A History of English VersificationSchipper, J. (Jakob)
History
A History of English Versification
Schipper, J. (Jakob)
English language -- Versification; English poetry -- History and criticism
This, however, seldom happens in the oldest examples, in which caesuras
sharply dividing the line are rare, enjambement being only seldom
admitted. Examples of verses without caesuras are to be found, among
others, in the following: _Þúrh béelzebúbes swíkedóm_ 10, _Intó þe
þósternésse héllen_ 104. As a rule, in the four-foot verse as well as in
French octosyllabics, a pause does not occur until the end, on account
of the shortness of this metre, which generally only suffices for one
rhythmic section, while in four-beat verse a regular division into two
rhythmic sections, and consequently the constant occurrence of a
caesura, is rendered possible by the greater number of unaccented
syllables.
The end of the line may, in any order, have either a masculine rhyme, as
in ll. 1-4, 9, 10, or a feminine rhyme, as in ll. 7 and 8. There occur
besides, but seldom, trisyllabic rhymes, such as those in ll. 5-6, or
_súnegen: múnegen_ 141-2.
§ =128.= This metre continued to be very popular in Middle and Modern
English poetry, and is still extensively used. As a rule its structure
constantly remained the same; nevertheless we may, in both periods,
distinguish between two well-marked ways of treating it. It was, for
instance, at the end of the thirteenth and in the first half of the
fourteenth century, very freely handled in the North of England in the
_Surtees Psalter_, further by Robert Mannyng in his _Handlyng Sinne_,
and by Richard Rolle de Hampole in his _Pricke of Conscience_. Their
treatment of this verse is characterized, for instance, by the
remarkably frequent occurrence of two and even three unaccented
syllables at the beginning and in the middle of the line, e.g.:
_In þi rightwísenésses biþénke I sál
Þine sághes nóght forgéte withál._
Psalm cxviii, v. 16.
_And rékened þe cústome hóuses echóne,
At whých þey had góde and at whýche nóne._
Mannyng, Handlyng Sinne, ll. 5585-6.
Other rhythmical licences, such as the omission of unaccented syllables
in the middle of a verse, and inversion of accent, are frequent in these
compositions. Level stress, on the other hand, for the most part is
found only in rhyme, as _sh+e+nsh+é+pe_: _kepe_ Hampole 380-1; _come_:
_b+o+ghs+ó+me_ ib. 394-5.
The other extreme of strict regularity in the number of syllables is
exhibited in another group of North English and Scottish compositions of
the fourteenth century, such as the _Metrical Homilies_, the _Cursor
Mundi_, Barbour's _Bruce_, Wyntoun's _Chronykyl_. The metrical licences
most frequent here are level stress, suppression of the anacrusis, and
the omission of unaccented syllables in the middle of the line, in the
_Metrical Homilies_. The rhythm is, however, as a rule, strictly iambic,
and the number of syllables eight or nine, according as the rhymes are
masculine or feminine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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