  BOOK I
INTRODUCTORY AND DOGMATIC | | CHAPTER I | | PAGE | | Introductory | 3 | CHAPTER II
SYSTEMS OF ENGLISH PROSODY—THE ACCENTUAL OR STRESS | | Classical prosody uniform in theory—English not so—"Accent" and "stress"—English prosody as adjusted to them—Its difficulties—and insufficiencies—Examples of its application—Its various sects and supporters | 6 | CHAPTER III
SYSTEMS OF ENGLISH PROSODY—THE SYLLABIC | | History of the syllabic theory—Its results—Note: Cautions | 14 | CHAPTER IV
SYSTEMS OF ENGLISH PROSODY—THE FOOT | | General if not always consistent use of the term "foot"—Particular objections to its systematic use—"Quantity" in English—The "common" syllable—Intermediate rules of arrangement—Some interim rules of feet (expanded in note)—The different systems applied to a single verse of Tennyson's—and their application examined—Application further to his "Hollyhock" song—Such application possible always and everywhere | 19 | CHAPTER V
RULES OF THE FOOT SYSTEM | | § A. Feet.—Feet composed of long and short syllables—Not all combinations actual—Differences from "classical" feet—The three usual kinds: iamb, trochee, anapÆst—The spondee—The dactyl—The pyrrhic—The tribrach—Others. § B. Constitution of Feet.—Quality or "quantity" in feet—Not necessarily "time"—nor vowel "quantity"—Accumulated consonants—or rhetorical stress—or place in verse will quantify—Commonness of monosyllables. § C. Equivalence and Substitution.—Substitution of equivalent feet—Its two laws—Confusion of base must be avoided—(Of which the ear must judge)—Certain substitutions are not eligible. § D. Pause.—Variation of pause —Practically at discretion—Blank verse specially dependent on pause. § E. Line-Combination.—Simple or complex—Rhymes necessary to couplet—Few instances of successful unrhymed stanza—Unevenness of line in length—Stanzas to be judged by the ear—Origin of commonest line-combinations. § F. Rhyme.—Rhyme natural in English—It must be "full" —and not identical—General rule as to it—Alliteration—Single, etc., rhyme—Fullness of sound—Internal rhyme permissible—but sometimes dangerous. § G. Miscellaneous—Vowel-music—"Fingering"—Confusion of rhythms intolerable | 30 | CHAPTER VI
CONTINUOUS ILLUSTRATIONS OF ENGLISH SCANSION ACCORDING TO THE FOOT SYSTEM | | I. Old English Period: Scansion only dimly visible—II. Late Old English with nisus towards Metre: "Grave" Poem—III. Transition Period: Metre struggling to assert itself in a new way—IV. Early Middle English Period: Attempt at merely Syllabic Uniformity with Unbroken Iambic Run and no Rhyme—V. Early Middle English Period: Conflict or Indecision between Accentual Rhythm and Metrical Scheme—VI. Early Middle English Period: The Appearance and Development of the "Fourteener"—VII. Early Middle English Period: The Plain and Equivalenced Octosyllable—VIII. Early Middle English Period: The Romance-Six or Rime CouÉe—IX. Early Middle English Period: Miscellaneous Stanzas—X. Early Middle English Period: Appearance of the Decasyllable—XI. Later Middle English Period: The Alliterative Revival (Pure)—XII. Later Middle English Period: The Alliterative Revival (Mixed)—XIII. Later Middle English Period: Potentially Metrical Lines in Langland (see Book II.)—XIV. Later Middle English Period: Scansions from Chaucer—XV. Later Middle English Period: Variations from Strict Iambic Norm in Gower—XVI. Transition Period: Examples of Break-down in Literary Verse—XVII. Transition Period: Examples of True Prosody in Ballad, Carols, etc.—XVIII. Transition Period: Examples of Skeltonic and other Doggerel—XIX. Transition Period: Examples from the Scottish Poets—XX. Early Elizabethan Period: Examples of Reformed Metre from Wyatt, Surrey, and other Poets before Spenser—XXI. Spenser at Different Periods—XXII. Examples of the Development of Blank Verse—XXIII. Examples of Elizabethan Lyric—XXIV. Early Continuous AnapÆsts—XXV. The Enjambed Heroic Couplet (1580-1660)—XXVI. The Stopped Heroic Couplet (1580-1660)—XXVII. Various Forms of Octosyllable-Heptasyllable (late Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century)—XXVIII. "Common," "Long," and "In Memoriam" Measure (Seventeenth Century)—XXIX. Improved AnapÆstic Measures (Dryden, Anon., Prior)—XXX. "Pindarics" (Seventeenth Century)—XXXI. The Heroic Couplet from Dryden to Crabbe—XXXII. Eighteenth-Century Blank Verse—XXXIII. The Regularised Pindaric Ode—XXXIV. Lighter Eighteenth-Century Lyric—XXXV. The Revival of Equivalence (Chatterton and Blake)—XXXVI. Rhymeless Attempts (Collins to Shelley)—XXXVII. The Revived Ballad (Percy to Coleridge)—XXXVIII. Specimens of Christabel; Note on the Application of the Christabel System to Nineteenth-Century Lyric generally—XXXIX. Nineteenth-Century Couplet (Leigh Hunt to Mr. Swinburne)—XL. Nineteenth-Century Blank Verse (Wordsworth to Mr. Swinburne)—XLI. The Non-Equivalenced Octosyllable of Keats and Morris—XLII. The Continuous Alexandrine (Drayton and Browning)—XLIII. The Dying Swan of Tennyson scanned entirely through to show the Application of the System—XLIV. The Stages of the Metre of "Dolores" and the Dedication of "Poems and Ballads"—XLV. Long Metres of Tennyson, Browning, Morris, and Swinburne—XLVI. The Later Sonnet—XLVII. The Various Attempts at "Hexameters" in English—XLVIII. Minor Imitations of Classical Metres—XLIX. Imitations of Artificial French Forms—L. Later Rhymelessness—LI. Some "Unusual" Metres and Disputed Scansions | 37 | BOOK II
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF ENGLISH PROSODY | | CHAPT
|   |
|
