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in he so thrillingly bewails the calamity of blind-Jemn subjects.
ness; they are so appropriate to my subject, that
you must pardon my introducing them, although I
am aware that to you they are as familiar as to
myself.

"The sun to me is dark,
And silent as the moon,
When she deserts the night,

Hid in her vacant interlunar cave.
Since Light so necessary is to Life,
And almost Life itself, if it be true
That Light is in the soul,

She all in every part, why was the sight
To such a tender ball as the eye confined,
So obvious, and so easy to be quenched?
And not, as Feeling, through all parts diffused,
That she might look at will through every pore?
Then had I not been thus exiled from Light,
As in the land of darkness, yet in light,
To live a life half dead, a living death,
And buried; but yet more miserable!
Myself my sepulchre, a moving grave:
Buried, yet not (xenpt,

By privilege of death and burial

From worst of other evils, pains, and wrongs:
But made hereby obnoxious more
To all the miseries of life."

And now let me bid you good night, for after repeating the above beautiful effusion of the noble English Bard, it would be rather too much like precipitating you and your ideas from the drawingroom to the cellar, were I to continue detailing my own common-place observations-wherefore I give you a respite until some future "Evening at home."

J. M. C.

Notices of New Works.

we may mention "

Another book of the Harpers is "the Ten

ant of Wildfell Hall," by Acton Bell, one of that literary fraternity, who have given us "Jane Eyre," and "Wuthering Heights." We are inclined to think that the Brothers Bell intend assuming for a period the tripod of fiction, and sending forth a series of novels, of which those already published are but the forerunners. Already the rapidity, with which these volumes have appeared, has astonished even the readers of Mr. James. With regard to the present work, we are frank to say that we cannot admire it. Though written with much power and reality, it is imbued with a coarseness, which approaches to ferocity. What brutal characters do we not meet with in the pages of all these novels! Is it not shocking, too, to follow the fair "tenant of the Hall" in the course of her adventures, shining in London society and commanding admiration everywhere, to her marriage with a vulgar, clownish fellow, who ought never to have risen above the station of a menial? But we must hurry on to acknowledge two new works "by the author of the Robber." The cry is still they come ! Here they are, Gowrie; or the King's Plot, and A Whim and its Consequences; the 116th and 117th numbers of Harper's Library of Select Novels, and making perhaps 100 of the works of Mr. G. P. R. James! We can only say of the former, that it is very smoothly written and that the scene being laid in the times of Henri Quatre, the characters move about in that sort of agreeable twilight with which Mr. James has before invested his heroes. The Harpers have also put forth the "First Book in Spanish," by Joseph Salkeld, A. M., a very excellent manual of instruction in

LITERARY NOVELTIES.-The never-flagging press of HARPER & BROTHERS has given to the public, during the month, several most attractive works, first among which Vanity Fair," a novel by Thackeray, the facetious author of the "Yellow Plush Correspondence," and formerly, we believe, one of the ingredients (i. e. an editor) of the London Punch. We do not know what quality Mr. Thackeray imparted to the Punch, (Mark Lemon, it is said, supplied the acidity,) but we have no hesitation saying that for dexterous management of ridicule and satirical humor, he is not approached by any writer of the day. In "Vanity Fair," we are taken by the author behind the scenes of this amusing and illusive drama called life,

in

that sonorous and elegant language. We regret that in this hasty notice we cannot do justice to another little volume from the same press, entitled the "Battle of Buena Vista," by Capt. James Henry Carleton of the 1st U. S. Dragoons. Let all who would fully appreciate the debt of gratitude we owe to that gallant little army of four thousand men, who flaunted the banners of the country in the face of a foe, numerically five times as strong, read this book attentively. The style is remarkable for its exceeding elegance and the descriptions are in the highest degree graphic. Captain Carleton, who was actively engaged in the battle, has not only illustrated his regiment in the field, but has recorded its gallant deeds in a most worthy narrative, and earned in a double sense the praise of the Roman historian, Pulchrum est bene facere reipublicæ, etiam bene dicere haud absurdum est. One of the most acceptable books of the month is "Grantley Manor," by Lady Georgiana Fullerton, which has been published in beautiful style by Messrs. D. APPLETON & Co. To those who love a good novel (and who does not ?) we commend it as full of interest. We are crowded for space or we should give copious extracts from its attractive pages. The Appletons have also published the "Taylor Anecdote Book," a cheap compendium of authentic anecdotes of Gen. Taylor and the Mexican War. We commend it to the reading of all, who like camp wit, at times relieved by those incidents of natural pathos and deep sadness, which war, the most terrible of human calamities, never fails to call forth. LEA & BLANCHARD of Philadelphia, among other valuable publications, have issued "Poems, by the authors of Jane Eyre, &c." The book will command a large sale, as bringing forward these writers in a new character.

