Harvard Psychological Studies Part 52

The unity is now a new kind of verse unity; the rhyme is a regular recurrent factor like the accent of a foot, and the series of rhymes generates a new rhythm. In the rhymed stanza we are to see not a set of verses, like the verse of blank verse, but a new and enlarged verse unity.

There are several decided objections to this conception. First, the verse pause _may_ be eliminated, but its elimination is _not essential_ to the rhyme effect; the verse pause may still be as long, if not longer, with rhyme. Secondly, the larger unity into which the verses enter is not in many cases a unity made up exclusively of rhymed verses. Verses without rhyme alternate with rhymed verses, and have the usual verse pause. Thirdly, the rhyme is not merely a regularly recurring element: it is essentially a recurring element of which one may say what has been said falsely of the rhythm elements, that each rhyme is either a repet.i.tion of something gone before to which it refers, or the antic.i.p.ation of something to which it looks forward. In most cases, rhymes function in pairs. Such peculiarities distinguish the rhyme from the accent of the foot. Lastly, the freedom of the whole stanza structure into which rhyme is introduced is much greater than that of the single verse; pauses much larger than the admissible lags of a single verse are possible between the verses, and there is no tension which persists throughout. There is no feeling of strain if the series halts at the verse ends.

A second hypothesis is that there is some definite process at the end of the verse which marks the close of the verse and which takes more time in the case of blank verse than in the case of rhymed verse. If we conceive the end of the verse as a point where a dying out of the tension occurs, we may imagine that the rhyme brings an emphasis, and becomes a qualitative signal for this release. The slight increase of intensity on the rhyme contributes to the breaking up of the coordination, and at the same time exhausts and satisfies the feeling of tension which the verse embodies. It is at the point for finishing and releasing the set of strains which const.i.tute the motor image of the verse. A qualitative change may be supposed to produce the effect more rapidly than the simple dying out of the tensions, which occurs in blank verse without a differentiated end accent.

3. _The Relation of the Rhyme to the Cyclic Movement of the Unit Group and of the Verse_.

A series was arranged in which the accent of an ordinary foot and a rhyme occurred side by side; the distance between them was gradually lessened, and the effect on the rhyme and on the ordinary accented element was noted.

A preliminary set of experiments on the effect of two accents which approach each other gave some very interesting results. Thus Table II.

shows the effect of gradually eliminating the verse pause from the couplet.

TABLE II.

Dactylic, catelectic couplet of the general form:

iII iII iII i / iII iII iII i Without rhyme.

Each dactyl (iII) is, in terms of s.p.a.ces between the pegs, 3 2 4; or in seconds, .25, .17, .33.

The pause between the two verses was gradually lessened

B.

At 5 (.42 sec.) The verses are normal.

4.5 The verses are normal, but first accent of II. is fading.

4 The accent is less and less on first element of II.

3.3 The accent is almost gone on first element of II.

3 (.25 sec.) First foot of II. has quite lost accent. There is now but one verse. 'Amalgamation.'

Mc.

7 (.58 sec.) The verses are normal.

5.3 Either first element of II. has its normal accent, or it wavers to a secondary accent, and the verses become one.

5 (.416 sec.) First foot of II. has quite lost accent. Amalgamation.

3 (.25 sec.) 'Last verse completely spoiled.' Last verse ' ' ' '

becomes -- /- -, -- - -, -- - -, -- --.

Unsatisfactory.

2 (.16 sec.) The II. has become mere 'medley.'

H.

6 (.5 sec.) Normal.

5 First element of II. attaches to I., and its accent is lessened.

3 (.25 sec.) First element of II. has lost its accent; the verses ' ' ' ' ' ' '

become --- --- --- - / - --- --- ---. But one verse.

Amalgamation.

J.

5 (.42 sec.) Normal.

4.6 First element of II. is losing accent.

3 (.25 sec.) First two elements of II. 'tumble over each ' ' ' ' ' ' '

other.' --- --- --- - / ---- --- ---.

Unsatisfactory. Amalgamation.

L.

5 (.42 sec.) Normal.

4 Last element of I. losing accent.

3.3 Last element of I. and first of II. have completely lost accent. Amalgamation.

G.

7 (.58 sec.) Normal.

3 (.25 sec.) --- --- --- - / - ----- --- -. Amalgamation.

Mi.

4.3(.35 sec.) Normal.

4 First two elements of II. equal in accent.

3 (.25 sec.) --- --- --- - / - -- --- --- -. Amalgamation.

As soon as the accents are within a certain distance they affect each other. As a rule the first retains its original intensity and the second is weakened; rarely the first yields to the second. The table shows that the distance at which this occurs is about .42 seconds.

Under many conditions it is quite possible for two accents to occur at that distance, _e.g._, in rapid rhythms, without any 'fusing.' The subject has a type of rhythm very definitely in mind and the only hypothesis which will explain the difficulty in observing the type, in spite of the slight change in time values, is that somehow the cyclic automatic movement has been affected and can no longer produce the normal, limiting sensation at the accent. There is not time for the phase of relaxation before the next, objective, limiting sensation occurs. We may figure the movement as follows:

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 2.]

_A_ is a curve in which _B_ is the relaxation phase. At _C_ the tensions are rapidly increasing in antic.i.p.ation of the next limiting sensation at _A_. But if the objective factor appears too early, the tensions will be discharged prematurely, and the second accent will be weakened. Exactly the obverse of these phenomena is often noticed, when a slight r.e.t.a.r.dation of the second accent produces a slight increase in its intensity. When, finally, the second accent has been moved so near the first accent that it occurs within the phase of the first, it disappears as an independent accent. At the same time the objective stimuli immediately following now appear at quite irregular intervals in the cycle, the coordination is broken up, and chaos without accentuation for some distance is the result. Occasionally the process does not right itself before the close of the verse. As this process eliminates the verse pause, the two verses become one, as the accents approach each other. In cases where the first accent is lost, one may suppose that the first accent functions as an antic.i.p.atory stimulus, while the second simply increases the effect (cf. Hofbauer and Cleghorn), and marks the culmination. The fact that the second accent is only lost at very close range favors this idea.

TABLE III.

Dactylic, catalectic couplet of the general form: iII iII iII i / iII iII iII i (with rhyme).

Each dactyl (iII) is, in terms of s.p.a.ces between the pegs, 324; or, in seconds, .25, .17, .33.

The pause between the two verses was gradually lessened.

B.

At 4 (.33 sec.) Normal.

2 (.17 sec.) First accent of II. is weakening.

1.3(.21 sec.) Amalgamation. Rhyme retains the accent.

Mc.

5 (.42 sec.) Normal.

4 II. has become anapaestic.

2 (.17 sec.) Rhyme is lost. Amalgamation.

J.

3 (.25 sec.) Normal.

2 (.17 sec.) Accent of rhyme is lost. Amalgamation.

L.

4 (.33 sec.) Normal.

1.6(.18 sec.) Rhyme retains accent, first accent of II.

is lost. Amalgamation.

G.