The Principles of English Versification Part 20

The viol, the violet, and the vine;

or the imitative effectiveness of Swinburne's

With lisp of leaves and ripple of rain;

and though these beauties are obvious they are for most tastes not too obtrusive. But Tennyson's

Low on the sand and loud on the stone

is not so obvious, and there is danger of its escaping notice. One hears the line with increased pleasure after the imitation of sound is pointed out; but only the trained ear catches it at first.

This correspondence of sound and sense is called _onomatopoeia_. It may appear in a single word, as _buzz_, _whack_, _crackle_, _roar_, etc.; or a combination of imitative words, as Tennyson's

The moan of doves in immemorial elms, And murmuring of innumerable bees;

or a suggestive echo rather than direct imitation, as Sh.e.l.ley's

Makes faint with too much sweet these heavy-winged thieves;

or a suggestion of motion rather than of sound, as Milton's sea-fish

huge of bulk, Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait,

and the

Leviathan, which G.o.d of all his works Created hugest that swim the ocean stream;

or an attempt to imitate the motion described, as Tennyson's picture of Excalibur when Sir Bedivere hurls it into the lake--

The great brand Made lightnings in the splendour of the moon, And flashing round and round, whirled in an arch, Shot like a streamer of the northern morn;

and Swinburne's more simple

As a lamp Burns and bends all its blowing flame one way;

or even the correspondence of a harsh line and a harsh thought, as Browning's famous

Irks care the crop-full bird, frets doubt the maw-crammed beast?[87]

+--------------------------------------------------------------+ [87] For an extreme example of mimicry, see Southey's Lodore. +--------------------------------------------------------------+

Sometimes there is obtained an effect of altered tempo; of which the best ill.u.s.tration, though hackneyed, is still Pope's clever couplets in the Essay on Criticism--

When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, The line too labours, and the words move slow: Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain, Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main.[88]

+--------------------------------------------------------------+ [88] Lines 370 ff. Dr. Johnson's comment on this last line is curious: "The swiftness of Camilla is rather contrasted than exemplified. Why the verse should be lengthened to express speed, will not easily be discovered. In the dactyls, used for that purpose by the ancients, two short syllables were p.r.o.nounced with such rapidity, as to be equal only to one long; they, therefore, naturally exhibit the act of pa.s.sing through a long s.p.a.ce in a short time. But the alexandrine, by its pause in the midst, is a tardy and stately measure; and the word 'unbending,' one of the most sluggish and slow which our language affords, cannot much accelerate its motion." +--------------------------------------------------------------+

Examples of similar metrical skill may be found everywhere, especially among the more conscious literary artists, such as Sh.e.l.ley, Tennyson, Rossetti, Swinburne, and Browning, too. A few worth study follow:

To-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow Creeps in this petty pace from day to day.

SHAKESPEARE, Macbeth, V, v.

To bellow through the vast and boundless deep.

MILTON, Paradise Lost, I, 177.

---- Mixt Confus'dly, and which thus must ever fight.

Ibid., II, 913 f.

So he with difficulty and labour hard Mov'd on, with difficulty and labour he.

Paradise Lost, II, 1021 f.

Yielded with coy submission, modest pride, And sweet reluctant amorous delay.

Ibid., IV, 310 f.

See how he lies at random, carelessly diffused, With languished head unpropt, As one past hope, abandoned, And by himself given over.

MILTON, Samson Agonistes, 118 ff.

With doubtful feet and wavering resolution.

Ibid., 732

Some rousing motions in me, which dispose To something extraordinary my thoughts.

Ibid., 1382 f.

And ten low words oft creep in one dull line.

POPE, Essay on Criticism, 347.

The broad and burning moon lingeringly arose.

Sh.e.l.lEY, The Sunset.

Rugged and dark, winding among the springs.

Sh.e.l.lEY, Alastor, 88.

Here, where precipitate Spring, with one light bound.

LANDOR, Fiesolan Idyl.

Hammering and clinking, chattering stony names.

TENNYSON, The Princess, III, 361.

Myriads of rivulets, hurrying through the lawn.

Ibid., VII, 205.

The league-long roller thundering on the reef.

TENNYSON, Enoch Arden, 580.

Then Philip standing up said falteringly.

Ibid., 283.

A long street climbs to one tall-tower'd hill.

Ibid., 5.