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APPENDIX.

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APPENDIX.

ON ENGLISH METRES.

THERE exists no work of any authority, so far as I am aware, upon the metres used by our poets, except Mr. Guest's History of English Rhythms, which is too long and too intricate for general use. In the absence then of better guidance, the following description and classification of English metres may be of use to students.

Metre is the arrangement into verse of definite measures of sounds, definitely accented. Thus the hexameter is the arrangement in lines of six equivalent quantities of sound, called feet, each of which consists, or has the value, of two long syllables, and is accented on the first syllable. The heroic metre, when strictly regular, is the arrangement in rhymed couplets of five feet, each foot being equivalent to an iambus (a short and a long syllable), and accented on the last syllable. In practice, spondees and trochees are often introduced, the accent is often laid on the first syllable of a foot, and there are frequently not more than four, sometimes not more than three, accents in a line.

Rhyme is the regular recurrence in metre of similar sounds. There are four principal kinds; the perfect, the alliterative, the assonantal, and the consonantal. In the perfect rhyme, the rhyming syllables correspond throughout; in other words, they are identical. It is common in French poetry, but rare in

English, e. g.

Selon divers besoins, il est une science

D'etendre les liens de notre conscience.- MOLIÈRE.

The alliterative rhyme is the correspondence of the initial consonants of the rhyming syllables. This is the ordinary rhythm of the Anglo-Saxon, and also of the Scandinavian poetry, e. g. :— Eadward kinge, engla hlaford

Sende sothfæste sawle to criste

On godes wæra, gast haligne.*

These lines, which represent the most common of Anglo-Saxon rhythms, have each four accents, and either three or two rhyming syllables, which are always accented. When the rhyming syllables begin with vowels, these vowels are usually different, though not always.

The assonantal rhyme is the correspondence of the vowels merely in the rhyming syllables. It is of two kinds in the first the vowel ends the syllable; in the second, it is followed by a consonant, or a consonant and vowel. The first kind occurs continually in English poetry; the second, never; but it is a favourite rhyme with the Spanish poets. Examples : —

(1) If she seem not such to me,

What care I how good she be?

(2) Ferid los, cavalleros, por amor de caridad;

Yo soy Ruy Diaz el Cid, Campeador de Bibar.t—”

Ballad of the Cid.

The consonantal rhyme is the ordinary rhyme of English poetry; it is the correspondence of the vowel and the final consonant or consonants in the rhyming syllables. Example:

Golden boys and girls all must,

Like chimney sweepers, come to dust.

All that has been said hitherto applies only to single rhymes, the masculine rhyme of the Italians. The double, or feminine rhyme, which is the ordinary rhyme of Italian poetry, is also

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From Guest's Rhythms, ii. 70. His translation is,

King Edward, lord of the Engle,

Sent his righteous soul to Christ,

(In God's promise trusting) a spirit holy.

"Smite them, knights, for the love of charity;
I am Ruy Diaz the Cid, champion of Bivar."

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