Proceedings. 



He devoted a considerable amount of attention to sand-binding and sand-holding 

 plants, and emphasized the danger of destroying the natural surface-covering by stock 

 and by fire. 



He concluded by showing what had been done in other countries in the way of 

 utilising apparently sterile lands by tree-]3lanting, and gave several instances where this 

 had been carried on successfully in New Zealand. 



The paper was discussed by Mr. T. W. Adams and Mr. G. M. Thomson, 

 M.P. 



2. '■ The Smallest Basic Unit in the Classification of English Verse," 

 by Johannes C. Andersen. 



The essential difference between prose and poetry was first discussed. This differ- 

 ence is in form rather than in spirit. If a reader were given an unknown poem written 

 straight on as prose he would read it as prose until he perceived a lilt, when he would 

 say "Oh, this is poetry"; and, reading again, would read it quite differently. He 

 would add a rhythm of time to the irregular rhythm of ordinary accent and non-accent. 

 It is this temporal rhythm that forms the essential difference between prose and poetry : 

 floating on this rhythm, even the words of an unknown tongue are musical and ])leasing. 

 The smallest basic unit in poetry, then, will be the smallest unit of the temporal rhythm ; 

 and, as the time is marked by the accents and stresses, the unit will be the pulsation 

 lying between two stresses. This pulsation may be silent, or it may have floating upon 

 it one, two, or more syllables ; but though pidsations may vary in the number of 

 syllables, they vary very little as regards time — they are of comparatively equal length. 



The various kinds of stress are discussed. Firstly, the two-syllabled units, known 

 as iamb and trochee. It is shown that the trochee is always preceded by a pause when 

 it appears in iambic verse : this pause can be, and is at times, filled by a syllable, so 

 that it is ecpial to a syllable, and forms an integral part of the unit. As the vast majority 

 of verse ends on a stress, the unit is taken as the stress and the pulsation preceding it. 

 Trochaic verse generally ends on a stress : therefore trochaic verse differs from iambic 

 in the first unit (or foot) only, which unit in iambic verse is composed of two syllables, 

 and in trochaic of a pause and a syllable. Three-syllabled rnaits are likewise shown to 

 spring from one stock, the so-called anapest. The relationship between two-syllabled 

 and three-syllabled units is then discussed. It is pointed out that in old ballads two- 

 syllabled and three-syllabled rmits are indiscriminately blended, and it was due to the 

 artificial school of Dryden and Pope that they were, as much as possible, separated 

 and regarded as two distinct measures. Their homogeneity was again demonstrated 

 in later days, notably by Coleridge in " Christabel "" and Shelley in " The vSensitive 

 Plant.'" It is pointed out that even where they blend, the time-value of the two-syllabled 

 units is equal to the time- value of the three-syllabled ; and that the former may always 

 be changed to the latter by the insertion of a syllable, and vice versa by the dropping 

 of a syllable. The four-syllabled unit is then discussed, and examples of occasional 

 five-syllabled units given. 



Variations in imits are then dealt with, such as suppression of stress, where a luiit 

 appears with no stress ; du])lication of stress, where it appears with two stresses ; paused 

 stress, where a stress falling in a certain place causes the creation of a unit composed 

 of a pause and a strassed syllable followed by a unit of thi'ee syllables — both equal in 

 time-value. Copious examples from Milton and Shakesjieare are used in illustration 

 of the various points wished to be made. •- 



The unit in verse is practically what the cell is in the plant — it is the smallest living 

 unit of growth ; and as the cell may vary indefinitely in form, so may the unit. The 

 paper is intended to demonstrate the uniformity underlying the variation of the imits 

 in poetry. 



Fourth Meeting (Additional Meeting) : 13?/? July, 1909. 



Present : Mr. Edgar R. Waite, President, in the chair, and seventy others. 



New Members. — Messrs. Joshua Little and George H. Parkinson. 



Paper. — " On the Radio-activity of the Christchurch Artesian Waters, 

 and some Evidence of its Effect upon Fish," bv C. Coleridge Farr, D.Sc, 

 and D. C. H. Florance. M.A., M.Sc. 



