410 



T rcnisactions . 



the figures refer being 1901, January, 1 d. h. The constants for Auckland 

 were obtained from observations covering a period of the same length, the 

 epoch being 1900, May 1." 



New Zealand Ports. — Harmonic Tidal Constants for Auckland and Welling- 

 ton (deduced from High- and Low-water Observations). 



Art. XLI. — A Natural Classification of English Poetry. 

 By Johannes C. Andersen. 



[Read before the Philoso'phical Institule of Canterbury, 5th August, 1908.] 



The discovery of the law guiding the formation of verse-lengths suggested 

 in the paper on " Origins of English Metre," read last session, has made 

 it possible to scheme out a natural classification of the whole of Englisli 

 poetry. 



For purposes of classification it is necessary to fix on some characteristic 

 common to all species — a characteristic which, whilst it varies, does so in 

 a regular manner, so that, whilst the characteristic itself is not perfectly 

 constant, each variation is constant in itself. In poetry the problem has 

 been to detect such a characteristic in the midst of an apparent maze of 

 variations. One classification attempted has been according to quality — 

 that is, all lyrics, including songs, odes, sonnets, have been grouped together ; 

 didactic poems, narrative, epic, dramatic, and so on : but this is similar 

 to classifying flowers by their hues and scents. Again, another classification 

 has been according to the number of stresses in a line as printed ; so that 

 one class included one-stressed or two-syllabled lines, another three-stressed, 

 another four-stressed, and so on : this, too, is artificial, though it is nearer 



