perishing/ dreams/ and with wrecks/ of forgotten/ delirium. (Saintsbury's scansion.)

Here, it is true, "there is not so much as a blank verse," but there is metre, as Clark points out. A whole pentameter is not necessary to establish rhythm. It is possible to point out in this sentence four rhythmic groups, two of three accents each and two of four:

her eyes/ if they were ev/er seen

would pass as acceptable iambic tetrameter;

would be neith/er sweet/ nor sub/tle

might be the next line in the same stanza of verse;

found filled with périshing dreams

would probably be read by most people with the four heavy syllables approximately equidistant in time;

and with wrecks/ of forgot/ten delir/ium

contains three successive anapests. With scansion thus suggested, these rhythms are plainly evident-too evident perhaps for a full enjoyment of the beauty of the passage. But to one who has not had the patterns pointed out, may not their presence, dimly felt but not clearly apprehended, bring a teasing sense of haunting elusiveness?

It is said that oratorical rhythms are more obvious than those in other prose. Nevertheless, instances of subtly changing rhythmic patterns are to be found occasionally in some of the best speeches. Here are sentences from one paragraph of Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America; the metric groups as the writer hears them are enclosed in brackets, and the heavy "time beat" accents marked:

My hold on the colonies is in the close affection [which grows/ from com/mon names/, from com/mon blood,] from símilar privileges and équal protéction. [These are ties/ which though light/ as air/ are as strong/ as links/ of iron.] Slavery they can have anywhere-it is [a weed/ that grows/ in ev/ery soil.] [They may have/ it from Spain;/ they may have/ it from Prus/sia.] But until you become lost to all feeling of your true interest and your natural dignity, freédom they can háve from nóne but you.

Here is another example, from Webster's Reply to Hayne:

[When mine eyes/ shall be turned/ to behold/ for the last/] time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the bróken and dishónored fragments of a ónce glórious únion; on Státes dissévered, discórdant, belligerent; on a land rént with cívil féuds, [or drenched,/ it may be,/ in frater/nal blood!]

A final word may be added concerning the place and function of rhythm in prose. Herbert Spencer says rhythmical structure is an idealization of the language of emotion, which is known to be more. or less metrical. Since speech rhythm is almost universally associated with expression of the speaker's emotion, and with the arousing or soothing of the emotions of the audience, it is therefore appropriate and natural in eulogies, occasional addresses, and perorations, where the aim is to stir or soothe the emotions. On the other hand, it is inappropriate and frequently a cause for suspicion in a speech whose aim is the communication of ideas. Longinus warns us that an "over-rhythmical passage does not affect the hearer by the meaning of the words but merely by their cadence." True, Herbert Spencer says the pleasure we receive from verse "is ascribable to the comparative ease with which words metrically arranged can be recognized" (Does he mean understood?), and "if the syllables be rhythmically arranged, the mind may economize its energies by anticipating the attention required for each syllable." Lipsky says experiments show that much rhythm conduces to speed in reading, that it indicates that a writer has possession of a complex thought, and that there is little rhythm in the writings of one whose thoughts come in driblets. And Bulwer-Lytton thought that rhythm should be cultivated not only for embellishment but also for perspicuity. Still, Longinus's warning is worth noting, and Professor Cabot in his What Men Live By has some significant remarks on the "thought-quenching power" of rhythm. Writers on elocution and expression who commend rhythm as an aid to intelligibility do not mean rhythm as here defined; they generally confuse it with rate of utterance or distribution of pauses.

It was pointed out above that rhythm occurring in plain flat prose was either unnoticed or offensive. Just as metre alone does not make poetry, so rhythm alone does not make distinguished prose. What, then, is the function of rhythm in prose? It will scarcely be questioned that a style may have distinction or beauty without rhythm. Saintsbury's History of English Prose Rhythm contains a large assortment of beautiful prose which, he claims, is not regular but "various," and hence not rhythmical in the sense here meant. Many of his passages do not seem scannable by the methods here discussed. Metaphor, poetic diction, euphony, rhetorical structure, emotion, lofty 1The Philosophy of Style, ed. F. N. Scott, Boston, 1892, p. 33.

thought—all may give distinction without the aid of rhythm. Rhythm alone without the aid of one or more of these accompaniments does not give distinction. Its only use is in conjunction with other devices, its only value to add somewhat to their effect. But in this purely auxiliary capacity it does add greatly to distinction in style, much more to spoken than to written style. To break into rhythmic utterance, especially of the time beat variety, is an almost universal tendency among speakers whenever they are moved by strong but controlled feeling. As Gummere says, "Rhythm is not artificial, not an invention; it lies at the heart of things, and in rhythm the noblest emotions find their noblest expression." 1

1Op. cit., p. 135.

PHONETICS AND ELOCUTION

LEE S. HUltzén

F we accept the New English Dictionary definition of elocution, "the art of public speaking so far as it regards delivery, pronunciation, tones, and gestures; manner or style of oral delivery," the science of phonetics may be said to fall completely within the field of elocution. The materials of phonetics are speech sounds, the sounds of more or less formal or public speaking as well as the sounds of informal conversation. The sounds of public speech, whether delivered extemporaneously or from memory, are the immediate materials of elocution. And since, as Sweet observes, "nothing can shake the fundamental principle that all elocution, however, far it may be removed from the language of ordinary life, must be based ultimately on it," any study of the sounds of any kind of speech is significant for elocution.

1

2

But this natural kinship of elocution and phonetics has not been apparent in the publishers' lists. Except for the philological investigations not designed for any special application, most of the present body of the science of phonetics has been supplied by those engaged in teaching foreign languages and, to a lesser extent, by physicists. and engineers interested in problems of acoustics or of long distance communication. The greater number of books on English phonetics. are specially adapted to the teaching of English to foreigners.

As a consequence of this well-nigh complete monopoly of the field of phonetics by those whose special interests lie elsewhere, almost nothing has been done to correlate phonetics and elocution, however obvious the close interrelation of the two subjects must be. Yet much of the phonetic investigation undertaken with some. Henry Sweet, The Sounds of English, Oxford, 1910, p. 80.

1

"Of the more than 250 titles mentioned in the Liste des Principaux Ouvrages dans lesquels est employé L'Alphabet Phonétique Internationale, published by the International Phonetic Association in 1922, one only was listed under the classification "Elocution." This book, on voice training, has only one short chapter on phonetics and the use which it makes elsewhere of the international alphabet is quite incidental.