A convincing proof that this type of line is actually read as tetrameter may be found in the fact that the poets have occasionally included it in passages of undoubted tetrameter verse. Blake, whose versification was guided by an ear uninfluenced by theories, has done this in several places, e. g. Why art thou silent and invisible, Why dost thou hide thyself in clouds From every searching eye? (Father of Jealousy.) The tetrameter of parts of Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar, as has been noted in Chapter X, contains many lines that can be read as pentameters, though the author doubtless intended them for tetrameters, e. g. Tho went the pensife Damme out of dore, And chaunst to stomble at the threshold flore: Shelley furnishes a few examples of the same thing. Black as a cormorant the screaming blast, would do just as well in his heroic verse as in the tetrameter context of A Vision of the Sea. The recent American poet, Vachel Lindsay, clearly recognizes the dual personality of this line, for he not only uses it in his pentameter verse-as all English poets from Chaucer on have done-but also employs it with striking effect in the midst of his tetrameter rhythms: And the black crowd laughed till their sides were sore • Professor Cobb, in "A Further Study of the Heroic Tetrameter," (Modern Philology, 1916), has collected many more cases of the same sort, which tend to show that many poets have felt the line as a tetrameter, though they followed the traditional prosodic theory. And the well-known tunes of the parrot band (Congo.) Why a pentameter reading (by beginning the third foot with a light stress) should not be demanded by our ears when lines of this type are read in the midst of pentameter lines, no one has successfully explained. The fact that they are read as tetrameters, however, has been admitted by many students with ears trained accurately to distinguish time values. These lines have been employed by all writers of heroic verse as a frequent means of varying the metrical and rhythmical pattern. They are used more than any other single type of line variation, except the relief of beginning a line with a stressed syllable. They occur very sparingly as a break in the deadly monotony of Spenser's heroic verse in the Shepherd's Calendar, with a frequency of from six to sixteen per cent in different plays of Shakespeare, and in as high a proportion as twenty-five per cent in Fitzgerald's Omar. The use of the "heroic tetrameter" may be seen at its best in the couplets of Pope where it frequently adds finish to a pointed epigram. Though his percentage of them is high, he does not risk the monotony of using more than two in succession. How unfortunate too great a repetition of the type may become is illustrated by a school boy translation of O. W. Holmes, done while he was at Andover: Is this your glory in a noble line To leave your confines and to ravage mine? The third line of the passage is the only one that is not likely to be read as a "heroic tetrameter." The reader may justifiably protest against this rather disproportionate discussion of a single means of adding variety to the heroic line, but it has seemed necessary, for this special type, though very distinctive, has not had sufficient recognition by students of meter. The commoner stanza forms in which heroic verse is used have been mentioned in Chapter IX. Its most frequent uses, in couplets and in blank verse, remain to be considered. Heroic Couplet.-The heroic couplet has taken two forms, the "open" and the "closed," each fashionable during different periods in our literary history. The difference between the forms is a matter of phrasing. The open type allows the sense to run over from one line to another, and from one couplet to another; the closed type strictly precludes the enjambment of a couplet, and rarely allows it in a line. The couplet began its long career in English poetry with Chaucer, who used the open variety. About sixteen per cent of his lines and seven per cent of his couplets are enjambed. The first full stop in the prologue to the Canterbury Tales occurs at the end of the eighteenth line, but the phrasing within this period makes the lines, and often the couplets, fairly distinct. In general, a use not very different from Chaucer's was common down through the Elizabethan period. During the first quarter of the seventeenth century there developed a tendency toward writing closed couplets. Run-on lines. and couplets became gradually fewer and fewer, until both practically disappeared in the polishing process which culminated in the brilliant perfection of Pope. The origin of this closed couplet has been variously attributed to Jonson, Drayton, Beaumont, Fairfax, Sandys, Waller, and Denham. But fashions in versification, like fashions in thought, are not often attributable to one man. The more original men of similar temperament and similar background will react in the same direction. The closed couplet continued to be the dominant verse form throughout the eighteenth century, with Pope as the chief model for hundreds of versifiers, who skilfully imitated his marvelous correctness of form. The first definite return to the older open form of the couplet was Leigh Hunt's Story of Rimini, in 1816. He was followed by Keats and Shelley, whose example completely restored the open couplet to an important place among English meters. Byron still clung to the closed form that best expressed the age of elegance and epigram, but he has not had many successors. The couplets of Browning, Morris, Swinburne, and the poets of the present generation are modeled on those of the type of Chaucer or Fletcher, rather than those of Dryden and Pope.7 The closed couplet may best be studied technically by analyzing a passage from Pope: True wit is nature to advantage dress'd What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd, 5 As shades more sweetly recommend the light, For works may have more wit than does them good, Others for language all their care express, 15 Words are like leaves; and when they most abound, But most by numbers judge a poet's song, And smooth or rough with them is right or wrong; 7 The best place to study the history of the couplet with plentiful examples is Alden: English Verse, pp. 174-213. In the bright Muse, though thousand charms conspire, Who haunt Parnassus but to please their ear, (Essay on Criticism, II.) This casket India's glowing gems unlocks, 25 Transform'd to combs, the speckled and the white. With hairy springes we the birds betray, Th' adventurous baron the bright locks admir'd; 35 By force to ravish, or by fraud betray. (Rape of the Lock, II.) In the clear azure gleam the flocks are seen And floating forests paint the waves with green; One interesting quality of this verse is the amount of variation possible within rigid limits. The number of syllables in a line is strictly limited to ten, though an occasional elision like that in line 32 is admitted as a means of keeping to this rule. The flow of the iambic movement is varied, as in the octosyllabic couplet, by three possible changes at the beginning of the line, i. e., starting it with direct attack (lines 3, 9, 13), with a heavily accented syllable preceding the first stress (lines 1, 27, 29), or with two unstressed syllables |