Note 148 — Chapter II · RHYTHM AS THE ESSENTIAL FACT OF POETRY

Professional “readers” nearly always kill a poem by reading it as prose. Tennyson read his own verses almost in a chant. De Vigny, Journal d’un Poete, p. 70, says, “tout homme qui dit bien ses vers les chante, en quelque sorte.” Ronsard, Œuvres, ed. Blanchemain, III. 12 f., asks the reader of his Franciade one thing: “Be good enough to pronounce my verses well, and suit your voice to their emotion, not reading it, after the way of certain folk, as a letter, ... but as a poem, with good emphasis.” So Quintilian; but the elocutionist has no bowels of mercy.