Accent, the greater emphasis placed, in normal speech, on one syllable of a work as compared with the other syllables, 6, 34 f., 37 f. See also Stress; it is convenient to distinguish the two terms, but they are sometimes used interchangeably.

Acephalous, headless; used to describe a line which lacks the unstressed element of the first foot. See Truncation.

Alexandrine, a 6-stress iambic line, 85 ff. 88.

Alliteration, repetition of the same or closely similar sounds at the beginning of neighboring words or accented syllables (occasionally also unaccented syllables); sometimes called Initial Rime, 166.

Amphibrach, a classical foot, — , 51.

Anacrusis, one or more extra syllables at the beginning of a line, 71.

Anapest, a foot consisting of two unstresses and a stress, _̷, 38, 51, 70, 80 ff.

Antistrophe, the counter-turn, or stanza answering to the first, of a Pindaric Ode, 131.

Arsis, a confusing term sometimes borrowed from classical prosody for the stressed element of a foot; the unstressed element is called Thesis.

Assonance, the repetition, in final syllables, of the same vowel sound followed by a different consonantal sound, 166 f. See Rime.

Ballad Metre (Common Measure, C. M. of the Hymnals), the stanza a⁴b³a⁴b³, but admitting certain variations, 87, 103.

Ballade, a formal metrical scheme of three stanzas riming ababbcbC with an Envoi bcbC, keeping the same rimes throughout, and the last line of each stanza (C) being the same. The lines are usually 5-stress, 163.

Blank Verse, unrimed 5-stress lines used continuously, 94, 133 ff., ch. V passim; the 'single-moulded' line, 135 f.; Marlow's, 137 f.; Shakespeare's, 138 ff., later dramatic, 140 f.; Milton's, 142 ff.; conversational, 147 ff.

Caesura, the classical term for a pause, usually grammatical and extra-metrical (i. e. not reckoned in the time scheme). When it follows an accented syllable it is called masculine; when it follows an unaccented syllable it is feminine; when it occurs within a line it is called medial; when it occurs after an 'extra' unstressed syllable it is called epic (though as frequent in drama as in epic), as—

Catalexis; see Truncation.

Choriamb, a classical foot, — —, 51.

Common Measure (C. M.), the regular Ballad Metre, 103 f.

Consonance, specifically, in metrics, a form of incomplete rime in which the consonantal sounds agree but the vowel sounds differ, 166 f. See Rime.

CoÖrdination, the agreement or coincidence of the natural prose rhythm with the metrical (rhythmical) pattern; the process of making them agree, 17 f.

Couplet, a group of two lines riming aa, 88; closed couplet, one which contains an independent clause or sentence and does not run on into the next of the series, 91 f.; heroic couplet, one of 5-stress lines, usually iambic (called also pentameter couplet), 89, 93 ff.; short couplet, one of 4-stress iambic or trochaic lines (also called octosyllabic couplet), 89 ff.

Dactyl, a foot consisting of a stress followed by two unstresses, _̷ , 38, 51, 70, 84.

Decasyllable, a 5-stress (pentameter) line; a term used properly only of syllable-counting metres such as the French.

Distich, couplet; usually in classical prosody the elegiac couplet of a hexameter and a pentameter, 162.

Doggerel, any rough irregular metre.

Duple Rhythm, a rhythm of two beats (though corresponding generally to ¾ time in music), one stress and one unstress, _̷ or _̷.

Duration, the length of time occupied by the enunciation of speech-sounds, and therefore an element in all language rhythm, 5. See also Time.

Elegiac Stanza, the quatrain abab⁵, 103, 107 f.

Elision, the omission or crowding out of unstressed words or unaccented syllables to make the metre smoother; a term belonging to classical prosody and inappropriate in English prosody except where syllable-counting verse is concerned. Various forms of Elision are called Syncope, Synizesis, and Synaloepha.

End-stopped Line, one with a full or strong grammatical pause at the end.

Enjambement, a French term ('long stride') for the continuation of the sense from one line (or couplet) to the next without a grammatical pause, 62, 92; opposite of End-stopping. See Overflow; Run-on Line.

Epode, the third (sixth, ninth) stanza of a Pindaric ode, 131.

Feminine Ending, an extra unstressed syllable at the end of an iambic or anapestic line, 71.

Foot, the smallest metrical unit of rhythm, composed of a stressed element and one or more unstressed elements (or a pause), 49 ff.

Free-verse, irregular rhythms, not conforming to a fixed metrical pattern, 150 ff.

Headless Line, acephalous; and see Truncation.

Hendecasyllable, a 5-stress line with feminine ending, thus making ordinarily eleven syllables; usually referring to a special metre used by Catullus and others (as in Tennyson's imitation, 'O you chorus of indolent reviewers'), 162.

Heroic Line, a 5-stress iambic line.

Hexameter, classical or dactylic, the standard line of Greek and Latin poetry, composed of six feet, the fifth of which is nearly always a dactyl, the sixth a spondee or trochee, the rest either dactyls or spondees; imitated in English with more or less success by substituting stress for quantity, 159 ff.

Hiatus, unexpected absence of elision.

