METRE (from the Greek airpor, a measure) is that quality of verso by which it is to the car distinguishable from prose. It is frequently held to be one of the essentials of poetry; imaginative thought being the other. No remon can be assigned for this opinion, the truth being that it is attributable only to our nature as men, by which we [eel pleasure in rhythmical arrangement of words, and consistently with which we cannot consider imaginative writing as perfect, unless couched in metre.
A distinction has been drawn between ancient and modern metres, one being said to depend on quantity, the other on accent ; quantity and accent being further supposed to differ in kind. A little reflection however will tend to convince us that delicacy of car has as much to do with the difference between ancient and modern metres as any fancied change from quantity Into accent.
The southern nations still retain this delicacy of ear, as we know from the marked difference in Italian between the pronunciation of double and single consonants, a difference to which our language isa Ftranger as far as (ism is concerned. Though re see no distinction in time between the second syllable of the words laborore and liberare, there is no reason why the itomatui should not ; and with that assump tion the whole difference between accent and quantity vanishes. It
would be useless to enumerate the names which have been given to metrea. The Greek and Roman metres from our own in being more numerous, and in allowing collocations of syllables (called feet ) such as we could scarcely feel to be consonant with rhythm. The cause of this difference seems to lie in the form of each Language.
Another grand distinction between ancient and modern metres is that of rhyme, which occurs but seldom in the former, and which, until the time of Shakspere, was nearly universal in the latter. Ancient and modern languages both afford specimens of the alliterative measure. (ALLITERATION.) Those who seek for further information on the snbject of English metres, particularly on peculiarities which have occasioned so much difficulty to the readers of Chaucer, will do well to consult Mr. Quest's History of English Metres: Some observations by Coleridge, prefixed to ' Christabel; are also worth attention.