Browning and the Dramatic Monologue Part 23

All these aims will be developed, more or less together, and be in direct relation to all the elements of expression.

Metre is a difficult subject in which to lay down general principles, lest they become artificial rules. Every poem that is really great shows something new in the way of combining imperfect feet, and the student must study the movement for himself.

Many will be tempted to ask, "What has metre to do with the monologue?" It is true that metre belongs to all poetry, but the monologue has some specific and peculiar uses of metre, and, more than any other form of poetry except the poetic drama, demands the living voice. Hence a few suggestions are necessary at this point upon this much neglected and misconceived subject.

To understand the relation of metre to the monologue, it should be held in mind that metre is far more flexible and free in dramatic than in lyric poetry. In lyric poetry it is usually more regular and partakes of the nature of song; but in dramatic poetry it is more changeable and bears more resemblance to the rhythm of speech. In the lyric, metre expresses a mood, and mood as a permanent condition of feeling necessitates a more regular rhythm; but in dramatic poetry, metre expresses the pulse-beat of one character in contact with another. It must respond to all the sudden changes of thought and feeling.

The difference between the metre of Keats or Sh.e.l.ley or Chaucer and that of Shakespeare or of Browning is not wholly one of personality. It is often due to a difference in the theme discussed and in the spirit of their poetry.

So important is the understanding of metre to the right appreciation of any exalted poetic monologue, that in general, unless the interpreter thoroughly masters the subject of metre, he is unprepared to render anything but so-called monologues on the lowest plane of farce and vaudeville art.

Very close to the subject of metre is length of line. A long line is more stately, a short line more abrupt, pa.s.sional, and intense. A short line in connection with longer lines, generally contains more weight, and such an increase of intensive feeling as causes its rendering to be slow, requiring about as much time as one of the longer lines. The short line suggests the necessity of a pause. It is usually found in lyric poetry; rarely in dramatic.

The peculiar variation in length of line found in the Pindaric ode belongs almost entirely to lyric poetry. Monologues and dramatic poems are frequently found in blank verse.

We find here a peculiar principle existing. In blank verse there is greater variation of the feet than in almost any other form of poetry, and yet in this the length of line is most fixed. In the Pindaric ode, on the contrary, where the foot is more regular, there are great variations in the length of line. Is there not discoverable here a law, that where length of line is more fixed, metre is more variable, but where length of line is more variable, the metric feet tend to be more regular?

Art is "order in play"; the free, spontaneous variation is play; the fixed or regular elements give the sense of order. True art always accentuates both order and play, not in antagonistic opposition, but in sympathetic union. Whenever the order is more apparent in one direction, there is greater freedom of play in another, and the reverse.

We find this principle specially manifest in pantomimic expression. Man is only free and flexible in the use of his arms and limbs when he has a stability of poise and when his movement ends in a stable att.i.tude. There is opposition between motions and positions.

This important law has been overlooked both in action and in vocal expression. It is not quite the same as Delsarte's law: "Stability is characteristic of the centre; flexibility, of the surface." While this is true, the necessary co-ordination of the transcendence of stability of att.i.tude over motion is also a necessary law of all expression.

Before trying to lay down any general law regarding metre as a mode of expression, let us examine a few monologues in various feet.

Notice the use of the trochee to express the loving entreaty in "A Woman's Last Word" (p. 6). To give this a careless rendering with its metric movement confused, as is often done, totally perverts its meaning and spirit. The accent on the initial word of the line gives an intensity of feeling with tender persuasiveness. This accent must be strong and vigorous, followed by a most delicate touch upon the following syllables:--

"Be a G.o.d, and hold me With a charm!

Be a man, and fold me With thine arm!"

One who has little sense of metre should try to read this poem in some different foot. He will soon become conscious of the discord. When once he catches the spirit of the poem with his own voice, he will experience a satisfaction and confidence in his rhythmic instinct, and in his voice as its agent, that will enable him to render the poem with power.

Note in this poem also the shortness of the lines, which express the abrupt outbursts of intense feeling. The fact that every other line ends upon an accented syllable adds intensity, sincerity, and earnestness to the tender appeal. The delicate beauty of the rhymes also aids in idealizing the speaker's character. The whole form is beautifully adapted to express her endeavor to lift her husband out of his suspicious and ign.o.ble jealousy to a higher plane.

Browning's "In a Year" has seemingly the same foot and the same length of line as "A Woman's Last Word," but how different its effect! "In a Year"

is made up of bursts of pa.s.sion from an overburdened heart. It seems more subjective or more of a soliloquy.

