4: G. W. Gei'wig 



Donne furnishes a sentence containing 135 predications and 

 888 words. The question incidentally arose whether a writer 

 had the same sentence structure in poetry as in prose, and a 

 few comparisons (p. 8) are presented. Chaucer, Lowell, and 

 Matthew Arnold differ greatly, the first excelling in poetry, the 

 last two in prose. Milton (in Paradise Regained), Wordsworth, 

 and Shakespeare on the other hand write almost the same in 

 poetry as in prose. A few results gathered from foreign 

 classics (p. 8) are likewise added. 



The earliest writers began by giving every verbal idea the 

 form of a finite verb. As they frequently wrote sentences con- 

 taining twenty or more verbs, all of the same grammatical value 

 or weight, it was an impossibility to tell which of the twenty 

 the author meant should be the main or emphatic one. They 

 had no conception of what is technically known as verb or 

 sentence accent. This was gradually corrected by using un- 

 predicated forms and constructions to express subordinate re- 

 lations. 



The manifest eifect of such verb-suppression is a lightening 

 of the style of the authors engaging in it. A partial effort was 

 made to find out the line of this movement, but no complete 

 or final results were obtained. The number of clauses saved 

 by the substitution of present and past participles or by the use 

 of appositives was noted, and is made a systematic part of the 

 present exhibits. No especial value is claimed for the results, 

 except perhaps as an aid to later investigators. That there has 

 been development will be immediately apparent . The ten 

 authors showing the highest and the ten showing the lowest per 

 cent of clauses saved are given. 



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