English Verse Part 32

Crabbe's poems are the latest to use the strict Popean couplet for narrative and descriptive purposes, and his couplets have a certain characteristic reticence and vigor. Professor Woodberry praises them in an interesting pa.s.sage on "the old heroic rhymed couplet, that simplest form of English verse music, which could rise, nevertheless, to the almost lyric loftiness of the last lines of the _Dunciad_; so supple and flexible; made for easy simile and compact metaphor; lending itself so perfectly to the sudden flash of wit or turn of humor; the natural sh.e.l.l of an epigram; compelling the poet to practice all the virtues of brevity; checking the wandering fancy, and repressing the secondary thought; requiring in a masterly use of it the employment of more mental powers than any other metrical form; despised and neglected now because the literature which is embodied in it is despised and neglected, yet the best metrical form which intelligence, as distinct from poetical feeling, can employ." (_Makers of Literature_, p. 104.)

The flower-beds all were liberal of delight: Roses in heaps were there, both red and white, Lilies angelical, and gorgeous glooms Of wall-flowers, and blue hyacinths, and blooms Hanging thick cl.u.s.ters from light boughs; in short, All the sweet cups to which the bees resort; With plots of gra.s.s, and leafier walks between Of red geraniums, and of jessamine, And orange, whose warm leaves so finely suit, And look as if they shade a golden fruit; And midst the flowers, turfed round beneath a shade Of darksome pines, a babbling fountain played, And 'twixt their shafts you saw the water bright, Which through the tops glimmered with showering light.

(LEIGH HUNT: _The Story of Rimini_. 1816.)

Of this poem Mr. C. H. Herford says: "_The Story of Rimini_ is the starting-point of that free or Chaucerian treatment of the heroic couplet, and of the colloquial style, eschewing epigram and full of familiar turns, which Sh.e.l.ley in _Julian and Maddalo_ and Keats in _Lamia_ made cla.s.sical." (_Age of Wordsworth_, p. 83.) The treatment of the couplet is still characterized by but slight use of run-on lines, and a preference for the medial cesura; but on the other hand there is a large degree of freedom in the inversion of accents and other alterations of the regular stress. Compare the last line of the present specimen, and such other lines as

"Of crimson cloths hanging a hand of snow."

"Some, with a drag, dangling from the cap's crest."

"'Who's there?' said that sweet voice, kindly and clear."

"The other with the tears streaming down both his cheeks."

The last of these lines, an alexandrine, is also characteristic. Hunt imitated Dryden in the use of both alexandrine and triplet. Of the latter he said: "I confess I like the very bracket that marks out the triplet to the reader's eye, and prepares him for the music of it. It has a look like the bridge of a lute." (Preface to _Works_, 1832.) Mr.

A. J. Kent, in an article in the _Fortnightly Review_, says of Leigh Hunt that "he became the greatest master since the days of Dryden" of the heroic couplet. (1881, p. 224.)

A thing of beauty is a joy forever: Its loveliness increases; it will never Pa.s.s into nothingness; but still will keep A bower quiet for us, and a sleep Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

Therefore, on every morrow are we wreathing A flowery band to bind us to the earth, Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth Of n.o.ble natures, of the gloomy days, Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkened ways Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all, Some shape of beauty moves away the pall From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon, Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon For simple sheep; and such are daffodils With the green world they live in; and clear rills That for themselves a cooling covert make 'Gainst the hot season; the mid-forest brake, Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms: And such too is the grandeur of the dooms We have imagined for the mighty dead; All lovely tales that we have heard or read: An endless fountain of immortal drink, Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink.

(KEATS: _Endymion_, ll. 1-24. 1818.)

In the couplet of Keats, and of a number of his successors, we have a really different measure from the "heroic couplet" proper. The individual line and the couplet alike cease to be prominent units of the verse. The effect is therefore closely allied to that of blank verse; the rimes, not being emphasized by marked pauses, serving rather as means of tone color than as organizers of the verse. See Mr.

Saintsbury's remarks (quoted in the notes on Dryden, p. 195, above), on "lines made musical by the rhymes rather than divided by them." In like manner Mr. Symonds says that "the couplets of Marlowe, Fletcher, Sh.e.l.ley, and Keats follow the laws of blank verse, and add rhyme--that is to say, their periods and pauses are entirely determined by the sense." (_Blank Verse_, p. 66.) This is true of the couplets of Sh.e.l.ley and Keats, and to a less degree of those of Fletcher's _Faithful Shepherdess_, but will hardly apply to Marlowe, nor, as we have seen, to the Elizabethans in general.[24]

There was a Being whom my spirit oft Met on its visioned wanderings, far aloft, In the clear golden prime of my youth's dawn.

Upon the fairy isles of sunny lawn, Amid the enchanted mountains, and the caves Of divine sleep, and on the air-like waves Of wonder-level dream, whose tremulous floor Paved her light steps;--on an imagined sh.o.r.e, Under the gray beak of some promontory She met me, robed in such exceeding glory, That I beheld her not.

