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Practical English prosody and versification; or, Descriptions of the different species of English verse, with exercises in scanning and versification . . . calculated to produce correctness of ear and taste in reading and writing poetry . . . By John Carey . . .
Carey, John, 1756-1826.
London, Printed for Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, by J. Gillet, 1816.
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? Q * PRACTICAL
ENGLISH PROSODY
AND
VERSIFICATION,
OR
DESCRIPTIONS OF THE
DIFFERENT SPECIES OE ENGLISH VERSE,
WITH
EXERCISES
IN
SCANNING AND VERSIFICATION,
GRADUALLY ACCOMMODATED
to the various Capacities of Youth at different Ages,
and calculated to produce Correctness of Ear and Taste
in reading and writing Pot try;
the whole interspersed with occasional Remarks on
ETYMOLOGY, SYNTAX, AND PRONUNCIATION.
BY JQHN QAREY, LL. D.
PRIVATE TEACHER,
Author of" Latin'Prosody," and various other Publications.
A NEW AND IMPROVED EDITION.
LONDON.
PRINTED FOR BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AND JOY,
PATERNOSTER-ROW,
By J. Gillet, Crown-court, Fleet-street,
1816.
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? Publications by Dr. Canty.
" Key to Practical English Prosody and Versification" a new
edition.
Latin Prosody, a licw edition, considerably enlarged and im-
proved.
Abridgement of " Latin Prosody," for tlje use of Schools.
Scanning Exercises for young Prosodians.
Alphabetic Key to Propria, que Maribns, he.
Skeleton of the Latin Accidence, exhibiting the whole in one
convenient folding Table.
Learning better than House and Land, a Moral Tale for Youth.
Dryden's Virgil, revised and corrected.
(
I HARVARD
I UNIVERSITY
I LIBRARY
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? must be the work of Nature alone: it is not in my
power to create them; and, if it were, I might be
accused of doing more harm than good, in tempting
any of my young readers to quit a gainful calling
for the gainless trade*. My aims are more humble--
1. to teach the learner to read poetry with propriety
and grace; -- 2. to improve and polish his style for
prose composition. <<
However unprofitable the writing of poetry (as a
professional occupation) may in general prove, the
reading of it is universally allowed to be far from
unprofitable. It softens and humanises the heart:
> it inspires the soul with generous and exalted sen-
timents: it inculcates every virtue with greater
energy and success, than the most labored, the most
animated, prose. But it loses much of its effect,
? Trade. -- My profound respect for the inspired sons and
daughters of genius would have forbidden me to apply this
ignoble term to their sublime pursuit, if a great poet had not
himself set me the example --
I left no calling for this idle trade. (Pope,
a
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? iv Preface.
when dis-harmonised and enfeebled in the recitation,
by an injudicious mode of utterance ; and this will
ever be the case, when the reader is not thoroughly
acquainted with the metre -- not aware of what lati-
tude it allows in the changes of feet, and other
poetic licences of different kinds*. Nor can that
necessary knowledge be so well acquired from pre-
cept alone -- often ill understood, and quickly for-
gotten -- as it may be gained by practice. For this
obvious reason, it has been deemed expedient, in all
the chief schools of this and other countries, to train
the young student to Latin versification, for the
purpose, not of making him a Latin poet, but of
qualifying him to relish the beauties of the ancient
poetry, and to improve his style for prose composi-
tion. And shall'we pay more attention to a dead
language than to our own ? It were a shame if we
did -- a flagrant shame, if, while we carefully culti-
vate the Latin versification, we wholly neglected the
English; hardly one individual in a thousand ever
feeling any temptation t. o write Latin poetry after
be has quitted college; whereas there are very few
* With studied impropriety of speech,
' He soars beyond the hackney critic's reach;
To epithets allots emphatic state,
While principals, ungrae'd, like lacqueys, wait
Conjunction, preposition, adverb, join,
To stamp new vigor on the nervous line.
In monosyllables his thunders roll: --
He, She, It, And, We, Yc, They, fright the soul. (Churchill.
