326 The Future Poetry
the contrary, a very short sound can be made to bear the weight
of the whole foot while longer ones trail after it in dependence
on their diminutive leader. What we really have is a system
of recurrent strokes or beats intervening at a fixed place in each
foot, while the syllables which are not hammered into prominent
place by this kind of stroke or beat fill the interspaces. A regular
metrical base is thus supplied, but the rhythm can be varied or
modulated by departures from the base — from it but always
upon it; for these departures, variations or modulations, relieve
its regularity which might otherwise become monotonous, but
do not replace or frustrate the essential rhythm. If the modula-
tions overlay too much the basic sound-system so as to obliterate
it or if they are so ill-managed as to substitute another rhythm
for it, then we have a rhythmic mixture; or else there is a break
of the metrical movement which can be legitimate only if it
is done with set purpose and justified by the success of that
purpose.
In all these instances it will be seen that inherent quantity
combined with distribution of stress — which is also as we shall
see a true quantity-builder — plays always the same role; it is
used as an accessory or important element of the rhythm, to give
variety, subtlety, deeper significance. A longer quotation may
illustrate this position and function of stress distribution and dis-
tribution of quantity in accentual metre with more amplitude —
The lu⊥
n|atic,|the lo|
v|er and|the po⊥
etA_
re of|ima|
g|ina⊥
|tion a⊥
ll|compa|
ct:O|
ne see⊥
s|mo_
re de|
|vils than|va_
st he|
ll|can ho⊥
ld;Tha|
tis,|the ma|
d|man; the lo|
v|er, a⊥
ll|as fra|
n|tic,See_
sHe|
l|en’s beau⊥
|ty in|abro⊥
w|of E⊥
gypt:The po⊥
|et’s e⊥
ye,|in a|fi⊥
ne fre|
n|zy ro⊥
ll|ing,Doth gla|
nce|from hea|
v|en to ea⊥
rth,|from ea⊥
rth|to hea|
ven;And as|ima|
g|ina⊥
|tion bo|
|dies fo⊥
rth