(Sh.e.l.lEY: _Epipsychidion_, ll. 190-200. 1821.)

Sh.e.l.ley carries the free treatment of this measure to the utmost limit.

The couplet is not felt to be of significance, and many lines are so irregular in stress as to make scansion difficult. Compare this pa.s.sage:

"The ringdove in the embowering ivy yet Keeps up her love-lament; and the owls flit Round the evening tower; and the young stars glance Between the quick bats in their twilight dance."[25]

The woods were long austere with snow: at last Pink leaflets budded on the beech, and fast Larches, scattered through pine-tree solitudes, Brightened, 'as in the slumbrous heart o' the woods Our buried year, a witch, grew young again To placid incantations, and that stain About were from her caldron, green smoke blent With those black pines'--so Eglamor gave vent To a chance fancy. When a just rebuke From his companion; brother Naddo shook The solemnest of brows; 'Beware,' he said, 'Of setting up conceits in nature's stead.'

(BROWNING: _Sordello_, ii. 1-12. 1840.)

Above the stem a gilded swallow shone, Wrought with straight wings and eyes of glittering stone As flying sunward oversea, to bear Green summer with it through the singing air.

And on the deck between the rowers at dawn, As the bright sail with brightening wind was drawn, Sat with full face against the strengthening light Iseult, more fair than foam or dawn was white.

Her gaze was glad past love's own singing of, And her face lovely past desire of love.

Past thought and speech her maiden motions were, And a more golden sunrise was her hair.

The very veil of her bright flesh was made As of light woven and moonbeam-colored shade More fine than moonbeams; white her eyelids shone As snow sun-stricken that endures the sun, And through their curled and colored clouds of deep Luminous lashes, thick as dreams in sleep, Shone as the sea's depth swallowing up the sky's The springs of unimaginable eyes.

(SWINBURNE: _Tristram of Lyonesse; the Sailing of the Swallow_.)

The huge high presence, red as earth's first race, Reared like a reed the might up of his mace, And smote: but lightly Tristram swerved, and drove Right in on him, whose void stroke only clove Air, and fell wide, thundering athwart: and he Sent forth a stormier cry than wind or sea When midnight takes the tempest for her lord; And all the glen's throat seemed as h.e.l.l's that roared; But high like heaven's light over h.e.l.l shone Tristram's sword, Falling, and bright as storm shows G.o.d's bare brand Flashed, as it sh.o.r.e sheer off the huge right hand Whose strength was as the shadow of death on all that land.

(_Ibid._: _The Last Pilgrimage_.)

It will be noticed that in Swinburne's use of the couplet the single line is even less the unit of measure than in Keats and Sh.e.l.ley; the periods correspond closely to those in the blank verse of Milton and Tennyson. Compare the specimens of blank verse on pp. 230 and 245. The second specimen shows the occasional use of the triplet and alexandrine.

So stood she murmuring, till a rippling sound She heard, that grew until she turned her round And saw her other sisters of the deep Her song had called while Hylas yet did sleep, Come swimming in a long line up the stream, And their white dripping arms and shoulders gleam Above the dark grey water as they went, And still before them a great ripple sent.

But when they saw her, toward the bank they drew, And landing, felt the gra.s.s and flowers blue Against their unused feet; then in a ring Stood gazing with wide eyes, and wondering At all his beauty they desired so much.

And then with gentle hands began to touch His hair, his hands, his closed eyes; and at last Their eager naked arms about him cast, And bore him, sleeping still, as by some spell, Unto the depths where they were wont to dwell; Then softly down the reedy bank they slid, And with small noise the gurgling river hid The flushed nymphs and the heedless sleeping man.

(WILLIAM MORRIS: _Life and Death of Jason_, iv. 621-641. 1867.)

B.--BLANK VERSE

Unrimed five-stress verse early became the accepted form for English dramatic poetry, and in the modern English period has become the favorite form for long continuous poems, narrative and reflective as well. In general, as will appear from the specimens, it is marked not only by the absence of rime but by a prevalent freedom of structure rarely found in the couplet.

The impetus toward the writing of blank verse seems to have been given by the influence of cla.s.sical humanism, the representatives of which grew sceptical as to the use of rime, on the ground that it was not found in cla.s.sical poetry. In Italy Giovanni Trissino wrote his _Sophonisbe_ and _Italia Liberata_ (1515-1548) in rimeless verses, and was looked upon as the inventor of _versi sciolti_, _i.e._ verses "freed" from rime. (See Schipper, vol. ii. p. 4.) See also below, in the notes on Surrey, and later under Imitations of Cla.s.sical Verse, for notes on the same movement.