Revised. Vol. 1. Knickerbocker's New York, New York. George P. Putnam. 1848.

and made to see how much humbug there is in the world THE WORKS OF WASHINGTON IRVING. New Edition, of society. We are not altogether persuaded, however, that some passages are not greatly over-drawn and we cannot bring ourselves to believe with Mr. Thackeray that, bad as the world is, there are not some sincere persons, The exceeding good taste of Mr. Putnam is strikingly who practise now and then real benevolence and feel dis-displayed in the present beautiful volume, which is the first interested attachments. Mr. Thackeray offends against of an uniform edition of the works of Geoffrey Crayon. We good taste, too, by sporting sometimes with grave and sol- feel assured that the enterprise of giving the public good

library copies of American works, upon which Mr. Putnam | from that mare tenebrarum, the benighted region of the has entered, will be properly encouraged. South, so that our brethren may look only to the divine il

We need surely say nothing in commendation of Irving. luminations of the northern Borealis ! To praise Hercules was considered an idle task, and equal- The Southern Literary Messenger has been published ly so is it, at this day, to extol a writer, whose productions 14 years. It has done something, we think, to merit the are every where regarded as models of English composi-praise of all who are American in feeling-it has achieved tion. We well recollect that the History of New York, an European reputation. We will gather together the back by Diedrich Knickerbocker, was one of the first books that volumes, as they stand in our library, and challenge a comwe ever read out of school: and we are sure that we then parison, for instructive and really valuable articles, with believed every word it contained. Since that time, the any fourteen volumes of another American periodical. We "unutterable ponderings of Walter the Doubter" have in- say this with no design to vaunt ourselves. We trumpet deed become less oracular, but we still recur to them with not forth our own praises. But we say it in justice to the delight. No playful satire that we know has afforded such dead, whose works live after them in the Messenger's pauniversal pleasure, and while other histories of New York ges. We say it in justice to the lamented founder of the may seem more veracious, it is certain, (as Mr. Irving has magazine, to the host of illustrious contributors who have expressed it in his agreeable preface to the present edition,) passed away from us,—Wilde, Legaré, Upshur, Dew, Gasthat Knickerbocker's history will, for ages to come, be ton, Jane Tayloe Lomax. received with good-humored indulgence, and be thumbed and chuckled over by the family fireside."

CATALOGUE OF THE LIBRARY of the University of Alabama, With an Index of subjects. By Wilson G. Richardson, M. A., Member of the Faculty, and Librarian of the University. Tuscaloosa: Printed by M. D. J. Slade. 1848.

To write out a list of the titles of books on the shelves of a library, while it appears a work of considerable labor, seems yet to be a very simple matter. But it is not so. Great difficulties attend the proper arrangement and classification of volumes, arising out of the character of their contents and the systems employed, and the best minds have sometimes been directed to the subject, without any useful result. The plan pursued by Mr. Richardson in the compilation of the excellent volume before us is that carried out in the Catalogue of the Edinburgh Signet Library and the Library of Brown University--an alphabetical record of the names of the authors. Short biographical sketches are also occasionally appended.

umes.

The Library of the University now contains 4,231 volWe have been struck with the judicious selections that have been made and the choice editions of the works.

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The Southern Quarterly Review has been in existence seven years. We say only what we believe when we declare that its pages contain as much of solid learning and research as those of any other Review in the country.

