Andersen. — Classification of Verse. 525 



and their use at the line-ends would make feminine endings, of which there 

 are in the above examples only 216 in 3,000 verses. 



10. Most one-syllablod words may be accented or not, according to con- 

 text. This means that when two such words come together, one, both, 

 either, or neither may bear the accent. In two-syllabled words, however, 

 it is usual that either the first or the second syllable bears the accent : the 

 words " heavy," " open," " settle," are always accented on the first syllable ; 

 the words " amiss," " repeal," " betake," usually on the second syllable. 

 These words with fixed accent, then, cannot in poetry naturally be used 

 in a place where the stress would fall on the unaccented syllable, without 

 either the stress being suppressed, or the word receiving both natural accent 

 an4 rhythmic stress (see paragxaph 24 of Section III). It is different with 

 the one-syllabled words : no two of these come together invariably in any 

 certain sequence, for which reason the stress may fall on either or neither — 

 as " I am the man," or " I am he," or " I am not of the clan." 



11. Before deciding'^on the classification of feminine endings it will 

 be as well to examine them a little more closely. As stress is a result of 

 breath-action, the stress of any sj^llable must be on the vowel — the breath- 

 letter. Where the syllable does not end with a vowel, then, it is evident 

 the sound of it is prolonged beyond the vowel, and in scansion by stress- 

 units, where the stress is the bound of the unit, that part of the syllable 

 following the vowel occupies part of the time of the following imit. In the 

 following passage the ordinary scansion is denoted : — 



(20.) Stop up/ the access/ and pas/sage to/ remorse/. 

 That no/ compunc/tious v /sitings/ of na/(ture) 

 Shake/ my fell pur//pose, nor;' keep peace// between/ 

 The effect/ and it !/ Come/ to my wo/man's breasts/. 

 And take/ my milk/ for gall/, you mur/dering min/(isters,) 

 Wherev/er in/ your sight/less sub/stances/ 

 You wait /on nature's mis/chief ! Come/, tliick night//, 

 And pall/ thee in/ the dun/nest smoke/ of hell/, 

 That my/ keen knife// see/ not the wound/ it makes/. 

 Nor heaven/ peep through// the blan/ket of/ the dark/, 

 To cry/ " Hold, hold !" // ' (Macb., I, v, 45.) 



Now, a syllable is composed of one sound when its vowel is followed by an 

 open consonant, but of two sounds if followed by a closed consonant. These 

 two kinds of consonants are classified as under : — 



Table III. 



