Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-03-06

grammatical prosodans, and what is worse by
poets If acceatual numbers governed in their
cession by laws fixed and stringent those enjoin-
ed on the ancient poet by his quandtatius meb the
readers Of modern poetry would be less frequently
fetched up by the stumps and sawyers which OBJ
struct their passage along the Of many fvore
writer Nothing but fine ear attuned to the harmony
of a meifuous cadence, the modern poet from
spelling the melody Of his versifcation and making
like sweet bells tangled out of tune and harshn Such
an ear had Milton and he attuned it the perception Of
each harmonious sound by the study of those Italian
poets, whose
Rhetorike SO swete
Enlumind all Itailie Of poetrie"
We have often thought that an interesting essay might
be written bya capable hand the influence exered by
the more modern poetry of Italys "twn literature" on
the poetic temperaments and productions of senser
Sydney and Milton. Millions addiction to the literature
of bel parlor is well known and his tribute to
its value as essential part in liberal educ,tion is
preserved in letter to his Florentine friend Bonomatta
with which readers of his prose works have been made
familiar. Although" he says, ~ have drunk somewhat
deeply into the teratures Of olden time can sn some
times repair willingly and eagerly to banquet with your
Dante and Petrarch, and divers more. Nor has Attic
Athens with her pelucid Iissus has old Rome with
her Theirs bank, ayaed to keep from often loving
visit your Arnus, and those sloping hills of Fesue
The unrhymed number of five accents or as it is gene
rally termed blank perse, first employed in English by
Surrey in his Foorthe Boke of Virgil translated into
English, and drawn into strange MERE" though earlier
examples in the minor poets Of Italy. When Mil
ton however, issued his second edition Of Paradise Lost
he stated in the preface that his "negect of rhyme
" an example set he first Engs of ancient liberty re-
covered heroic poem and Guest in his History of
English Rhyhms, thASs II not easy to acquit him of
tent his tna
Surrey though to nothing easier, when
member the fact that Milton better acquainted with
the literature of Greece Italy than he with that Of
his native country CHANGER, " our Master and Father,
old Gaskoyne calls him, confined his number it is be-
lieved general rhythm of FIVE accents the in
English heroic poem but owing to the careless tran
scrpons of his scrivener is easy matter to settle
the scanson of his verses and in this respect the early
literature of England shares the fate that of the
Latns for who Saturnian rhyme or Plaunian
metre We know there are eminent scholars who defend
the metrical structure of the old Roman poetry but
two prosodians agreed upon the laws its yersca
tom pretty indication that the mere if there be
any, is in the predicament papa nfallibty,
cording Dean Swift" good for nothing if you don't
know where to find it."
1t intention to trace the gradual disntegraon
of the old prosoda system Of Latin verse; ind its transit
ton into accenual rhythm eyinced in the sacred Latin
poetry of the middle ages but the would deain
too long; and therefore dismiss it with the single
observation that early hundred years before the
classic breahed her last notes in the Recal
of Claudian entire poem is found-the Lsructiones
of Commodanus- in perfect disregard Of the
rules of prosody accent being substituted throughout in
the place of quantity of marking the rhythm.
True musical delight says Milton, consists in apt
bers, fit quantities of sylables and the variousy
drawn out from into another We suboin the
comment of Guest ON this passage:
!" BY apt numbers understand that accommodation
of the sound to the sense which Pope lackneyed line
has made familiar of the rules of criticism Per-
haps man paid the same attention to the quality
Of his rhythm Milton What other poets effect il
by chance Milton achieved by the aid of science and
of art he studied the aptness Of his numbers, and dill
gently tutored which nature had gifted with the
most delicate sensbility In the flow of his rhythm, in
the quality Of his letter sounds in the disposition of his
pauses his almost fits the subject and so in
sensbly does poetry blend with this last beauty
exquisite vershcation that the reader may sometimes
doubt whether it be the thought ITSELF merely the hap
pness of the expression which is the source of grah-
cation deeply felt In recommending fit quantities OF
syllables believe Milton wished to discourage any sran
upon the natural rhythm Of the language would have
adapted and not wrested to the purposes of metre
II some of Millions lines seem harsh and Grabbed i,
is to be remembered that in many words the modern pro-
nunciaon is moi the pronunciation Of Milton and that it,
as has been said the poet Waller felt himself entitled
complain of our ever-changng tongue" still greater
right would Milton have complain of the present
uation of many words married to his immortal verse
since modern is much shifting than ancient
quantity.
/ The general index Of Millions rhythm is, need
scarcely say that Of FIVE accents and ten syabes to the
verse; he counted the "lenghening syllable
Of the second section and not always the frightening N
liable Of the first his has often eleven and
times even twelve sylables." Johnson's complaint Of
Millions metre" because he did not repeat the accent
at equal times shows how complete the critics mis-
conception Of the purposes and of rhythm for it il
this variety in cadence which gives to the Mtonc vers
fcaon its matchless beauty and infinite adaptation tC
every diversity Of expression and emotion. The poet
understood his task better than the critic and instead
the buskned tread and ngsong cadence which johnson
affected, the Of Milton with stately seT
to the Dorian mood OF flutes and soft recorders and
trips with light foot 'oer many frozen, many fiery
| Alp" resembling thus the march Of "yonder starry
sphere with
4 -Mazes intricate,
/ Eccentric interviewed yet regular
4 Then most, when most irregular they seem;
And in their motions harmony divine"