Andersen. — Classification of Verse. 511 



It may perhaps be admitted that such units do occur in isolation, whilst 

 it is at the same time contended that for these to be other than exceptions 

 it must be proved that the quadruple u)iit forms a basic unit in metrical 

 .schemes. 



3. The proof is not, I think, impossible, and AustraUan poetry especi- 

 ally furnishes evidence. The more popular poetry of AustraUa is here 

 referred to — poetry that sells in editions of tens of thousands. In spirit, 

 as in popularity, it more nearly approaches the old English ballad — the 

 ballad of humour, however, not of tragedy. Even in the best of the old 

 ballads triple units constantly occur, and where the blending of duple 

 -and triple is artistic the effect is most pleasing. The triple units impart 

 a "rapid" movement to the metre; and as the themes become more 

 humorous, treating of the lighter rather than the more serious side of Ufe, 

 as in the Robin Hood ballads, this rapidity of movement becomes more 

 and more marked, until many of the l)allads are entirely triple. It was 

 probably of the shallow jigging ballads that Shakspeare spoke through 

 Hotspur in Henry IV : — 



(5.) I had rather be a kitten and cry mew. 



Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers. 



Quadruple units also occur in the old ballads, but not in very great abund- 

 ance ; their effect is proportionately more rapid than that given by triple 

 units. The Austrahans, lovers of the horse and outdoor sport, loved and 

 do love rapidity of motion : and it is natural that they should choose a 

 metre that will give to their verse the exuberance of motion which they 

 feel in daily life : triple metre was favoured, until supplanted by the even 

 more rapid quadruple. 



4. Lindsay Gordon stands father of the popular Austrahan poetry. 



Out of his sixty-seven collected poems, forty-five are triple, whilst only 



eighteen are duple. In four poems can be traced the germ of what was to 



become a dominant metre in Austrahan poetry : these four are " Un- 



shriven," " WTiisperings in Wattle-boughs," '" A Hunting Song," and his 



well-known and well-loved " Sick Stockrider." The metre has been more 



developed by later \^Titers, among them the favourites 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 : — 



(6.) There was movement at the station, for the word had passed around 

 That the colt from old Regret liad got away. 

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

 8o all the cracks had gathered to the fiay. 



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



and every odd syllable ; but if it be so read it is instinctively felt to be 



quite wrongly read — the lilt is broken, the life is lost. Drop the first stress, 



however, the third, fifth, and every odd stress, and the dry bones of metre 



are vivified by the flowing life of verse : — 



(7.) There was move/ment at the sta/tion, for the word/ had passed around/ 

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



There is a slight stress on " passed," " old," and " got," but quite a sub- 

 ordinary stress ; in fact, the stress has become a mere accent, and we have 

 an expansion of the unit " old Night " in quotation (56) of Section III, The 

 rhythm would be the same did we write, 



(Ift.) There was move/ment at the sta/tion, for the wJrd/ pissed round/. 



