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POETIC PAUSES. |
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Alas! alas ! Why, J all the souls that were | were forfeit once; J And He | that might the vantage best have took J Found out the remedy. | How would you be If He I who is the top of judgment | should But judge you as you are ? | O think of that, | And mercy, then, I will breathe within your lips, | Like man new made.
" Measure for Measure.''
From his cradle He was a scholar, | and a ripe and good one ; | Exceeding wise, | fair spoken, | and persuading; | Lofty and sour | to them that loved him not, | But to those men that sought him, | sweet as summer. \ And though he was unsatisfied in getting, | Which was a sin, | yet in bestowing, | madam, j He was most princely.
"Henry VIII."
In an Alexandrine verse the pause should always occur at the end of the sixth syllable, or after the seventh if that syllable is strongly accented. In any other position the long majestic march of the measure is broken.
Rarely the pause may take the place of a syllable, e.g. :
Spreads his | light wings | and | in a mo | ment flies.
A few examples from our modern poets are added:
He heard it | but he heeded not; | his eyes Were with his heart, | and that was far away j | He recked not of the life he lost, | nor prize, | But where his rude hut by the Danube lay; ) |
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