Part 2 — CHAPTER XVI IMITATIONS OF CLASSICAL FORMS OF VERSE AND STANZA
Reading edition
§ 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 d3 (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.