The Physical Nature of Verse

Abstract

IF Prof. E. W. Scripture (NATURE, October 11, p. 534) had said that normal English verse was mainly a matter of rhythm—instead of saying that verse is purely a matter of rhythm—he would have been in line with ordinary opinion to-day. I have myself taught this, at Cambridge and elsewhere, for a quarter of a century. Prof. Scripture contributes nothing new except his method of research and the unnecessary word “centroid.” His conclusion is too sweeping, and at the same time defective. The works of Homer, Pindar, Virgil, Horace, and Ovid are verse; and in them we are obliged to take account of quantitative feet. Shakespeare's blank verse line is rhythmic; Milton's is rhythmic and quantitative as well; both observe the principle of number. One of the great aesthetic principles, that uniformity shall admit of variety, so that we receive a continual satisfaction of expectation, mingled with recurrent surprise, would be thwarted if verse were written solely on Prof. Scripture's principle.