[(_α_) Made by time-duration and the movement. Starting point in the natural length and shortness of syllables. The distinctions of the sound of words in consonants and vowels contribute the basis of this. Description and illustration. Poetry regulates the accidental interchange of various syllables and words. Time-duration. Nature of dactyl, anapaest, etc. It further regulates the particular time-relations in a series of verse-lines. The iambic metre, etc. Problem of time-beats in the metre of the ancients. No necessity as in music for abstract time-beat (_β_) The accent and caesura. Every time-relation has its particular accent. Particular feet ought not with abstract precision to be identical with beginning and conclusion of single words. The caesura checks the monotony of measure. Further independent verbal accent. Fundamental influence on the measure of the poetical idea. Also a definite type of content corresponds with the entire character of a particular verse-measure. The use of hexameter, elegiacs, and iambics in this respect (_γ_) Rhythmical versification embraces the actual musical sound of syllables and words. The stem-syllable in the Greek and Latin languages. Aspects of the German language in this respect. In modern languages the element of rhythm less room for display. This in itself necessitates the alternative of rhyme as a resistant against the too exclusive assertion of ideal content] (_b_) Rhyme [(_α_) Rhyme a necessary feature of romantic poetry. Closer approximation to music. Reaction against the stringent character of Roman poetry. Source of rhyme in Germanic languages (_β_) Difference between two systems. Rhythmical versification supreme in Hellenic poetry. Most important change effected that of the validity of the national quantity in the older system. This replaced by the intrinsic meaning of syllables and words. French and Italian poetry an extreme example of the collapse of the former system. The necessity of rhyme and its character analysed (_γ_) The types of modern romantic poetry. Its alliteration, assonance, and ordinary rhyme. Scandinavian poetry. Not necessary for assonant words to come only at conclusion of line. Rhyme is the fulfilment of alliteration and assonance. Pre-eminently the form of lyric poetry. Examples] (_c_) The union of rhythm and rhyme [(_α_) Attempt made in modern times to return to the natural quantity of syllables. Not generally successful. Overwhelming importance in modern verse of intelligible significance and the accent thus asserted (_β_) Not possible to retain the plastic consistency of the metrical medium as secured by classical poetry. Modern languages do not possess the stable quantitative basis