618 Transactions. 



Without the mid-pause, can anything but prose be made of the first three 

 verses of this quotation ? In the fourth, fifth and sixth, the eight and 

 tenth verses the pause is plainly indicated ; and, once the indication is given, 

 the pause is made involuntarily, even where there is no indication, and 

 rhythmic harmony becomes metrical harmony. A parallel structure is 

 seen in Tennyson's verses : — 



(31.) A million emerald.s break from the ruby-budded lime 



In the little grove where I sit — ah, wherefore cannot I be 

 Like things of the season gay, like the bountiful season bland, 

 When the far-off sail is blown by the breeze of a softer cUme, 

 Half-lost in the liquid azure bloom of a crescent of sea. 

 The silent sapphire-spangled marriage-ring of the land ? 



(" Blaud," section iv, stanza 1.) 



Taken from their context, are not the two concluding verses simply beau- 

 tiful rhythmic prose — prose in structure but poetry in thought ? Much 

 of Poe's weird rhythmic prose is on the verge of metre : " They sigh one 

 unto the other in that solitude, and stretch towards the heaven their long 

 and ghastly necks, and nod to and fro their everlasting heads." The sen- 

 tences — 



(32.) And stretch towards the heavens their long and ghastly necks, 

 And nod to and fro their everlasting heads 



— become true Alexandrines when the pause is inserted ; but would they 

 be considered Alexandrines without the pause ? I think not : they would 

 be deemed rhythmic, but not metrical. The question arises, how far 

 may a similar conclusion be applied to matter that is set out as verse ? 

 The pause is more certainly subverted when the metre becomes triple : — 



(33.) I was a child, an' he was a chikl, an' he came to harm ; 



There was a girl, a hussy, that workt with him up at the farm, 



One had deceived her an' left her alone with her sin an' her shame. 



And so she was wicked with Harry ; the girl was the most to blame. 



But he anger 'd me all the more, an' I said, " You were keeping with her, 

 When I was a-loving you all along an' the same as before." 

 An' he didn't speak for a while, an" he anger'd me more and more. 

 Then he patted my hand in his gentle way, " Let bygones be ! " 

 " Bygones ! you kept yours hush'd," I said, " when you married nie ! " 



(Tennyson, " Tlie First Quarrel," st. iv, xiii.) 



The true ballad form of the first stanza may be seen in Poe's " Annabel 

 Lee " :— 



(34.) I was a child, and she was a child. 

 In this kingdom by the sea : 

 But we loved with a love that was more than love — 

 I and my Annabel Lee . 



To conform to the lyric measure Tennyson's verse should be paused : — 

 1/ was a child/, an' he/ / was a child/, an' he came/ to harm/ ; 



and this pause is indicated in many verses of the poem : — 



There/ was a girl/, a hus/sy, / that workt/ with him up/ at the farm/, 



Thus paused, the poem is brought back to the perfect Lyric measure of t he 

 pure Ballad ; and I cannot believe but that every verse, however rugged, 

 floated, in the poet's mind, upon this pure Ballad metre. 



