1. RHYTHM is musical order of arrangement: it is as pleasing, and indeed necessary to the satisfaction of the ear, as symmetry and regularity of form are to the eye. In music, rhythm governs the leaping or gushing of the sound; in dance, it regulates the beating of the feet; in language, it directs or arranges the pulsations or strokes of the voice upon words or syllables; or, as it is called, in music, the accentuation. I have before observed, that there is a rhythm even in prose; but it is uncertain, irregular and fickle. Verse is the music of language; rhythm is its essential quality; the regularity and perfection of which distinguish it from prose. Verse is addressed to the ear; its music is not received through the eye, (although a regular marginal blank may seem to mark the versification. on paper,) and therefore, it is as requisite, in reading verse, to mark the rhythmical accentuation of the line, as that, in playing or singing, we should observe due time. That is, we must regulate the pulsation and movement of sound by the voice, to the regulated metrical accentuation (or rhythm) of the verse.

English verse consists of the arrangement, at regular intervals, of accented and unaccented,—or, more properly speaking, of heavy and light syllables.

This regular arrangement, or order, constitutes the rhythm of the verse,-whether that verse be blank or in rhyme ;-rhyme is the coincidence of sound in the closing cadence of one line with that of another; it has no reference to or influence upon the rhythm, from which it is perfectly distinct, nor is it an essential constituent of English poetry,

Latin and Greek Verse is measured, by prosodians, by certain adjustments of syllables, long and short, called feet of these feet there is a great variety, of which the principal are the

Spondee-two long syllables, as undone,

Trochee-one long and one short syllable, 'as mērcy,

Iambus-one short and one long, as elate,

Dactyl-one long and two short, as merciful,

Anapest-two short and one long, as lemonāde.

But, of that style of scanning our English verse is quite independent, and indeed incapable. The syllables in our language cannot be classed as long or short, for the same syllables vary in quantity, as they occur in different verses, according to the amount of feeling or force that may be given to them, and other circumstances governing their quantity. English verse is regulated by the arrangement of heavy and light syllables, and depends for its musical effect upon time and accentuation; or, pulsation and remission of sound, on the heavy and light syllables, respectively.

English verse may be divided into common time and triple time: the first being the pace of a man's walk; the second of a horse's canter. The accentuation is, as in music, always on the bar; that is, the accented note, or heavy syllable, must commence the bar, or its place must be supplied by a rest, which counts for it; for rests are as essential to rhythm as the notes themselves.

Thus we can divide or bar for accentuation, all English verse. Take the following three examples, as timed, barred, and accented: the two first are in common time, the third is in triple time:

A présent déity |they | shout a | round ~ |

|A| present | deity |the | vaulted roofs re | bound |

Softly | sweet in | Lydian | measures |
I

Soon he soothed his | soul to | pleasures.

3

~ The | princes ap | plaud with a | fúrious | joy |

8

て

|~ And the | kíng seized a | flambeau with | zéal to des- |

troy." |

The pulsation of voice, and the classification or division of the syllables as accented and arranged in the preceding couplets, distinctly mark their different rhythm.-To illustrate this further, read the second line of the third couplet, as if it were thus divided and accented:

And the king | seized a flambeau | with zeal | to destroy.

Thus read, the verse becomes prose; for, by false accentuation, its musical movement is lost, and the rhythm is destroyed. This must be clear to every ear.

At the same time be careful not to fall into that sing-song style of reading verse, which is produced by the accentuation of little and insignificant words.

This sing-song style. so common among readers,

is the result of the absurd attempt of prosodians to measure English versification by feet, instead of by time and accentuation. The music of a verse is not to be ascertained by counting on the fingers, or scanning, (as it is called); but by the ear.*

English verse consists of a certain number of bars, in the same time; of which the rests or pauses are constituent parts: and it is therefore as much on the due observance of these rests, as on the accentuation of the notes or syllables, that the rhythm depends.

Take the following examples of verses scanned first according to the feet of the prosodians, counted on their fingers, and then according to the rational prosody which really governs the rhythm of English verse, that is, time and accentuation. According to the former plan, it will be observed, that the sense is utterly sacrificed to the scanning, for want of rest or pause, however necessary it may be to the meaning or feeling of the verse; while, by the latter plan, the rhythm, sense and feeling go hand in hand, and are aided by rests.

1. Prosodial scanning by feet

IAMBICS.

On the | bare earth | exposed | he lies, |

With not a friend | to close | his eyes. I

A mode of scanning, if adhered to in the reading, which would utterly destroy the sense and power of the lines. They should be thus barred, timed, and accented:

* See this subject diffusely and learnedly treated in Steele's Prosodia Rationalis.

On the bare | earth|ex | posed he | lies,

friend to close his eyes."|
friend|to|

By which, we find, that these are verses of six bars, in common time, the rests filling up the bars, exactly where the sense requires a pause. And so in the following examples: in which it will be seen that verses which would be said by the prosodians to consist of four feet, are, in general, verses of six bars; and that what would, in scanning, be called by prosodians pentameters, or five-feet verses, are really lines of six, and sometimes even of eight bars.-The time, either triple or common, is denoted in the following examples by the figure 2, (common,) or 3, (triple.)

THREE BARS.

2. | Oh the | sight en [ trancing |

3.

When the morning's | beam is | glancing, ||

|~ And | plumes in the | gay wind | dancing. |