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? Preface. v
of the thinking part of mankind, who do not, at some
time or other, find occasion to pen a few verses in
their native language. In such cases, which may
daily and hourly occur, what a pity, that, for want
of due acquaintance with the technical part of the
business, they should, by the unmetrical rudeness of
their lines, disparage perhaps good ideas, which, in
a more terse and polished form, might command the
reader's applause! Indeed every person, whether
poet or not, who has received any tolerable educa-
tion, and pretends to write decent prose, ought like-
wise to be qualified for the occasional production of
a few verses, smooth, at least, and metrically correct,
whatever may be their merit or demerit in other re-
spects.
In such cases, which may
daily and hourly occur, what a pity, that, for want
of due acquaintance with the technical part of the
business, they should, by the unmetrical rudeness of
their lines, disparage perhaps good ideas, which, in
a more terse and polished form, might command the
reader's applause! Indeed every person, whether
poet or not, who has received any tolerable educa-
tion, and pretends to write decent prose, ought like-
wise to be qualified for the occasional production of
a few verses, smooth, at least, and metrically correct,
whatever may be their merit or demerit in other re-
spects.
That the practice of versification materially im-
proves the style for prose composition, there cannot
be a doubt. The ear which is acutely sensible to
the harmonies of verse, will naturally revolt against
inharmonious harshness in prose ; and the pains, be-
stowed in searching for a variety of words of diffe-
rent lengths, quantities, and terminations, to suit the
exigencies of the metre--
the shifts and turns,
Th'expedients and inventions multiform,
To which the mind resorts in chase of terms,. . . '
T' arrest the fleeting images, that fill
The mirror of the mind*--
* Cowper, Task, book 2.
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? vi Preface.
will copiously enlarge the writer's stock of expres-
sions-- will enable him to array his thoughts in a
more elegant and attractive garb, and to vary that
garb at pleasure, by the ready aid of a diversified
phraseology. It will at the same time produce a
more important and beneficial effect -- it will enrich
the intellectual store of thought: for, while in search
of an epithet, for example, or a periphrate, he is
obliged to view the subject in all its possible bear-
ings and relations, that he may choose such parti-
cular word or phrase as shall exhibit it in the most
advantageous point of light. And what study more
effectual to call into action the powers of the mind, to
exercise the judgement, to whet the sagacity, and
give birth to a variety of ideas, which might other-
wise have lain for-ever dormant, like those deep-
buried seeds, which sleep inert and barren in the
womb of earth, until the hand of Industry have
turned them up, to feel the genial influence of the
sun and air*?
? I have some-where read, that earth, turned up from deep
[. its, produces plants before unknown in the vicinity. -- Have the
seeds of those plants lain dormant in their dark recesses, from
the time when the general deluge, or some later inundation,
providentially overwhelmed the forests of our isle, to preserve
them for remote posterity under the more convenient form of
pit-coal ? -- That question, if answerable by any other than the
Creator alone, I leave to be answered by those who are better
qualified, than I, to investigate and explain the wondrous opera-
tions of almighty wisdom and power.
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? Preface. vii
For these weighty considerations, the practice of
verse-making has been recommended by Locte,
Chesterfield, Franklin, 8tc, and, although it has not
yet been publicly adopted as a necessary part of an
English education, it is to be hoped that every
teacher who aspires to eminence in the profession,
? will henceforward bestow on it that serious attention
which it so evidently deserves. Indeed, from the
opinions which I have heard on the subject, I en-
tertain not a doubt, that those heads of seminaries
who shall make it a regular branch in their system
of instruction, will, in the estimation of all good
judges, gain a decided preference over those who
neglect it*.