Hold, pause on a word or syllable, 62 f.

Hovering Accent, a term sometimes used for the coordination of the metrical rhythm _̷ _̷ with the prose rhythm _̷ _̷ as in "and serene air" (Comus, l. 4); the accent is thought of as 'hovering' over the first syllable of serene, 182.

Hypermetric, used of a syllable which is not reckoned or expected in the regular metrical pattern.

Iamb, Iambus, a foot consisting of an unstress and a stress, _̷, 38, 51, 69, 84 ff.

In Memoriam Stanza, a quatrain riming abba⁴, 103, 105 ff.

Inversion, the substitution of a trochee for an iamb or of a dactyl for an anapest (or vice versa), 51, 187 ff.; a misleading term; see Substitution.

Length, the comparative duration of the enunciation of syllables, 33 f. In classical prosody syllables were regarded by convention as either 'long' or 'short' (a 'long' being theoretically equal to two 'shorts'), and this usage has been sometimes (not successfully, and yet not entirely without reason) super-imposed upon English verse.

Line, a metrical division composed of one or more feet and either used continuously or combined in stanzas, 52 f., 69 ff. See Verse (1).

Loudness, the comparative strength or volume of a sound, 6.

Long Measure (L. M. of the Hymnals) the quatrain riming abab⁴ or abcb⁴, 103.

Metre, a regular, artificial, rhythmic pattern, the formal basis of versification.

Octosyllable, an 8-syllable or 4-stress line. See Decasyllable.

Octave, a stanza of eight lines; especially the two quatrains of an Italian sonnet, 120.

Ode, a kind of exalted lyric poem, not strictly a metrical term but often used as such to describe the simple stanzaic structure of the 'Horatian' ode or the complex system of strophe, antistrophe and epode of the 'Pindaric' ode, 131 ff.

Onomatopoeia, primarily a rhetorical figure but of much wider application, covering all cases from single words to phrases and lines of verse in which there is agreement, by echo or suggestions, between the sound of the words and their meaning; as a metrical term, the agreement of the verse rhythm with the idea expressed, 177 ff.

Ottava Rima, the stanza (of Italian origin) riming abababcc⁵, 111 f.

Overflow, the running over of the parts of a sentence from one line to the next without a pause at the end of the line, 62. See Enjambement, Run-on.

Paeon, a classical foot, — , 51, 76 ff.

Pause, (1) logical or grammatical, that which separates the formal parts of a sentence, 61, 63; (2) rhythmical, that which separates the breath-groups of spoken sentences, 61 ff.; (3) metrical, (a) that which separates the parts of a metrical pattern, as at the end of a line, 62, and also (b) that which takes the place of an unstressed element of a foot, being equivalent to the rest in music (indicated by the sign ), 62 ff.

Pentameter, a 5-stress line, 52. (This term is well established, but open to objection.)

Phrase, a group of words held together either by their meaning (or content) or by their sound, 32 f; 37 ff.

Pindaric, see Ode.

Pitch, the characteristic of a sound dependent upon its number of vibrations per second; (usually indicated by its place in the musical scale; high or 'acute,' low or 'grave'); 5 f., 35 ff.; sometimes functions in verse for emphasis or for stress, 8, 35 ff., 181 ff.

Poulter's Measure, an old-fashioned couplet, composed of an alexandrine and a septenary, a⁶a⁷, 88 f.

Prose, Characteristic, prose with natural and varied rhythms, 23 ff.; Cadenced, prose with carefully sought rhythmic movements, 27 ff.; Metrical, a hybrid of prose and verse, 29 ff.

Pyrrhic, a classical foot, , 51.

Quantity, the length of a syllable; established by convention in classical prosody; in English prosody very uncertain but always present. See Length.

Quatrain, a stanza of four lines, 103 ff.

Refrain, a line or part of a line repeated according to the metrical pattern, 184 f.; the term repetend is occasionally used.

Rest, see Pause (3, b).

Rhythm, regular arrangement or repetition of varied parts, see ch. I, ch. II, and passim; objective, having external concrete existence, 3 ff.; subjective, felt by the individual, 3, 12 ff.; spatial, in which the units are spaces, 4; temporal, in which the units are periods of time, 4 ff.; rising, beginning with the stressed element, 38; falling, beginning with the unstressed element, 38; duple, having a stress and one unstressed element (syllable), 38; triple, having a stress and two unstressed elements (syllables), 38.

Rime, repetition of the same sound (or sounds) usually at the end of the line, 165 ff.; Masculine, when the repeated sound consists of one stressed syllable; Feminine, when a stressed + one or more unstressed syllables; Triple, when a stressed + two unstressed syllables; Echo or Identical, when the preceding consonantal sound also agrees; Eye-rime, when the words agree in spelling but not in pronunciation, 174. As distinct from end-rime, there is Internal or Leonine rime, which occurs within the line (sometimes merely a matter of printing). See also Assonance, Consonance.

Rime CouÉe, see Tail-rime Stanza.

Rime-royal, a stanza borrowed by Chaucer from the French, ababbcc⁵; also called Troilus stanza, Chaucer stanza, 109 f.