There is not the same direct appeal to another, but no print can give the difference between the emotional movement of the two poems. In both, the trochaic foot and the very short line indicate abrupt outpouring of feeling.

Compare these two poems carefully. What is the significance of the form given them by Browning, the metre, the length of line, and the stanzas?

Why are the stanzas of "In a Year" longer than those of "A Woman's Last Word"? What is the effect of the difference in rhyme of these two poems?

Does one detect any difference in the metric movement?

IN A YEAR

Never any more, While I live, Need I hope to see his face As before.

Once his love grown chill, Mine may strive: Bitterly we re-embrace, Single still.

Was it something said, Something done, Vexed him? was it touch of hand, Turn of head?

Strange! that very way Love begun: I as little understand Love's decay.

When I sewed or drew, I recall How he looked as if I sung, --Sweetly too.

If I spoke a word, First of all Up his cheek the color sprung, Then he heard.

Sitting by my side, At my feet, So he breathed but air I breathed, Satisfied!

I, too, at love's brim Touched the sweet: I would die if death bequeathed Sweet to him.

"Speak, I love thee best!"

He exclaimed: "Let thy love my own foretell!"

I confessed: "Clasp my heart on thine Now unblamed, Since upon thy soul as well Hangeth mine!"

Was it wrong to own, Being truth?

Why should all the giving prove His alone?

I had wealth and ease, Beauty, youth: Since my lover gave me love, I gave these.

That was all I meant, --To be just, And the pa.s.sion I had raised, To content.

Since he chose to change Gold for dust, If I gave him what he praised Was it strange?

Would he loved me yet, On and on, While I found some way undreamed --Paid my debt!

Gave more life and more, Till all gone, He should smile "She never seemed Mine before.

"What, she felt the while, Must I think?

Love's so different with us men!"

He should smile: "Dying for my sake-- White and pink!

Can't we touch these bubbles then But they break?"

Dear, the pang is brief, Do thy part, Have thy pleasure! How perplexed Grows belief!

Well, this cold clay clod Was man's heart: Crumble it, and what comes next?

Is it G.o.d?

Why is "Herve Riel" in trochaic movement? It is heroic; why not then iambic? The poem opens in a mood of anxiety, a state of suspense, a fear of the certain loss of the fleet. When hope revives and Herve Riel is introduced in the words,

"For up stood, for out stepped, for in struck amid all these,"

we have a line of mixed anapestic and iambic feet, expressive of resolution, courage, and confidence; so with the first and second lines of the sixth stanza expressing indignation at the pilots; also in much of his speech to the admirals.

If the poet had led us sympathetically to identify ourselves with Herve Riel's resolution and endeavor, the metre would have been anapestic or iambic, but he gives the feeling of admiration for Herve Riel and we are made to contemplate how easily he performed his great deed, and hence the prevailing trochaic movement is one of the charms of the poem.

Criticism of this poem, such as I have heard, reveals a lack of appreciation of the dramatic spirit of metre. The trochaic delicately expresses the emotional feeling, admiration, and tenderness for the forgotten hero, as well as the anxiety and realization of danger in the first parts of the poem. The change to the iambic in the central part of the poem only proves the real character of the trochaic feet, and, in fact, accentuates their spirit. The trochee seems in general to indicate an outpouring of emotion or sudden burst of feeling too strong for control. Many of the most tender and prayerful hymns have this foot. It expresses also, at times, a sense of uneasiness or restlessness.

The reader must take these statements, however, as mere suggestions, for the very first poem written in this metre that he reads may give expression to a different spirit. So complex, so mysterious, is the metric expression of feeling, that no one poem can be made a standard for another.

The iambic foot, more than any other, expresses controlled pa.s.sion,--pa.s.sion expressed with deliberation. It implies resolution, confidence, or the heroic carrying out of an intention. While the trochee suggests the bursting out of feeling against the will, the iambic may suggest the spontaneous c.u.mulation of emotion under the dominion of will with a definite purpose or conscious realization of a situation. The iambic can express pa.s.sion controlled for an end, the trochee seems rather to float with the pa.s.sion or be thrust forward by waves or bursts of feeling, which the will is trying to hold back.

Note the predominant metric movement of "Rabbi Ben Ezra," and how it expresses the confidence and n.o.ble conviction of the venerable Rabbi.

Why is "The Last Ride Together" iambic? Because no other metre could so well express the n.o.bility of the hero, his endurance, his refusal to yield to despair or become antagonistic, his self-control, and the preservation of his hopefulness when all his "life seemed meant for fails."