208 NOTES ON STYLE 



the iambic and trochaic measures of dramatic dialogue in 

 Attic Greek and in English, owing to the way in which both 

 languages blend short and long words, are closely similar. 

 Take this example : 



Ah, dear Juliet, 



Why art thou yet so fair ? SJ|all I believe 



That unsubstantial death is amorous, 



And that the lean abhorred monster keeps 



Thee here in dark to be his paramour ? 



For fear of that, I still will stay with thee : 



And never from this palace of dim night 



Depart again : here, here will I remain 



With worms that are thy chamber-maids ; 0, here 



Will I set up my everlasting rest, 



And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars 



From this world- wearied flesh. 



Some of the loveliest effects in English poetry are obtained 

 by the artful use of monosyllables : 



Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all ! 

 What hast thou then more than thou hadst before ? 

 No, love, my love, that thou mayst true love call : 

 And mine was thine before thou hadst this more. 



Some of its most striking rhetorical effects depend upon a 

 single polysyllabic word set at the right point in a rush of 

 monosyllables : 



Can man by no means creep out of himself, 

 And leave the slough of viperous grief behind ? 



An English poet is compelled to get value out of the short 

 words in which our language abounds. According to his use 

 of them, the line may run like : 



Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts, 



or may linger like : 



Showers, hails, snows, frosts, and two-edged winds that prime ; 



for short words in English, according to their weight and 

 volume, either wing the verse with feathers, or encumber it 

 with chains of lead. 