Now, why, does the reader suppose, has this Society of the Brothers in Unity thought proper to exclude us from their Index? Why can they not condescend to admit the existence of these two magazines? Does it proceed from that miserable and narrow view, which recognises no literary excellence beyond the limits of New England? In some degree it does. But there is a deeper cause. It is found in the significant fact that under the head of ❝ Slaves and Slavery," in the Index itself, not one Southern article on cism that have dribbled from the Bostonian school of philanthe subject is given to the reader. All the folly and fanatiour domestic institutions, are noted at length, while New thropy, or that the Oneida Institute has sent forth against Haven justice admits nothing on the other side. We scorn the deluded victims of this unworthy prejudice.

BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE and the English Reviews.

The July numbers of the Edinburgh, London Quarterly and Westminster Reviews, and Blackwood's Magazine for August, have been received. The Edinburgh is a model number, worthy of its best fame. Indeed the character of the work, established by Jeffrey, Sidney Smith, Macaulay and others, in the days when George the Fourth was King, is well sustained by its present conductors. The deep re search of its contributors and their familiarity with every branch of the subjects discussed, make it authority in all matters of scientific investigation. The lighter articles, too, afford a pleasing relaxation to the mind, which has been exercised in perusing the solid papers. The reader, who seeks to be amused, will find abundant humor in the arti cles on " Piracy in the Oriental Archipelago,” and “Gold

smith."

Blackwood contains a continuation of the story of the Caxtons," which has been ascribed by some to the pen of Sir E. Bulwer Lytton. There is also a striking story of circumstantial evidence, from the criminal records of Halland, entitled the "Blue Dragoon."

These works have reached us through the obliging Richnond Agents, Messrs. Nash & Woodhouse.

We have a word to say, however, with reference to the spirit in which it has been conceived. Will it be believed, that a work, purporting to set forth an index to the best articles in prominent American periodicals, bas passed by, without a single notice, the Southern Quarterly Review and the Southern Literary Messenger? Yet this is so. The Society of the Brothers in Unity, sitting in judgment on the periodical literature of America, from their high throne of belles-lettres in Yale College, have virtually pronounced that the Southern Quarterly Review and the Southern THE SOUTHERN METHODIST PULPIT. Edited by Charles Literary Messenger are not entitled to their distinguished F. Deems. Boydton, Va., August, 1848. consideration! Oh, unhappy fate! Oh, cruel Brothers in A very excellent work that addresses itself to the expe Unity! how crest-fallen does not your "unkindest cut" cial patronage and support of the Methodist Church, South cause us to appear! We propose to our Charleston co- Each number contains a Sermon, together with a compen temporary, since our pages have been shut out from this dium of religious intelligence, and Critical Notices of New Index and declared ex cathedra to be of no consequence, to Works. These latter are written with a skilful pes, and discontinue altogether,—to withdraw our farthing candles 'in a proper impartiality of feeling.

PUBLISHED MONTHLY AT FIVE DOLLARS PER ANNUM-JNO. R. THOMPSON, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.

VOL. XIV.

RICHMOND, OCTOBER, 1848.

THE RATIONALE OF VERSE.*

BY EDGAR A. POE.

The word "Verse" is here used not in its strict or primitive sense, but as the term most convenient for expressing generally and without pedantry all that is involved in the consideration of rhythm, rhyme, metre, and versification.

NO. 10.

be richest when most superficial; thirdly, the clearest subject may be overclouded by mere superabundance of talk. In chemistry, the best way of separating two bodies is to add a third; in speculation, fact often agrees with fact and argument with argument, until an additional well-meaning fact or argument sets every thing by the ears. In one case out of a hundred a point is excessively discussed because it is obscure; in the ninety-nine remaining it is obscure because excessively discussed. When a topic is thus circumstanced, the readiest mode of investigating it is to forget that any previous investigation has been attempted.

of

any

There is, perhaps, no topic in polite literature which has been more pertinaciously discussed, and there is certainly not one about which so much inaccuracy, confusion, misconception, misrepresen-Greek and Latin rhythms, and even on the HeBut, in fact, while much has been written on the tation, mystification, and downright ignorance on all sides, can be fairly said to exist. Were the topie really difficult, or did it lie, even, in the cloudland of metaphysics, where the doubt-vapors may be made to assume any and every shape at the will or at the fancy of the gazer, we should have less reason to wonder at all this contradiction and perplexity; but in fact the subject is exceedingly simple; one tenth of it, possibly, may be called ethical; nine tenths, however, appertain to the mathematies; and the whole is included within the limits of the commonest common sense.

