ON THE MEASURES OF ENGLISH VERSE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32589/2311-0821.1.2020.207220Keywords:
blending, Dickinson, English verse, pentameter, syllabotonic, stress-timed system, WyattAbstract
Abstract
The theory of English verse structure has never been completely formulated. Inheriting the lineage of both
Germanic and Romance traditions, it nevertheless is a system in its own right. This paper explores, with examples
from the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, the problems arising from the traditional attitude of English
metrists up to the twentieth century to scan English verse from the viewpoint of Romance syllabotonic. To the
contrary, I argue that English verse is driven, metrically and rhythmically, also by the Germanic accentual
stress-timed system.
Résumé
This paper is a preliminary sketch toward developing a theory of English verse. By the twentieth
century, English verse had become so flexible and varied in its forms that the question was even
raised as to the death of the English pentameter. Contemporary poets' responses to that question
reveal that although the English pentameter is very much alive, a complete theory of English verse still has
not been written. Historically, English metrical studies have based their theory on the assumption
that the French Romance tradition of syllable alternation displaced the Germanic stress-timed system
of Old English poetry. As a result, many lines of poetry written in iambic pentameter are considered
unmetrical. The paper explores two examples of English poetry from the sixteenth and nineteenth
centuries to show that, far from being metrically irregular, as claimed by most English metrists, they
reflect a lineage from Old English metrical forms. Using Conceptual Integration Theory (or "blending"
as it is commonly known in cognitive linguistics), the paper shows that English verse is the child
of two parents, Germanic and Romance, whose emergent structure in the blend exists in neither parent.
In analysis of examples from Thomas Wyatt's and Emily Dickinson's poetry, it is evident that the Germanic
stress-timed system, modified by Romance syllabotonic, guides the rhythmic beat of the English
metrical line. Building on the work of recent scholars in versification studies, the paper notes that
a complete theory of the measures of English poetry still needs to be developed.
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