Chapter XVI

IMITATIONS OF CLASSICAL FORMS OF VERSE
AND STANZA

§ =209. The English hexameter.= Of all imitations of classical metres in English the best known and most popular is the hexameter. In the history of its development we have to distinguish two epochs--that of the first and somewhat grotesque attempts to introduce it into English poetry in the second half of the sixteenth century, and that of its revival in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The hexameter was introduced into English poetry by Gabriel Harvey (1545-1630), who, in his _Encomium Lauri_, attempted to imitate the quantitative classic verse in the accentual English language, paying attention as much as possible to the quantity of the English words.

Sir Philip Sidney followed with some poetical portions of his _Arcadia_ written in this metre; Stanyhurst (1545-1618) translated the first four books of Virgil in quantitative hexameters; in 1591 Abraham Fraunce translated Virgil's _Alexis_, and William Webbe, the metrist, turned into English the _Georgics_ and two eclogues of the same poet, also in quantitative hexameters; but all these efforts had little success on account of the unfitness of English for quantitative treatment. Robert Greene also employed this metre in some of his minor poems, but followed the accentual system; on this account he was more successful, but he found no imitators, and during the latter part of the seventeenth century the metre fell altogether into disuse.

In one isolated case about the middle of the eighteenth century it was revived by an anonymous translator of Virgil's first and fourth eclogues. But English hexameters did not begin to come into favour again before the close of the eighteenth century, when the influence of the study of German poetry began to make itself felt. Parts of Klopstock's _Messiah_ were translated by William Taylor (1765-1836) in the metre of the original. He also turned several passages of Ossian into hexameters (published in June, 1796, in the _Monthly Magazine_), and maintained that the hexameter, modified after the German fashion by the substitution of the accentual for the quantitative principle and the use of trochees instead of spondees, could be used with as good effect in English as in German. About the same time, Coleridge used the hexameter in some of his minor poems, _Hymn to the Earth_, _Mahomet_, &c., and Southey chose this form for his longer poem, _A Vision of Judgement_.

But it was not till the middle of the nineteenth century that the English hexameter came into somewhat more extensive use. It was at first chiefly employed in translations from the German. Goethe's _Hermann und Dorothea_ has been translated five times at least (for the first time by Cochrane, Oxford, 1850). The metre has also been employed in translations of classical poetry, especially Homer and Virgil, and in original poems, none of which, however, have attained general popularity except those by Longfellow, especially his _Evangeline_ and _The Courtship of Miles Standish_.

§ =210.= The hexameter is a six-foot catalectic verse theoretically consisting of five successive dactyls and a trochee. But the greatest rhythmical variety is given to this verse by the rule which allows a spondee to be used instead of any of the dactyls; in the fifth foot, however, this rarely occurs. In the sixth foot, moreover, the spondee is admissible instead of the trochee. The structure of the verse may thus be expressed by the following formula:

–́ ⏑͞⏑ –́ ⏑͞⏑ –́ ⏑͞⏑ –́ ⏑͞⏑ –́ ⏑ ⏑ –́ ⏑̄.

The main difficulty in imitating this metre in English is caused by the large number of monosyllabic words in the English language, and especially by its lack of words with a spondaic measurement.

Some recent attempts to imitate the hexameter in English according to the principles of quantity have been altogether unsuccessful, as e.g. Cayley's (_Transactions of the Philological Society_, 1862-3, Part i, pp. 67-85). Matthew Arnold's method too proved impracticable (_On Translating Homer_, London, 1862); he attempted and recommended the regulation of the rhythm of the verse by the accent and at the same time sought not to neglect the quantity altogether. But the only successful method of adapting the hexameter to English use is that adopted by William Taylor, who followed the example of the Germans in observing only the accentual system and substituting the accentual trochee for the spondee. Sir John Herschel in his translation of Homer and Longfellow in his original poems have done the same.

