Andehs^en. — The Verse-unit. 621 



an irregular metre one perfectly regular and familiar ; it destroys the 

 obtrusively harsh " clickety-clack," " click ety-clack " of the mibroken 

 choriambs. 



18. One other fact concerning this dominant metre of " Pheidippides " 

 mav be noted : verses such as 



Archons of Athens, tojiped by the tettix, see, I return ! 



are, when the mid-pause is disregarded, nothmg more or less than parallels 

 of the " Alexandrin trimetre " referred to in paragraph 15.* It is difficult 

 to compare French and British metres, even when of the same type, as in 

 this mstance, seeing that the stresses of French verse are almost free from 

 the definite, though not rigid, laws to which British verse is subject. It is 

 most interesting, however, to observe that parallel developments are taking 

 place in huge bodies of verse, dissimilar in general nature, but similar in 

 their fmidamental laws. 



19. The unpaused Alexandrine, then, by which is meant the Alex 

 andrine without mid-\)avise, would appear to be an unnatural variation, 

 for which but short life might be prophesied did not the art of printing 

 forbid. Irregularly paused Ballad verses, too, confusing as they do the 

 l}Tic flow, cannot live — except in print. Of this kind is Browning's 

 " Reverie " : — • 



(36.) Power is known infinite : 



Good struggles to be — at best 

 Seems — scanned by the human sight, 



Tried by the senses' test — 

 Good palpably : but with right 



Therefore to mind's award 



Of loving, as power claims praise ? 

 Power — which finds nought too hard, 



Fulfilling itself all ways 

 Unchecked, unchanged : while barred, 



Baffled, what good began 



Ends evil on every side. 

 To Power submissive man 



Breathes " E'en as thou art, abide ! " 

 While to good " Late-found, long-sought, 



" Would Power to a plenitude 



But liberate, but enlarge 

 Good's strait confine, — renewed 



Were ever the heart's discharge 

 Of loving ! " Else doubts intrude. 



(Stanzas 16-19.) 



This poem was published in 1889, the year of Browning's death, in the 

 volume " Asolando : Fancies and Facts," and it is even more defiant of 

 the restraints of metre than the most miruly of his previous poems. These 

 restraints, or natural laws, consist of number of units to a verse, and posi- 

 tion of the two principal pauses in the verse. As regards the former law, 

 it is so palpable, though unwritten, that very few poets disregard it. The 

 full Romance verse must contain no more than eight stress-units ; if it 

 contain less, it becomes Ballad, Nibelungen or Alexandrine, and each of 



* See remarks on this metre in French poetry, by H. E. Berthon, in " Specimens of 

 Modern French Verse," p. xxvi. — London, 1899. 



