Meter and Rhythm and Their Relation to Poetry. In Four Parts—Part IIAuthor(s): H. W. MagounSource: The New York Latin Leaflet, Vol. 7, No. 171 (Apr. 8, 1907), pp. 1-3Published by: Classical Association of the Atlantic StatesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40405530 .

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Vol VII Brooklyn, New York, April 8, 1907 No 171

METER AND RHYTHM AND THEIR RELA- TION TO POETRY By H W Magoun

In Four Parts- Part II There are but two strong accents to the line, m

this instance ; and the bars must correspond, if they are to accord with the facts. All will not agree as to which accents are the principal ones ; but in prac- tice two will always stand out above the others, plainly indicating the 4/4 character of the rhythm. A better analysis - due to a slight change which allows the sentence accent to be more appropriately placed, but does not alter the general effect - begins with a half or divided bar. It involves the same peculiar symbol for an extra short syllable, i. e., one having but half the usual length ('j), and runs as follows:

I) Know ye the land where the Cyprus and Myrtle I II - w w l_ ww ¿ - w - w 1 I

II Are emblems of deeds that are done in

their clime - |1 - 1 II ]| Where the rage of the | vulture, the love of II _w - s_ ^ I > w 1 V - w

the turtle, I!

|| Now melt into | softness, now madden to crime? II II w - wwl >wl/2 w - w Iv -2 H The remaining example has several extra shorts,

together with a few balancing pauses of the same brevity. It is in 2/4 time:

Half a league, I half a league, I half a league - V wi/2 I - V w 1/2 I - w- onward, - w 1

I All in the valley of death ! rode the six

hundred. | "> J6 1 I

I "Forward, the light brigade! Charge, for the I - wi/2V > w-i/2 -1 ww

guns !" he said. | > 1/2 V w 1/2 I

The feet contained in these bars are largely cretics rather than dactyls, and there is a fourth paeon in the second line; for the corresponding metrical scheme (obtained, without change of time, by ignor- ing the minor pauses and giving the bars their ordi- nary musical values) becomes, •

-~-|-w-l-~-l-v,A ■-w_l -l-w-l-^A

-ww l-w-H |-_-

To what extent do the bars of this rhythmical ren-

dering resemble the conventional feet obtained by scansion? And what is the basic form? From the above examples, it seems clear that these rhvthmical bars resemble the feet of the scansion schemes, merely in the fact that they are approximately equal (the symbols make them exactly so), but that they differ from them widely in another particular; for they are dependent upon the words and subordinate to them, while the feet of the meters are theoretical- ly supreme. Which shows the true metrical struc- ture - using the word metrical in its broader sense - the rhythmical analysis or the metrical (scansion) one? If it is the rhythmical analysis, why not say so? In other words, if rhythm is the fundamental thing, why is meter allowed to usurp its place and blind our eyes to the truth? This has a practical bearing in the Classics, which involve also another principle ; for their meters were based on rhythm and were therefore entirely unlike our own.

Applying the schemes for logaodic measures, which are now in common use, to the lines of Horace, and holding them down to a strict and accurate time value with a 3/8 movement which could not be gain- said, I found that no possible result could be ob- tained which was not a "jingle". The beauty of the poetry was gone. Countless experiments were then made for the purpose of obtaining a natural reading, which should be metrical and yet sound like poetry, in the same sense that we understand the word when it is applied to English verse.

The results which were finally obtained gave, on analysis, all the feet that are now ignored or pos- sibly denied by the grammars. In some cases feet were encountered which were unknown to me; but they appeared, on investigation, in Quintilian and in other native writers. How did it happen that such feet were described by those authorities? According to the analyses of scansion they do not exist. But on the basis used in the experiments they can be found not only in Latin and in Greek, but also in English and in German and even in Sanskrit. They can be found, moreover, in abundance. What does this mean?

According to the Schmidt- Westphal schemes, three of the more prominent logaoedic forms are usually taken to run as follows :

Sapphic Minor. lam sa|tis terlris nivis | atque di|rae - « '-> l-t- I - w U-A

Asclepiadean Minor. Maecenas, ata vis I edite regi | bus

■->-_u|-_ -J-Ï-A Alcaic.

O :matre | pulchra | filia pulchri or >:-~ I -> l-ww - « -A

In their general effect, these movements, if they are closely followed as here given, are quite similar to the rhythm of the "six-eight drum taps": r-r-|rum ty turn ty |tum ty turn r-r-|rum, etc. The difference

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2 THE LATIN LEAFLET

lies largely in the acents, which should be alike according to the schemes instead of being primary and secondary as they are in the "taps". No effect essentially different from that produced by the rhythm of the six-eight drum taps can be obtained from these lines without a change in the time. But if a change is made, the time must cease to be 3/8. No other alternative exists. It was found to be 4/4 - a time clearly recognized by the ancients - in the readings used in my experiments; and the move- ments, following the sense carefully (pauses are in- dicated by figures), ran about as follows:

