Andkkskn. — Tlie Verse-unit. G49 



f). A combination of variations 3 (a) and 2 (a) will result in an ordinary duple verse ; 

 of Nos. 3 (b) and 2 (b), in variation 1 (b) ; of Nos. 3 (c) and 2 (c), in varia- 

 tion 1 (g). 



6. There may exist rare examples where the fourth unit of a verse falling within 

 tliis £t'voup may end with a dauble-iexninine. Should sucli verse be found 

 it would bo classed as variation 4. 



Ill the examples given illustrating the variations of the above group, regular 

 verses have been selected — regular, that is, in so far that a duple verse is 

 composed of duple units, a triple or quadruple verse of triple or quadruple 

 units. In all poetry the tendency of the units appears to be towards this 

 regularity. The formal school of Pope and Dryden almost insisted upon 

 the necessity for such regularity, but the fact that poets gifted with keener 

 vision and more facile utterance than Pope or Dryden showed repeatedly 

 that the best poetry could be conveyed in irregular verse is conclusive 

 proof that whilst the tendency towards regularity exists the necessity does 

 not. A great many readers derive more pleasure from a regular than from 

 an irregular verse, and there are many who for this reason would still 

 impose the syllabic fetters. Coleridge's " Christabel " is largely irregular ; 

 still more typically so is Shelley's " Sensitive Plant." When Leigh Hmit, 

 in 1835, first published his " Captain Sword and Captain Pen," he found 

 it necessary to remark in the advertisement, " The measure is regular with 

 an irregular aspect, four accents in a verse, like that of Christabel, or 

 some of the poems of Sir Walter Scott : — 



CajJtain Sword got up one day — 



And the flag full of honour as though it could feel — 



He " [the author] " mentions this, not, of course, for readers in general, but 

 for the sake of those daily acceders to the list of the reading public, whose 

 knowledge of books is not yet equal to their love of them." Though this 

 development was regarded by many as new, it was in reality a " reversion." 

 The original constitution of poetry was irregular, purely duple and purely 

 triple verses being the result of a slow development. 



6. Take again the opening stanza of " The Sensitive Plant " : — 



A se«/sitive plant/ in a gar/ den grew/, 

 And the young/ winds fed/ it with sH/ver dew/. 

 And it o/pened its fan-/Uke leaves/ to the light/, 

 And closed/ them beneath/ the kis/se^ of night/. 



The first verse opens and closes with duple miits, and the second verse opens 

 and closes with triple units, as italicized ; in all cases the stress is on the last 

 syllable of the imit. These facts accord with the requirements of para- 

 graph 1 of " Key to Group," and therefore the verses belong to that group. 

 Again, the fifth unit of the first verse contains a triple and the fifth unit 

 of the second verse a duple miit ; and as neither exceeds the length of units 

 found in other parts of the verses, these accord with the requirements of 

 paragraph 2 of the key, and consequently belong to variation 1 of the group. 

 For the rest, the verses are a blending of subvariations (a), (h), (c), (g), and (h). 



7. Group B. — This differs from Group A in one unit only, the eighth 

 or last. This miit has a feminme ending, or, in other words, is followed 

 by an extra unstressed and unaccented syllable. The variations and sub- 

 variations of both groups are identical, and it will not, therefore, be necessary 

 to quote examples for all the subvariations — one for each main variation will 

 suffice. 



22— Trans. 



