ON RHYTHM IN ENGLISH VERSE 161 



either mode of analysis ; but the reader may doubt whether the 

 grouping by sections is always so well defined. The experiment 

 is simply made. Let two persons select any passage of classical 

 verse, and sitting in separate rooms, so as to avoid discussion, 

 mark three places in each line where pauses, however slight, 

 might conceivably be made. They must bear in mind that very 

 few sections can exceed four syllables, and that no words are to 

 be called one section which will not run fluently together with 

 a continuous sound. We have repeatedly found the agreement 

 between two such versions to be almost perfect. 



If our observation of the facts has been accurate, we are 

 now able to see clearly the essential characteristics which dis- 

 tinguish verse from prose. In prose we have long and short 

 sections, grouped according to the taste of the writer ; and our 

 sense of prose rhythm is due to the individual sections more 

 than to the groups which these form. In verse we are restricted 

 to the use of comparatively few frequently recurring short sec- 

 tions ; but these are grouped according to some law or laws so 

 as to form the rhythmical unit which we call a line. The 

 number of sections in a normal line is constant, and the line is 

 delivered so that the interval between successive accented syl- 

 lables is habitually constant ; in other words, we have one beat 

 per accent throughout the line, the only exception being that 

 occasionally a beat falls on a pause. In certain looser forms of 

 verse no other law holds good ; but in the stricter forms the 

 further law is added that the syllables in the section shall scan 

 according to a more or less rigid scheme. When the scanning 

 is strict this leads to a constant number of syllables in each line, 

 and even when the scanning is lax the number of syllables does 

 not greatly vary. In this complete form of verse we have time, 

 number, and rhythm. The beat upon the accents marks the 

 time, the feeling of number is given by the constant number of 

 feet and the constant number of sections. The group of syl- 

 lables within the section, and the group which these sections 

 form within the line, give the primary sense of rhythm, and 

 underlying this varying rhythm we have the secondary rhythm 

 due to feet which by their approximately uniform arrangement 

 assist in giving that sense of unity by which we recognise a 

 series of lines as belonging to one species, 



VOL. i. M 



