common speech. Usually, when the metre of a line requires the accent of this otherwise suppressed syllable, in such words, for example, as "nourished," the fact is indicated either by placing an accent sign over the syllable, thus: "nourished," or by the practice of writing "'d" for the "ed" of words in which the syllable is not to be given quantity. In the latter case "nourished," if it is to be sounded as a two-syllable word, would be written "nourish'd." This method implies that all final "ed" syllables not so abbreviated are to be voiced. Thus, in the lines

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,

and

it becomes

The throned monarch better than his crown,

the final syllable of "strain'd" is elided while that of "throned" is sounded.

The reader should be careful to give quantity to final "ed" syllables whenever the metre and the line length demand it. Note that in the first example given below the sounding of this syllable in "nourished" is required both by the metre and the rhyme.

Tell me where is fancy bred,
Or in the heart or in the head?
How begot, how nourished?

Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice, III, ii.

It must not be; there is no power in Venice
Can alter a decree established.

Ibid., IV, i.

In the afternoon they came unto a land
In which it seemèd always afternoon.

Tennyson: The Lotus-Eaters.

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33. Rhythm and time

One of the characteristics of rhythm is movement in time. Though all speech rhythm implies some form of metrical arrangement of accented and unaccented syllables, irregular in prose, more regular in verse, the general rate of utterance, or tempo, as it is called in music, is determined by the speaker's mind, the earnestness and intensity of his feeling, and the importance and weight of the thought and the mood induced by it. Within certain limits imposed by vowel quantities of words, any metre may be rendered in any time. While in poetry certain metrical forms are better adapted to the expression of given moods than others, as for example, the three-syllable foot (dactylic as in "mērrily"; anapestic, as in "persĕvēre") for spirited, happy emotions, illustrated in such lines as

Hail to the chief who in triumph advances.

Scott: Boat Song, from Lady of the Lake.

As light as the tips of the drops of the rain.

Riley: Out to Old Aunt Mary's.

and the two-syllable foot (trochaic, as in "sōrrow”; iambic, as in "forget") for grave and tragic moods, found

in

Óthe long and dreary Winter!

Longfellow: Hiawatha.

In sooth, I know not why I am so sad.

Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice, 1,

the spirit of a poem and the character and significance of its thought are communicated rather through the general time given to the utterance of the lines than through metri

cal form.1 The beats occur at approximately regular time intervals, but these intervals may be long or short, as the thought and its associated emotions dictate. The movement of speech, for the sake of illustration and practice, may be designated in a general way as slow, medium, and fast. 2

1. Slow time. Thoughts of the mysterious, the wonderful and sublime, and all such as make strong demands on imagination and feeling, and in which the "mind's reach exceeds its grasp," find expression in slow movement. The weight and significance of a thought is measured in time, and time is required for the mind to think broadly and deeply.

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:

The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,

And cometh from afar:

Not in entire forgetfulness,

And not in utter nakedness,

But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home.

Wordsworth: Intimations of Immortality, v.

1 The relation of rhythm to metre may be illustrated in this way. A bolt of cloth being measured with a yardstick may be passed slowly or rapidly under the measure. But whether the rate be fast or slow, regular or irregular, the standard of measurement remains unchanged. In like manner the rhythm of a given poem may be rapid or slow; it may change with the changing mood of the speaker or with different occasions; but the metre, or measure, remains constant.

2 The illustrations of Rhythm and Time are offered merely to show the expressive value and significance of time in speech. As shades of thought and feeling are infinite, so we may expect to find, in all truly expressive utterance, all degrees of variation in the time between the extremes illustrated. No arbitrary, fixed standard of time can be set for the reading of any given piece of literature or for any line or portion of it. At best only the approximate time can be suggested. The rate of speech will vary with individuals and with the changing thought and mood of the piece and of the reader, and there is no more certain test of the reader's understanding of the meaning of what he reads, and of his participation in the spirit of it, than that of the rate of his utterance as his reading progresses, Mere slowness, for the sake of slowness, or rapidity for rapidity alone, avail little in reading. Only as these spring from a realization of the spirit of the piece itself are they truly expressive.

2. Medium time. In serious conversation and ordinary calm discussion, in all grave talk, indeed, in which no particularly strong appeal is made to the emotions, the rate of utterance is normally average, that is, neither pronouncedly slow nor rapid.

Now, I tell you, a poem must be kept and used, like a meerschaum, or a violin. A poem is just as porous as the meerschaum; the more porous it is, the better. I mean to say that a genuine poem is capable of absorbing an indefinite amount of the essence of our own humanity, its tenderness, its heroism, its regrets, its aspirations, so as to be gradually stained through with a divine secondary color derived from ourselves. So you see it must take time to bring the sentiment of a poem into harmony with our nature, by staining ourselves through every thought and image our being can penetrate.

Holmes: The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table.

3. Fast time. It is natural to voice buoyant, playful, fanciful, and joyous thoughts more rapidly and lightly than those of a solemn, sober, and serious nature. The spirit of Riley's The South Wind and the Sun, for example, is lost if the lines are read with ponderous slowness, or even with the average time of grave conversation. To illustrate, read the opening lines of the poem, first with deliberate, or slow utterance, and then with the spirited movement their vivacious mood demands, and observe how much more consistent the latter reading is and how it helps one to catch the spirit of the verse.

O the South Wind and the Sun!
How each loved the other one-
Full of fancy-full of folly -
Full of jollity and fun!

How they romped and ran about,
Like two boys when school is out,
With glowing face, and lisping lip,
Low laugh, and lifted shout!

Excitement and tense, strenuous, quick action also obviously find their true expression in accelerated utterance. This may be illustrated by contrast, as was done in the preceding example. In reading the following lines from Scott's Marmion (Canto VI), set an arbitrarily slow pace in telling of the flight of Marmion from the castle of his enemy, Douglas. Then read the lines with that rate of speech which the hasty action prompts. What is the difference in the effect of the two readings?

Lord Marmion turned, well was his need,
And dashed the rowels in his steed,
Like arrow through the archway sprung,
The ponderous grate behind him rung:
To pass there was such scanty room,
The bars, descending, razed his plume.

The steed along the drawbridge flies,
Just as it trembled on the rise;
Not lighter does the swallow skim
Along the smooth lake's level brim :

And when Lord Marmion reached his band,
He halts, and turns with clenched hand,
And shout of loud defiance pours,

And shook his gauntlet at the towers.

1.

PROBLEMS IN RHYTHM

1. Rhythm of prose.

I long ago lost a hound, a bay horse, and a turtle-dove, and am still on their trail. Many are the travellers I have spoken concerning them, describing their tracks and what calls they answered to. I have met one or two who had heard

the hound, and the tramp of the horse, and even seen the