The mirror., 1916-11-02

In the land of the Daco,aha,
Where the falls of Minnehaha
Flash and CLEAN among The oak trees,
Laugh and leap into the valley
Song of Hiacotha.
Regular Rhythm in Dactyls.
Take her up tenderly,
Lif, her with care,
Fashioned so slenderly.
Young and so fair!
Thomas Hood.
Regular Rhythm in Iambics
The little red ribbon, the ring and the rose!
The summer time comes and the summer time gees
And never a blossom in all of the land
AS white as the CLEAN of her beckoning hand
l am weary Of waiting and weary of tears,
And my heart weares, too, all these desoate years.
Moaning over the one only song that it knows
The little red ribbon, the ring and the rose.
lanes Whitcomb Riley.
Here is an unusual form of balance rhythm
from Tennyson.
The man of science himself is fonder of glory. and
An eye we'll prac,iced in nature, a spirit bounded
and poor;
The passionate heart of the poet is whird into folly
and vice.
/ would not marvel either but keep a temperate
For not to desire admire, if man could learn it,
Than to walk all day like the sultan of old IN gar
den of spice.
Be mine philosophers life in the quiet wood land
Where if cannot be gay let passionless peace be
my lot,
ar-of from the camor of liars belied in the hubub
of lies;
From the lopg-necked geese of the world that are
Kissing dispraise
Because their natures are llttle and. whether be
heed it not,
Where each man walks with his head in cloud of
poisonous flies.
Each contains six verses and thirty-sx
feet, twelve Iambics and twenty-ft ur Anapests In
each s,anza are two lines containing three Iambics
and three Anapests; two lines containing two lam.
bics and four Anapesis; and two lines containing
Ialnblc and five Anapests. And in each stapza
there line containing a foot that one sya-
BILE short This an imitation of an old Greek meas
ure and is her com pcaed and difficult to write:
a rhythm that beginner would hardly aspire to-
Tennyson uses it a medium for the philosophical
musings of young scholar and it is emnently fit
ting for the purpose, and is quoted here show the
extent to which the rhythm of verse may be mould
ed 10 fit the subject matter of poem.
This brings up the question Of whether the
poet. having conceived idea, should select
rhythm calculated express that idea and then
work it out into poem, should write few lines
in the manner that c.mes most naturally to mind
with the first concept of the Idea and then mould the
remainder of the poem to conform ith them. 1t is
question that has vexed poets and critics. and
about which there IS a wide divergence of opinion
/, is safe TO say however, that most of the gr+ at
poems the poems that we rec"grize classics, not
of one time or place people but of all lime and
for all people, have been wrought ont on carefully
stud ed lines definitely planned For the lighter
forms of verse, especially the lyric and the ballad,
perhaps the more impusive manner is better. Writ
ing of these lighter forms, DR. Esenwein. in
THE Ar, of Vers6calun" says: I'VE must never
forget that rhythm is the INNER IMPULSE # verse; it's
heart-throb, it were, and that should therefor
be approached from the inside and from the out
side The stronger this inner impulse The Wig
orous and spirited will be the verse;" That is what
makes Kipllngs verses vvid-the nauralness of
their rhythm.