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An Objective Study of Syllabic Quantity in English Verse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Blank Verse  and
Ada L. F. Snell
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Extract

It is my purpose in this paper to consider the quantity of, the syllables in twenty-five lines of Milton's Paradise Lost. The selection, given below, was read by three different men. The first is an instructor in vocal expression, the second is a graduate student in language and phonetics, and the third is a professor in the Department of General Linguistics. All three are connected with the University of Michigan.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 33 , Issue 3 , 1918 , pp. 396 - 408
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1918

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References

1 A complete 'description of the instrument, and a detailed reading of two plates is given in my thesis on Pause, a Study of its Nature and its Rhythmical Function in Verse, Especially Blank Verse. Edited by Fred Newton Scott in Contributions to Rhetorical Theory.

2 The problem of syllabification is now under investigation at the University of Michigan. The solution of the difficulties involved will be a very material aid in verse analysis.

3 Doubtful division.

4 In my investigation of pause, I found that the syllable or word before the pause is usually greatly lengthened.

5 Other articles dealing with the same subject by Professor Cobb are: “A Type of Four Stress Verse in Shakespeare,” New Shakespearana, Jan. 1911; “A Scientific Basis for Metrics,” Modern Language Notes, xxviii, pp. 142–145.

6 Since there might be a difference of opinion as to how the words in a spondee should be classified, I have omitted these: small drop, line 607; viewed first, line 617; all of line 18; and life dies, death lives, line 624.