Even with these modifications a certain harshness now and then is inevitable in hexameters both in German and particularly in English, where many lines occur consisting nearly throughout of monosyllables only, as e.g. the following lines from Longfellow's _Evangeline_:

_Whíte as the snów were his lócks, and his chéeks as brówn
as the óak-leaves.
Ánd the great séal of the láw was sét like a sún on a
márgin._

Other passages, however, prove the English hexameter to be as capable of harmony as the German if treated in this way; cf. e.g. the introductory verses of the same poem:[179]

_Thís is the fórest priméval. The múrmuring pínes and the
hémlocks,
Béarded with móss, and in gárments gréen, indistínct in the
twílight,
Stánd like Drúids of éld, with vóices sád and prophétic,
Stánd like hárpers hóar, with béards that rést on their
bósoms.
Lóud from its rócky cáverns, the déep-voiced néighbouring
ócean
Spéaks, and in áccents discónsolate ánswers the wáil of the
fórest._

§ =211.= Besides these repeated attempts to naturalize the hexameter in English, many other kinds of classical verses and stanzas have been imitated in English literature from the middle of the sixteenth and afterwards during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Among these the =Elegiac= verse of the ancients (hexameter alternating with pentameter) was attempted by Sidney in his _Arcadia_. Of more modern experiments in accordance with the accentual principle, Coleridge's translation of Schiller's well-known distich may be quoted:

_Ín the hexámeter ríses the fóuntains sílvery cólumn,
Ín the pentámeter áye fálling in mélody báck._

Swinburne, among others, has written his _Hesperia_ (_Poems and Ballads_, i, 1868, p. 200) in rhymed verses of this kind:

_Óut of the gólden remóte wild wést, where the séa without shóre is,
Fúll of the súnset, and sád, if at áll, with the fúllness of jóy,
As a wínd sets ín with the áutumn that blóws from the région of
stóries,
Blóws from a pérfume of sóngs and of mémories belóved fróm a bóy._

The third line is remarkable for its anacrusis, which occasionally occurs also in other English hexameters.

Sidney in his _Arcadia_, p. 229 (333, xxxvii), also tried the =minor Asclepiad=, which has the following scheme:

–́–̆–́⏑⏑–́|–́⏑⏑–́⏑–̆.
_Ó sweet wóods, the delíght | óf solitáriness!
Ó how múch I do líke | yóur solitárinesse!
Whére man's mínde hath a fréed | cónsiderátion,
Óf goodnésse to recéive | lóvely diréction_, &c.

As an example of Spenser's =six-foot iambic line= Guest (ii. 270) quotes the verses:

_Nów doe I níghtly wáste, | wánting my kíndely réste,
Nów doe I dáily stárve, | wánting my lívely fóode,
Nów doe I álwayes dýe, | wánting my tímely mírth._

In his _Arcadia_, p. 228 (232, xxxvi), Sidney used the =Phaleuciac= verse of eleven syllables in stanzas of six lines marked by the recurrence of a refrain. The rhythm is the same as in the =Hendecasyllabics= of modern poets, in the following lines of Swinburne (_Poems_, i. 233):

_Ín the mónth of the lóng declíne of róses
Í behólding the súmmer déad befóre me,
Sét my fáce to the séa and jóurneyed sílent_, &c.

The same metre was inaccurately imitated by Coleridge (p. 252) who put a dactyl in the first foot:

_Héar, my belóvëd, an old Milésian stóry!
Hígh and embósom'd in cóngregáted laúrels,
Glímmer'd a témple upón a bréezy héadland_, &c.

Finally, the =rhymed Choriambics= may be mentioned, used also by Swinburne (_Poems_, ii. 141-3):

_Lóve, what áiled thee to léave lífe that was máde lóvely, we thóught,
with lòve?
Whát sweet vísions of sléep lúred thee awáy, dówn from the líght
abòve?
Whát strànge fáces of dréams, vóices that cálled, hánds that were
ráised to wàve,
Lúred or léd thee, alás, óut of the sún, dówn to the súnless gràve?_
&c.

