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The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. [July 
accents ; and the rimes gain much of their power through coinciding with 
these accents. 
In ordinary speech certain words, or parts of words, are singled out by 
being accented ; and the fluctuations produced in the flow of speech bv 
the continuous alternation of accented and non-accented syllables are 
readily detected by the ear. It is noticed, too, how a word accented at 
one time may be unaccented at another : the accents constantly vary as 
the thoughts vary, weaving a rude species of accentual rhythm that has 
no perceptible regularity. In obedience, however, to some law, when the 
speech becomes emotional the accents appear to group themselves at more 
regular intervals ; and when the speech becomes poetry the regularity be¬ 
comes absolute. The accentual rhythm accords with a rhythm that has been 
awakened in the speaker and in the listener : it has become metrical. The 
accents are largely independent of ordinary word accents : they accentuate, 
in fact, not the words, but a rhythm upon which the words float. 
An illustration may be given from a work that is professedly prose in 
form—the novel Lorna Doone :— 
Then the woods arose in folds, like drapery of awakened mountains, stately 
with a depth of awe and memory of the tempests. Autumn’s mellow hand was 
on them, as they owned already, touched with gold, and red, and olive ; and 
their joy towards the sun was less to a bridegroom than a father. 
Yet before the floating impress of the woods could clear itself, suddenly 
the gladsome light leaped over hill and valley, casting amber, blue, and purple, 
and a tint of rich red rose, according to the scene they lit on, and the curtain 
flung around ; yet all alike dispelling fear and the cloven hoof of darkness, and 
all the wings of hope advancing, and proclaiming God is here. Then life and 
joy sprang reassured from every crouching hollow ; every flower, and bud, and 
bird had a fluttering sense of them ; and all the flashing of God’s gaze merged 
into soft beneficence. 
So perhaps shall break upon us that eternal morning, when crag and chasm 
shall be no more, neither hill nor valley, nor great unvintaged ocean ; when glory 
shall not scare happiness, neither happiness envy glory ; but all things shall arise 
and shine in the light of the Father’s countenance, because itself is risen. 
In this quotation the beautiful rhythm that throbs throughout the book 
trembles on the verge of metre, and in parts surrenders itself entirely to 
metre. The phrase 
Then the woods arose in folds 
is more than prose ; it is a half-catch at lyric ; and it rounds to full lyric in 
Stately with a depth of awe and memory of the tempests 
and again in 
Suddenly the gladsome light leaped over hill and valley . . . 
Yet all alike dispelling fear and the cloven hoof of darkness . . . 
Then life and joy sprang reassured fiom every crouching hollow . . . 
So perhaps shall break upon us that eternal morning, 
When crag and chasm shall be no more, neither hill nor valley, 
Nor great unvintaged ocean. 
Is it not palpable that prose has almost been abandoned ? Yet it is not 
in the poetry of the words only, nor is it in the poetry of the words chiefly, 
that this abandon lies. There are passages as beautiful in Lorna Doone 
which are yet not as metrical. How is the metrical effect brought about ? 
Is it by the division of the passage into sentences of approximately equal 
length ? Not altogether; though, as seen in the earliest ballads, the 
sentences, forming the lines or verses, are equal in length. But there is 
another rhythm within the lines themselves. 
In what do the two following sentences differ ? 
I could not see what her face was, my heart so awoke and trembled, 
and 
Yet all alike dispelling fear and the cloven hoof of darkness. 
