tions, from one to five syllables, that contain not (ordinarily) more than two longs.

Secondly, we discover that a good proportion of the articulate sounds which for metrical purposes must be read long or short, are really common or neutral in quantity, and may at the same time be long in prosody and short in the phrasal undertone. This fact greatly enlarges the capacity of the language for rhythmical shadings and variation.

Thirdly, we get a new light upon the pliancy of the recitative measures. When feet are interchanged, or take redundant or slurred syllables, it is for the sake of a comelier or more descriptive phrase, a measure nearer the rhythm of the Thus the seeming irregularity is not such at all, but the obedience of a finely tuned ear to the demands of a more fundamental melody.

sense.

The phrasal segmentation

ILLUSTRATIONS OF PHRASAL RHYTHM. may be regarded theoretically as the subdivision of the cæsural (cf. p. 203, above); hence the typical grouping of phrases is into fours. A group of three makes a more rapid line; the exceptional grouping into two, more rapid and descriptive still; the occasional single syllable having the opposite effect of abruptness and weighty pause.

We can now understand the line already quoted from Milton :

"Burnt after them to the bottomless pit."

The phrasal segmentation into two, coincident with the cæsural, and with the cæsura itself the lightest possible, gives an exceedingly rapid movement, which is further enhanced by the congestion of short syllables:

Burnt after them

:

To the bottomless pit

The treatment of monosyllabic lines, which are apt to become monotonous, is instructive. Sometimes only the phrasal segmentation, and not variation of quantity, operates to temper the monotony; e.g.

"The voice of days of old and days to be."

The voice

of days of old

and days to be

Oftener, however, some prolongation or shortening of syllables modifies the line by infusing its lighter or weightier influence into the phrase; e.g. "And sang all day old songs of love and death."

"This low-pulsed, forthright, craftsman's hand of mine." This low-pulsed

forthright,

craftsman's hand

of mine

In the following the number of shorts, especially toward the end, produces a palpable effect:

"But all the play, the insight, and the stretch —

It is the phrasal rhythm that brings out the value of the polysyllable in poetry, both by its new grouping of the regular sequences and by its free introduction of the triplet and like variations; e.g.

Relations of Phrase and Metre. As the phrasal rhythm is the instrument of that opposition and variety which is the life of verse, it must be mindful of the relations to metre which it is free to adopt or bound to shun. The following are of importance.

1. Except for the special descriptive effect of monotony, the phrase should not to any considerable extent coincide with the metrical foot; as soon as it does its undertone becomes inaudible.

NOTE. The following monosyllabic line from Milton, descriptive of the arduous journey of Satan through chaos, produces the effect of difficulty and monotonous toil by making metrical and phrasal rhythm coincident through the whole verse:

"And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies."

In the nature of the case, however, such a line is rare; while it justifies itself, it suggests that general procedure should be different.

2. Ordinarily the phrase should be ampler than the foot; on this increase of breadth depends its music. A phrase smaller than the foot (namely, a single syllable) suggests abruptness, or concentration of intensity, obviously only an occasional requisite. Coincidence with the foot, as intimated above, suggests some aspect of monotony.

3. The phrase, while it limbers up the metrical tune by suggesting new syllabic groupings, should not suggest any other metrical scheme than the one in hand. It follows from this that ordinarily no two phrases of a line, especially no two contiguous phrases, should scan the same; if they did there would be danger of substituting one scheme for another. It must be remembered that, while the phrasal rhythm is a constant undertone, the metre exists as the determining principle of the verse; a principle whose integrity must be preserved through all modulations.1

1 From the article of Stevenson's above referred to, which has been freely used in this study of phrasal rhythm, a few more sentences may be quoted :· --

"The groups which, like the bar in music, break up the verse for utterance, fall

A word of summary may here be of service, before we enter upon the next section.

As all literature is evolved ultimately from speech, so in all literary diction, prose and verse alike, there survives a fundamental speech-rhythm, or rhythm of the phrase, corresponding to the pauses, the breathing points, and the vocal modulations observed by a good speaker or reader. As poetry submits itself to the new law of metre it does not discard this original rhythm, but rather blends it as an undertone with its own melody, deriving life and flexibility of movement from its opposing yet harmonizing presence. This undertone sounds more clearly and is more vital as the poetry, being of the recitative order, is less removed from the movement of prose. As, however, the poetry becomes more intense and lyrical, the phrase rhythm, though not obliterated, coincides more closely with the metrical, both being in fact swept on by an overtone of musical rhythm, which raises the speech into the movement of song. Of all these

uniambically; and in declaiming a so-called iambic verse, it may so happen that we never utter one iambic foot. And yet to this neglect of the original beat there is a limit.

'Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts,'

is, with all its eccentricities, a good heroic line; for though it scarcely can be said to indicate the beat of the iamb, it certainly suggests no other measure to the ear. But begin

'Mother Athens, eye of Greece,'

or merely 'Mother Athens,' and the game is up, for the trochaic beat has been suggested. The eccentric scansion of the groups is an adornment; but as soon as the original beat has been forgotten, they cease implicitly to be eccentric. Variety is what is sought; but if we destroy the original mould, one of the terms of this variety is lost, and we fall back on sameness."

With the succeeding sentences we may sum up this subject:

"Thus, both as to the arithmetical measure of the verse, and the degree of regularity in scansion, we see the laws of prosody to have one common purpose: to keep alive the opposition of two schemes simultaneously followed; to keep them notably apart, though still coincident; and to balance them with such judicial nicety before the reader, that neither shall be unperceived and neither signally prevail."-STEVENSON, On Some Technical Elements of Style in Literature, Works, Vol. xxii, p. 254.

modulations, phrasal, metrical, and musical, we must take account in analyzing the complicated texture of poetic diction.

III. THE RHYTHM OF PROSE.1

We are now in position to understand that there is a rhythm in prose no less truly than in poetry; for we have already recognized the presence of its elements. The rhythm of prose is the phrasal rhythm, no longer an undertone but a determining principle, moving unconventionally by itself; the single pattern of rhythm existing before the metrical or musical movement has been adopted to make the pattern double.2 In other words, it is the natural melodious flow of eloquent or well-ordered speech.

Obviously, if rhythm is to be found in all prose it must exist in great variety. In colloquial speech and ordinary reportage we think of it little if at all; it is only where there is care for the best-chosen words and the most skilfully and closely knit texture that the question of rhythm is raised, it being essentially an affair of artistry. Nor has rhythm a fair opportunity in the short sentence, such as concentrates its power in a single word; it calls rather for some roll and richness of movement, and for the balance of clause and clause. Further, it becomes more marked and elaborate as prose approaches in elevation and imaginative sentiment toward poetry.

I.

As maintained against Poetic Rhythm. To work with the thought of securing rhythm so naturally suggests some measure and regulator of rhythm, some metrical scheme, that the writer has to be on his guard against the poetic elements

1 "The other harmony of prose.". DRYDEN.

2 See above, p. 171.

8 See The Approaches of Prose to Poetry, pp. 163 sqq., above.