On Quantitative Metre 327The fo⊥
rms|of thi|
ngs|unkno⊥
wn,|the po⊥
|et’s pe|
nTu⊥
rns them|to sha⊥
pes|and gi|
ves|to ai⊥
r|yno|
|thingAlo⊥
|cal ha|
|bita⊥
|tion and|ana⊥
me.^2The first six lines of this passage owe much of their beauty
to the unusual placing of the stresses and the long-vowelled syl-
lables; in each line the distribution differs and creates a special
significant rhythm which deepens and reinforces the outward
sense and adds to it that atmosphere of the unexpressed reality
of the thing in itself which it is in the power of rhythm, of word-
music as of all music, to create. In the first line two pyrrhics
separate the two long-vowelled sounds which give emphasis
and power to the first and last feet from the narrower short-
vowel stressed foot in the middle: this gives a peculiar rhythmic
effect which makes the line no longer a mere enumerative state-
ment, it evokes three different rhythmic significances isolating
and locating each of the three pure Imaginatives in his own
kind. In the second line a swift short movement in its first half
slows down to a heavy prolonged movement in its second, a
swift run with a long and tangled consequence; here too the
expressiveness of the rhythm is evident. In the third line there
are no fewer than four long vowels and a single pyrrhic separates
two rhythmic movements of an unusual power and amplitude
expressive of the enormity of the lunatic’s vision and imagina-
tion; here too, short-vowel stress and intrinsic-quantity longs are
combined no less than three times and it is this accumulation that
brings about the effect. In the fifth and sixth lines the separative
pyrrhic in the middle serves again a similar purpose. In the fifth
it helps to isolate in contrast two opposites each emphasised
by its own significant rhythm. In the sixth line there are again
four long vowels and a very expressive combination of short-
vowel stressed length with intrinsic long syllables, a spacious
amphibrach like a long plunge of a wave at the end; no more
(^2) Here only the stresses are marked, by the sign|, and the long-vowel syllables, by the
sign_; the quantitative shorts are left unmarked: the accents need no indication.