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brew, little effort has been made at examining that of the modern tongues. As regards the English, comparatively nothing has been done. It may be said, indeed, that we are without a treatise In our ordinary grammars and on our own verse. in our works on rhetoric or prosody in general, may be found occasional chapters, it is true, which have the heading, "Versification," but these are, in all instances, exceedingly meagre. They pretend to no analysis; they propose nothing like system; they make no attempt at even rule; every thing But, if this is the case, how," it will be asked, depends upon "authority." They are confined, can so much misunderstanding have arisen? Is in fact, to mere exemplification of the supposed vait conceivable that a thousand profound scholars, rieties of English feet and English lines;-although investigating so very simple a matter for centuries, in no work with which I am acquainted are these have not been able to place it in the fullest light, feet correctly given or these lines detailed in anyat least, of which it is susceptible?" These thing like their full extent. Yet what has been ries, I confess, are not easily answered:-at all mentioned is all-if we except the occasional inevents a satisfactory reply to them might cost more troduction of some pedagogue-ism, such as this, trouble than would, if properly considered, the borrowed from the Greek Prosodies:—“ When a whole vexata quæstio to which they have reference. syllable is wanting, the verse is said to be catalecNevertheless, there is little difficulty or danger in tic; when the measure is exact, the line is acatasuggesting that the "thousand profound scholars" lectic; when there is a redundant syllable it forms may have failed, first because they were scholars, hypermeter." Now whether a line be termed catsecondly because they were profound, and thirdly alectic or acatalectic is, perhaps, a point of no vital because they were a thousand-the impotency of importance; it is even possible that the student the scholarship and profundity having been thus may be able to decide, promptly, when the a should multiplied a thousand fold. I am serious in these be employed and when omitted, yet be incognisuggestions; for, first again, there is something in Zant, at the same time, of all that is worth know"scholarship" which seduces us into blind worshiping in regard to the structure of verse.

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of Bacon's Idol of the Theatre-into irrational deference to antiquity; secondly, the proper “profundity" is rarely profound-it is the nature of ject to mere Versification, while Verse in general, Truth in general, as of some ores in particular, to

A leading defect in each of our treatises, (if treatises they can be called,) is the confining the sub

*Some few passages of this article appeared, about four years ago, in "The Pioneer," a monthly Magazine publish ed by J. R. Lowell and R. Carter. Although an excellent work it had a very limited circulation.

VOL. XIV-73

with the understanding given to the term in the heading of this paper, is the real question at issue. Nor am I aware of even one of our Grammars which so much as properly defines the word versification itself. "Versification," says a work now before me, of which the accuracy is far more than

66

"So as to produce harmony," says the definition, "by the regular alternation," &c. A regular alternation, as described, forms no part of any principle of versification. The arrangement of spondees and dactyls, for example, in the Greek hexameter, is an arrangement which may be termed at random. At least it is arbitrary. Without interference with the line as a whole, a dactyl may be substituted for a spondee, or the converse, at any point other than the ultimate and penultimate feet, of which the former is always a spondee, the latter nearly always a dactyl. Here, it is clear, we have no "regular alternation of syllables differing in quantity.”

usual--the English Grammar" of Goold Brown-most unaccountably forborne to touch. Reasoned "Versification is the art of arranging words into rules on this topic should form a portion of all syslines of correspondent length, so as to produce har-tems of rhythm. mony by the regular alternation of syllables differing in quantity." The commencement of this definition might apply, indeed, to the art of versification, but not to versification itself. Versification is not the art of arranging &c., but the actual arranging a distinction too obvious to need comment. The error here is identical with one which has been too long permitted to disgrace the initial page of every one of our school grammars. I allude to the definitions of English Grammar itself. "English Grammar," it is said, "is the art of speaking and writing the English language correctly." This phraseology, or something essentially similar, is employed, I believe, by Bacon, Miller, Fisk, Greenleaf, Ingersoll, Kirkland, Cooper, Flint, Pue, Comly, and many others. These gentlemen, it is presumed, adopted it without examination from Murray, who derived it from Lily, (whose work