On the nature of English blank verse, see J. A. Symonds's _Blank Verse_ (1895), a reprint of essays in the Appendix to his _Sketches and Studies in Southern Europe_. In his _Chapters on English Metre_ (chap. iv.), Mr.

J. B. Mayor criticises what he calls Mr. Symonds's "aesthetic intuitivism."

On the early history of English blank verse, see the article by Schroer, _Anfange des Blankverses in England, Anglia_, vol. iv. p. 1, and Mr. G.

C. Macaulay's _Francis Beaumont_, pp. 39-49.

Of Mr. Symonds's remarks on the general nature of blank verse the following are especially interesting: "English blank verse is perhaps more various and plastic than any other national metre. It is capable of being used for the most commonplace and the most sublime utterances....

Originally inst.i.tuted for the drama, it received in Milton's hands an epical treatment, and has by authors of our own day been used for idyllic and even for lyrical compositions. Plato mentions a Greek musical instrument called _panharmonion_, which was adapted to express the different modes and systems of melodious utterance. This name might be applied to our blank verse; there is no harmony of sound, no dignity of movement, no swiftness, no subtlety of languid sweetness, no brevity, no force of emphasis, beyond its scope." (_Blank Verse_, pp. 16, 17.)

"It seems adapted specially for thought in evolution; it requires progression and sustained effort. As a consequence of this, its melody is determined by the sense which it contains, and depends more upon proportion and harmony of sounds than upon recurrences and regularities of structure.... Another point about blank verse is that it admits of no mediocrity; it must be either clay or gold.... Hence, we find that blank verse has been the metre of genius, that it is only used successfully by indubitable poets, and that it is no favorite in a mean, contracted, and unimaginative age. The freedom of the renaissance created it in England. The freedom of our century has reproduced it. Blank verse is a type and symbol of our national literary spirit--uncontrolled by precedent or rule, inclined to extravagance, yet reaching perfection at intervals by an inner force and _vivida vis_ of native inspiration."

(_Ibid._ pp. 70-72.)

The earliest use of the term "blank verse," noted in the _New English Dictionary_, is in Nash's Preface to Greene's _Menaphon_, 1589: "the swelling b.u.mbast of bragging blanke verse." Some ten years later Shakspere used it in _Much Ado about Nothing_, V. ii., where Bened.i.c.k speaks of those heroes "whose names yet run smoothly in the even road of blank verse," but will not rime easily. In Chapman's _All Fools_ (1605) the young gallant, in describing his manifold accomplishments, says he could write

"Sonnets in Dozens, or your Quatorzains In any rhyme, Masculine, Feminine, Or Sdruciolla, or couplets, or Blank Verse."

_Sdruciolla_ is the Italian term for triple-rimed endings.

Forthwith Fame flieth through the great Libyan towns: A mischief Fame, there is none else so swift; That moving grows, and flitting gathers force: First small for dread, soon after climbs the skies, Stayeth on earth, and hides her head in clouds.

Whom our mother the Earth, tempted by wrath Of G.o.ds, begat: the last sister, they write, To Cus, and to Enceladus eke: Speedy of foot, of wing likewise as swift, A monster huge, and dreadful to descrive.

In every plume that on her body sticks,-- A thing in deed much marvelous to hear,-- As many waker eyes lurk underneath, So many mouths to speak, and listening ears.

By night she flies amid the cloudy sky, Shrieking, by the dark shadow of the earth, Ne doth decline to the sweet sleep her eyes: By day she sits to mark on the house top, Or turrets high, and the great towns affrays; As mindful of ill and lies as blazing truth.

(EARL OF SURREY: _aeneid_, book IV. 223-242. ab. 1540. pub. 1557.)

Surrey's translation of two books of the _aeneid_ may have been suggested by the translation (1541) made by Francesco Maria Molza, attributed at the time to Cardinal Ippolito de Medici. This was in Italian unrimed verse. (See Henry Morley's _First Sketch of English Literature_, p. 294, and his _English Writers_, vol. viii. p. 61.) The verse of Surrey, like Wyatt's, shows a somewhat mechanical adherence to the syllable-counting principle, in contrast to regard for accents.[26] Thus we find such lines as:

"Each palace, and sacred porch of the G.o.ds."

"By the divine science of Minerva."

There is a fairly free use of run-on lines; according to Schipper, 35 in the first 250 of the translation. Nevertheless, the general effect is monotonous and lacking in flexibility.

O Jove, how are these people's hearts abused!

What blind fury thus headlong carries them, That, though so many books, so many rolls Of ancient time record what grievous plagues Light on these rebels aye, and though so oft Their ears have heard their aged fathers tell What just reward these traitors still receive,-- Yea, though themselves have seen deep death and blood By strangling cord and slaughter of the sword To such a.s.signed, yet can they not beware, Yet cannot stay their lewd rebellious hands, But, suff'ring too foul reason to distain Their wretched minds, forget their loyal heart, Reject all truth, and rise against their prince?