VERSE, the name given to an assemblage of words so placed together as to produce a metrical effect. The art of making, and the science of analysing, such verses is known as versification. According to Max Muller, there is an analogy between versus and the Sanskrit term, vritta, which is the name given by the ancient grammarians of India to the rule determining the value of the quantity in Vedic poetry. A verse is a series of rhythmical syllables, divided by pauses, and destined to occupy a single line.
The chief principle in ancient verse was quantity, i.e., the amount of time involved in expressing a syllable. Accordingly, the two basal types which lie at the foundation of classical metre are "longs" and "shorts." The convention was that a long syllable was equal to two short ones : accordingly there was a real truth in calling the succession of such "feet" metre, for the length, or weight, of the syllables forming them could be, and was, measured. In Greek verse, there might be an ictus (stress), which fell upon the long syllable, but it could only be a regulating element, and accent was always a secondary ele ment in the construction of Greek metre. There are naturally only two movements, the quick and the slow. Thus we have the anapest (v -) and the dactyl (- v v), which are equal, and differ only as regards the position of their parts. After these follow two feet which must be considered as in their essence non metrical as it is only in combination with others that they can be come metrical. These are the spondee (--) and the pyrrhic ( Of more essential character are the iambic (.?.-) and the trochee (- . Besides these definite types, the ingenuity of formalists
has invented an almost infinite number of other "feet." It is, perhaps, necessary to mention some of the principal of these, although they are, in the majority of cases, purely arbitrary. In the rapid measures we find the tribrach (- v , the molossus (- - -), the amphibrach
- ?,), the amphimacer (- v -), the bacchius ( and the antibacchius (-
There is a foot of four syllables, the choriamb (- -) and one of five, the dochmiac ( v Of the metres of the ancients, by far the most often employed, and no doubt the oldest, was the dactylic hexameter, a com bination of six feet, five successive dactyls interchangeable except in the fifth foot with spondees and a spondee or trochee:— This was known to the ancients as "epic" verse, in contrast to the various lyrical measures. The poetry of Homer is the typical
example of the use of the epic hexameter, and the character of the Homeric saga led to the fashion by which the dactylic hexameter, whatever its subject, was styled "heroic metre." The earliest epics, doubtless, were chanted to the accompaniment of a stringed instrument, marking the pulsation of the verse We pass, by a natural transition, to the pentameter, which was used with the hexameter, to produce the effect which was early called elegiac, and its form shows the appropriateness of this custom :— A hexameter, full of energy and exaltation, followed by a descend ing and melancholy pentameter, had an immediate tendency to take a complete form, and this is the origin of the stanza. Such a distich was called an elegy, EXEyeiov, as specially suit able to an gXeyos or lamentation. It is difficult to say with cer tainty whether the distich so composed was essential as an accompaniment to flute-music in the earliest times, or how soon there came to be written purely literary elegies towards which the melody stood in a secondary or ornamental relation.
Iambic metre was, next to the dactylic hexameter, the form of verse most frequently employed by the poets of Greek antiquity. It was not far removed from prose; it gave a writer opportunity for expressing popular thoughts in a manner which simple men could appreciate, being close to their own unsophisti cated speech. In particular, it presented itself as a heaven-made instrument for the talent of Euripides.