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The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. [July 
these great divisions it will be necessary only to show in detail some of the 
variations in Romance metre. In the first place, then, is the first accent 
preceded by syllables or not ? That is, is the verse of the nature of 
Ye banks and braes of Bonnie Boon, how can ye bloom sae fresh and fair ! 
or 
Love took up the glass of time, and turn’d it in his glowing hands. 
These two different openings, the ordinary and abrupt, or iambic and 
trochaic, form two distinct varieties, each of which is again subdivided 
according as the last unit ends with the accented syllable or is followed 
by an extra unaccented syllable, as 
and 
Ye banks and braes, &c. 
Oh, bring to me a cup of wine, and bring it in a siller tassie. 
These are in ordinary rhythm. In abrupt— 
Love took up the glass of time, and turn’d it in his glowing hands 
and 
Annan water’s wading deep, and my love Annie’s wondrous bonny. 
These four variations, again, divide into two each according as the line-ends 
in the middle of the verse vary in the same way, as 
and 
Ye banks and braes, &c., 
When lovely woman stoops to folly, and finds too soon that men betray, 
where the first half of the verse is followed by an unaccented syllable in 
“ folly,” and 
Her voice did quiver as we parted, yet knew I not that heart was broken, 
where the ’line-end and verse-end are both followed by an unaccented 
syllable. 
This makes eight distinct sub variations, whose characteristics are main¬ 
tained through whole poems, producing a quite different rhythm in every 
case. All of these, again, divide into minor variations, which, whilst not 
so constant, are yet perfectly distinctive : for instance, in three-syllabled 
rhythm the verse may open with one unaccented syllable, or with two ; as 
Mv heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here, 
my heart’s, in the Highlands a-chasing the deer 
and 
The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold, 
and his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold. 
By means of these variations Romance verse breaks up into over eighty 
varieties, most of them distinct and quite constant; Ballad into about 
sixty, and Nibelungen and Alexandrine into about forty each : and in all 
these two hundred-odd varieties of rhythm may be woven any of the 
million-odd stanzas already referred to—which brings the probable number 
of stanzas of different rhythm and structure up to well over two hundred 
million ; and the possible number, brought about by varying combinations 
of hese primary forms, is, as a matter of fact, incalculable. The object 
in presenting these estimated figures has been not to bewilder with the 
amazing number of possible variations, but—well, to bewilder yet more 
by showing how this immense wealth of form flows demonstrably from a 
few elementary forms. 
And it may be asked again, as it has been asked before, Of what use 
is it all ? At least it shows that there is law and order in a realm that has 