§ =212.= Among the =classical stanzas=, which may appropriately be discussed in this connexion, the =Sapphic metre= deserves the first place, as it has been imitated pretty often; its scheme is as follows:

–́ ⏑ – – –́ | ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ – –
–́ ⏑ – – –́ | ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ – –
–́ ⏑ – – –́ | ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ – –
–́ ⏑ ⏑ – –

It is certainly not an easy task to write in this form of stanza, as it is rather difficult in English to imitate feet of three or even two long syllables (Molossus and Spondee). Yet it has been used by several poets, as by Sidney and his contemporary, the metrist William Webbe; in the eighteenth century by Dr. Watts, Cowper, and Southey (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 253); and in later times by Swinburne, from whose _Poems and Ballads_ a specimen may be quoted:

_Áll the nī́ght slēep cā́me not upṓn my ḗyelids,
Shēd not dḗw, nōr shṓok nor unclōsed a fḗather,
Yḗt with lī́ps shūt clṓse and with ḗyes of ī́ron
Stṓod and behḗld me._

Of other kinds of classical verses and stanzas the =Alcaic metre= has occasionally been imitated, e.g. by Tennyson. The scheme of the Latin original is as follows:

⏑̄ –́ ⏑ – – | –́ ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ –̆
⏑̄ –́ ⏑ – – | –́ ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ –̆
–̆ –́ ⏑ – - –́ ⏑ - ⏑̄
–́ ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑̄

Tennyson's poem is an _Ode to Milton_ (p. 281):

_O mī́ghty mṓuth'd īnvḗntŏr ŏf hā́rmŏnĭes,
O skī́lled tŏ sī́ng ōf Tī́me ŏr Etḗrnĭty,
Gōdgī́ftĕd ṓrgān-vṓice ŏf Énglānd,
Mī́ltŏn, ă nā́me tŏ rĕsṓúnd fōr ā́gĕs._

There are besides in Sidney's _Arcadia_, pp. 227 (232, xxxv) and 533, =Anacreontic stanzas= of varying length, consisting of 3-11 verses and constructed in this way:

_My Múse, what áiles this árdour?
To bláse my ónely sécrets?
Alás, it ís no glóry
To síng mine ówne decáid state._

§ =213.= In connexion with these imitations of classical verses and stanzas without rhyme some other forms should be mentioned which took their rise from an attempt to get rid of end-rhyme. Orm was the first to make the experiment in his rhymeless Septenary, but he found no followers in the Middle English period; Surrey, several centuries later, on the other hand, did achieve success with his blank verse. In the beginning of the seventeenth century Thomas Campion, in his _Observations on the Arte of English Poesy_ (London, 1602), tried to introduce certain kinds of rhymeless verses and stanzas, mostly trochaic; e.g. trochaic verses of three measures (with masculine endings) and of five measures (with feminine endings); distichs consisting of one five-foot iambic and one six-foot trochaic verse (both masculine); then a free imitation of the Sapphic metre and other kinds of rhymeless stanzas, quoted and discussed in _Metrik_, ii, § 254. But these early and isolated attempts need not engage our attention in this place, as they had probably no influence on similar experiments of later poets.

In Milton, e.g., we find a stanza corresponding to the formula _a b₅ c d₃_, in his imitation of the fifth Ode of Horace, Book I, used also by Collins, _Ode to Evening_ (_Poets_, ix. 526):

_If áught of oáten stóp or pástoral sóng
May hópe, chast Éve, to soóthe thy módest éar
Like thý own sólemn spríngs
Thy spríngs and dýing gáles._

Southey uses the same stanza (ii. 145); to him we owe several other rhymeless stanzas of the form _a b₄ c d 3_ (ii. 212), _a₃ b c₄ d₃_ (ii. 210) (both of anapaestic verses), _a b c₄ d₃_ (ii. 148), _a₃ b c₅ d₃_ (ii. 159), _a₄ b c₃ d₅_ (ii. 182), _a b₄ c₅ d₃_ (ii. 187), _a₄ b₃ c₅ d₃_ (ii. 189); all consisting of iambic verses.

