verse. A poem of this kind may consist of either rhyme or blank Rhyme is a correspondence of sound in the termination of two or more successive lines; that is, the same sound, though a different word is employed, occurs at the end of these lines. Sometimes, however, the sound is repeated in alternate lines, or after an interval of several lines. In blank verse, a species which is very seldom used except in lines containing five feet and in epic poetry, there is no rhyme. EXAMPLE OF BLANK VERSE. Come, gentle Spring, ethereal mildness, come, EXAMPLES OF RHYMES. Honor and shame from no condition rise: Pity the sorrows of a poor old man' Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door', Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span^; O give relief, and Heaven will bless your store. How many now are dead to mé That live to others yet! How many are alive to mé Who crumble in their graves, nor seé That sick'ning, sinking look which wé Till dead can ne'er forget. Milton's "Paradise Lost" is a specimen of an epic poem in blank verse. Pope's translation of "Homer's Iliad" is an epic poem in rhyme. Notwithstanding the technical use of the word epic, we have several poems of considerable length (long enough, indeed, for epic poems) in iambic measure of four feet. The "Lady of the Lake," by Scott, is an example, among others, of a poem of this description. This measure, however, is not so well adapted to grave and dignified subjects as that of five feet, it being too lively and rapid. It can, however, be applied to the most solemn subjects, under certain circumstances, without diminishing in the least their proper gravity and dignity,-witness Parnell's "Night Piece on Death," and very many hymns for public worship. LYRIC POEMS, anciently, were those which were composed to be sung with the lyre or harp. In modern times, however, all those which are adapted to music, whether to be sung with instruments or not, go under that general name. Those which are designed for public worship are usually called psalms or hymns. An ODE or SONG is a short poem proper to be sung, although such may not have been its actual design, and is the most generic name given to poems of this kind; but unless accompanied with some qualifying word, as sacred songs, songs of Zion, elegiac songs, it is usually taken to denote such brief poems as are adapted to music, and are not of a religious character. Were I to hear one person ask another to sing a song, I should not expect a psalm nor hymn. A BALLAD, according to modern usage, is a short poem designed to be sung, but of a low and somewhat vulgar character. Originally, it was applied to such short poems as are adapted to solemn purposes. A SONNET anciently denoted a short poem of a peculiar structure and of a given length, but is now used to denote a very short poem which would admit of being sung, though not written with that express design. All these poems, whether called lyrics, odes, psalms, hymns, songs, ballads, or sonnets, or any other name of a similar import, admit the various kinds of verse which have been described, with a great variety of combinations. Examples of these will be given and noticed in the poetical lessons hereafter, and need not, therefore, be inserted here. In the shorter poems of modern times, we find a greater disregard for any one pure species of verse than among those which were written in the days of Pope, Parnell, and Gray, and in the times which immediately followed. In those days, the best authors paid a strict regard to the purity of their verse, never substituting for the regular feet any which would not contribute to its melody; nor did they endeavor to form new and unusual combinations of feet for the purpose of either novelty or oddity, sacrificing to these all melodiousness of verse and sound. In modern times, an effort seems to have been made to jumble together all sorts of poetical feet, which it would puzzle the most experienced prosodist to scan, * without the least regard to melody. The poetry of Mrs. Hemans, not to mention others, is prolific of these irregularities. There is much of her poetry which no one must expect to read according to any known rules of prosody, or so as to produce any melody to the ear. To show that I do not mistake, I will here introduce two or three short samples from her poetical works. * To divide and read a line according to its true number of feet. In the rich rose, whose bloom I loved so well, Set deep that thought. If in the two last lines here quoted there is either poetry, melody, or sense, I have not been able to discover them. Go, in thy glory, o'er the ancient sea; Take with thee gentle winds thy sails to swell; Fare thee well, bark, farewell. The first three lines are sufficiently destitute of melody, and evince a determination to use poetic license, as it regards quantity, very much at random; but the last, line is altogether intolerable. The following extract exhibits a curious