Bridges' Prosody of Accentual Verse
- Bridges' Prosody of Accentual Verse
In this final section of his book "Milton's Prosody," Robert Bridges describes a prosody of accentual verse.
Terms and notation
Bridges classifies the following types of syllable (alternative symbols have been added for browsers that do not display symbols correctly):
Bridges also has a shorter version of the 'Light' symbol for 'very short' syllables. We can use ⌵ ('.').
Rules
Bridges lists six "rules" for accentual verse. He states (p.89) "These 'laws' are merely the tabulation of what my ear finds in English stressed or accentual verse". The rules are as follows:
# the stress governs the rhythm
# the stresses must all be true speech-stresses
# a stress has more carrying power over the syllable next to it, than it has over a syllable removed from it by an intervening syllable
# stress has a peculiarly strong attraction towards verbal unity and for its own proclitics and enclitics
# a stress will not carry a heavy syllable which is removed from it by another syllable
# a stress will not carry more than one heavy or two light syllables on the same side of it
tress governs rhythm
True speech-stresses
A stress carries the syllable next to it
tress is attracted to verbal unity
A stress will not carry a distant heavy syllable
Here Bridges cites several lines from Shelley which violate this rule, such as::Each and all like ministering angels were.
A stress can carry at most one heavy or two light syllables on a given side
List of common stress units
Bridges lists the common "stress units" or 'feet":
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prosody — prosodic /preuh sod ik/, prosodical, adj. /pros euh dee/, n. 1. the science or study of poetic meters and versification. 2. a particular or distinctive system of metrics and versification: Milton s prosody. 3. Ling. the stress and intonation… … Universalium
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Robert Bridges — Robert Seymour Bridges, OM, (23 October 1844 ndash; 21 April 1930) was an English poet, and poet laureate from 1913 to 1930.LifeBridges was born in Walmer, Kent, and educated at Eton College and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. [… … Wikipedia
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Robert Bridges (poète) — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Bridges. Robert Bridges Robert Seymour Bridges, né le 23 octobre 1844, mort le 21 avril 1930, est un poète anglais, po … Wikipédia en Français
Robert Bridges — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Robert Bridges Robert Bridges nació el 23 de octubre de 1844 en Walmer; y falleció el 21 de abril de 1930. Fue un poeta inglés gran amigo de Gerard Manley Hopkins. Obtuvo la Orden de Mérito … Wikipedia Español
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