Metrical Regularity
by H.P. Lovecraft
"Deteriores omnus sumus licentia." - Terence
Of the various forms of decadence manifest in the poetical art of the present age, none strikes more
harshly on our sensibilities than the alarming decline in that harmonious regularity of metre which
adorned the poetry of our immediate ancestors.
That metre itself forms an essential part of all true poetry is a principle which not even the assertions of
an Aristotle or the pronouncements of a Plato can disestablish. As old a critic as Dionysius of
Halicarnassus and as modern an philosopher as Hegel have each affirmed that versification in poetry is
not alone a necessary attribute, but the very foundation as well; Hegel, indeed, placing metre above
metaphorical imagination as the essence of all poetic creation.
Science can likewise trace the metrical instinct from the very infancy of mankind, or even beyond, to the
pre-human age of the apes. Nature is in itself an unending succession of regular impulses. The steady
recurrence of the seasons and of the moonlight, the coming and going of the day, the ebb and flow of the
tides, the beating of the heart and pulses, the tread of the feet in walking, the countless other phenomena
of like regularity, have all combined to inculcate in the human brain a rhythmic sense which is as
manifest in the most uncultivated, as in the most polished of peoples. Metre, therefore, is no such false
artifice as most exponents of radicalism would have us believe, but is instead a natural and inevitable
embellishment to poesy, which succeeding ages should develop and refine, rather than maim or destroy.
Like other instincts, the metric sense has taken on different aspects among different races. Savages show
it in its simplest form while dancing to the sound of primitive drums; barbarians display it in their
religious and other chantings; civilized peoples utilize it for their formal poetry, either as measured
quantity, like that of Greek and Roman verse, or as measured accentual stress, like that of our own
English verse. Precision of metre is thus no mere display of meretricious ornament, but a logical
evolution from eminently natural sources.
It is the contention of the ultra-modern poet, as enunciated by Mrs. J. W. Renshaw in her recent article on
"The Autocracy of Art," (The Looking Glass for May) that the truly inspired bard must chant forth his
feelings independently of form or language, permitting each changing impulse to alter the rhythm of his
lay, and blindly resigning his reason to the "fine frenzy" of his mood. This contention is of course
founded upon the assumption that poetry is super-intellectual; the expression of a "soul" which outranks
the mind and its precepts. Now while avoiding the impeachment of this dubious theory, we must needs
remark that the laws of Nature cannot so easily be outdistanced. However much true poesy may overtop
the produce of the brain, it must still be affected by natural laws, which are universal and inevitable.
Wherefore it is the various clearly defined natural forms through which the emotions seek expression.
Metrical Regularity by H. P. Lovecraft
Indeed, we feel even unconsciously the fitness of certain types of metre for certain types of thought, and
in perusing a crude or irregular poem are often abruptly repelled by the unwarranted variations made by
the bard, either through his ignorance or his perverted taste. We are naturally shocked at the clothing of a
grave subject in anapestic metre, or the treatment of a long and lofty theme in short, choppy lines. This
latter defect is what repels us so much from Coninghton's really scholarly translation of the Aeneid.
What the radicals so wantonly disregard in their eccentric performances is unity of thought. Amidst their
wildly repeated leaps from one rough metre to another, they ignore the underlying uniformity of each of
their poems. Scene may change; atmosphere may vary; yet one poem cannot carry but one definite
message, and to suit this ultimate and fundamental message but one metre must be selected and
sustained. To accommodate the minor inequalities of tone in a poem, one regular metre will amply lend
itself to diversity. Our chief but now annoyingly neglected measure, the heroic couplet, is capable of
taking on the infinite shades of expression by the right selection of sequence of words, and by the proper
placing of the caesura or pause in each line. Dr. Blair, in his 38th lecture, explains and illustrates with
admirable perspicuity the importance of the caesura's location in varying the flow of heroic verse. It is
also possible to lend variety to a poem by using very judiciously occasional feet of a metre different from
that of the body of the work. This is generally done without disturbing the syllabification, and it in no
way impairs or obscures the dominant measure.
Most amusing of all the claims of the radical is the assertion that true poetic fervor can never be confined
to regular metre; that the wild-eyed, long-haired rider of Pegasus must inflict upon a suffering public in
unaltered form the vague conceptions which flit in noble chaos through his exalted soul. While it is
perfectly obvious that the hour of rare inspiration must be improved without the hindrance of grammars
or rhyming dictionaries, it is no less obvious that the succeeding hour of calmer contemplation may very
profitably be devoted to amendment and polishing. The "language of the heart" must be clarified and
made intelligible to other hearts, else its purport will forever be confined to its creator. If natural laws of
metrical construction be willfully set aside, the reader's attention will be distracted from the soul of the
poem to its uncouth and ill-fitting dress. The more nearly perfect the metre, the less conspicuous its
presence; hence if the poet desires supreme consideration for his matter, he should make his verses so
smooth that the sense may never be interrupted.
The ill effect of metrical laxity on the younger generation of poets is enormous. These latest suitors of
the Muse, not yet sufficiently trained to distinguish between their own artless crudities and the cultivated
monstrosities of the educated but radical bard, come to regard with distrust the orthodox critics, and to
believe that no grammatical, rhetorical, or metrical skill is necessary to their own development. The
result cannot but be a race of churlish, cacophonous hybrids, whose amorphous outcries will waver
uncertainly betwixt prose and verse, absorbing the vices of both and the virtues of neither.
When proper consideration shall be taken of the perfect naturalness of polished metre, a wholesome
reaction against the present chaos must inevitably occur; so that the few remaining disciples of
conservatism and good taste may justly entertain one last, lingering hope of hearing from modern lyres
the stately heroics of Pope, the majestic blank verse of Thomson, the terse octosyllabics of Swift, the
sonorous quatrains of Gray, and the lively anapests of Sheridan and Moore.