justly observes, that in one continued sound there is no melody: "Numerus in continuatione nullus est."

458. It will probably occur, that melody, if it depend on long and short syllables combined in a sentence, may be found in prose as well as in verse; considering especially, that in both, particular words are accented or pronounced in a higher tone than the rest; and therefore that verse cannot be distinguished from prose by melody merely. The observation is just; and it follows that the distinction between them, since it depends not singly on melody, must arise from the difference of the melody, which is precisely the case; though that difference cannot with any accuracy be explained in words; all that can be said is, that verse is more musical than prose, and its melody more perfect. The difference between verse and prose resembles the difference in music, properly so called, between the song and the recitative; and the resemblance is not the less complete, that these differences, like the shades of colors, approximate sometimes so nearly as scarce to be discernible: the melody of a recitative approaches sometimes to that of a song; which, on the other hand, degenerates sometimes to that of a recitative. Nothing is more distinguishable from prose, than the bulk of Virgil's Hexameters: many of those composed by Horace are very little removed from prose: Sapphic verse has a very sensible melody that, on the other hand, of au Iambic, is extremely faint.*

This more perfect melody of articulate sounds, is what distinguisheth verse from prose. Verse is subjected to certain inflexible laws; the number and variety of the component syllables being ascertained,

Music, properly so called, is analyzed into melody and harmony. A sucression of sounds so as to be agreeable to the ear constitutes melody: harmony arises from co-existing sounds. Verse therefore can only reach melody, and not harmony.

458. Verse not to be distinguished from prose by the melody alone; but from the difference of the melody. Compared to song and recitative. Verse, subjected to certain laws. Verse requires peculiar genius. The use and office of prose. Note on Washington Irving's proso.

and in some measure the order of succession. Such restraint makes it a matter of difficulty to compose in verse; a difficulty that is not to be surmounted but by a peculiar genius. Useful lessons conveyed to us in verse, are agreeable by the union of music with instruction but are we for that reason to reject knowledge offered in a plainer dress? That would be ridiculous; for knowledge is of intrinsic merit, independent of the means of acquisition; and there are many, not less capable than willing to instruct us, who have no genius for verse. Hence the use of prose; which, for the reason now given, is not confined to precise rules. There belongs to it a certain melody of an inferior kind, which ought to be the aim of every writer; but for succeeding in it, practice is necessary more than genius. Nor do we rigidly insist for melodious prose provided the work convey instruction, its chief end, we are little solicitous about its dress.*

459. Having ascertained the nature and limits of our subject, I proceed to the laws by which it is regulated. These would be endless, were verse of all different kinds to be taken under consideration. I propose therefore to confine the inquiry to Latin or Greek Hexameter, and to French and English Heroic verse; which perhaps may carry me farther than the reader will choose to follow. The observations I shall have occasion to make, will at any rate be sufficient for a specimen; and these, with proper variations, may easily be transferred to the composition of other sorts of verse.

Before I enter upon particulars, it must be premised in general, that

[Prose and Poetry: A writer in the N. A. Review, speaking of the style of Washington Irving, remarks that "its attraction lies in the charm of finished elegance, which it never loses. The most harmonious and poetical words are carefully selected. Every period is measured and harmonized with nice precision. The length of the sentences is judiciously varied; and the tout ensemble produces on the ear an effect very little, if at all inferior to that of the finest versification. Indeed such prose, while it is from the nature of the topics substantially poetry, does not appear to us, when viewed merely as a form of language, to differ essentially from verse. The distinction between verse and prose evidently does not lie in rhyme, taking the word in its modern sense, or in any particular species of rhythm, as it was understood by the ancients. Rhyme, however pleasing to accustomed cars, is, we fear, but too evidently a remnant of the false taste of a barbarous age; and of rhythm there are a thonsand varieties in the poetry of every cultivated language, which agree in nothing but that they are all harmonious arrangements of words. If then we mean by hythm or verse merely the form of poetry, and not any particular measure or set of measures to which we are accustomed, it seems to imply nothing but such a disposition of words and sentences as shall strike the ear with a regular melodious flow; and elegant prose, like that of Mr. Irving for instance, comes clearly within the definition. Nor are we quite sure that this delicate species of rhythm ought to be regarded as inferior in beauty to the more artificial ones. The latter, which are obvious, and, as it were, coarse methods of arrangement, are perhaps natural to the ruder periods of language, and are absolutely neces sary in poems intended for music; but for every other purpose, it would seem that the most perfect melody is that which is most completely unfettered, and in which the traces of art are best concealed. There is something more exquisitely sweet in the natural strains of the Eolian harp, as they swell and fall upon the ear, under the inspiration of a gentle breeze, on a fine moonlight evening, than in the measured flow of any artificial music."]

to verse of every kind, five things are of importance. 1st, The number of syllables that compose a verse line. 2d, The different lengths of syllables, i. e. the difference of time taken in pronouncing. 3d, The arrangement of these syllables combined in words. 4th, The pauses or stops in pronouncing. 5th, The pronouncing syllables in a high or low tone. The three first mentioned are obviously essential to verse if any of them be wanting, there cannot be that higher degree of melody which distinguisheth verse from prose. To give a just notion of the fourth, it must be observed, that pauses are necessary for three different purposes: one to separate periods and members of the same period, according to the sense; another, to improve the melody of verse; and the last, to afford opportunity for drawing breath in reading. A pause of the first kind is variable, being long or short, frequent or less frequent, as the sense requires. A pause of the second kind, being determined by the melody, is in no degree arbitrary. The last sort is in a measure arbitrary, depending on the reader's command of breath. But as one cannot read with grace, unless, for drawing breath, opportunity be taken of a pause in the sense or in the melody, this pause ought never to be distinguished from the others; and for that reason shall be laid aside. With respect then to the pauses of sense and of melody, it may be affirmed without hesitation, that their coincidence in verse is a capital beauty; but as it cannot be expected, in a long work especially, that every line should be so perfect, we shall afterwards have occasion to see that the pause necessary for the sense must often, in some degree, be sacrificed to the verse-pause, and the latter sometimes to

the former.

460. The pronouncing syllables in a high or low tone, contributes also to melody. In reading, whether verse or prose, a certain tone is assumed, which may be called the key-note; and in that tone the bulk of the words are sounded. Sometimes to humor the sense, and sometimes the melody, a particular syllable is sounded in a higher tone; and this is termed accenting a syllable, or gracing it with an accent. Opposed to the accent, is the cadence, which I have not mentioned as one of the requisites of verse, because it is entirely regulated by the sense, and hath no peculiar relation to verse. The cadence is a falling of the voice below the key-note at the close of every period; and so little is it essential to verse, that in correct reading the final syllable of every line is accented, that syllable only excepted which closes the period, where the sense requires a cadence. The reader may be satisfied of this by experiments; and for that purpose I recommend to him the Rape of the Lock, which, in point of versification, is the most complete performance in the English language.

Though the five requisites above mentioned enter the composition

459. Five things important to verse of every kind.-Pauses have three purposes. Pausea of sense and melody, when coincident, are beautiful.