The same poet also uses a stanza of five iambic lines of the form _a₅ b₃ c₄ d e₃_ (iii. 255), and another of the form _a₅ b₃ c₅ d₄ e₃_ in his ode _The Battle of Algiers_ (iii. 253):

_One dáy of dréadful occupátion móre,
Ere Éngland's gállant shíps
Sháll, of their béauty, pómp, and pówer disróbed,
Like séa-birds ón the súnny máin,
Rock ídly ín the pórt._

A stanza of similar construction (formula _a b c₅ d e₃_ is used by Mrs. Browning in _The Measure_ (iii. 114).

Various isometrical and anisometrical stanzas of this kind occur in Lord Lytton's _Lost Tales of Miletus_; one of these consists of three of Coleridge's Hendecasyllabics, followed by one masculine verse of similar form, and has the formula _a ~ b ~ c ~ d₅_; it is used, e. g., in _Cydippe_:

_Fáirest and hárdiest óf the yóuths in Céos
Flóurish'd Acóntius frée from lóve's sweet tróuble,
Púre as when fírst a chíld, in hér child-chórus,
Chánting the góddess óf the silver bów._

In another stanza used in _The Wife of Miletus_ an ordinary masculine blank verse alternates with a Hendecasyllabic; a third of the form _a b c d₄_ consists of trochaic verses.

Other stanzas of ordinary five- and three-foot verses used by him in the _Lost Tales_ have the formulas _a b₅ c₃ d₅_, _a b c₅ d₃_, _a ~ b ~₅ c₃ d₅_.

In another stanza (_Corinna_), constructed after the formula _a b₄ c d₃_, a dactylic rhythm prevails:

_Gláucon of Lésbos, the són of Euphórion,
Búrned for Corinna, the blúe-eyed Milésian.
Nor móther nor fáther hád she;
Béauty and wéalth had the órphan._

Stanzas of a similar kind consisting of trochaic verses are used by Longfellow; one of the form _a₃ b c₄ d ~₂_ in _To an old Danish Song Book_, and another which corresponds to the formula _a b₅ c₂ d₅_ in _The Golden Mile-Stone_.

Iambic-anapaestic verses of two stresses and feminine ending are found in Longfellow's poem _The Men of Nidaros_ (p. 579); the arrangement into stanzas of six lines being marked only by the syntactical order, in the same way as in Southey's poem _The Soldier's Wife_ (ii. 140), in which, too, four-foot dactylic verses are combined in stanzas of three lines. Two-foot dactylic and dactylic-trochaic verses of a similar structure to those mentioned in Book I, § 73, are joined to rhymeless stanzas of five lines (the first four have feminine endings, the last a masculine one) by Matthew Arnold in his poem _Consolation_ (p. 50). Stanzas of five iambic verses of three and five measures, corresponding to the formula _a₃ b₅ c₃ d₅ e₃_ occur in his poem _Growing Old_ (p. 527). In Charles Lamb's well-known poem, _The Old Familiar Faces_, written in stanzas of three lines, consisting of five-foot verses with feminine endings, the division into stanzas is marked by a refrain at the end of each stanza. For examples of these different kinds of verses the reader is referred to the author's _Metrik_, ii, §§ 255-8.

In conclusion it may be mentioned that many of the irregular, so-called Pindaric Odes (cf. Book II, chap. viii) are likewise written in rhymeless anisometrical stanzas.

NOTES:

[179] Specimens of earlier hexameter verse with detailed
bibliographical information may be found in our _Metrik_, ii,
§§ 249-50; and especially in C. Elze's thorough treatise on
the subject, _Der englische Hexameter_. Programm des
Gymnasiums zu Danzig, 1867. (Cf. F. E. Schelling, _Mod. Lang.
Notes_, 1890, vii. 423-7.)

BOOK II. THE STRUCTURE OF STANZAS