90 
Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
A Graphical Representation of Emotion as expressed in 
Rhythm. By Professor J. M. Dixon, M.A. (With a 
Plate.) 
(Read May 4, 1896.) 
An analysis of the versification of some of our nineteenth cen- 
tury poets has produced certain very interesting results that 
may be graphically represented. The subject of versification still 
demands more exact treatment, and any contributions which em- 
body the results of real analytical treatment are of value. 
It is well known that the chief objection to our iambic measure, 
which is the normal English measure, is its tendency to produce 
a monotonous pendulum-like tick-tick. If, on the other hand, 
we employ anapaestic measure, the triple movement to every foot 
demands too much exertion of the tongue. English verse possess- 
ing the finest cadences lies between the two extremes of a pure 
iambic treatment and a pure anapaestic treatment. 
It may be laid down as a safe dictum that, in lyric verse at 
least, one anapaest in a line otherwise iambic constitutes it an ana- 
paestic line. The poet who writes in iambics is not then free to 
introduce anapaests. The expedient to which he will resort is a 
free use of the catch. We shall see that Gordon, in his exquisite 
ballad The Sick Stock-Rider , uses the catch, where emotion is at a 
high pitch, 13 times in 16 lines. A poet writing in anapaests 
is free to use iambs where he will, and even the monosyllabic 
foot at the beginning of a line or after the caesura. Browning, 
in his Abt Vogler , has actually one hexameter line (Stanza III. 
1. 7) with only 5 unaccented syllables, or one less than an iambic 
line can have. It is the shortest line in the poem and is placed 
next to an 11-syllabled line, the longest line he uses. There are 
only three of these 11-syllabled lines in this poem (III. 1, 2, 8). 
The average length of his line in the poem is 14 ‘22 syllables. 
Of the theoretically possible maximum of 96 unaccented syl- 
lables in an 8-lined anapaestic hexametric stanza, Browning never 
in any stanza gives us more than 71, or less than 61. The move- 
