Читать книгу English Verse - Raymond Macdonald Alden - Страница 9

Gegrētte ðā gumena gehwylcne,

hwate helm-berend, hindeman sīðe,

swǣse gesīðas: "Nolde ic sweord beran,

wǣpen tō wyrme, gif ic wiste hū

wið ðām āglǣcean elles meahte

gylpe wiðgrīpan, swā ic gīo wið Grendle dyde;

ac ic ðǣr heaðu-fȳres hātes wēne,

oreðes ond attres; forðon ic mē on hafu

bord ond byrnan. Nelle ic beorges weard

oferflēon fōtes trem,

ac unc sceal weorðan æt wealle, swā unc wyrd getēoð,

Metod manna gehwæs. Ic eom on mōde from,

þæt ic wið þone gūð-flogan gylp ofersitte.

(Beowulf, ll. 2516–2528. ab. 700.)

Ich herde men upo mold make muche mon,

hou he beþ itened of here tilyynge:

gode yeres & corn boþe beþ agon,

ne kepeþ here no sawe ne no song synge.

Nou we mote worche, nis þer non oþer won,

mai ich no lengore lyue wiþ mi lesinge.

Yet þer is a bitterore bit to þe bon,

for euer þe furþe peni mot to þe kynge.[4]

(The Farmer's Complaint, ab. 1300; in Böddeker's Altenglische Dichtungen, p. 102, and Wright's Political Songs, p. 149.)

I will speake out aloude, I care not who heare it:

Sirs, see that my harnesse, my tergat and my shield

Be made as bright now as when I was last in fielde,

As white as I shoulde to warre againe to-morrowe;

For sicke shall I be but I worke some folke sorow.

Therefore see that all shine as bright as Sainct George,

Or as doth a key newly come from the smiths forge.

(N. Udall: Ralph Roister Doister, IV. iii. 13–19. 1566.)

To this, this Oake cast him to replie

Well as he couth; but his enemie

Had kindled such coles of displeasure,

That the good man noulde stay his leasure,

But home him hasted with furious heate,

Encreasing his wrath with many a threat:

His harmefull Hatchet he hent in hand,

(Alas! that it so ready should stand!)

And to the field alone he speedeth,

(Aye little helpe to harme there needeth!)

Anger nould let him speake to the tree,

Enaunter his rage mought cooled bee;

But to the roote bent his sturdie stroake,

And made many wounds in the waste Oake.

(Spenser: Shepherd's Calendar, February. 1579.)

Through many a dark and dreary vale

They passed, and many a region dolorous,

O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp,

Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death—

A universe of death, which God by curse

Created evil, for evil only good;

Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature breeds,

Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things,

Abominable, inutterable, and worse

Than fables yet have feigned, or fear conceived.

(Milton: Paradise Lost, II. 618 ff. 1667.)

The night is chill; the forest bare;

Is it the wind that moaneth bleak?

There is not wind enough in the air

To move away the ringlet curl

From the lovely lady's cheek—

There is not wind enough to twirl

The one red leaf, the last of its clan,

That dances as often as dance it can,

Hanging so light, and hanging so high,

On the topmost twig that looks up at the sky.

(Coleridge: Christabel, Part I. 1816.)

In his Preface to this poem Coleridge said: "The metre of the Christabel is not, properly speaking, irregular, though it may seem so from its being founded on a new principle; namely, that of counting in each line the accents, not the syllables. Though the latter may vary from seven to twelve, yet in each line the accents will be found to be only four. Nevertheless this occasional variation in number of syllables is not introduced wantonly, or for the mere ends of convenience, but in correspondence with some transition, in the nature of the imagery or passion." The verse is accurately described, but it has frequently been pointed out as curious that Coleridge should have spoken of it as "founded on a new principle," when the principle in question was that of native English verse from the earliest times.[5]

For other specimens of verse showing irregularity in the number of syllables between the accents, see Part Two, under Non-syllable-counting Four-stress Verse.