Nor is the business a matter of any difficulty, if
the following simple plan be pursued. 1. Let the
learner begin with single lines, which, without any
mixture of alien feet, have all the even syllables re-
gularly accented, and the odd syllables un-accented ;
and in which the words, barely transposed from their
poetic order, require only metrical arrangement, to
produce the proper feet, which shall stand the test of
scansion. ? . Let him have transposed single lines,
containing other feet besides the Iambus. Let him
be directed to mark every such foot in each verse
* I do not say this with the interested view of recommending
my book : for the simple method, which t point out in the en-
suing paragraph, may be pursued by any teacher, without the
assistance of my book, or any other publication of the kind.
a3
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? viii Preface.
that he has made, and thus to lay a foundation for
correct and elegant reading; being taught, of course,
in repeating his lines, to give no emphasis to un-ac-
cented syllables, but to lay the chief stress of utter-
ance on those which are accented -- and carefully to
observe the caesura, with its attendant pause*. 3. Let
him have distichs, in which the words of the two
lines are blended together. 4. When his ear is well
attuned to metre--when he thoroughly understands
all the admissible variations of the feet, and has suf-
ficiently accustomed and reconciled his ideas to those
frequent deviations from the natural order of syntax,
produced by the poetic inversions of style -- let him
undertake single lines, and afterwards blended distichs,
in wliich, besides the derangement of the words, the
teacher has suppressed one or more epithets f, to be
supplied by the pupil; as, for example, the following
distich--
Hear, how the birds, on ev'ry bloomy spray,
With joyous music wake the dawning day--
may thus be given for an exercise --
Hear, how, on ev'ry spray, the birds
Wake the day with music --
care being taken to point out the particular words
which require epithets. 5. At a more advanced
stage of the pupil's progress, besides the derange-
* See page 56.
t See the note in page 177.
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? Preface. ix
ment of words, and the suppression of epithets, let
an occasional word or phrase be altered ; and, in lieu
of the new word or phrase introduced, let the pupil
be directed to substitute a word or phrase of his own,
either synonymous, or in some degree equivalent, as
-- to exemplify again in the same distich --
Hear, how, on every bush, the birds
Wake the day with music.
Some of my readers may perhaps be surprised that
I have not made nonsense verses a preliminary part of
my plan. Of that expedient, or of another practice
which usually follows it in our British system of
education -- I mean the practice of writing themes --
it would ill become me to speak with disrespect,
since both have long enjoyed the sanction of so many
teachers in this country. I hope, nevertheless, that I
may, without offence to any person, be allowed to state
a simple, but important fact, which is well entitled to
serious consideration. In some highly and justly cele-
brated schools on the continent, where the delicate and
difficult art of education has been carefully studied
and systematically cultivated, both the nonsense verses
and the themes (though calculated to save trouble to
the preceptor) have long since been exploded, as less
useful, less efficacious, than other methods, which at
once prove more simple, easy, and pleasant to the
learner, and are found perfectly to answer the de-
sired purpose in each respective case. With all due
deference, therefore, to the advocates of nonsense
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? x Preface.
verses and theme-writing, I must take the liberty of
saying, that, when I consider the simplicity, the
Utility, and the success of the continental methods, I
cannot witb-hold from them my approbation, though
I am far from presuming to censure the practice of
those teachers who differ from me in opinion, and
who still continue to follow the old modes. -- But, to
return to my subject --
The mode, above proposed, is perfectly easy and
simple : it is the mode in which I myself was taught
Latin versification in my youth, and have since taught
it to others. From my experience of the pleasant-
ness^and efficacy of the method in Latin, I thought
I could not do btetter than adopt the Same in English;
and, accordingly, such is the plan that J have pur-
sued both in private practice, and in the versificatory
Exercises which here follow the Prosody*-* Easy as
the first of those Exercises are, I have studied to
render the task still more easy, by premising near
thirty pages of Scanning Exercises, that the learner's
ear may be formed to the metre, and he may under-
stand the poetic licences in the different variations of
feet, before he attempt to make a single verse.
