On Quantitative Metre 349quantitative verse based on the natural rhythm of the language
liberated from all metrical convention of regularity, and there
is sometimes an approximation to its highest possibilities. But
the approximation is not so near as it might have been in the
work of one who had the theory before him; for it was not
the conscious mind, but the creative ear that was active and
compelled this result, helped no doubt by the will to outdo the
beauty of accentual metrical rhythm in a freer poetry.
In Whitman the attempt at perfection of rhythm is often
present and, when he does his best as a rhythmist, it rises to a
high-strung acuteness which gives a great beauty of movement
to his finest lines; but what he arrives at is a true quantitative
free verse.
Co_
me,|lo_
vely ̆a ̆nd|soo_
thi ̆ng|dea_
th,|U_
ndu ̆la_
te|rou_
nd the ̆wo_
rld,|se ̆re_
nely ̆|a ̆rri_
vi ̆ng,|a ̆rri_
vi ̆ng,|I ̆nthe ̆da_
y,|i ̆nthe ̆ni_
ght,|to ̆a_
ll,|to ̆ea_
ch|Soo_
ne ̆ro ̆r|la_
te ̆r,|de_
li ̆ca ̆te|dea_
th.|....A ̆pproa_
ch,|stro_
ng de ̆|li_
ve ̆re ̆ss,|Whe ̆ni ̆ti ̆sso_
,|whe ̆n thou_
ha ̆st|ta_
ke ̆nthe ̆m|I_
jo_
you ̆sly ̆|si_
ng the ̆dea_
d,|Lo_
st i ̆nthe ̆|lo_
vi ̆ng|floa_
ti ̆ng|o_
cea ̆no ̆fthee_
,|La_
ved i ̆nthe ̆|floo_
do ̆fthy_
|bli_
ss, O ̆dea_
th.|....A ̆nd the ̆si_
ghts|o ̆fthe ̆o_
pe ̆n|la_
ndsca_
pe|a ̆nd the ̆hi_
gh-sprea ̆d|sky_
a ̆refi_
tti ̆ng|
A ̆nd li_
fe|a ̆nd the ̆fie_
lds|a ̆nd the ̆hu_
ge a ̆nd|thou_
ghtfu ̆lni_
ght.|That is comparatively rare in its high beauty; but everywhere
the rhythmic trend is the same wherever we look at it, — as in
the rhymed freedom of this opening, —
Wea_
po ̆n|sha_
pely ̆,|na_
ke ̆d,|wa_
n,|