akers of essential truth,
Opposed to relative, comparative,
And temporal truths; the only holders by
His sun-skirts, through conventional gray glooms;
The only teachers who instruct mankind,
From just a shadow on a charnel-wall,
To find man's veritable stature out,
Erect, sublime--the measure of a man."

The poet, with his intenser nature, gives expression to our deepest
thoughts and feelings. What we have often felt but vaguely, he utters
for us in imperishable forms. In how many things Shakespeare has voiced
the human soul! While poetry has rippling measures suited to our smiles,
it belongs, in its richest form, to the deeper side of our nature. Its
loftiest numbers are given to truth and righteousness, to the tragic
strivings and sorrows of life, and to the mysteries of deathless love.

+49. Versification.+ Versification is the science of making verse. The
unit or starting point in versification is the syllable, which may be
_long_ or _short_, according to the time it requires in pronouncing, and
_accented_ or _unaccented_, according to the stress of tone with which
it is pronounced. _Quantity_, by which is meant the length of syllables,
formed the basis of versification in Latin and Greek poetry; but in
English poetry it is used to give variety, music, or some other element
of effectiveness to the verse. This may be illustrated in a well-known
passage from Pope:

"When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,
The line, too, labors, and the words move slow;
Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain,
Flies o'er the unbending corn, and skims along the main."

The first two lines occupy more time in reading than the last two, the
sound in each case corresponding in some measure to the sense. An
examination of the lines will show that the first two have more long
vowel sounds than the last two, and that these and other vowel sounds
are lengthened in pronunciation by the presence of difficult consonant
combinations. "Ajax strives" and "rock's vast weight" are not phrases
that slip quickly from the tongue. Furthermore, the second line is
lengthened by no fewer than three pauses.

The principle of English verse is _accent_, and not _quantity_. In the
line,

"The mossy marbles rest,"

it will be observed that every other syllable receives a stress of voice
or is accented. The scheme of the verse may be represented as follows:

u-'|