A History of English VersificationSchipper, J. (Jakob)
History
A History of English Versification
Schipper, J. (Jakob)
English language -- Versification; English poetry -- History and criticism
Chapman, in his translation of Homer, often uses it in Septenary
verses as well as in five-foot iambic verses. In certain stanzas
rhyme-breaking at particular places is a strict rule, as e.g. in the
Rhyme-Royal stanza (_a b a b . b c c_), in the ballade-stanza of eight
lines (_a b a b . b c b c_), and also between the two quatrains of the
regular Italian sonnet.
On the other hand this licence is rare in the works of the poets of the
eighteenth century who wrote under French influence, and in modern times
(especially at the present day) it seems to be rather avoided than
intentionally admitted.
§ =94.= Another peculiarity of frequent but irregular occurrence in
even-beat verse is =alliteration=, a feature which is derived from the
old native metre, and is still (consciously or unconsciously) employed
by many poets as an ornament of their verse.
The arbitrary use of alliteration in the freer form of the long line has
been already discussed.
In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries it is mostly used merely to
give a stronger emphasis to those words of the verse which bear the
logical and rhythmical accent,[131] but even as early as this we can
observe a decided predilection for accumulated alliteration. Sometimes
the same alliterative sound is retained through several successive
lines. In other instances a fourth alliterating word is admitted in the
line (as in the example referred to above). In the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries this striving after accumulation of alliteration was
carried to such a length that it became a rule that as many words in the
line as possible, whether accented or not, should begin with the same
letter. This accounts for King James VI's metrical rule quoted above (p.
89), that in 'Tumbling verse' the line is to be 'literal'. Even Chaucer,
in spite of his well-known hostile attitude to regular alliterative
poetry,[132] allowed his diction to be influenced strongly by it, e.g.:
_I =w=réche_, =w=hích that =w=épe and =w=áylle thús_,
=W=as =w=hílom =w=ýf to =k=ýng =C=apáneús_.
Kn. Tale, ll. 73-4.
_And =h=é =h=im =h=úrtleth wíth =h=is =h=órs adóun_.
ib. line 1758.
This accumulation of alliterative sounds occurs in the works of many
Modern English poets, some of whom, as Peele and Shakespeare, have
themselves ridiculed it, but were unable, or were not careful, to avoid
it altogether in their own practice.
_And wíth =sh=arp =sh=rílling =sh=ríekes | doe bóotlesse crý_.
Spens. F. Q. I. iii. 127.
_=W=hich =w=íth a rúshy =w=éapon | Í =w=ill =w=óund_.
Peele, Old Wifes Tale, p. 467.
_Théy =l=ove =l=éast that =l=ét men know their =l=óve_.
Shak. Rom. i. 3.
For particulars see _Neuengl. Metrik_, pp. 68-76, and the following
treatises:
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