RHYTHM AND TONE 43 



The four texts in this example describe and analyze 

 our common feeling and perception of elemental dual 

 rhythm. The alternating accentual moments marked 

 now-now are explained by the terms light-heavy, 

 cadence-repose, unstable-stable equilibrium. Rhythm, 

 as I have previously stated, is the universal form of 

 expression, all form of expression being either process 

 or record of the rhythmic accentuation of energy 

 making for equilibrium. Hence we speak of the uni- 

 verse as one energy, one rhythm, one equilibrium. 

 It is common to speak of accented and unaccented 

 tones in music and syllables in poetry, but in truth 

 there are no unaccented tones or syllables. Every 

 movement of energy in the whole universe, be it ever 

 so slight and delicate, is an accent. Moreover, all 

 movements are in correlation, wherefore all accents are 

 relative and the term light-heavy expresses this rela- 

 tivity. We cannot therefore truly speak of one move- 

 ment or accent since movements and accents succeed 

 each other periodically and are inseparably related as 

 light-heavy. Regular alternations of light and heavy 

 accents appear in walk as well as in march, in run as 

 well as in dance, in speech as well as in song, in prose 

 as well as in poetry, in all work as well as in all play, 

 in all movements of body, mind and spirit. Observe, 

 for example, the nondescript sounds which we spon- 

 taneously utter in place of the affirmative yes and nega- 

 tive no. The order of relative accents in the former is 

 light-heavy; in the latter it is the reverse, heavy-light. 

 These relative accents are the same in our expression 

 of yes and no by a movement of the head. In 

 nodding yes the head moves slightly backward on a 



