On Quantitative Metre 347consequence: there are other means of variation which are suffi-
cient to dispel that peril. A free use of modulation, an avoidance
of metrical rigidity by other devices natural to the flexibility of
the English tongue, a skilful employment of overlapping (en-
jambement), of caesura, of word-grouping are presupposed in
any reasonable quantitative system. Even where a very regular
movement is necessitated or desirable, the resources of the play
of sound, a subtle play of vowellation and of consonant har-
monies, rhythmic undertones and overtones ought to cure the
alleged deficiency. It is not the nature of the material but the
unskilful hand that creates the flaw; for each kind of material
has its own limitations and its own possibilities, and the hand of
the craftsman is needed to restrict or overcome the limitations,
even to take advantage of the natural bounds and bring out the
full force of the latent creativeness concealed in the obstructing
matter.
The application of the quantitative principle and the dis-
covery of the forms that are possible are the task of the creator,
not of the theoretical critic. It is, first and foremost, English
quantitative forms that we have to create; the reproduction or
new-creation of classical metres in English speech is only a side
issue. Here the possibilities are endless, but they fall into two
or three categories. First, there can be fixed quantitative metres
repeated from line to line without variation except for such
modulations as are, in the form chosen, possible or desirable.
Secondly, stanza forms can be found, either analogous to those
used in accentual verse or else analogous to the Greek arrange-
ment in strophe and antistrophe. Thirdly, one can use a freer
quantitative verse in which each line has its own appropriate
movement, the feet being variable, but with a predominant
single rhythm unifying the whole. Lastly, there can be entirely
free quantitative verse, true verse with a poetic rhythm, but
not bound by any law of metre. The stanza form is the most
suitable to quantitative verse, for here there can be much variety
and the danger of rigidity or monotony is non-existent. The
use of set stanza metres simple or composite is less obligatory
than it was in classical verse; even, each poem can discover