was

66

quam solam Regia Majestas in omnibus scholis docendam præcipit,") and who appropriated it without acknowledgment, but with some unimportant modification, from the Latin Grammar of Leonicenus. It may be shown, however, that this definition, so complacently received, is not, and cannot be, a proper definition of English Grammar. A definition is that which so describes its object as to distinguish it from all others :-it is no definition of any one thing if its terms are applicable to any one other. But if it be asked-"What is the design-the end-the aim of English Grammar?" our obvious answer is, "The art of speaking and writing the English language correctly :"-that is to say, we must use the precise words employed as the definition of English Grammar itself. But the object to be obtained by any means is, assuredly, not the means. English Grammar and the end contemplated by English Graminar, are two matters sufficiently distinct; nor can the one be more reasonably regarded as the other than a fishinghook as a fish. The definition, therefore, which is applicable in the latter instance, cannot, in the former, be true. Grammar in general is the analysis of language; English Grammar of the English.

"So as to produce harmony," proceeds the definition, "by the regular alternation of syllables dif. fering in quantity,”—in other words by the alternation of long and short syllables; for in rhythm all syllables are necessarily either short or long. But not only do I deny the necessity of any regu larity in the succession of feet and, by consequence, of syllables, but dispute the essentiality of any alternation, regular or irregular, of syllables long and short. Our author, observe, is now engaged in a definition of versification in general, not of English versification in particular. But the Greek aud Latin metres abound in the spondee and pyrrhicthe former consisting of two long syllables; the latter of two short; and there are innumerable instances of the immediate succession of many spondees and many pyrrhics.

Here is a passage from Silius Italicus:

Fallis te mensas inter quod credis inermem
Tot bellis quæsita viro, tot cædibus armat
Majestas eterna ducem: si admoveris ora
Cannas et Trebium ante oculos Trasymenaque busta,
Et Pauli stare ingentem miraberis umbram.

sodies, we should scan these Hexameters thus:
Making the elisions demanded by the classic Pro-

Fallis | tē mēn | sās īn | tēr quod | credis in | ērmēm |
Tot bellis quæ | sită vi | rõ tōt | cædībŭs | ārmāt |
Mājēs tās ē | tērnă dũ | cēm s'ād | móvĕris | ōrā |
et Pâu | lī stā | r'īngen | têm mī | rābērīs | ūmbrám |
Cannās ēt Trebĭ' | ānt'õcũ | lõs Trasy | mënăque | būstă

But to return to Versification as defined in our extract above. "It is the art," says this extract, "of arranging words into lines of correspondent length." Not so: a correspondence in the length lines, we have only two short syllables in thirteen,

of lines is by no means essential. Pindaric odes are, surely, instances of versification, yet these compositions are noted for extreme diversity in the length of their lines.

It will be seen that, in the first and last of these

with an uninterrupted succession of no less than nine long syllables. But how are we to reconcile all this with a definition of versification which describes it as "the art of arranging words into lines The arrangement is moreover said to be for the of correspondent length so as to produce harmony purpose of producing harmony by the regular al by the regular alternation of syllables differing in ternation," &c. But harmony is not the sole aim--quantity?" not even the principal one. In the construction of It may be urged, however, that our prosodist's verse, melody should never be left out of view; intention was to speak of the English metres alone, yet this is a point which all our Prosodies have and that, by omitting all mention of the spondee and