Sa*>t>hic Minor.

lam satis ter|ris nivis at|que dirae | - wL. - |l_iww- I w 1 - 2 I Grandinis mi [sit pater et rubente I - wi_- I- WW2- wi__3 I

Dextera saclras iaculaltus arces | - w- 1- |i_iww- I w 1- L-i I Term it urbem. I - 'ww ->l/2 I I

A scie piade an Minor. II Maece|nas, atavis | edite regi|bus, || II |-2wwi_|-wwL^|-2 H || O et I praesidium et | dulce decus me um: II

H Sunt quos currículo I pulverem 01ym|picum|| il - - -wwL-l) - w w wU Iw L-ll

II Colle gisse iuvat metaque fer|vidis |J II w^ - 2 - wwil_|wi_ H M Evitata rotis I palmaque nolbilis |[ II vwLi| - w w 1 !_ I ̂ - 1 1) II Terra rum dominos | evehit ad delos: || il w w l_ 1 | - wwi- w|- 2 H

Alcaic. | O matre pul chra filia I pulchrior I I - U w - l_I- ww|i_w - 2 I I Quern criminolsis cumque vo|les modum || I - L-w-|l_ -w I w |L_ w- || I 1 Pojnes iambis, | sive fiamma | ll -l-w i|-w L_ - I

I Sive mari libet Hadriano. | I - ww- ww 1 - w- >i/2 1 I

Certain things in these analyses will seem strange. Elided syllables, for example, are treated as if they were ordinary shorts. This is due to the character of the rhythm. In the hexameter - for it is now ad- mitted that elided syllables were pronounced, and, if they were pronounced, they must have had a time value- they were somewhat shorter than shorts, and the difference, though slight, practically amounted to giving them the time of a sixteenth note, an ordinary short having the value of an eighth. In logaoedics the difference was not so marked, since the rhyth- mical elements of the lines constantly affected the pronunciation, and there was usually plenty of room for an elided syllable without crowding any of the

other elements of the bar. The tendency, therefore, was to stretch rather than to compress them.

It may seem also as though some liberties have been indulged in with respect to quantity; but as a matter of fact fewer liberties have been taken with it than are involved in the scansion schemes, and those that occur are only such as tend instinctively to be taken when the lines are read with a proper regard for the sense which they, are intended to con- vey. A deliberate or vanishing pronunciation, very like that which is constantly used in English poetry, is practically all that is involved; for the extra shorts which appear persist in being extra short even when an effort is made to have them otherwise.

There is still much to be learned about quantity. Conventional quantity, in fact, involves a number of absurdities. Me and mens, for example, are both given the same time value ( - ) in scanning. But the latter is approximately twice as long as the former, me having about the value of a dotted eighth note, while mens, unless it suffers correption, has that of a dotted quarter. The time beats will show this clearly.

The native grammarians distinctly recognized these differences. Quintilian, for instance, speaks of syllables that are 'shorter than shorts' and of others that are 'longer than longs'. He incidentally men- tions the fact that a short final syllable by some means fills out the time of a long: one at the end of a line. He does not tell how; but he had evidently noticed the phenomenon. Syllables in English are constantly extended by means of a vanishing pronun- ciation, and the same thing may easily have been done in Greek and in Latin. A final consonant in particular lends itself to such a treatment. In this respect it is better than a final long vowel. The extra longs of the above analyses are mostly of this char- acter. They are not to be stretched, therefore, to fill out the time, but they are to be pronounced slowly or with what may be called a lingering tendency such as the best readers of English poetry use. Variations from the regular prose accent are not to be used. See below.

Again, although et and -/* are both credited with the value w , it is not possible to make them of the same length without considerable effort. When the t precedes, it becomes, in effect, a part of the vowel sound, for the two are run together. In the other case they are not. Here, then, are two "shorts", one of which is only about half as long as the other, et having approximately the time of an eighth note, -/* that of a sixteenth.

Such words as tibi, mihi, and ego, are affected by this fact. Their time value is properly w - , which is the same in total length as that of two shorts. Each of these words can accordingly be used in place of two short syllables. If, however, an almost imper- ceptible pause (about a sixth of a second for ordi- nary speech) is used between any one of them and the words which precede and follow it, it must count for a short and a long syllable, since it will occupy the time of a short and long by virtue of the added pauses. For this reason the final syllable of such words is said to be common. But the words are not changed. The difference lies in the closeness, or otherwise, of the connection with the words which precede and follow in each case.

The Greek shows essentially the same phenomena,

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THE LATIN LEAFLET . 3

although there are differences in the details. The cretics which result from the use - for two shorts - of words having the time value of tibi ( - w - ), are regarded by the grammarians, both Greek and Latin, as legitimate feet in the hexameter. But that is not all. Defective long syllables must have been com- monly recognized ; for th.e use of such syllables at the beginning of a dactyl (1/2 >ww or > 1/2 ww or >ww 1/2) is clearly referred to by Diony- sius of Halicarnassus.

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