342 The Future Poetry
and can then conscientiously determine the rhythm of your own
answer. Or if one takes, as a resting-house between colloquial
speech and literary prose, the first advertisement that meets the
eye in any daily newspaper, the result will still infallibly illustrate
our rule. For example,
Thi ̆sco⊥
lu ̆mn|i ̆si ̆nte⊥
nde ̆d|to ̆gi⊥
ve|pu ̆bli⊥
ci ̆ty ̆|to ̆the ̆a ̆|me_
ni ̆tie ̆s|a ̆nd
co ̆mme⊥
rcia ̆l|i⊥
nte ̆re_
sts|o ̆fBa⊥
nga ̆lo_
re.|—where amphibrach, paeons, iamb, tribrach, dactyl, cretic, dou-
ble iamb are harmoniously blended together by an unconscious
master of quantitative rhythm. It can be at once and easily estab-
lished, by multiplying instances, that the daily talk and writing
of English-speaking peoples, though not by any means always
poetry, is still, in spite of itself and by an unfelt compulsion,
always rhythmic and always quantitative in its rhythm.
If we take similarly passages from literary prose, we shall
find the same law of rhythm lifted to a higher level. Shakespeare
and the Bible will give us the best and most concentrated ex-
amples of this rhythm in prose. Our first quotation, from the
New Testament, can indeed be arranged, omitting the super-
fluous word “even” before “Solomon”, as a very perfect and
harmonious stanza of free quantitative verse.
Co ̆nsi_
de ̆r|the ̆li_
lie ̆s|o ̆fthe ̆fie_
ld|ho_
wthe_
ygro_
w,|The_
ytoi_
lno ̆t|nei_
the ̆rdo ̆|the_
yspi_
n,|Ye ̆tI_
|sa_
yu ̆nto ̆you ̆ |tha ̆tSo_
lo ̆mo ̆n|i ̆na_
ll hi ̆s|glo_
ry ̆|Wa ̆sno ̆ta ̆rra_
yed|li_
ke u ̆nto ̆|o_
ne o ̆fthe_
se.|Or again, let us take the opening verses of the Sermon on the
Mount,
Ble_
sse ̆da_
re|the ̆poo_
r|i ̆nspi_
ri ̆t;|fo ̆rthei_
rs i ̆s|the ̆ki_
ngdo ̆m|o ̆fhea_
ve ̆n.|Ble_
sse ̆da_
re|the_
ytha ̆tmou_
rn;|fo ̆rthe_
ysha ̆ll be ̆|co_
mfo ̆rte ̆d.|