POETIC READING.

To read poetry well we must study,

I. The ideas,

the sense and spirit.

the kind and number of "feet" in the

III. The proper blending of the sense and the measure, the rhythm of the verse.

The first and most important part-the right reading of the sense and spirit- we have anticipated in our general in

structions.

MEASURE AND METRE.

The agreeable variety of accented and unaccented syllables, of longer and shorter quantities, in our English speech, is rendered more pleasing to the ear in English verse by being arranged in some regular proportion and order and recurrence.

In the regular proportion of one accented to one unaccented syllable we have, as a unit of measure, the dissyllabic foot, called an iambus or a trochee, according as it is arranged in the one or the other of two regular orders.

FIRST ORDER (iambic). |

"Must wé but blúsh? | our fá | thers bléd."

SECOND ORDER (trochaic).

"Líves of great men | áll re | mínd us.

In the regular proportion of one accented to two unaccented syllables we have, as a unit of measure, the trisyllabic foot, called an anapest, or a dactyl, according as it is arranged in the one or the other of two regular orders.

FIRST ORDER (anapestic).

""Tis the clíme | of the east, | 'tis the land | of the sún."

SECOND ORDER (dactylic).

"Stréw the fair | gárlands where | slúmber the | déad.”

The foot is easily determined by the number and order of the unaccented syllables.

The metre is determined by the number of feet in the respective lines; as "five-foot," "four-foot," "two-foot," and "fourfoot" in the order given in the lines below, in "iambic measure.'

"There was a tíme | when méad | ow, gróve, | and stream, The éarth | and év | ery cóm | mon sight,

The two great faults in the reading of poetry are, prosaic reading, which aims to give the meaning only, with no regard for the music of verse, and scanning, or "sing-song," which chops the lines into their metric parts, and emphasizes each foot separately, with a monotonous movement, accent, and pause, which destroy both the sense and the melody.

To remedy the first fault, which turns poetry into prose, the measure must be made the prominent study for a while. Musical lines, in which the thoughts and words flow smoothly into, and fill the metre, must be often read, until the ear and taste learn to appreciate their metric charm.

To remedy the fault of "sing-song," which overmarks the metre, the sense must be especially emphasized for a time, and the words grouped to give the meaning rather than the metre. But to remedy both of these extremes, the rhythm, which harmonizes the sense and the measure, must be mastered.

RHYTHM.

The foot and metre of verse may be shown by merely scanning it, but the rhythm can be heard only as the flowing whole is read.

Rhythm is the opposite of scanning. Scanning is the analysis or cutting up of the lines into their separate feet. Rhythm is the synthesis, or flowing together of the separate feet into such larger groups, and with such varying accent and measured time, as give both the sense and melody of verse.

A little scanning is introduced here partly to show what not to do in reading, and partly to present more clearly, by contrast, the nature and use of rhythm.

RHYTHMIC GROUPING, ACCENT, AND PAUSES.

"The mél | anchól | y dáys | are cóme, | the sád | dest óf | the year,

Of wailing winds, and naked woóds, and méadows brówn and sére."

In scanning this first line of "seven-foot” metre in the usual way, it is divided into seven groups, with seven uniform accents and pauses.

In the rhythmic reading, which accords with the sense, these seven "feet" flow naturally into only two groups.

And the seven monotonous accents also are changed to four significant ones which give the meaning, and three unemphatic ones merely metric, so light as not to mar the sense or flow, and yet distinct enough to preserve the metre; as thus :

"The melancholy days are come,

The saddest of the year."

The seven feet of the second line flow into three groups. Note how the sense so fills the measure in this line that the emphatic and metric accents agree in number.

Observe, also, that the "seven-foot" metre of the lines just quoted may as well be written and read as they are here grouped, in the " common metre" of alternate "four-foot" and "threefoot" lines.

This shows that mere metre has less to do with natural reading than rhythmic grouping. The lines in Shakespeare are nearly all of one measure and metre, and would sound much alike in scanning. Yet what infinite variety of grouping and expression they demand in their perfect reading!

TIME AS MOVEMENT AND QUANTITY.

In lines like the last the feet are numbered by the accents, and so they are in trisyllabic measure.

"For the moon never béams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Ánnabel Lée,

And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes

The number of accents is the same in these lines; but the movement and time mark the difference in the rhythm and measure. Time is the chief element in the measurement of verse.

The standard time, as fast or slow, varies, as in prose, with the spirit of the poem; but the relative time in verse is metric, -that is to say, the several feet which flow together in a given logical group should have an equal share of the time given to that group. One whole group may be joyous, and the next group may be sad, and so the general time change suddenly from fast to slow but the associated feet may and should be measured with equable time, if the poet's chosen words allow of it; and if they do not allow of this, then the verse is not musical, and the sense alone should be read.

THE FINAL AND CESURAL PAUSES.

Pauses in verse, as in prose, are used to separate the ideas. The lines are usually separated from each other by a pause demanded by the sense. But when the sense would group the last of one line with the first of the next line, the sense and rhythm both forbid any final pause. The voice should linger

on the final foot long enough to give its full metric quantity, but no break is allowable.

"Ready to be

The bride of the gray old sea."

In the last example the quantity of the foot "to be" is lengthened to fill the metric time, and to mark the rhyme with "sea."

In Bryant's "Forest Hymn," in "five-foot" iambic verse, several consecutive lines flow on with no final pause.

"For his simple heart

Might not resist the sacred influences,
Which from the stilly twilight of the place,

And from the gray old trunks that high in heaven
Mingled their mossy boughs, and from the sound
Of the invisible breath that swayed at once
All their green tops, stole over him and bowed
His spirit with the thought of boundless power
And inaccessible majesty. Ah, why

Should we, in the world's riper years, neglect
God's ancient sanctuaries, and adore

Only among the crowd, and under roofs

That our frail hands have raised?"

The "

THE CÆSURAL PAUSE.

cæsura " is a peculiar pause of the sense in the line which breaks a foot, one part of which foot flows with the group before the pause, and the other part of the same foot flows with the group after the pause.

This cæsura does not affect the rhythm or reading of verse any more than other pauses. It affects the scanning merely.

This cæsural foot is often made of two short and unaccented syllables, and is then marked by time only.

The time of the natural pauses of emphasis, and pauses which separate the ideas, is counted in reading the lines only so far as it is needed to equalize the measure. When thus needed, the pause affects the measure like a rest in music.