Composition-Rhetoric Part 33

U _ | U _ | U _ | Behind the dark church tower.

--Longfellow.

U _ | U _ |U _ | U _ | U _ | U _ | Girt round with rugged moun[tains], the fair Lake Constance lies,

U _ | U _ | U _ | U _ | U _ |U _ | In her blue heart reflect[ed] shine back the starry skies;

U _ | U _ | U _ | U _ |U _ | U _ | And watching each white cloud[let] float silently and slow,

U _ | U _ | U _ | U _| U _ | U _| You think a piece of heav[en] lies on our earth below.

--Adelaide A. Procter.

In the second ill.u.s.tration the extra syllables have the same relative position in the metrical scheme as in the first, though they appear to be in the middle of the line. The pauses fill in the time and preserve the rhythm unbroken.

When the feet are accented on the first syllable--as in trochaic or dactylic verse--a syllable may be omitted from the end of a line as in the second and fourth below.

_ U U | _ U U | _ U U| _ U | Up with the lark in the first flush of morning,

_ U U | _ U U | _ U U | _ | Ere the world wakes to its work or its play;

_ U U| _ U U | _ U U | _ U | Off for a spin to the wide-stretching country,

_ U U | _ U U | _ U U|_ | Far from the close, stifling city away.

Sometimes we find it necessary to suppress a syllable in order to make the rhythm more nearly perfect. Syllables may be suppressed in two ways: by suppressing a vowel at the end of a word when the next word commences with a vowel; by suppressing a vowel within a word. The former method is termed elision, and the latter, slurring.

U _ | U _ |U _ | U _ | U _ | Thou glorious mirror where the Almighty's form U U

_ U |U _| U _ | U Gla.s.ses itself in tempests.

--Byron.

An accented syllable often takes the place of an entire foot. This occurs most frequently at the end of a line, but it is sometimes found at the beginning. Occasionally whole lines are formed in this way. If a pause or rest is made, the rhythm will be unbroken.

u _ | u _ | u _ | Break, break, break,

U U _ | U _ | U _ | On thy cold gray stones, O sea!

U U _ | U U _ | U _|U And I would that my tongue could utter

U _ | U U _ |U _| The thoughts that arise in me.

--Tennyson.

We frequently find verses in which a syllable is lacking at the close of the line; we also find many verses in which an extra syllable is added.

Verse that contains the number of syllables required by its meter is said to be acatalectic; if it contains more than the required number of syllables, it is said to be hypercatalectic; and if it lacks a syllable, it is termed catalectic. It is difficult to tell whether a line has the required number of syllables or not when it is taken by itself; but by comparing it with the line prevailing in the rest of the stanza we are enabled to tell whether it is complete or not. Shakespeare's _Julius Caesar_ is written in iambic pentameter verse. Knowing this, we can detect the hypercatalectic and catalectic lines.

U _| U _ | U _| U _| U _ | You all did see that on the Lupercal

U _ | U _| U _ |U _| U _| I thrice presented him a kingly crown

U _| U _ |U _ | U _ | U _| U Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?

U _| U _ | U _ | U _ | U Yet Brutus says he was ambitious.

--Shakespeare.

+112. Cesura.+--Besides the pauses caused by rests or silences there is the cesural pause which needs to be considered in reading verse. A cesura is a pause determined by the sense. It coincides with some break in the sense. It is found in different parts of the verse and may be entirely lacking. Its observance does not noticeably interfere with the rhythm. In the following selection it is marked thus: ||.

U _ | U _ | U _| U _ | The sun came up || upon the left,

_ U| U _ | U _ | Out of the sea || came he;

U _| U _ | U _| U _| And he shone bright, || and on the right

U _ | U_ | U _ | Went down || into the sea

--Coleridge.

Lives of great men || all remind us We can make our lives || sublime, And, departing, || leave behind us, Footprints || on the sands of time.

--Longfellow.

Read the selections on page 197 so as to indicate the position of the cesural pauses.

+113. Scansion.+--Scansion is the separation of a line into the feet which compose it. In order to scan a line we must determine the rhythmic movement of it. The rhythmic movement determines the accented syllables.

Sometimes in scanning, merely the accented syllables are marked. Usually the whole metrical scheme is indicated, as in the examples on page 199.

EXERCISE

Scan the following selections. Note subst.i.tutions and elusions.