Andeesen. — Development of Four-syUahled Metrical Unit. 419 



almost always in isolation, they have been regarded as accidental rather 

 than intentional. They may be found in the old ballads, in Shakespeare and 

 in Milton ; but they have such a " rapid " effect that except in very few 

 cases they are displeasing. 



Whilst there is no doubt that it has never been extensively employed 

 as a basic unit in the poetry of Britain, the case is different as regards the 

 poetry of Australia, where it has become the basis of the most popular of 

 the colonial metres. The poetry most in favour in Australia is that which 

 in spirit approaches the old English ballad, though it must be confessed 

 it is the degenerate ballad that has exerted most influence — the " Robin 

 Hood" type rather than the " Glasgerion," "Clerk Saunders," or "Wife 

 of Usher's Well " type ; but there is this to be said : that it is rather the form 

 of the type than its matter that has exerted the influence. 



Three-syllabled units constantly occur in even the best ballads, and, 

 where artistically used, with most pleasing effect : they impart a " rapid " 

 movement to the metre ; and when the themes become more common- 

 place, more humorous, treating as they do of the lighter rather than the 

 tragic side of life, this rapid movement becomes more and more marked, 

 until many of the ballads are entirely trisyllabic. Though the four- 

 syllabled unit is more rapid even than the three-syllabled, it did not 

 evolve from the three-syllabled, and is more rarely found in that metre 

 than in the two-syllabled. 



The popular poetry of Australia is undoubtedly humorous, and it was 

 to be expected that the humorous metre of England would exert its influ- 

 ence on the Australian poet, on account of its lively movement if for no 

 other reason ; and in Lindsay Gordon, who has been called the father of 

 Australian poetry, out of his sixty-seven collected poems forty-five are 

 three-syllabled, whilst only eighteen are two-syllabled. In four poems 

 there can be traced the germ of what was to become a dominant metre : 

 these four are '" Unshriven," " Whisperings in Wattle Boughs," " A Hunt- 

 ing Song," and the well-known poem " The Sick Stockrider." The new 

 metre is most likely to result from poems MTitten in what are called tro- 

 chaics, or two-syllabled feet stressed on the first syllable : in such cases 

 the first and every alternate stress are dropped. In the poems of Kendall, 

 the most truly poetic of the older Australians, there are twelve in these 

 trochaics ; but in no instance does the metre lapse into the metre under 

 discussion, the four-syllabled. 



It is different when we turn to later writers, well-known favourites such 

 as Paterson and Lawson. Paterson's first book opens with and takes 

 its name from a piece in this very measure, "The Man from Snowy River." 

 Here the beat is much more distinct than in Gordon : — 



There was movement at the station, for the word had passed around 



That the colt from old Regret had got away, 

 And had joined the wild bush-horses — he was worth a thousand poimd, 



So all the cracks had gathered to the fray. 

 All the tried and noted riders from the stations near and far 



Had mustered at the homestead overnight, 

 For the bushmen love hard riding where the wild bush-horses are. 



And the stock-horse snuffs the battle with delight. 



The usual reading of this stanza would require a stress on the first, third, 

 and every odd syllable ; but on an actual reading a very different result 

 ensues. The first two Hnes are read — 



There was move/ment at the sta/tion, for the word/ had passed around/ 

 That the colt/ from old Regret/ had got away/. 



