The Principles of English MetreOxford University Press, H. Milford, 1923 - 326 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
accent actual anacrusis anapaestic antistrophe arsis arsis and thesis beat blank verse cadence caesura classical coincide combination compensatory pause consonants couplet dactylic disyllabic division duration effect elision emotional emphasis English verse enjambement equal equivalent examples falling rhythm feet feminine five-foot frequently give Greek groups heavy syllables hexameter iamb iambic ictus ictus falls intervals length light syllables lines liquid consonant long syllable lyric marked melody metre metrical ictus metrical pause metrical stress metrists Milton Milton's Prosody monosyllabic foot movement natural normal number of syllables occur Paradise Lost period phonetic pitch poem poetic poetry poets primary rhythm probably prose prosody quantity quatrain regular rhetorical rhythmical rime rising rhythm scan scansion secondary rhythm sense sense-pauses Shakespeare short syllables song sonnet sounds speech speech-verse spondee stanza stressed syllables substitution Swinburne Swinburne's tendency Tennyson tercets thee thesis thou trisyllabic trochaic trochee unstressed usually vowel words θα
Popular passages
Page 191 - Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean, Tears from the depth of some divine despair Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes, In looking on the happy Autumn-fields, And thinking of the days that are no more.
Page 261 - I am the daughter of Earth and Water, And the nursling of the Sky ; I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores ; I change, but I cannot die. For after the rain when with never a stain The pavilion of Heaven is bare, And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams Build up the blue dome of air...
Page 263 - Homer ruled as his demesne : Yet did I never breathe its pure serene Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken ; Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes He...
Page 259 - Her home is on the deep. With thunders from her native oak She quells the floods below — As they roar on the shore, When the stormy winds do blow; When the battle rages loud and long, And the stormy winds do blow. The meteor flag of England Shall yet terrific burn; Till danger's troubled night depart And the star of peace return. Then, then, ye ocean-warriors! Our song and feast shall flow To the fame of your name, When the storm has ceased to blow; When the fiery fight is heard no more, And the...
Page 207 - THERE was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, The earth, and every common sight, To me did seem Apparelled in celestial light, The glory and the freshness of a dream. It is not now as it hath been of yore ; — Turn wheresoe'er I may, By night or day, The things which I have seen I now can see no more.
Page 222 - Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains In cradle of the rude imperious surge, And in the visitation of the winds Who take the ruffian billows by the top, Curling their monstrous heads and hanging them With deafening clamour in the slippery clouds...
Page 223 - To-day, my Lord of Amiens and myself Did steal behind him, as he lay along Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out Upon the brook that brawls along this wood...
Page 97 - Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime, Where the rage of the vulture, the love of the turtle, Now melt into sorrow, now madden to crime?
Page 273 - Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows, And when we meet at any time again, Be it not seen in either of our brows That we one jot of former love retain.
Page 239 - On Linden, when the sun was low, All bloodless lay the untrodden snow ; And dark as winter was the flow Of Iser, rolling rapidly. But Linden saw another sight, When the drum beat at dead of night, Commanding fires of death to light The darkness of her scenery.