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pyrrhic, he has virtually avowed their exclusion So general and so total a failure can be referred from our rhythms. A grammarian is never excu- only to radical misconception. In fact the Engsable on the ground of good intentions. We delish Prosodists have blindly followed the pedants. mand from him, if from any one, rigorous preci- These latter, like les moutons de Panurge, have sion of style. But grant the design. Let us ad- been occupied in incessant tumbling into ditches, mit that our author, following the example of all for the excellent reason that their leaders have so authors on English Prosody, has, in defining versi - tumbled before. The Iliad, being taken as a startfication at large, intended a definition merely of the ing point, was made to stand in stead of Nature English. All these prosodists, we will say, reject and common sense. Upon this poem, in place of the spondee and pyrrhic. Still all admit the iam- facts and deduction from fact, or from natural law, bus, which consists of a short syllable followed by a were built systems of feet, metres, rhythms, rules, long; the trochee, which is the converse of the rules that contradict each other every five minutes, iambus; the dactyl, formed of one long syllable and for nearly all of which there may be found followed by two short; and the anapast-two twice as many exceptions as examples. If any short succeeded by a long. The spondee is im- one has a fancy to be thoroughly confounded-to properly rejected, as I shall presently show. The see how far the infatuation of what is termed "claspyrrhic is rightfully dismissed. Its existence in sical scholarship" can lead a book-worm in the either ancient or modern rhythm is purely chime- manufacture of darkness out of sunshine, let him rical, and the insisting on so perplexing a nonen- | turn over, for a few moments, any one of the Certity as a foot of two short syllables, affords, per-man Greek Prosodies. The only thing clearly haps, the best evidence of the gross irrationality made out in them is a very magnificent contempt and subservience to authority which characterize for Liebnitz's principle of "a sufficient reason." our Prosody. In the meantime the acknowledged To divert attention from the real matter in hand dactyl and anapæst are enough to sustain my pro- by any farther reference to these works, is unneposition about the "alternation," &c., without re-cessary, and would be weak. I cannot call to mind, ference to feet which are assumed to exist in the at this moment, one essential particular of informaGreek and Latin metres alone : for an anapast and tion that is to be gleaned from them; and I will a dactyl may meet in the same line; when of course drop them here with merely this one observation : we shall have an uninterrupted succession of four that, employing from among the numerous “anshort syllables. The meeting of these two feet, to cient" feet the spondee, the trochee, the iambus, be sure, is an accident not contemplated in the de- the anapast, the dactyl, and the cesura alone, I finition now discussed; for this definition, in de- will engage to scan correctly any of the Horatian manding a "regular alternation of syllables differ- rhythms, or any true rhythm that human ingenuity ing in quantity," insists on a regular succession of can conceive. And this excess of chimerical feet similar feet. But here is an example:

Sing to ma | Isabelle.

This is the opening line of a little ballad now before me, which proceeds in the same rhythm-a peculiarly beautiful one. More than all this :English lines are often well composed, entirely, of a regular succession of syllables all of the same quantity: the first lines, for instance, of the following quatrain by Arthur C. Coxe:

March ! march ! march !

Making sounds as they tread,
Ho! ho! how they step,

Going down to the dead!

is, perhaps, the very least of the scholastic supererogations. Ex uno disce omnia. The fact is that ber of mere learning may be dispensed with, if ever Quantity is a point in whose investigation the lumin any. Its appreciation is universal. It appertains to no region, nor race, nor æra in especial. To melody and to harmony the Greeks hearkened with ears precisely similar to those which we employ for similar purposes at present; and I should not be condemned for heresy in asserting that a pendulum at Athens would have vibrated much after the same fashion as does a pendulum in the city of Penn.

Verse originates in the human enjoyment of The line italicized is formed of three cæsuras. equality, fitness. To this enjoyment, also, all the The cæsura, of which I have much to say hereaf- moods of verse-rhythm, metre, stanza, rhyme, ter, is rejected by the English Prosodies and grossly alliteration, the refrain, and other analogous ef misrepresented in the classic. It is a perfect foot-fects-are to be referred. As there are some readthe most important in all verse-and consists of a single long syllable; but the length of this sylla

ble varies.

It has thus been made evident that there is not one point of the definition in question which does not involve an error. And for anything more satisfactory or more intelligible we shall look in vain to any published treatise on the topic.

ers who habitually confound rhythm and metre, it may be as well here to say that the former concerns the character of feet (that is, the arrangements of syllables) while the latter has to do with the number of these feet. Thus by "a dactylic rhythm" we express a sequence of dactyls. By "a dactylic hexameter" we imply a line or measure consisting of six of these dactyls.

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