The Principles of English Metre (Classic Reprint) - Hardcover

Egerton Smith

9780656386437: The Principles of English Metre (Classic Reprint)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0656386436 ISBN 13: 9780656386437

Publisher: Forgotten Books, 2019

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Excerpt from The Principles of English Metre

Before plunging into the detailed work for this book I thought that a formula might be 'stated which would cover the whole range of modern English verse; but it was soon evident that no such simple formula was possible, that metrists have assumed a degree of homogeneity which is not actually found, that there was more complexity than their generalizations would lead one to expect, that there is an underlying law, but something at once less rigid and more comprehensive than any they had yet stated. John son's opinion that 'the essence of verse is regularity, and its ornament is variety' is often quoted with approval; but how is this combination effected? Does it mean now one, now the other; law and order prevailing in one part, Bolshevism asserting itself in another; that is to say, the verse sometimes rhythmical, sometimes not This position I should be unwilling to accept, and I prefer to consider, with the poets themselves, that rhythm is an essential of poetry, and that the freedom is within the rhythmic law, not a violation of it.

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