In the Exercises, "in consequence of my necessary
transposition of the original words, the reader will
find occasional instances of harsh or ambiguous
phraseology -- sometimes perhaps an auk ward anti-
* And on a plan as nearly similar as the difference of the two
languages will allow, I am preparing for the press " Exercises
in Latin Versification. "
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? Preface. xi
climax, or other violation of the rules of elegaut
writing: but it is to be remembered that these Ex-
ercises are not given as models of style: they are
only the rude materials, from which, by a new and
belter arrangement, the young student is to produce
more polished and harmonious lines; and those de-
fects were absolutely un-avoidable, unless I had fas-
tidiously determined to reject every verse, however
elegant in its poeLic form, which should not appear
equally elegant when deranged into prose. To have
indulged in that over-nice delicacy of selection, al-
though it would have multiplied my labor ten or
twenty fold, could not have benefited the student,
who, when once apprised of the nature and design
of those transpositions, incurs no greater danger of
having his taste corrupted by them, than the young
grammarian incurs from the exercises in bad English,
which are everywhere put into his hands to be cor-
rected.
With respect to the pupil's performance in the
latter stages of bis progress, where he has to furnish
epithets, to alter terms, and supply poetic peri-
phrases, it cannot be expected that lie shall always
give the same words which appear in the original
lines. Every object is capable of being viewed in
various points of light; and, according to the light
in which he views it, he will characterise it by an
epithet, or describe it by a term or phrase, which,
though it happen to differ from that in the " KEY,"
may be equally good and commendable i or, if gifted
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? xii Preface. y
with a poetic genius, he may, in some cases, surpass
the original. And here the teacher will have an op-
portunity of exercising his own judgement, guiding
that of the pupil, developing, appreciating, and im-
proving his talents^ and forming his youthful taste
on principles of sound criticism.
In my selection of examples for exercise, I have
labored under a very aukward and unpleasant diffi-
culty, more particularly in the first half of the book,
where the words are barely displaced from their
metrical arrangement in the verse. I have fre-
quently been compelled to omit the very best lines of
a passage, because I could not satisfactorily transpose
the language from the order in which I found it;
and it would have been useless to the end which I had
in view, to present the pupil with ready-made verses,
which he could only transcribe. And, although, in
some few instances, I have, for the sake of preserving
the continuity of a piece, admitted a ready-made
distich, it is what I do not myself approve, and
would, as far as possible, wish to avoid; the object
of this publication being, not to produce a selection
of the best poetry, but a selection of poetry best
calculated to instruct and exercise the learner in ver-
sification.
Respecting the sources from which I have derived
those examples, I am sorry that I cannot, by affixing
to each piece the writer's name, gratify that very
natural wish, felt by every reader, to know the
author of what he reads. A compliance with that
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? Preface. xiii
wish was impossible, for two reasons--1. Many of
the pieces, from which I have made extracts, are
anonymous. 2. It would have been treating an
author very unfairly, to give, under his name, a
garbled extract of a few lines, when (for the reason
above mentioned) I had omitted some verses imme-
diately connected with them, which are perhaps far
superior to those that I quote, and without which,
the passage must necessarily appear to very great
disadvantage. Any author, whom I had thus mis-
represented, would, I presume, be far from pleased
with me for taking such unjustifiable liberty with
his writings and his name. So at least I judge from
my own feelings: for, although I have occasionally
inserted some extracts from poetic trifles of my own,
I should be very unwilling to set my name to them
in that mutilated condition.
But some authors may perhaps be offended with
me upon a different ground. They may fancy that
they see their verses altered in my pages, and con-
demn me for having taken the liberty of making the
supposed alterations. I beg leave to remove that
mistaken idea. I do not presume to alter or amend
any man's lines: J do not arrogate to myself that
superiority of taste and judgement which is requisite
to any person undertaking the invidious task; nor
have I a sufficiency of leisure time to bestow on the
'thankless employment. The case is simply this -- If
a line from one author, and a line from another, to-
gether made a distich better calculated for an exer-
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? xiv Preface.
cise than either poet's lines could separately furnish,
I made no scruple to unite tbem : and, if a line and
half, or a line and three quarters, suited my purpose,
-- in borrowing so much from one writer, I held
myself equally at liberty to take from another, or to
supply from my own stock, a half or quarter line to
complete the distich, without meaning to pass any
censure on what I did not think it necessary to
borrow*. Had I not thus acted, I should, on many
occasions, have been forced to omit a good couplet,
from the circumstance of its not making complete
sense, when detached from the context; whereas, by
taking only a part of the original couplet, and sup-
plying a word or two from another source, I obtained
what I wanted.
