Deficiencies.

On review of our English verse, we frequently find lines not in accordance with our general rule, both in blank verse and rhyme. Sometimes a departure from the general rule may be proper and necessary; but not frequently, nor without some cause. The following is an example in blank verse:

"In that dread moment, how the frantic soul

Raves round the walls | of her | clay tenement."—Blair.

This, from a well written poem, is deficient in one point only: the third foot of the second line is a pyrrhic, where a full sounding iambic is wanting to make a regular correspondence. If the disordered state of the mind is represented by the irregularity of the verse, it is excusable.

The following is an example in rhyme :

"View the whole earth's vast landscape unconfin'd

Or view, in Britain, all her glories join'd."—Young.

In this couplet a regular correspondence is wanting, by there being two much quantity in the first line. The syllables being mostly long, and six in succession, by the common rules of scansion, or by giving them their natural sounds, as their sense requires. This augments the line in quantity and time both, and renders it difficult to be read, in succession with other lines, without suppressing some of the sounds. This is a rare example of three spondees in succession, whereas two in succession, in common cases, are considered redundant; especially so in rhyme.

The following is another example, and from one of our best poets, as also the foregoing.

"Awake, my St. John, leave all meaner things

To low ambition, and the pride of kings."-Pope.

On this couplet, there is not so regular a correspondence as is common from the same bard. This may be readily perceived by the ear; and I will also point out the deficiencies by inspection. The first line will pass for iambic, but is not purely so, as some of the sounds, arranged as short syllables, are longer than common short syllables: the two words St. John, by just pronunciation are each entitled to some degree of accent, and nearly equal; the same observation will apply to the word all. But in their relative situation, these sounds may be somewhat depressed in reading, but cannot be made very short.

The last line contains some very short sounding syllables, and also a pyrrhic in the middle place. The first line also contains two intermediate pauses, and the last but one. From these several circumstances, the last line being less than the other, in time and quantity, there is not a very regular correspondence between them, and unlike to the following:

"The man, for wisdom's various arts renown'd,

Long exercis'd in woes, oh muse, resound!"-Pope's Il. These lines are sheer iambic, except in one instance, and the sounds are about equal; the first line contains one more short syllable, and the last, one more pause, which brings them equal in time and quantity, and makes a regular and harmonious correspondence. The foregoing may be sufficient to illustrate the principles of forming correspondencies; and, by the foregoing examples, we may see that our best poets are sometimes deficient in this respect; but this is not wholly the fault of the poets such is our language, that it is sometimes impossible to make such arrangements as harmony requires, without marring the sense, or marring the diction.

Our language, I have thought, contains too great a proportion of short sounds: the word ambition is composed of three short syllables, which are only about equal to a common iambic foot, in time and quantity: we have other words of three syllables, which are similar. Hence, we see the occasional introduction of amphibrachs and anapæsts into iambic verse, and without augmenting the time or quantity beyond their proper boundaries.

But rules and restrictions, however, are necessary, in the case before us; and should necessarily be adhered to in composition; for in most cases, where anomalies and deficiencies occur, to mar the harmony of verse, the fault is not in the language, nor in any extraneous circumstance; but in the poet, as I could shew if it were necessary and time would permit.

Hitherto of correspondencies and just proportions between line and line; there are other branches which stand connected, and remain to be treated of.

3. Distribution of Pauses, Just Proportions, &c.

The pauses used in verse are those which are used in prose, the syntax pauses; and these have a twofold office, or twofold operation, in verse, viz. to mark the distinctions between sentences and parts of sentences, as in prose; and also to mark the pauses for rests, at proper intervals, dividing the verse into just proportions of sound, as harmony requires in reading or recitation.

Harmony requires a pause in verse, at the end of each line, to mark the metre of the verse, and also as rests. This may stand as a general rule, in all kinds of verse; but is, perhaps, more especially necessary to be observed in rhyme, than in blank verse.

And in addition to this, in all lines of any length, as lines of ten syllables, and those which are longer, pauses are necessary in the intermediate parts of the line, dividing the line into just proportions of sound, and as rests

in reading. Nor is it necessary that these should be uniformly similar from line to line; but variously diversified, and differently also in different kinds of verse; but as a general rule. The sounds and pauses should be so arranged from line to line, as to make equation of time, and with pauses at proper intervals for rests. This nature dictates as prerequisite for reading verse, and harmony requires it. And this general rule should be observed in composition, if conveniently practicable without marring

the verse.

To this I will cite a few examples.

"O sacred solitude, divine retreat!

Choice of the prudent! envy of the great.
By thy pure stream, or in thy waving shade,
We court fair wisdom, that celestial maid:
The genuine offspring of her lov'd embrace,
(Strangers on earth) are innocence and peace.
There, from the ways of men, laid safe ashore,
We smile to hear the distant tempest roar;

There, bless'd with health, with bus'ness unperplex'd,
This life we relish, and ensure the next."-Young.

