Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/259

IX] CLASSIC METRE AND CHRISTIAN EMOTION 241 Pindar is a final example of the unison of words, metres, and music in Greek poetry. Emotion is not the most palpable element in his stately strophes, those supremely Greek strophes, themselves such ex- amples of measure and proportion, of which they also sing. Whatever emotions are expressed in his epini- cian odes are framed in a consideration of all life's factors and are modulated by reason. Pindar is not as naive as Homer in the admission of emotional desires. Yet he excludes only the unseemly. Like- wise the dramatists. Theirs also is a complete con- sideration of life's factors, including the emotions which come to mortals. ^Eschylus and Sophocles are deeply concerned with the conflict between human will and overhanging destiny. They contribute to its ethical adjustment by dramatizing the ruin entailed by unrestrained impulse and lawless act. He who does not modulate his acts finds himself wrapped within fate's dread measures. The metres of the dramas correspond to their sub- stance. The iambic trimeter, well suited to narrative verse, is strengthened and dignified with frequent spondees, while the too rapid anapaest is avoided, though Euripides often uses the still quicker tribrach. The varied strophes of the choral odes suit the sub- stance as closely as with Pindar. iEschylus' weighty thoughts roll in periods unrivalled in sweep and mel- ody. With Sophocles words, metre, music, produce the perfect dramatic whole. Disintegration begins with Euripides. His choral odes tend to fall away from perfect pertinency to the drama. With such discrepancy of contents there can be no perfect form.