English and the other Germanic languages use an accentual rhythm in their verse system. This accentual rhythm, together with aUitera tion, but with scarcely any perceptible attempt at foot-division, is found in the earliest known Germanic poetry. It is fully illustrated in what has come down to us of Old Saxon, Old Norse, and Anglo-Saxon, as, for example, in the (Helfand) and the (Lay of Hildebrand' (both Old-Saxon), in the (Atli) and (Herber& lays (Icelandic), and in (Beowulf) and the poems • of Caedmon and Cynevmlf (all Anglo-Saxon). In this early poetry the accented syllables are :imited in number, but there is considerable lat itude as to die ntnnber of unaccented Syllables. The regular line consists of tvro half lines fused together by the alliteration. The follow ing two verses from (Beowulf) may be taken as characteristic : Oft Scytd Smear aceathana Ihreattun.
atom= maagthum. • moodo-setia ofteals.
("Oft &yid Strafing raft away their rotarl-benclow from tbo throngs of his foe& from many a people.' ) End-rhytne is practically unknown. The earliest deliberate use of it m a Germanic dia lect is in Otfried's (Evangely," written in Frankish in the latter part of the 9th century. Under the influence of Romance versification,' the old native alliterative unrhyming system gradually disappeared in favor of the full and regular syllabic count and end-rhyme. We have a good example of the transition stage in the combination of the two forms in Laymen's (Brut' (c. 1200). In this long poem both rhyme and alliteration are employed and, while there ta some attempt at foot-division, there is still much freedom in the number of unstressed syllables, a freedom which, like the use of alliteration, has never totally disappeared from English versification. By the 14th century the innova tion had made such headway in England that it brought about a species of revolt, which re sulted in the production of the very character istic alliterative and rhymeless poem, Lang land's Tiers Plowman.' 'Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knyght,) by an unknown author, shows a compromise, for in its main body it is a rhymeless alliterative poem, but has short rhyming lines at the end of each stanza. The beautiful lyric, (Pearl,' has a combination of elaborate alliteration and elaborate rhyme. The genius of Chaucer, however, decided the contest between the old and the new forms, and from his time the prindples generally recognized in English verse are accentual rhythm and syllabic count, with free use of rhyme and occasional use of alliteration as an ornament. Freedom in the number of unstressed syllables persisted in many poems during the Middle English period, and at later times in popular ballads and in the °tumbling verse* of early modern Eng lish poets. 'This same freedom was revived by Swift in some of his humorous pieces, by Cole drige in (Christabel,) by Scott in several of his narrative poems, and by numerous imitators down to the present day. The writers of ver.s libre, who are in revolt against nearly all metri cal conventions, insist on this freedom as in dispensable. . The measures and combinations of measures in use in English versification are extremely numerous and varied. The feet most common are the iambic, the trochaic, the anapwstic, and the dactylic. There are lines of one foot, monometer; two feet, dimeter; three feet, trimeter; four feet, tetrameter; five feet, pentameter; six feet, hexameter or Alex andrine; seven feet, heptameter or septenanus; and eight feet, octameter. The combination of the hexameter with the heptameter forrned the celebrated ((poulter's measure,* which had con siderable vogue among 16th century writers. Perhaps it may be said that since Chaucer's time the central English line is the iambic pentameter, which, when written with every two lines rhyming together but not rhyming with what precedes or follows, forms what is known as the heroic couplet, and, when written without rhyme, is specifically called blank verse. The iambic pentameter is also a highly important line in German poetry, while in Dutch the most characteristic of verse forms is the Alexandrine. Iambic pentameter is used in English to form several distinctive stanzas, like Rime Royal, the Spenserian stanza, and the Ottava Rinia. It is also used almost but not quite exclusively in the Sonnet Rime Royal, a stanza of seven lines, is found in Chaucer's (Troilus and Cresida,) in (The Kingis Quhair) by James I of Scotland, in Sackville's (Induction) to the (Mirrour of Magistrates,' and in Shakespeare's (Lucrece.) The Spenserian stanza of mne lines, the last of which is an Alexandrine, was invented by Spenser for (The Faerie Queene.' It is used in Thomson's (Castle of Indolence,) in Beattie's (Ifinstrel,) in Byron's (Guide Harold,' and in Shelley's (Adonais.) The Ottava Rima, of eight lines, is handled to great perfection in the romantic spirit by Shelley and Keats and in a humorously satincal way by Byron in (Beppo) and (Don Juan.' The sonnet, a complete poem in 14 lines with an intricate rhyme-scheme, has been written by some of the greatest English poets — Spenser, Sidney, Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Rossetti, and 'Mrs. Browning. Blank verse proper, that is, unrhymed iambic pentameter measure, has, held its ground steadily in English versification since its introduction in the 16th century by Henry Howard, earl of Surrey (c. 1516-47) in his translation (1557)
of the second and fourth books of Virgil's (lEneid.) Some blank verse occurs, it is true, in Chaucer's (Tale of Melibee,) but it was Sur rey who established it in English poetry. It was applied to tragedy by Sackville and Norton in (Gorbodue (1565), was highly developed by Marlowe in (Tamburlaine the Great) and other dramas, was brought to perfection by Shakes peare, and since his time has been the generally accepted medium for English dramatic poetry. It is used for the same purpose in German. It has also been extensively employed for epic and reflective poetry. Such representative Eng lish works as Milton's (Paradise Lost,) Thom son's (Seasons,' Young's (Night Thoughts,' Keats' (Hyperion,' Browning's (The Ring and the Book,' and Tennyson's (Idylls of the King) are in blank verse. An attempt was made m the reign of Elizabeth by Gabriel Harvey and some of his literary fnends to naturalize in English the quantitative dactylic hexameter and other classic metres, but their efforts were a dismal failure. The dactylic hexameter based on accent instead of quantity has been used sparingly in English verse, but it attained some success as produced by Southey, Clough, Kings ley, and, especially, Longfellow. It has also been successfully cultivated in German poetry, as, for example, by Schiller. Numerous lyric forms, such as the Ode, Ballade, Rcmdeau, Ron de], Sestina, Triolet, Villanelle, and Chant Royal, made their appearance at an early stage in different European literatures, and have been revived with varying degrees of success by some modern writers. They can be no more than mentioned in the present article, for they present a complicated technique, which may best be studied in some good book on versification. Writers of what has come to be known in quite recent years as vers libre are, as already stated, in revolt against hitherto accepted metncal con ventions. They maintain that expression is the thing, and that rhyme and metre hamper the poet's full and free expression. Their definition of vers libre is °a verse-form based upon cadence.* Its unit is neither the foot nor the line, but the strophe. Its rhythm is therefore not the rhythm of foot or line, but of the strophe only, and within the strophe it must have perfect freedom of swing as determined by, and con sistently with, the demands of the speaking voice and the necessity for breathing spaces. Among the vers librists there are extremists, known as the Paroxysmists in France and the Vorticists in England, and there are many other grada tions in their ranks, but there is also a com paratively conservative and well-balanced Centre party. The movement is too new and its ramifications too extensive and manifold .to be adequately discussed here. It may be said, however, that, whether its theory will eventually establish itself or not, much genuine, thought ful, and sincere poetic work has already ap peared under the otitis of vers libre. In• the poetry of the various Celtic languages, ancient and modern, there is an intricate and, in many respects, a beautiful system of versification, which may, with great profit, be intensively studied by those who are interested in the general subject.
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