38 Hartley Burr Alexander 



But doth suffer a sea-change 

 Into something rich and strange. 

 Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell : 

 Hark ! I hear them, — 

 Ding, dong, bell. 



How it echoes and dies away and echoes again, with distant 

 fainting fairy note — away into the dim sea's depths, like a last 

 quiver of violins after the wood-wind notes are gone ! This is 

 song suspense, — melodies suspiriantly repeating, like distant- 

 sounding surfs, a world of song and wraith where soft pipes play 



Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd, 

 Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone. 



Both in the lyric aria and in this simpler song, the development is 

 cumulative : in each case the structure is close-knit, the order of 

 elements is imperative, and the unity attained complete. The 

 final effect does not depend upon mere memory, but upon the 

 subtler psychical power of apperception — of apprehension of 

 unities and complex wholes. Nor is this an apperception of the 

 logical inter-linkings of ideas ; it is apperception of mood and is 

 founded in aesthetic as well as in ideational necessity; while on 

 account of the elusiveness of mood comes the compulsory brevity 

 of the expression which must make it one. 



Now in contrast to this cumulative development stands dra- 

 matic development. In place of the onward poise of lyric move- 

 ment, dramatic movement leads to a kind of shock — a turn and 

 reversal of the wrought mood at the climax. In contrast to ap- 

 perceptional retention of the whole, foregoing elements are 

 driven out in the moment of surprise ; there is an overturning of 

 equilibrium and a long oscillation and a final effect only to be 

 fixed by gradual quietings. The development may be of events, 

 as in ballad narrative; it may be of ideas, as in epigram and witty 

 song; it may even be play upon sentiment, as in Swinburne's 

 exotic balladry ; — but in each case it scores its effect by some sort 

 of violence, wound and recoil. The method is masterful for 

 driving home a point ; hence for wit, satire, and irony. The 

 ballad-makers knew the trick of it well. Take the fateful last 



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