Rondeau, Rondel, French metrical forms characterized by the repetition of the first phrase or lines twice as a refrain, e. g. aabba aabR aabbaR (R being the first phrase of the first line), or ABba abAB abbaAB (the capitals indicating the whole lines repeated), 163.

Run-on Line, one in which the sense runs over into the following line without a grammatical pause, 62, 92. See Enjambement; Overflow.

Sapphic, a 4-line stanza used by Sappho (and Catullus and Horace) and often imitated in English; the pattern is — " — " — " — " — thrice repeated, then — " — , 161 f.

Septenary, Septenarius (fourteener), the old 14-syllable or 7-stress iambic line, later split up into the Ballad metre, 87; and used also with the alexandrine in the Poulter's Measure.

Sestet, a group of six lines, especially the last six of an Italian sonnet, 120.

Sestina, an elaborate metrical form consisting of six 6-line stanzas and a 3-line stanza with repetition of the same end-words in different order instead of rime, 164.

Short Measure (S. M. of the Hymnals), the Poulter's Measure broken into a quatrain: ab³a⁴b³, ab³c⁴b³, 89.

Sonnet, 118 ff., (1) Italian, a 14-line stanza composed of two quatrains riming abba and two tercets riming cde cde (cde dee, etc.), 120 ff.; (2) English, 14-line stanza of three quatrains riming abab cdcd efef, and a closing couplet gg, 127 ff. There are also mixed forms and many variations.

Spenserian Stanza, a 9-line stanza riming ababbcbc⁵c⁶; the final alexandrine is the characteristic feature, 85 f., 112 ff. Several variations were used in the seventeenth century consisting of shorter lines with a closing alexandrine, 117.

Spondee, a classical prosody a foot of two long syllables; in English prosody a foot of two 'long' or accented or stressed words or syllables, 51.

Stanza, a group of lines arranged according to a special pattern, usually marked by rimes, 53, 88 ff.; see also Verse (3).

Stress, the comparative emphasis which distinguishes a sound from others not so strongly or plainly emphasized, 34 f., 37 f., 56 f., 65 f. Then by Unstress or no stress is meant absence or comparative weakness of emphasis. Stress is used in this book for rhythmic and metrical emphasis; see Accent.

Strophe, same as Stanza, 53; in the Pindaric ode, the first (fourth, etc.) stanza, 131.

Substitution (1) replacing one rhythmic unit by its temporal equivalent, as an iamb by an anapest or by a trochee, etc., 20; called also Inversion (q. v.) of the foot; (2) the use of pitch or duration (pause) for a stress or unstress, 20, 181 ff.

Syllable, the smallest and simplest unit of speech-sound, 32 f.; sometimes used as a metrical unit, 49.

Syncopation, the union, or perception of the union, of two or more rhythmic patterns, 18 ff.

Tail-rime Stanza, one usually of six lines riming aa⁴b³cc⁴b³, but with many variations (e. g. the Burns stanza, aaa⁴b²a⁴b²), the general type being a combination of long lines in groups with single short lines, 109.

Tailed Sonnet, a sonnet with a tail (coda), or addition. About the only one in English is Milton's On the New Forcers of Conscience: the rimes are abba abba cde dec⁵ c³ff⁵f³gg⁵.

Tercet, a group of three lines, especially in the sestet of the Italian sonnet, 102, 120.

Terza Rima, an Italian rime scheme aba bcb cdc ... yzy zz; rarely used in English, but triumphantly (in stanzas) in Shelley's Ode to the West Wind, 164.

Tetrameter, a classical term (four 'measures' or eight feet) incorrectly used for the English 4-stress line, 52.

Thesis, see Arsis.

Time, an inevitable element in English verse (as well as prose), but not the sole basis, 56 ff.

Tone-color, Tone Quality, 'timbre,' the characteristic of a sound determined by the number of partial tones (overtones), as richness, sweetness, thinness, stridency; hence sometimes applied to the musical quality of a verse or phrase, 6 and note, 177.

Tribrach, a classical foot, , 51.

Trimeter, a classical term (three 'measures' or six feet) incorrectly used for the English 3-stress line, 52.

Triolet, a French metrical form, mainly for light themes, riming ABaAabAB(the capitals indicating repeated lines) and usually with short lines, 163.

Triplet, a group of three lines, especially when rimed aaa, 101 f. See also Tercet.

Trochee, a foot consisting of a stress and an unstress, _̷ , 38, 51, 70, 82 ff.

Truncation, omission of the final unstressed element of a line, usually in the trochaic metres, 76; also called Catalexis (the opposite of which, the non-omission of this element, is Acatalexis). Initial Truncation is the omission of the first unstressed element of a line, usually in the iambic metres, thus making a Headless verse.

Unstress, the element of a rhythmic unit which is without emphasis or has a relatively weak emphasis.

Verse, (1) a metrical line, 52; (2) collectively, for metre, metrical form; (3) commonly in England, and in America in the churches, used for Stanza.

Villanelle, a French verse form of nineteen lines on three rimes, certain lines being repeated at fixed intervals, 163 f.