Omaha daily bee., 1916-06-14

Omaha, June Ito the Editor Of The
Bee: This 10 the year more enlightened.
literary folk would keep memory green the
800th anniversary Of Shakespeare Tor
Baeon) Z Hence description Of what poetry
10, both ancient and modern. may not be
amiss. Aristotle first made an analysis Of
rhythm and II can be seen in his book, he
called 1t Rhetoric" There is no need Of try
ing to rive q definition Of poetry. as many
have tried and failed. Practically IL 10 rhythm
and measure or fleet" to the line or verse
just 40 they say time" in music. which in
cludes both measure and rhythm spaced by
bars. and music has tone added. Psycholog-
ically no one can make definition Of poetry
and the same and be said Of music. for the
effect Of each on the mind cannot be ex-
planned in language. To the ancient Greeks
and the Latins. their poetry was also the
only music that they had This was made
possible by the numerous vowels in their Ian
suages and because modern races have 30
many consonants we cannot even initiate
their poetry. Every syllable to them was long
or short and In the thousands Of lines In the
poems Of Hesiod. Homer. Aenead and others
every syllable which they could repeat from
memory, line for line. you can see the syl-
tables are just so, long and short. They could
use and measure their poetry in those days
in seven rhythms, but today we use but four
Of them in our poetry and in our music we
use only two Of them unless you want to add
the pyrrhic below to account for our recent
syncopated, or rag time. That old Greek and
Latin poetry was all written In what was
called hexametsr verse, Of a mixture Of some
four Of the seven rhythms. Our hexameter
verse 10 very different, for we do not use
long and shorts any more and simply have
one mark Of accent and that like this, and
only for the accented syllables and the others
are just not accented. and that Is all
there 10 to II nowadays. as ancient poetry
was nearly always about great heroic deeds
and exploits IT Is called epic. But when
Sappho sang to her Tyre Of love and other
passions and feelings. even In the same
measure Of the rhythms. then her poetry we
must call lyric. When we speak Of epic
poetry today we mean the verse or line Ia
verse 10 line) that Shakespeare. Milton and
Pope wrote In, which 10 iambic pentameter.
1t Is hard to sing-son9 this verse and hence
It Is best fitted for deep thought. philosophy
and tragedy. 1t 10 also called heroic verse.
for it tells best OF heroes and Of history In
solemn fashion like the ancients did In their
peculiar verse to Us Of mixed rnythms and
known as ancient hexameter verse. In order
to explain the seven rhythms Of poetry and
the correct writing Of all verse we can use
the dash-and the capital letter U b. ",
which to ancient poetry means long and
Short but now we use ony the or over
the accented vowel and nothing for the un-
accented syllables. OF the seven rhythms Of
poetry below we use now in modern times
but the first four. and music uses but the
second and the fourth.
U - like in alone, called Iambus.
- like in onward. called Trochee.
U = like in intervene. called Ana
paest
-UU like in delicate. called Dactyle.
- - like in amen, called Spondee.
U = U like in endurance. called Am
phikrach.
~ like in give me life. called Am
phimacer.
u like in the. called Pyrrhic.
The seven measures are as the Greek for
numbers from l to Z. Thus monometer. or
one rhythm to the line or measure only and
then dimeter where only two rhythms
measures the line and trimeter and tetra-
meter and pentameter and hexameter and
heptameter. meaning seven.
The plays and the sonnets Of Shakespeare
are all in one kind Of verse, namely iambic
pentameter English heroic) or an iambus,
five times to the line and often in couplets
Of two lines only. Thus take the word alone
~ an iambus, accented on the second syl-
liable and say 1t five times to the line and
you have the verse of Shakespeare. Thus,
from "The Merchant Of Venice
The man that hath no music In himself,
10 fit for treason. strategems and spoils;
The motions Of his spirit are as dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus."
GEORGE P. WILKINSON.