Complete. From Marginalia.
THE EFFECT derivable from well-managed rhyme is very imperfectly understood. Conventionally rhyme implies merely close similarity of sound at the ends of verse, and it is really curious to observe how long mankind have been content with their limitation of the idea. What, in rhyme, first and principally pleases, may be referred to the human sense or appreciation of equalitythe common element, as might be easily shown, of all the gratification we derive from music in its most extended sensevery especially in its modifications of metre and rhythm. We see, for example, a crystal, and are immediately interested by the equality between the sides and angles of one of its facesbut, on bringing to view a second face, in all respects similar to the first, our pleasure seems to be squaredon bringing to view a third, it appears to be cubed, and so on: I have no doubt, indeed, that the delight experienced, if measurable, would be found to have exact mathematical relations, such, or nearly such, as I suggest,that is to say, as far as a certain point, beyond which there would be a decrease, in similar relations. Now here, as the ultimate result of analysis, we reach the sense of mere equality, or rather the human delight in this sense; and it was an instinct, rather than a clear comprehension of this delight as a principle, which, in the first instance, led the poet to attempt an increase of the effect arising from the mere similarity (that is to say equality) between two soundsled him, I say, to attempt increasing this effect by making a secondary equalization, in placing the rhymes at equal distancesthat is, at the ends of lines of equal length. In this manner, rhyme and the termination of the line grew connected in mens thoughtsgrew into a conventionalismthe principle being lost sight of altogether. And it was simply because Pindaric verses had, before this epoch, existedi.e., verses of unequal lengththat rhymes were subsequently found at unequal distances. It was for this reason solely, I say,for none more profound. Rhyme had come to be regarded as of right appertaining to the end of verseand here we complain that the matter has finally rested. But it is clear that there was much more to be considered. So far, the sense of equality alone entered the effect; or if this equality was slightly varied, it was varied only through an accidentthe accident of the existence of Pindaric metres. It will be seen that the rhymes were always anticipated. The eye, catching the end of a verse, whether long or short, expected, for the ear, a rhyme. The great element of unexpectedness was not dreamed ofthat is to say, of noveltyof originality. But, says Lord Bacon (how justly!) there is no exquisite beauty without some strangeness in the proportions. Take away this element of strangenessof unexpectednessof noveltyof originalitycall it what we willand all that is ethereal in loveliness is lost at once. We losewe miss the unknownthe vaguethe uncomprehended because offered before we have time to examine and comprehend. We lose, in short, all that assimilates the beauty of earth with what we dream of the beauty of heaven. Perfection of rhyme is attainable only in the combination of the two elements, Equality and Unexpectedness. But as evil cannot exist without good, so unexpectedness must arise from expectedness. We do not contend for mere arbitrariness of rhyme. In the first place, we must have equidistant or regularly recurring rhymes, to form the basis, expectedness, out of which arises the element, unexpectedness, by the introduction of rhymes, not arbitrarily, but with an eye to the greatest amount of unexpectedness. We should not introduce them, for example, at such points that the entire line is a multiple of the syllables preceding the points. When, for instance, I write
And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain, |
And the silken, sad, uncertain | |
Rustling of each purple curtain. |
Thrilled me, filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before. |
N. B.It is very commonly supposed that rhyme, as it now ordinarily exists, is of modern inventionbut see the Clouds of Aristophanes. Hebrew verse, however, did not include it,the terminations of the lines, where most distinct, never showing anything of the kind.