332 The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. [July 
may again subdivide, and' on each subdivision of the rhythm the included 
sentence likewise subdivides into its natural subclauses ; so that the 
thought and the rhythm swing and sway together, the double rhythm being- 
accentuated by rime at the main division, and often at the minor divisions 
also, so that the verse becomes a flashing rime-faceted jewel of thought. 
Blank verse, on the other hand, is a more coherent mass, breaking up into 
irregular portions consisting of a number, small or great, of verses and 
parts of verses, welded together by the unrestrained ebb and flow of thought 
from verse to verse. Every verse by no means always contains a complete 
thought sentence, nor does every sentence occupy a whole verse. When 
broken, the verses are broken irregularly, and the rime facets are altogether 
absent. The two measures have seemingly evolved for the purpose of 
fulfilling two different functions of poetic utterance—the lyric for song, 
the blank for declamation. Rime, the charm of the lyric, hindered the 
flow of the heroic in its progress towards the final blank : it enforced 
pauses where none were desired—and were the rime pauses disregarded 
the rime music was lost : the definiteness of echo that pleased in the lyric 
displeased in the heroic ; and little by little rime was thrown off altogether. 
Whilst the blank was perfected, however, the heroic was too attractive a 
medium to be allowed to exist merely as an intermediary ; and whilst on 
the one hand its evolution towards another form continued, on the other it 
remained stationary, perfecting itself to the form that flowered naturally 
in Chaucer’s tales, and artificially in the didactics of Pope. The complete 
renunciation of rime argues that the blank was a vigorous growth in a 
direction that was hampered by rime and its innate restrictions, rather 
than that the writers of blank scorned rime. The springing of the lyric 
and the blank from a common source—if there be a common source— 
cannot be traced in British poetry, seeing that both were introduced in a 
semi-mature condition. Both would probably have sprung spontaneously 
from native poetry, but their growth was hastened by foreign influence. 
There were in British poetry, however, an inherent vitality and a native 
tendency which, whilst they welcomed the foreign influences, with reserva¬ 
tions, transformed them whilst adopting them ; so that, both in lyric and 
blank, British poetry flourishes pre-eminent in beauty and vigour of rhythm 
and thought. It has been pointed out how the verse-unit in blank appears 
to be one of five units, or ten syllables. This fact is self-evident; nearly 
every verse in the older dramatists points to it. The declamatory voice 
is more deliberate than the lyric voice, and its average breath seems to be 
one capable of five units or ten syllables, though its actual capacity is much 
greater. Blank verse was devised so that this average need not be kept, 
though the verses themselves kept the average. The sentences in blank 
range from short to long irrespectively of the verse-units, ebbing and 
flowing with the actual emotions or thoughts expressed. This, of course, 
is the reason why blank verse appears to many readers as no more than 
prose ; and in unskilful hands it is in great danger of becoming actual 
prose. 
There is one other unit into which metrical poetry is divided—the 
stanza ; and as the stress-unit and verse-unit appear to be controlled as 
regards their length and duration by natural functions—the heart-beat and 
breath respectively—so the length of the stanza appears to be controlled 
by a third natural function—the thought. The first and simplest stanza 
appears as the form into which a single thought is cast; and it follows that, 
as regards length, the first verse and the first stanza, each a single thought, 
