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- referred only to some radical misconception;" that, "The word verse is derived (through versus from the Latin verto, I turn,) and * * * * it can be nothing but this derivation, which has led to the error of our writers upon prosody;" that, "It is this which has seduced them into regarding the line itself—the versus, or turning—as an essential, or principle of metre;" that, "Hence the term versification has been employed as sufficiently general, or inclusive, for treatises upon rhythm in general;" that, "Hence, also, [comes] the precise catalogue of a few varieties of English lines, when these varieties are, in fact, almost without limit;" that, "I," the aforesaid Edgar Allan Poe, "shall dismiss entirely, from the consideration of the principle of rhythm, the idea of versification, or the construction of verse;" that, "In so doing, we shall avoid a world of confusion;" that, "Verse is, indeed, an afterthought, or an embellishment, or an improvement, rather than an element of rhythm;" that, "This fact has induced the easy admission, into the realms of Poesy, of such works as the 'Télémaque' of Fenelon;" because, forsooth, "In the elaborate modulation of their sentences, THEY FULFIL THE IDEA OF METRE."—The Pioneer, a Literary and Critical Magazine (Boston, March, 1843,) Vol. I, p. 102 to 105.
- "Holding these things in view," continues this sharp connoisseur, "the prosodist who rightly examines that which constitutes the external, or most immediately recognisable, form of Poetry, will commence with the definition of Rhythm. Now rhythm, from the Greek [Greek: arithmos], number, is a term which, in its present application, very nearly conveys its own idea. No more proper word could be employed to present the conception intended; for rhythm, in prosody, is, in its last analysis, identical with time in music. For this reason," says he, "I have used, throughout this article, as synonymous with rhythm, the word metre from [Greek: metron], measure. Either the one or the other may be defined as the arrangement of words into two or more consecutive, equal, pulsations of time. These pulsations are feet. Two feet, at least, are requisite to constitute a rhythm; just as, in mathematics, two units are necessary to form [a] number.[1] The syllables of which the foot consists, when the foot is not a syllable in itself, are subdivisions of the pulsations. No equality is demanded in these subdivisions. It is only required that, so far as regards two consecutive feet at least, the sum of the times of the syllables in one, shall be equal to the sum of the times of the syllables in the other. Beyond two pulsations there is no necessity for equality of time. All beyond is arbitrary or conventional. A third or fourth pulsation may embody half, or double, or any proportion of the time occupied in the two first. Rhythm being thus understood, the prosodist should proceed to define versification as the making of verses, and verse as the arbitrary or conventional isolation of rhythm into masses of greater or less extent."—Ib., p. 105.
- No marvel that all usual conceptions and definitions of rhythm, of versification, and of verse, should be found dissatisfactory to the critic whose idea of metre is fulfilled by the pompous prose of Fenelon's Télémaque. No right or real examination of this matter can ever make the most immediately recognizable form of poetry to be any thing else than the form of verse—the form of writing in specific lines, ordered by number and chime of syllables, and not squared by gage of the composing-stick. And as to the derivation and primitive signification of rhythm, it is plain that in the extract above, both are misrepresented. The etymology there given is a gross error; for, "the Greek [Greek: arithmos], number," would make, in English, not rhythm, but arithm, as in arithmetic. Between the two combinations, there is the palpable difference of three or four letters in either six; for neither of these forms can be varied to the other, but by dropping one letter, and adding an other, and changing a third, and moving a fourth. Rhythm is derived, not thence, but from the Greek [Greek: rhythmos]; which, according to the lexicons, is a primitive word, and means, rhythmus, rhythm, concinnity, modulation, measured tune, or regular flow, and not "number."
- Rhythm, of course, like every other word not misapplied, "conveys its own idea;" and that, not qualifiedly, or "very nearly," but exactly. That this idea, however, was originally that of arithmetical number, or is nearly so now, is about as fanciful a notion, as the happy suggestion added above, that rhythm in lieu of arithm or number, is the fittest of words, because "rhythm in prosody is time in music!" Without dispute, it is important to the prosodist, and also to the poet or versifier, to have as accurate an idea as possible of the import of this common term, though it is observable that many of our grammarians make little or no use of it. That it has some relation to numbers, is undeniable. But what is it? Poetic numbers, and numbers in arithmetic, and numbers in grammar, are three totally different sorts of things. Rhythm is related only to the first. Of the signification of this word, a recent expositor gives the following brief explanation:
- ↑ [486] This appears to be an error; for, according to Dilworth, and other arithmeticians, "a unit is a number;" and so is it expounded by Johnson, Walker, Webster, and Worcester. See, in the Introduction, a note at the foot of p. 117. Mulligan, however, contends still, that one is no number; and that, "to talk of the singular number is absurd—a contradiction in terms;"—because, "in common discourse," a "number" is "always a plurality, except"—when it is "number one!"—See Grammatical Structure of the E. Language, §33. Some prosodists have taught the absurdity, that two feet are necessary to constitute a metre, and have accordingly applied the terms, monometer, dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, and hexameter,—or so many of them as they could so misapply,—in a sense very different from the usual acceptation. The proper principle is, that, "One foot constitutes a metre."—Dr. P. Wilson's Greek Prosody, p. 53. And verses are to be denominated Monometer, Dimeter, Trimeter, &c., according to "the number of feet."—See ib. p. 6. But Worcester's Universal and Critical Dictionary has the following not very consistent explanations: "Monometer, n. One metre. Beck. Dimeter, n. A poetic measure of four feet; a series of two meters. Beck. Trimeter, a. Consisting of three poetical measures, forming an iambic of six feet. Tyrwhitt. Tetrameter, n. A Latin or Greek verse consisting of four feet; a series of four metres. Tetrameter, a. Having four metrical feet. Tyrwhitt. Pentameter, n. A Greek or Latin verse of five feet; a series of five metres. Pentameter, a. Having five metrical feet. Warton. Hexameter, n. A verse or line of poetry, having six feet, either dactyls or spondees; the heroic, and most important, verse among the Greeks and Romans;—a rhythmical series of six metres. Hexameter, a. Having six metrical feet. Dr. Warton." According to these definitions, Dimeter has as many feet as Tetrameter; and Trimeter has as many as Hexameter!
