English Verse: Specimens Illustrating its Principles and HistoryAlden, Raymond MacDonald
General
English Verse: Specimens Illustrating its Principles and History
Alden, Raymond MacDonald
English language -- Versification; English poetry
The element of Pitch is not ordinarily included in the treatment of
versification, as it is not ordinarily recognized as having any
significance peculiar to verse. According to Professor J. W.
Bright, however, there is such a thing as a "pitch-accent" which
plays an important part in verse where the word-accent conflicts
with that of the regular metre. Under certain exigencies, he says,
"_un-governed, pre-cisely, re-markable,_ and _Je-rusalem_ ... are
naturally pronounced with a pitch-accent upon the first syllables,
and with the undisturbed expiratory word-accent upon the second. It
will of course be understood that when the word-accent is defined
as expiratory this term does not exclude the inherent pitch of
English stress. Force, quantity, and pitch are combined in our
word-stress (or word-accent), both primary and secondary; but in
the secondary stress used as ictus there is a noticeable change in
the proportions of these elements, the pitch being relatively
increased. An answer is thus won for the question: How do we
naturally pronounce two stresses in juxtaposition on the same word,
or on adjacent words closely joined grammatically? This is further
illustrated in the specially emphasized words of such expressions
as 'The idea!'" where Professor Bright marks the pitch-accent on
the first syllable of "idea," retaining the stress-accent on the
second syllable. In the line
"Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit"
he marks a pitch-accent where the word-stress and metrical stress
are in conflict, that is, on the syllables "dis-" and "and." "The
rhythmic use of 'disobedience,'" he says, "illustrates with its
four syllables (as here used) as many recognizable varieties of
stress. The first syllable has a secondary word-accent, raised to a
pitch-accent for ictus; the second is wholly unaccented; the third
has the chief word-accent, employed as ictus (the accent of the
preceding word, "first," is subordinate to the rhythm); the fourth
has a secondary word-accent which remains unchanged in the thesis."
The conclusion is that "ictus in conflict requires a pitch-accent."
(All these quotations are from an article on 'Proper Names in Old
English Verse,' in the _Publications of the Modern Language
Association_, n.s. vol. vii. No. 3). Professor Bright's theory of
pitch-accent is a part of his general theory of opposition to what
he calls the "sense-doctrine" of the reading of verse,--that is,
the accepted doctrine that the word and sentence accents must
ordinarily take precedence of the metrical accent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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