Recurrence of accented sounds Recurrence of _accented sounds_ _at equal time-intervals_. at equal time-intervals. Separate sounds mathematically Separate sounds not mathematically related in length, and constantly related in length, and varying in number and arrangement. generally with unchanged number and arrangement. Apart from rhythm, dependent on Apart from rhythm, dependent on variation of _pitch_ (incidentally variation of sound-_quality_ on sound-_quality_). (incidentally on _pitch_). Sounds vaguely symbolic. Sounds symbolic of definite ideas. Let us now consider more closely the time-values of the separate syllables of verse, asking just what we mean by a "long" or a "short" syllable in English. It has already been indicated that the ear recognizes no such fixed proportions in the length of our syllables as are recognized for musical notes, or as are postulated for the syllables of Greek and Latin verse. It must also be remembered that the terms "long" and "short," as commonly used of English vowels, are of little significance for the matter of real quantity. They are applied for historical reasons, and do not describe present facts. Thus we call the _o_ in "hotel" _long_, and that in "cot" short; but it is fairly clear that the _o_ of "cot" takes rather more time, as commonly uttered, than that of "hotel." The so-called "short _o_" is, in fact, a sound so open that it has lost the _o_-quality. In the same way what we call "long _a_" is a short-_e_ sound diphthongized. We cannot be said to preserve in modern English any single vowels with fixed long quantity, such as we hear in German words like _Saal_ and _See_,--sounds which obviously take more time in utterance than others.