by the emphatic force which it gives to significant and expressive words.

4. "It avoids the 'school' tone of uniform inflections, and varies the voice upward or downward, as the successive clauses of a sentence demand. It marks the character of every emotion, by its peculiar traits of tone; and hence its effect upon the ear, in the utterance of connected sentences and paragraphs, is like that of a varied melody, in music, played or sung with evervarying feeling and expression."

SECTION II.

THE READING OF POETRY.

I. INTRODUCTORY.

1. Pupils are sometimes told to read verse as if it were prose. Such a direction may be given to counteract the tendency to sing-song, or it may be applied in the reading of doggerel rhymes; but it cannot be applied to the reading of poetry.

2. Poetry, being the language of imagination, sentiment, or passion, requires, as compared with prose, a greater variety of expression. Moreover, poetry is rhythmical and melodious, and, in reading it, attention must be given to movement and harmony.

3. "The modulation of the voice," says Prof. Russell, "in adaptation to different species of metrical composition, is indispensable to the appropriate or effective reading of verse. The purest forms of poetry become, when deprived of this aid, nothing but awkward prose. A just and delicate observance of the effect of meter, on the other hand, is one of the surest means of imparting that inspiration of feeling which it is the design of poetry to produce."

4. In the reading of poetry, the pupil should bear in mind the following hints: (1) The movement, or time, in verse, is generally slower than in prose, the vowel and liquid sounds being slightly prolonged. (2) In poetry, as compared with prose, the force is somewhat softened for the sake of melody. (3) The existence of meter in poetry requires a rendering of verse different from the reading of prose. The meter should not be made prominent, but should be delicately indicated. As in prose, attention must be given to the sense, to emphasis, and to inflection.

II. CESURAL PAUSES.

The cæsural pause is a slight rest occurring somewhere near the middle of the line in certain kinds of verse. In heroic and blank verse, it commonly falls at the end of the fourth syllable. In smoothly written verse, the grammatical pause marking a phrase or a clause is often made to coincide with the cæsural pause.

EXAMPLES.

1. This is the place, the centre of the grove :
Here stands the oak, the monarch of the wood.
How sweet and solemn is this midnight scene!
The silver moon, | unclouded, holds her way
Through skies where I
The fanning west wind

could count each little star;
scarcely stirs the leaves.

2. A man he was to all the country dear,

And passing rich with forty pounds a year;
Remote from towns | he ran his godly race,
Nor e'er had changed, | nor wished to change, his place;
Unpracticed he | to fawn, or seek for power,
By doctrines fashioned to the varying hour;
Far other aims | his heart had learned to prize,
More skilled to raise the wretched than to rise.

III. METER, OR RHYTHMICAL ACCENT.

1. Meter is the measure of rhythm, or metrical feet, in poetry. One difference between the reading of prose and of poetry consists in the distinctive marking of the rhythm in verse. If read without regard to rhythm, the sonorous harmony of the higher forms of poetry is. lost.

2. As some knowledge of prosody is generally obtained from the school text-books on rhetoric, only an allusion to the subject is necessary in a manual of elocution.

3. In reading poetry, the measure should be delicately indicated, but not made so prominent as to run into sing-song, or to break the grammatical relation of words.

4. The melody of verse often depends on making some word, or successive words, slightly emphatic, as in the following line from Longfellow's "Psalm of Life:"

"And things are not what they seem." If "not" is emphasized, the rhythm is broken. So in the successive stanzas of Bryant's "Planting of the Apple-tree," the emphasis in the last line of the successive stanzas falls as follows:

1. "So plant we | the apple-tree.”

2. "When we plant | the apple-tree," etc.

IV. KINDS OF VERSE.

1. The following summary from Prof. Russell's "American Elocutionist" may be of interest to the critical student: "The influence of the various kinds of verse on the voice may be considered as affecting generally the rate, or movement, and the time, of utterance.

2. "Thus, blank verse is remarkably slow and stately in the character of its tone; and the timing of the pauses requires attention chiefly to length. Heroic verse is commonly in the same prevailing strain, but not to such an extent as the preceding.

3. "The octo-syllabic meter is generally more quick and lively in its movement, and the pauses are comparatively brief. But, under the influence of slow time, it gives intensity to grief, and tenderness to the pathetic tone.

4. "The quatrain, or four-line stanza, in the common form (called sometimes common meter), has a comparatively musical arrangement of the lines, and a peculiar character in its cadence, which admits of its expressing the extremes of emotion whether grave or gay. It prevails, accordingly, in hymns and in ballads alike, whether the latter are pathetic or humorous. It derives the former character from the observance of slow rate, and the latter from quick rate.

5. "Trochaic verse has a peculiar energy, from the abruptness of its character-the foot commencing either with a long or an accented syllable. In gay pieces, and with quick time in utterance, it produces a dancing strain of voice, peculiarly adapted to the expression of joy; while in grave and vehement strains, with slow time, it produces the utmost force and severity of tone. These two extremes are strikingly exemplified in Milton's 'L'Allegro' and 'Il Penseroso.'

6. "Anapastic meter has a peculiar fullness and sweetness of melody. Slow time accordingly renders it deeply pathetic, and quick time renders it the most graceful expression of joy. This, as well as iambic and trochaic verse, becomes well fitted to express the mood of calmness and tranquillity, when the rate is rendered moderate."

V. ACCENT OF WORDS.

The accent of a word is sometimes changed to prevent breaking the measure, as in the following examples:

1. Ye icefalls! ye that from your dizzy heights
Adown enormous rav ́ines slope amain.

2. That thou, dead corse, arrayed in com'plete steel.

3. And these few precepts in thy memory, see thou charac ́ter.

4. Then lend the eye a terrible aspect'.

5. I must be patient till the heavens look with an aspect' more favorable.

VI. FINAL -ED.

The final ed is often sounded as a separate syllable, to prevent a break in the meter.

EXAMPLES.

1. To live with her and live with thee

In unreprovéd pleasures free.

2. Of linked sweetness long drawn out.

3. Rode arméd men adown the glen.

4. Through this the well-belovéd Brutus stabbed. 5. And as he plucked his cursed steel away.

6. To wear an undeservéd dignity.

7. That orbéd maiden with white fire laden.

8. Whereat she smiléd with so sweet a cheer.

9. While that the arméd hand doth fight abroad, The advised head defends itself at home.

VII. RHYME.

In reading poetry, the words that rhyme must sometimes be specially emphasized. Sometimes, also, the pronunciation of a word may be changed to make it rhyme with another word, as wind for wind.

In reading the following couplet from Hudibras, "And pulpit, drum ecclesiastic,

He beat with drum instead of a stick,"

it becomes necessary to emphasize the a, or rather to