The chief characteristic of this style is evidently a determination to produce rhyme and a sort of metrical balance in the lines, no matter how unnatural the effects may seem, as compared with the language of prose. What is remarkable, too, is that, with all this preponderating devotion to the supposed requirements of form, there appears to be, both in Pope and Dryden, a marked absence of any desire to produce the finer qualities of sound, like those of assonance, phonetic syzygy and gradation, which make poetry really musical. With all their transpositions, they never succeeded in producing the purely melodious effects of Tennyson and Longfellow. By the alteration of words is meant either the changing of their conventional accents, or the adding to them or taking from them of letters or syllables. In some cases, these changes may augment the effect of the thought. On account of their real or supposed resemblance to archaic, dialectic, or colloquial uses of language, and for the very reason that the words are not in the highest sense elegant, they emphasize the fact that the style is natural for the circumstances; and the very quaintness of it, like the rustic air and dress of an otherwise pretty maiden, adds to its attractiveness. Thus Thomas Chatterton, in Bristowe Tragedy, in connection with many changes in spelling which need not be noted here, alters parts, crows, spectacle, and noble; e. g.: The bloody axe his body fair Into four parties cut; And every part and eke his head, Upon a pole was put. One part did rot on Kynwulft hill, And one from off the castle gate, The crowen did devour; The other an St. Powle's good gate, A dreary spectacel ; Its head was placed on the high cross, In high street most nobel. As we should expect from a dialect writer, the poems of Burns are full of examples of this. For a' that and a' that, Their tinsel show and a' that, The honest man, though e'er sae poor, Is king o' men for a' that. -Is there for honest Poverty. Heard ye o' the tree o' France, I watna what 's the name o''t. -Tree of Liberty. And Shakespear, in this single sentence, shortens one word and lengthens another. I 'gin to be a-weary of the sun. -Macbeth, v., 5. For every legitimate effect scores of instances in which Notwithstanding cases in which these alterations are appropriate, it is easy to see that the tendency causing them may be carried too far. produced by them, there are nothing better can be said of them than that they represent slovenly workmanship. This is true sometimes of forms so familiar to us that the altered words seem scarcely to be altered at all; as, for instance, in cases of apheresis or front-cut, like I'll, he 's, 't is, 'neath, 'tween; of syncope or mid-cut, like o'er, e'en, e'er; and of apocope or end-cut, like o', wi", and i'. Whatever may be thought of these cases, however, there is no doubt about the effects of less familiar changes. Notice the following: But peaceful was the night Wherein the Prince of Light His reign of peace upon the earth began ; Whispering new joys to the mild ocean. -Hymn on the Nativity: Milton. I joyless view thy rays adorn The faintly marked distant hill. -Lament: Burns. And at his side by that same tide -Winstanley: Jean Ingelow. And so sepulchred in such pomp dost lie, That kings for such a tomb would wish to die. -On Shakespear: Milton. -The Man Who Never Laughed Again: Wm. Morris. I stand 'mazèd in the moonlight. -The Unbeloved: Massey. Yet are 'ware of a sight, yet are 'ware of a sound. -A Rhapsody of Life's Progress: Mrs. Browning. O perfect love that 'dureth long. -Afternoon at a Parsonage: Jean Ingelow. And 'plaineth of love's disloyalties. -Divided: Jean Ingelow. The fact that some of these latter words were once used in English without prefixes, does not excuse these elisions. Most readers feel that this had nothing to do with their appearance in the particular places where we find them, and that they were used here solely because their writers did not exercise the skill needed in order to construct their lines so as to contain words like amazed, aware, endureth, and complaineth. If nothing else can show us the inappropriateness of these changes in serious poetry, the way in which they are used for comic effects should do it; for example: Stick close to your desks, and never go to sea, -Pinafore: Gilbert. I du believe in prayer an' praise That lays all thought o' sin to rest; But, O! I du in interest. -Bigelow Papers: Lowell. CHAPTER XIV. SACRIFICE OF SENSE TO SOUND CONTINUED. Omission of Words or Ellipsis indicating Crudeness-Leading to Obscurity because Meanings are conveyed by Phrases as well as by WordsMisuse of Words, Enallage-Poetic Sounds are Artistic in the Degree in which they really represent Thought and Feeling. THE HE alteration of words leads to results far less serious than the omission of them, which is the fault that we have next to consider; for while the former makes the style less natural, and, so far as art is to be judged by the standards of nature, less artistic, the latter makes it less useful, at times, indeed, well-nigh unintelligible. Omission or ellipsis is an exaggeration of terseness in style, which is often a great excellence. In all kinds of writing, but especially in that appealing to the imagination, it is a fault to express too much. Those to whom poetry is naturally addressed derive their main satisfaction and therefore interest, from that which influences them in the way of suggestion, leaving their fancies free to range where and as they will. Notice in. the following how much the ellipses-and there are many of them-add to the vivaciousness of the effect, and at the same time how little they detract from its clearness. Coriolanus.-Hear'st thou, Mars? Aufidius.-Name not the god, thou boy of tears- Aufidius.-No more |