It remains to say a few words relative to the marking
of the feet in tbe KEY. -- I have thought it wholly
superfluous to mark the regular and principal feet,
which every child can discover, and have confined
my marks to poetic licences in the introduction of
the alien or auxiliary feet, which are thus rendered
more conspicuous. If, in doing this, I have perhaps,
through haste or oversight, occasionally suffered a
foot to pass, otherwise marked than a censorious
critic might wish, I am willing to hope that such
deviations are neither very numerous, nor likely to be
* Whoever will take the trouble of making the experiment,
will find that he may often read many hundred lines, without
gleaning a single distich, in every respect fit to be given as aa
exercise in versification.
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? Preface. xv
attended with any ill consequences to the youthful
reader, as they will probably occur only in a few
cases, which may fairly admit a difference of opinion,
and where, though one person may condemn, an-
other will approve. And, with respect to such cases
as Mawy a, Virtuous, Happier, &c. -- in which some
prosodians would make dactyls or anapaests, but /
would make dissyllabic feet by the aid of synaeresis
-- I have sometimes marked such combinations as
two syllables, sometimes as one; not choosing, by an
invariable observance of the one or the other mode,
either to force my own opinion upon the reader, or
to give my unqualified sanction to a doctrine which
I disapprove; and thus leaving him an opportunity of
- exercising his own judgement on a point in which he
will perceive that I have not scrupulously studied uni-
formity, though I have clearly enough expressed my
sentiments on the subject in page 50 of the Prosody,
to which I refer him. Neither have I deemed it
necessary to be very particular in always marking a
Pyrrhic at the close of the line, where the final pause
and emphasis will render such foot almost an Iambus.
Though 1 have, in some places, marked such feet,
that I might not appear to have entirely overlooked
thut licence, I have perhaps as often left them un-
marked; not thinking it of any consequence whether
they were marked or not, as the youngest reader c. t-. i
easily discover a Pyrrhic in that station, without
having it pointed out to him.
b
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? xvi Preface.
I now conclude with a request, that, as this is (I
believe) the first attempt which has yet been publicly
made to introduce English versification into our
school system -- and a3 absolute perfection cannot
reasonably be expected in first attempts of any kind --
the public will indulgently excuse whatever imper-
fections may be found to blemish my pages, and will
give me credit for zeal at least, if not for complete
success in the outset of my undertaking.
Of this new Edition, I shall only say, that I have
taken pains to improve my work, and hope it will
enjoy a continuance of that approbation which was
bestowed on it by the readers of the former very
limited impresssion.
May 10, 1816. J. CAREY.
tjf Addition to the remark on Growen, Grown, &c. in page 6.
To a similar syncope we are indebted for the word Own, in
the phrases, " My own". " Your own," &c. which (though
considered by some grammarians as an adjective, and, in some
dictionaries, most un-accountably marked as a substttntive ! ) is,
in reality, the contracted preterite participle of the verb Owe,
vit. Owen, Ow'n, which, in other phrases, is still universally
sotinded as two distinct syllables, though improperly pronounced
Oxing, as the plural Shippen is corrupted to Shipping : ex. gr.
" It is owing [instead of owen] to you, that this happens"--
" There is money owing" [instead of otccn. ]
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 12:10 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hxg8hz Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CONTENTS.
Quantity--Accent---Verse,/>. 1
Metre -- Scanning -- Rhime, 2
HypermeterVerses--Caesura, 3
Poetic Feet, 4
Elisions'- Aphaeresis-- Synco-
pe--Apocope, 6
Synaeresis, 7, 54
Diaeresis, 9
Verses--how terminated, 12
Their Classes, 13
Iambic Verses, 14. -- Ballad
Measure, 18. -- Alexan-
drine, 21. --Hudibrastic, 23
--Anacreontic, 24, 30
Trochaic Verses, 25
Anapaestic Verses, 32. --Ain-
steian, 34
Mixture of Feet in the Iambic
Metre, 37
The Caesura, 56
Hint on Song-writing, 60
Exercises in Scanning.