The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-02-03
The Physiology of VersificatiOn.

neck of the femur, which will be of little in
terest to any outside of the surgical profess
sion, and paper on recent progress in medi-
cal chemistry, which may be of account to
discontented married people and expectant
heirs, is an article in the Boston Medical and
Surgical Journal, by Oliver Wendell Holmes
on the physiology of versification. For this
article we bespeak an attentive consideration.
1t concerns large fraction of the American,
division of the human race, for it treats of
matter of Importance to every man or woman
who now Whites, has ever written, or pur-
poses to write verse.
Doctor Holmes tells us that there are two
great vital movements preeminently distin-
guished by their rhythmical character,-the
respiration and the pulse. 1t is very easy to
prove that the first of these rhythmical ac-
tions has an intimate relation with the struc-
ture of metrical compositions. The natural
rate of respiration may be stated at twenty
times minute.
The fatal facility of the octosyllabic
measure is cited as proof of the motif OF the
article-that there is a close relation between
respiration and metrical structure. Eight
syllable verse is easy to read aloud because it
follows more exactly than any other measure
the natural rhythm of respiration. About
twenty lines can with ease be spoken in
minute; so that one naturally pronounces
line to each expiration, and the only effort re-
quired is that of vocalizing and articulatlng.
The heroic measure permits the prOnunca-
tion of fourteen lines in a minute, thus de-
ranging the natural respiration, and produc-
ing a sense of effort. The cesura gives some
relief, however, to the ten syllable line. The
fourteen syllable verse, the common metre of
the hymn book, is broken into alternate lines
ofeight and six syl!ables, and so is easy reading.
The twelve syllable line, that of Drayton's
Polyolbion, is exceedingly difficult to speak,
for it is too much for one respiration and
not enough for two.
This law of relation, in Doctor Holmes
opinion, applies to the writing as well as to
the reading of verse. He points out that the
early poems OF a people are recited or sung
before they are committed to writing, and
that even if versifier dee not read aloud as
he writes, he mentally articulates every line,
and takes cognizance instinctively of its
physiological adjustment to respiration as he
does of its smoothness or roughness, which
he hears only in imagination. The favorite
measure of a poet is governed by the rapidity
of his respiration. ne can hardly doubt,
Doctor Holmes says, that Spenser breathed
habitually more slowly than Prior, and that
Anacreon had quicker respiration than
Homer. An individual of ample chest and
quiet temperament may breathe habitually
only fourteen times minute, and so find the
iambic pantameter to correspond with his
respiratory rhythm, while person of mar
rover frame and more nervous habit may
find that the seven syllable verse fits his
respiration.
The idea which the professor" has put
forth in this article suggests many curious
speculatiopo. One wonders what disturb
anceof the respiratory rhythm causes Rob-
ert Browning's spawned verse or Walt Whit
mans asthmatic lines. But, curious specu-
lations aside, we see in the idea great and
valuable discovery,-thato of regulating poetry
by the stop-watch. Let it be set down as an
inaexible rule that no young poet shall be al
lowed hearing who does not write to suit
the respiration of the majority. Unless be
use the octosyllabic measure lie. him be taboo.
As most would-be poets are not as other peo-
pie are, and are consumptive or dyspeptic or
asthmatic, the rigid enforcement of this rule
will do away with the majority of them, and
will correspondingly relieve the desks of mag
azine editors and the waste-baskets of news
paper offices. No fears need be entertained
that any true poet will thus be debarred
hearing. The great singers are above all
rules, and will surely make themselves known.
Mute Millions exist only in the kindly fancy
of the poet. The sensitive Keats whom the
gad-fy of criticism stung to death, is myth.
Not Clifford, but pulmonary phthisis, killed
the author of Endymion.
The paper under consideration hints at
truth which we here proclaim: the rajor
portion Of the poetas:ers of the day are brok-
en-winded, as their verses show. Now we
submit that is against all the rules ofthe turf
to cumber race with horse that has ''the
heaves." A winged but asthmatic Pegasus
should be allowed to take no exceptions to
the rules which govern earthly coursers.