Sequestered nest!--this kingdom, limited Alone by one old _populous green_ wall; _Tenanted_ by the ever-busy flies, _Gray crickets and shy lizards and quick spiders_; Each family of the silver-threaded moss-- Which, look through near, this way, and it appears A stubble-field _or a cane-brake_, a marsh Of bulrush whitening _in the_ sun: _laugh now_! (BROWNING: _Paracelsus_, i. 36 ff.) On the other hand, we find verses showing a conflict between prose and verse accent, where the verse-accent may be regarded as triumphing wholly or in part. Where this triumph is complete, the accent is said to be _wrenched_; as, for example, in old ballad endings like "north countree."[3] Where there is a compromise effected in reading, the accent is said to be _hovering_; as in one of Shakspere's songs,-- "It was a lover and his lass ... That o'er the green _corn-field_ did pass." I sat with Love upon a woodside well, Leaning across the water, I and he; Nor ever did he speak nor looked at me, But touched his lute wherein was _audible_ The certain secret thing he had to tell: Only our mirrored eyes met _silently_ In the low wave; and that sound came to be The passionate voice I knew; and my tears fell. And at their fall, his eyes beneath grew hers; And with his foot and with his _wing-feathers_ He swept the spring that watered my heart's drouth. Then the dark ripples spread to waving hair, And as I stooped, her own lips rising there Bubbled with brimming kisses at my mouth. (ROSSETTI: _Willowwood. House of Life_, Sonnet xlix.) I wish my grave were growing green, A winding-sheet drawn ower my een, And I in Helen's arms _lying,_ On fair Kirconnell lea. (_Fair Helen_; old ballad.) For the stars and the winds are unto her As raiment, as songs of the _harp-player._ (SWINBURNE: Chorus in _Atalanta in Calydon._) Nothing is better, I well think, Than love; the hidden _well-water_ Is not so delicate to drink: This was well seen of me and her. (SWINBURNE: _The Leper._) These wrenched accents are characteristic of one phase of the so-called "pre-Raphaelite" poetry of the Victorian period; in part, no doubt, they are due to the influence of the old ballads. My colleague Professor Newcomer has suggested that they are partly due, also, to a dislike for the combative accent which would occur where two heavy syllables came together (accented as commonly) in a compound like "harp-player."