VII Gird on thy sword, O man, thy strength endue, Thro' thousand ages hath thy childhood run: Higher and higher shall thy thoughts aspire, Thy work with beauty crown, thy life with love; IN CLASSICAL PROSODY PREVIOUS PUBLICATIONS Ep. 1. Daniel Press. دو 1903. II. Monthly Review. July, 1903, with an abstract of Stone's Prosody, as there used. No. 3. Printed by C. H. Daniel. 1903. دو 8. In ' Pelican,' C.C.C., Oxford. ,, 9. English Review. March, 1912. ,,21. New Quarterly. Jan. 1909, with an essay on the Virgilian Hexame ter, &c. THESE experiments in quantitive verse were made in fulfilment of a promise to William Johnson Stone that I would some day test his theory. His premature death converted my consent into a serious obligation. This personal explanation is due to myself for two reasons: because I might otherwise appear firstly as an advocate of the system, secondly as responsible for Stone's determination of the lengths of English syllables. Before writing quantitive verse it is necessary to learn to think in quantities. This is no light task, and a beginner requires fixed rules. Except for a few minor details, which I had disputed with Mr. Stone, I was bound to take his rules as he had elaborated them; and it was not until I had made some progress and could think fairly well in his prosody that I seriously criticized it. The two chief errors that I find in it are that he relied too much on the quality of a vowel, in determining its syllabic length, and that he regarded the h as always consonantal in quality. His valuation of the er sound is doubtful, but defensible and convenient, and I have never discarded it. My earlier experiments contain therefore a good many ‘false quantities', and these, where they could not be very easily (though inconsistently) amended, I have left, and marked most of them in the text: a few false quantities do not make a poem less readable. Thus a long mark over a syllable means that Stone reckoned it as long, and that the verse requires it to be so pronounced, but that I regard it as short, or at least as doubtful. For example on p. 414 Ruin is thus written. Of all accented long vowels in 'open' position the long u seems perhaps to retain its quantity best, but there is evidence that Tennyson held it to be shortened, and I do not know whether it might be an exception or go with theory, piety, poetry, &c. Again, where a final syllable should be lengthened or not shortened by position, but lacks its consonantal support, I have put a in the gap: these weak places are chiefly due to my accepting Stone's unchanging valuation of h. My emancipation from Stone's rules was gradual, so that I have not been able to distinguish definitely my earlier experiments from the later, in which the quantities are such as I have now come to approve of: but my line-for-line paraphrase of Virgil is such a later experiment. It was accompanied in the New Quarterly by a long examination of the Virgilian hexameter, to which I would refer any one who is interested in the subject. In these English hexameters I have used and advocate the use of Miltonic elision. The mark in the text shows where I have purposely allowed a short syllable to sustain a long place. Though the difficulty of adapting our English syllables to the Greek rules is very great, and even deterrent-for I cannot pretend to have attained to an absolutely consistent scheme yet the experiments that I have made reveal a vast unexplored field of delicate and expressive rhythms hitherto unknown in our poetry: and this amply rewarded me for my friendly undertaking. I EPISTLE I TO L. M. WINTRY DELIGHTS Now in wintry delights, and long fireside meditation, We, whose first memories reach half of a century backward, May praise our fortune to have outliv'd so many dangers,Faultiness of Nature's unruly machinery or man's-; For, once born, whatever 'tis worth, LIFE is to be held to, Its mere persistence esteem'd as real attainment, Its crown of silver reverenc'd as one promise of youth Fruiting, of existence one needful purpose accomplish'd: And 'twere worth the living, howe'er unkindly bereft of Those joys and comforts, throu' which we chiefly regard it: Nay, set aside the pleasant unhinder'd order of our life, Our happy enchantments of Fortune, easy surroundings, Courteous acquaintance, dwelling in fair homes, the delight of Long-plann'd excursions, the romance of journeying in lands Historic, of seeing their glory, the famous adornments. Giv'n to memorial Earth by man, decorator of all-time, (-As we saw with virginal eyes travelling to behold them,-) Her gorgeous palaces,her tow'rs and stately cathedrals; Where the turrets and domes of pictured Tuscany slumber, 21 |