jumble of poetic feet, though with less violation of melody than before. All, all our own shall the forests be, As to the bound of the roebuck free; None shall say, "hither, no farther pass;" We will track each step through the wavy grass; Where there is such a jumble of feet in unexpected succession, it is impossible to read the poetry so as to make the sound pleasant to the ear. Let any one compare poetry of this irregular structure with the specimens before given, and he cannot fail to perceive, at once, a very striking contrast. Rules for reading poetry. The same rules which govern us in reading_prose, are, in general, applicable to the reading of poetry. The inflections of the voice are the same; there are the same cadences, and the same modes of closing interrogative sentences; and emphasis is the same thing in both. All the pauses which are used in prose belong also to poetry, and some are altogether peculiar to the latter, and may be called poetical pauses. The former of these need no further consideration. The first poetical pause which I shall notice is a mere suspension of the voice at the end of every line, whether required by the sense or not, or whether any be marked or not. When the voice comes to the end of the line, it is to be continued there, for a very short space, at the same elevation as it would have if no stop were made. This pause is required to show the proper length of the verse or line, and to distinguish this species of writing from prose. Without it, blank verse, in a multitude of instances, could not be distinguished from prose, but would be mistaken for what is called prose run mad; nor could rhyme be any better discerned, except by a mere jingle of sounds, which, in fact, would be seldom noticed as belonging to versification. EXAMPLES. O Death, all eloquent, you only prové What dust we dote on when 'tis man we love. The smiling infant in his hand shall také God is the tower' To which I fly; His grace is nigh' These, as they change, almighty Father', these' The last passage, if read without the poetical pause, might as well be written thus, in the manner of prose :-"These, as they change, almighty Father', these are but the varied God. The rolling year is full of thee. Forth in the pleasing Spring thy beauty walks, thy tenderness and love." If read as last written, few hearers would take the passage to be poetry, but a species of poetical prose. Some, however, choose to read in this manner, and authors are not wanting who teach us so to do. They seem to imagine, that, if a pause is made, the sense will be interrupted and lost; and so it would if the pause were made with the intensive downward slide or a cadence; but the sense is always carried forward when the voice is not dropped, but merely suspended, during the stop. In such case, the attention of the hearer is kept awake, and waiting for the conclusion of what is begun. This principle is applicable to pauses of suspension, both in poetry and prose. The pause which gives to the recital of poetry its chief melody and grace is the CESURA; and it is for these purposes, and not at all to give the sense, that the cesural pause is employed. Its object is to denote the pauses which melody requires, inde pendent of metrical feet and the grammatical meaning of words. The cesura, however, may coincide with a grammatical pause, and when it does, the melody is better promoted than when the two are separated. It may likewise coincide with the termination of a metrical foot, or it may fall in the middle of a foot. It is considered as producing the most melody when it falls in the middle of a line, or nearly so. In iambic verse of five feet, it may fall at the end of the second or third foot without detriment to the melody, and it is admissible at the end of the first foot or even half-foot from the beginning, and at the same distance from the end of a line. The cesura is used in every variety of verse, and a little practice will enable the learner to discover its true place. It may be remarked, that poetry, in which the cesura is not quite apparent, has but little melody in its composition. Besides the full cesura, there is also what is called the DEMICESURA, which is a pause of the same kind, and of about half the length of the first, and usually occurs between the full cesura and the end of the lines. I shall now give a few examples from different kinds of verse, marking the full cesura with a perpendicular dash below the line, and the demi-cesura with a similar one above it. In adamantine chains, shall Death be bound, And art thou, then,, Acasto's dear remains', Among the saints, that fill thy housé There shall my zeal, perform the vows' Sing, to the Lord most high; Let every land, adore; With grateful voice, make known' His goodness, and his power. Let cheerful, songs' Declare, his ways, And let his praisé Inspire, your tongues. Soft' as the slumbers, of a saint' forgiven, And mild' as opening beams, of promised' heaven. |