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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2021
The existence of dipodic structure in English verse has been recognised by metrists only within a comparatively recent period of time. There have undoubtedly been two principal reasons for this failure of theory to take into account a very old and very deep-seated characteristic of English verse. Dipodic structure was, on the one hand, until the last forty years confined almost entirely to popular verse, while its sporadic occurrences in literary poetry were usually of such half-hearted nature as easily to escape the attention of the formal metrist. On the other hand, the study of dipodic verse has been handicapped by the lack of an objective method which could translate unsupported subjective feeling into scientific metrical proof. An attempt toward the establishment of such a method for the simplest form of dipodic verse is the object of this study.
1 Bibliographical references to the subject of dipodic verse are surprisingly few, and the treatments in most cases are sketchy. The writers of the major works on English metrics (Guest, Schipper, Kaluza, Saintsbury) have neglected the form; Saintsbury just admits its possibility (see History of English Prosody, Vol. III, p. 81 note, p. 85, pp. 135ff). The first recognition of dipodic structure is, I believe, in Lanier's Science of English Verse (1880), pp. 126-129, 225-232. Later discussions may be found in Omond's Study of Metre (1903), pp. 99-106, and Andrew's Writing and Reading of Verse (1918), p. 23ff, p. 34. The dipodic principle is recognised throughout Verrier's Metrique Anglaise (1909), see in particular Vol. II, pp. 158-173. Modern Metrical Technique (1922) by the present writer contains a chapter (pp. 95-113) on dipodic verse; the method here used is a development of the one there briefly suggested.
2 Let stress here be defined so as to be suitable to each one's conception. However much we may differ as to what constitutes stress I do not believe that we shall quarrel much as to which syllables carry this stress, and so the question is of no importance in this connection.
3 It would rarely begin upon the second syllable, and perhaps never end upon the fourth.
4 I here place the bar before instead of after the stressed syllable. I believe this has advantages over the opposite method, but it does not inherently affect the present discussion and anyone so wishing may mark to suit himself.
5 See e.g. P. F. Baum: The Principles of English Versification (Cambridge, Harv. Univ. Press., 1922.) Page 37 f. Note also that the vowel in the secondarily stressed syllable does not sink into the neutral vowel as does that of the unstressed syllable.
6 This proviso applies of course to adverbs, adjectives and nouns also.
7 Only the four “verse” lines of each stanza have been considered. The refrain consists so largely of repetition as to be misleading for statistical purposes, although the same general principles would apply. The dialect of the poem offers little difficulty. Since Mandalay is always used in the same way, I have counted it as being accented Màndaláy. Hyphenated words have been counted as simple words accented on the proper syllable of the first component, e.g. palm-trees and temple-bells. The meaningless (at least in English) Kulla-lo-lo has not been counted. The lines considered are of the type dipodic line represented above except that most of them open with two syllables before the first primary stress, i.e.,
For the temple-bells are callin' an' it's there that I would be.
The first of these opening syllables has been counted as of secondary stress, the second as unaccented.
8 A few of the lines begin with what the eighteenth century termed an opening “trochee,” e.g.
Father of all, in ev'ry age
In these cases I have counted the first syllable as the primary stress, the second syllable as the unstressed syllable, and have disregarded the third syllable. There are not enough such cases as appreciably to affect the count either way.
9 Examples are of course the experience of every-day conversation. Even an article may be stressed above its noun:—
Ordinarily prepositions are less marked than either verbs or pronouns, but in Ottima's speech in Pippa Passes the prepositions stand out as the two most important words in the line:
would subordinate both pronouns to the verb, but the contrast of two lines in the ballad of Hind Horn produces just the opposite result:
These are, however, only exceptions to the general tendency.
10 In more complex forms of dipodic verse there is more chance for variance in personal interpretation, but this can be considered in its own place.
11 The stress value of the verb depends so to speak upon its environment. Thus a verb between nouns usually gives the effect of a secondary stress, while a verb in the vicinity of pronouns and prepositions stands out as a primary stress. Examples can be observed in Mandalay. Here, however, we approach the realm of subjectivism, and the purpose of the present method is to be objective even at the risk of being mechanical. It must thus depend upon the law of averages, and rest content with expressing something less than the whole truth.
12 The small negative value is of no significance; even a large one could, I believe, be disregarded. The production of dipodic rhythm of the type
would be prevented by the fact that the last syllable carries the rhyme and so must usually be a strongly stressed syllable.
