336 The Future Poetry
scan the first line —
O_
ne a_
nd u ̆n|a_
rmed i_
nthe ̆|ca_
rwa_
sthe_
|dri_
ve_
r;|gre_
ywa_
she_
,|shru_
nke ̆n,though it might still scan as a hexameter with antibacchius and
molossus twice repeated as modulations in place of the dactyl;
but it could not be read aloud in that way, — the ear would
immediately contradict the arbitrary dictates of the eye and the
inapplicable rigidity of the mental theory.
This is not to deny that an additional consonant or conso-
nants within the word after and before the vowel do give greater
length to the syllable as a whole; but this does not necessarily
transfer it from the category of shorts to the category of longs. At
most, when the weight of consonants is not heavy and decisive, it
makes it easier for these midway sounds to figure as lengthened
shorts; it helps a trochee to serve as a substitute modulation for
a spondee but it does not transform it into a spondee. To take
an instance from a hexameter movement —
Wind in the forests, bees in the grove, — spring’s ardent cymbal
Thrilling, the cry of the cuckoo.Here the word “ardent” easily replaces a dactyl or spondee as
a modulation, but it remains trochaic. There is more possibility
of treating “forests” here with its three heavy consonants as a
spondee, — a possibility, not a necessity invariable in all places,
for one could very well write “in the forests of autumn”, in
spite of the three consonants, as the orthodox dactylic close of a
hexameter. Let us try again with yet another example, this time
of wholly or fundamentally dactylic hexameters, —
Onward from continent sailing to continent, ever from harbour
Hasting to harbour, a wanderer joining^7 ocean to ocean.(^7) This word is a trochaic modulation; it is not intended to figure as a spondee.