  Verse must be read aloud. Rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, assonance, vowel coloring, the effect of enjambement, to name only the more obvious phenomena, appeal solely to the ear. Looking at a page of verse is like looking at a page of music. Unless the symbols are translated into sound values, the effect is blank. A skilled musician is able to translate the printed notes to the inner sense, but even he will prefer to hear the music and will always consider this the final test. Thus it is also with verse: it must be read aloud. Lyric verse is best read in privacy or in a small congenial group. When the humdrum noise and the humdrum cares of the world have vanished, then the moment has come when one may steep one's soul in lyric beauty. One never tires of a really great lyric: like a true friend, a longer acquaintance adds only new delight. And why read lyric poetry at all? Some people ask that question, and for them the case may be hopeless. If the lyric sense is utterly lacking, then it is their sad lot to live in the desert of the practical world. Art is not for them: neither music nor poetry nor painting nor sculpture nor architecture; for something of the lyric impulse lives in all of these. But many ask that question who some day will see, and for them I must attempt a brief answer. All literature is an interpretation of life, and the better one understands life the better one understands literature, and vice versa. Lyric poetry is the most direct interpretation of life, because here the poet reveals his innermost self directly. We strive to enrich our intellectual power by reliving the thought of Plato and of Kant. Why not enrich our emotional life and our whole being by reliving the world of Goethe or Shelley? The poets have lived for us, and the pure essence of their life we can make our own in their lyric verse. * * * * * ELEMENTS OF VERSIFICATIONRHYTHM.— While in Greek and Latin it depends on quantity, i.e., length of the syllables, in German as in English it depends on stress, that is, accent. The smallest rhythmical unit is called a foot and corresponds to a measure in music with the exception that the accent need not be on the first syllable. A verse consists of two or more feet (verses with only a single foot are rare) and may end either with an accented syllable (masculine ending) or with an unaccented (feminine ending). Especially within longer verses there often occurs a slight rest or break, called caesura. Designating the accented syllable by — and the unaccented by X, the more common feet with their Graeco-Roman names may be represented thus: Iambic, X — This terminology is, however, of little avail in the German Volkslied, that is the simple folksong, and in that large body of German verse which is patterned after it. Here the basic principle is the number of accented syllables. The number of unaccented syllables varies. A measure (i.e., a foot) may have either one or two unaccented syllables, in the real Volkslied often three. (A measure without an unaccented syllable, so common in older verse, is but rarely met with to-day; see 84, 7.) Goethe's more popular ballads as ErlkÖnig or der KÖnig in Thule offer good examples of this freer technique. Above all, however, Heine made use of this principle, while Platen, whom later German verse tends to follow in this respect (e.g., Meyer and Liliencron), espoused the strict classic ideal.[1] [1] Exceptions are only apparent, as in 68, 7. Platen followed the rules of Graeco-Roman prosody, where a long syllable could be substituted for two short syllables. RHYME.—When two or more words correspond from their accented vowel on, they are said to rhyme: Pferde—Erde. The rhyming syllable must carry at least a secondary accent: HÉiligkÈit—ZÉit. Rhymes of one syllable are called masculine, of two syllables feminine. According to their degree of perfection rhymes are classified as pure and impure. Thus geboren—geschworen, bestellt—Welt are pure, gesehn—schÖn, gerissen—FÜßen, Lied—GemÜt, sprach—Gemach, Wiesen—fließen are impure. Impure rhymes are not of necessity poor, but may be used to enhance the musical effects of a poem. Heine was a master in this respect. The modern school, however, tends to avoid impure rhymes. Rhymes within a verse are called internal rhymes. ALLITERATION—two or more accented syllables beginning with the same consonant or with a vowel: Von weißen Wolken umwogt, 59, 2—is used to enhance the rhythmic-melodic character of a poem, as is also assonance—the agreement of vowels in two or more accented syllables, 36. Often assonance is practically a form of impure rhyme, Grunde—verschwunden, 41, Himmel—Schimmer, 44. STANZA—a union of two or more verses. In a stanza itself the individual verses may either stand apart or two or more verses may form larger units. Thus the structure of the various stanzas may be made to differentiate and the rhythmic-melodic character of the poem be thereby modified (44 and 56 and notes). Similarly, stanzas may form larger units (2). If the end of a verse breaks into a syntactic unit, we have what is called an enjambement. This tends to put a special stress on the last word. Notice for example the onomatopoetic effect in 13, 7 and 8: Aus dem bewegten Wasser rauscht REFRAIN.—This is a repetition of one or more verses, either exactly repeated or slightly modified, at the end of a stanza or less frequently at another fixed place (4, 10, 34). Aside from its rhythmic-melodic effect the refrain helps to center the attention on a certain idea or motif. STANZA AND VERSE FORMS.—Only a few need any special discussion. 1. Blank Verse. This is the verse of Shakspere and was introduced into Germany from England. It is an unrhymed iambic verse of five feet (19). 2. Freie Rhythmen. An unrhymed verse that does not follow any fixed form; the rhythm may vary even within the verse. The number of accented syllables usually does not exceed four (15, 16 and 59). 3. The Rhymed Couplet (vierhebige Reimpaare) was introduced from the Volkslied. The verse ending is always masculine. Best adapted to a rapidly progressing action, every stanza marks a forward step, portrays a new scene (28, 29, 74). 4. The Sonnet, an Italian verse form, is composed of fourteen iambic lines of five feet each. The rhyme for the first eight lines, called the octave, is always abbaabba; for the last six, called the sestette, the rhyme may be cdcdcd, ccdccd, or cdecde (69 and 77). 5. The Siziliane, likewise Italian, consists of eight iambic lines of five feet each, the rhyme being abababab (135 and 136). 6. The Modified Nibelungen Stanza, an adaptation of the stanza of the Nibelungenlied introduced by Uhland, is a stanza of four verses rhyming in couplets; each verse has six accented syllables with a fixed pause as indicated below in the scansion of the first two lines of 32: X — X — X — X "" X — X — X— X — X — XX — X "" X — X — X —Each line is in reality composed of two verses and thus we have here the form so commonly used by Heine (48, 49, 50, 51, 52 and others). Each verse has in reality four measures, the last measure being taken up by a pause: Es stand in al ten Zei ten " " ein Schloss so hoch und hehr. In music these pauses may be taken up in whole or in part by lengthening the preceding notes (to some extent this holds true in reading, adding to the effect of the enjambement). Die Lorelei offers a good example: [Musical notation in original for following lyric. Transcriber.] Ich weiß nicht, was soll es bedeuten, daß * * * * * NOTES |
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