those of the facades of great buildings like
the Gothic cathedrals or St. Mark's of Venice, where only the trained
eye perceives the subtleties of alternation and balance.

* * * * *

_Temporal Rhythms._ Temporal rhythms, apart from those of planetary
motion, the alternation of seasons, and the like (which are called
rhythmic by a metaphorical extension of the term), manifest themselves
to us as phenomena of sound; hence the two concepts time-rhythm and
sound-rhythm are commonly thought of as one and the same.

The simplest form is the tick-tick-tick of a watch or metronome. But
such mechanical regularity is comparatively rare, and in general the
temporal rhythms are all highly complex composites of sounds and
silences. Their highest manifestations are music and language. The
rhythm of language, and _a fortiori_ that of verse, is therefore
primarily a temporal or sound rhythm, and as such is the particular
subject of the following pages.

* * * * *

_Combinations._ Language, however, when addressed to the eye rather than
to the ear, that is, when written or printed rather than spoken, is
partly a spatial phenomenon; and, as will appear presently, the
arrangement of words and sentences on the formal page is a real factor
in the rhythm of verse. Moreover, most of the rhythms of motion, such as
walking, the ebb and flow of tides, the breaking of waves on the beach,
are composites of temporal and spatial.[1]

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| [1] One hears sometimes of 'rhythmic thought' and 'rhythmic |
| feeling.' This is merely a further extension or metaphorical |
| usage of the term. In Othello, for instance, there is a more |
| or less regular alternation of the feelings of purity and |
| jealousy, and of tragedy and comedy. In some of the |
| Dialogues of Plato there is a certain rhythm of thought. |
| This usage is fairly included in the Oxford Dictionary's |
| definition: "movement marked by the regulated succession of |
| strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different |
| conditions." |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+

* * * * *

_Sound Rhythm._ These elementary generalizations must be narrowed now to
the special phenomena of sound, and then st