imitation, the wilful copying of the method of the chosen poet, perhaps with a playful exaggeration of his mannerisms. But useful as may be the conscious imitation of several poets having sharply diverging principles, it is not more advantageous than translation. A piece of Latin or French prose may be turned into English verse, or a foreign poem may be rendered into English as faithfully as possible with due respect for the metrical structure of the original.

These are but scattered hints to be improved by the student himself, or by the instructor. Just as the college teacher of rhetoric compels his pupils to attain to an average of facility in composition by requiring them to prepare daily themes, so the student of versification must supple his muscles by attempting all sorts of metrical exercises. But these exercises are intended chiefly to increase his appreciation and his understanding of the masterpieces of the major poets; and he must continue the constant and careful study of these poets, spying out their metrical secrets, and never failing to observe their rhythmical variety.

B: BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SUGGESTIONS

A classified list of the more important treatises on English versification will be found in Chapter VII of Gayley and Scott's Introduction to the Methods and Materials of Literary Criticism (Boston: Ginn & Co., 1899); and a chronological list of books and articles in English only is presented in T. S. Omond's English Metrists (Tunbridge Wells: Pelton, 1903).

The two most elaborate treatises in English are Guest's History of English Rhythms, new edition by W. W. Skeat (London: Bell, 1882), and Saintsbury's History of English Prosody, in three volumes (London and New York: Macmillan, 1906-1910). To be noted also are two other investigations, Verrier's Principes de la Métrique Anglaise, in three volumes (Paris: Welter, 1909-1910), and Jakob Schipper's Englische Metrik, in three volumes (Vienna,

1881-1888). A single volume condensation of Schipper's book was issued in Vienna in 1895, and the author prepared an English version of this which he called A History of English Versification (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910).

There are shorter text-books better fitted for the beginner, written from varying points of view. The names of a few of these may be given here, although an exhaustive list would be impossible: Gummere's Handbook of Poetics (Boston: Ginn, 1891); Corson's Primer of English Verse (Boston: Ginn, 1892); Parsons's English Versification (Boston: Leach, Shewell and Sanborn, 1894); Mayor's Chapters on English Meter (Cambridge: University Press, 1886); Omond's Study of Meter (London: Richards, 1903); Bright and Miller's Elements of English Versification (Boston: Ginn, 1910), and Richardson's Study of English Rimes (Hanover, N. H., 1909). Alden's English Verse (New York: Holt, 1903) contains a well-arranged collection of examples. John Addington Symonds's papers on Blank Verse are now available in a separate volume (New York: Scribner, 1895).

Poe's three papers on the Rationale of Verse, the Philosophy of Composition and the Poetic Principle can be found in any edition of his works. The influence of Poe is obvious in Lanier's Science of English Verse (New York: Scribner, 1880), just as the influence of Lanier is obvious in Dabney's Musical Basis of Verse (New York and London: Longmans, 1901). Dr. Holmes's very suggestive paper on the Physiology of Versification is included in his Pages from an Old Volume of Life (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1883). In my own Parts of Speech, Essays on English (New York: Scribner, 1901) will be found An Inquiry as to Rime and a paper On the Poetry of Place-Names.

INDEX

Alphabetical symbols, for pairs of Blake, William, 196, 197.

Arnold, Matthew, 160, 184, 194, 196, Bryant, William Cullen, 109, 203,

Chaucer, Geoffrey, 112, 119, 160, 206, Dryden, John, 32, 73, 202, 208, 213,