The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 4 (of 4): Hegel's Aesthetik — Georg Hegel — John Shaqi
The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 4 (of 4): Hegel's Aesthetik
Georg Hegel · en
Above all, as already observed, the beginning and termination of the
particular feet ought not with abstract precision to be identical with
the beginning and conclusion of single words. For, in the _first_
place, the reach forward[24] of the essentially exclusive word over
the termination of the foot of the line affects the connection of the
otherwise disparate rhythms. _Secondly_, when the verse accent falls on
the final sound of a word carried forward as above described, we get on
account of this in addition a distinct interval of time, the conclusion
of a word having already come to a pause in something else, so that it
is in fact this pause, which, in virtue of the accent united with it,
is expressly made perceptible as a segment of time in the otherwise
unbroken current. Caesuras of this sort are inevitable with every
kind of verse. For although the distinct accent already confers on
particular feet a more intimate and essential distinction, and thereby
a certain variety, this sort of animation, especially in the case of
verses, in which the same feet repeat each other without a break, as,
for example, in our iambic, remain for all that in a measure entirely
abstract and monotonous, and furthermore allow the particular feet to
fall apart without a common bond. It is this gray monotony which the
caesura checks, introducing a connection and more genuine animation
within what was otherwise, with its undifferentiated regularity, the
halting flow of verse, a life which, by virtue of the various positions
in which the caesura may assert itself, is itself as manifold as is
possible agreeably with the condition that its regulated definition is
held free from any approach to lawless caprice.
A _third_ accent is furthermore attached to the verse accent and
caesura, which the words in other respects and independently possess,
apart from their metrical employment. By this means the mode and
degree in which the particular syllables are emphasized or the reverse
increases in its variety. This verbal accent may, on the one hand,
no doubt appear in conjunction with the accent of the verse and
the caesura; and, if this is the case, the strength of the accents
respectively is increased. But from another point of view it may stand
independently of them on syllables which do not receive any further
emphasis, and which we may say, in so far as they moreover require
an accentuation to bring out their particular significance as verbal
syllables, assert an effect counter to the verse rhythm, an effect
which confers on the whole a novel and unique vitality.