In these lines we have as good an exemplification of our rule as we commonly find; and they may scarcely be said to need any amendment, as respects the distribution of pauses. Here are pauses at the end of each line, and in the intermediate parts of each line, except two. It is not always necessary that there should be pauses in the intermediate parts of each line in some cases there should not be; but not so perhaps, in this case: this being a dispassionate piece of composition, and the numbers flowing steadily from line to line, perhaps a short pause in the fifth and eighth lines may be thought more convenient in reading; over the lines where pauses may occur, I have placed this mark ['].

The following paragraph may be found still more unexceptionable.

"All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body nature is, and God the soul;

That, chang'd through all, is yet in all the same,
Great in the earth, as in th' ethereal frame;
Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees;

Lives through all life, extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent ;
Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part,
As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart;

As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns,
As the rapt seraph, that adores and burns:
To him, no high, no low, no great, no small;

He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all."-Pope.

This paragraph contains a greater number of intermediate pauses than is common; but which the kind of verse and subject matter seemed to require. In the first line only, an intermediate pause may be wanting, over which I have placed the designating mark. In these lines we have a rare example of the distribution of pauses, and also of harmonious correspondencies, in minor parts of the verse, continued in succession: a parallel instance to which is seldom seen.

Different kinds of verse require different distributions of sounds and pauses, both for sense and harmony. The following is a specimen of the common kind of pentam. eter rhyme, in which the numbers flow with a steady and regular movement; not with rapidity or pathos, and not with a dull and groveling pace.

"Ye sacred muses, with whose beauty fir'd,
My soul is ravish'd, and my brain inspir'd;
Whose priest I am, whose holy fillets wear,
Would you your poet's first petition hear:
Give me, the ways of wandering stars, to know;
The depths of heaven above, and hell below.
Teach me the various labors of the moon,
And whence proceed, th' eclipses of the sun;
Why flowing tides, prevail upon the main,
And in what dark recess, they shrink again;
What shakes this solid earth, what cause delays,
The summer nights, and shortens winter days.
But if my heavy blood, restrain the flight
Of my freed soul, aspiring to the height
Of nature, and unclouded fields of light,
My next desire is, void of care and strife,
To lead a safe, secure, inglorious life:
A country cottage, near a crystal flood;
A winding valley, and a lofty wood.

Some god, conduct me to the sacred shades,
Where bacchanals are sung by Spartan maids;
Or lift me high, to Hemus' hilly crown;

Or, in the plains of Tempe, lay me down;

Or lead me to some solitary place,

And cover my retreat from human race."-Dryden's V.

These lines, from one of our best English bards, are harmonious, generally; the triplet less so than the other lines. The distribution of pauses is such as sense and harmony require, generally; and,

in this respect, the composition is incapable of amendment. But we may perceive, however, that, in several lines which have no intermediate pauses, nature dictates some short pauses, in reading those lines, and also at the ends of the two first lines of the triplet, accordingly as I have placed the designating mark over the lines, and over where the pauses may occur.

On review of the above cited example, and also of the other two before cited, we perceive that the composition is such as harmony requires; and that the arrangements of the pauses are generally in accordance with the harmony of the verse. We perceive also, in each of those examples, some minor deficiences, where nature requires some additional short pauses in reading, which syntax does not require. Nature and harmony go hand in hand, as harmony is derived from nature: what nature requires, harmony requires also, in the case now before us.

We hence perceive, that the rules of syntactic construction do not always coincide with the laws of harmony and rules of versification, in every minor branch. But this is what the poet should aim at generally, so to construct and arrange his sentences, as to bring the arrangement of his pauses in accordance with the laws of harmony, and not to clash with them. This may be commonly done, as in the examples above cited.

But so to arrange sentences and parts of sentences, in verse, as to mark every minor pause, which nature requires in reading and recitation, is found to be impossible: it cannot be done without marring the verse; and hence two other pauses are substituted, to supply the deficiency, called the poetic pauses, which are to be used occasionally, in reading and recitation. And as the composition and reading of verse have some degree of connection, which the poet should not be ignorant of, these pauses may be properly introduced and treated of here.

4. The Poetic Pauses.

The poetic pauses are so called, because they are used in verse and not in prose. They are used in reading verse, in addition to the syntax pauses, when the latter occur less frequently than harmony requires; and at such intervals in the verse, in which the sense will admit a pause, and the syntax requires none.

These pauses are essentially but one; but they are called two, because they are used in two situations: one in the intermediate part of the line, and the other at the end of the line. They are hence called by two names: one the cæsural pause, and the other the final pause.

The cæsural pause derives its name from the word caesura, which, as far as I can ascertain, in its original