Collected Poems - Sri Aurobindo Ashram

566 Pondicherry, c. 1927 – 1947
short, unless they are heavily weighted with consonants. But on
this last point no fixed rule can be given; in each case the ear
must be the judge.
3. There are a great number of sounds in English which
can be regarded according to circumstances either as longs or as
shorts. Here too the ear must decide in each case.
4. English quantity metres cannot be as rigid as the metres
of ancient tongues. The rhythm of the language demands
a certain variability, free or sparing, without which monotony
sets in; accordingly in all English metres modulation is admitted
as possible. Even the most regular rhythms do not altogether
shut out the substitution of other feet than those fixed in the
normal basic arrangement of the line; they admit at least so
much as is needed to give the necessary pliancy or variety to
the movement. There is sometimes a very free use of such variations;
but they ought not to be allowed to break the basic
movement or overburden or overlay it. The same rule must apply
in quantitative metres; especially in long poems modulations are
indispensable.
This system is not only not at discord with the soundstructure
of the language, it accords closely with its natural
rhythm; it only regulates and intensifies into metrical pitch and
tone the cadence that is already there even in prose, even in
daily speech. If we take passages from English literature which
were written as prose but with some intensity of rhythm, its
movement can be at once detected. E.g.
_
_
Cŏnsidĕr
| thĕ li
_
_
_
lĭes | ŏfthĕfie
_
_
_
ld, | ho
_
_
wthe
_
ygro
_
w; || the
_
ytoi
lnŏt, |
neithĕrdŏ|
theyspin;
|| yĕtI|
sayŭntŏ
| yŏuthătevĕn
| Solŏmŏn
|
_
_
_
ĭn all
hĭs | glory˘
|| wăs nŏtărrayed
| like
ŭntŏ | one
ŏf these:
||
or again,
_
Ble
_
_
ssĕd a
_
_
re | thĕ mee
_
_
k; | fŏr the
_
_
_
yshăll | ĭnhe
_
_
_
rĭt | thĕ ea
Blessĕd
are
| thĕ pure
ĭn heart;
| fŏr theyshăll
see | God;
_
_
_
_
_
rth | .....