ioo On RYTHMICAL MEASURES. 



The regular ftrufture of rythm, and the progreflive devia- 

 tions from that ftruclure, which I have above endeavoured to 

 defcribe, have been chiefly confidered as taking place in mufic. 

 The fame things, however, to a certain extent, may be found 

 in poetry ; and many of the obfervations which have been 

 made upon them may be exemplified from verfes, and may 

 ferve to illuflrate fome particulars in their flruflure. A verfe 

 is an affemblage of words, which are fo arranged, as that the 

 long and fhort, or the ftrong and feeble fyllables of which they 

 are compofed, may, by their fucceffion, give a rythm, fuch as 

 I have defcribed, more or lefs regular. It muft, therefore, be 

 fo conftrucled, as that the hearer may be led to form the equal 

 or nearly equal times, which are marked by the fyllables, into 

 certain parcels and combinations. The ancients feem in gene- 

 ral to have confidered the time of a fhort fyllable, as the unit 

 or firft element of the rythm of poetry. According to this fup^- 

 pofition, the feet will become analogous to the bars or firft par- 

 cels in mufic, the verfe will be analogous to a combination or 

 itrain, and the ftanza, where it occurs, will reprefent the entire 

 piece, which being finifhed, the fame rythmical air, as it may 

 be called, is again repeated. The time in which a fhort fyllable 

 is exprefled in reciting verfes, is often too fmall to be regularly 

 counted and parcelled. If this is thought to be the cafe, the 

 feet may be confidered as units, varioufly divided and articulated 

 by the different fyllables which enter into them ; the verfe will 

 then correfpond to a bar, and the ftanza to a combination.. 

 Although, however, the time in which we utter a foot is fre- 

 quently not greater than what we are difpofed to confider as an 

 unit in mufic, yet, as it is always compofed of two or more 

 fmaller intervals, and as we have frequent opportunities of 

 hearing it prolonged in finging, fo as to fill up the time of a bar 

 in mufic, we are hence rather more difpofed to confider the 

 foot as a fhort parcel or bar, than as a divided unit. The for- 

 mer 



