phets--looks up and is not fed--or loses
heart and saves himself by flight. There is, to be sure, an arcanum of
prosodic theory which is the province of specialists. It has its place
in the scheme of things; but it is no more necessary for the genuine
enjoyment of Milton (or the 'moderns') than a knowledge of the formulae
for calculating the parallax of Alpha Leonis is necessary for enjoying
the pillared firmament. We must then compromise with a system which
reveals the existence of all the phenomena and tries to suggest their
interrelated workings.

The other inconvenience is that of seeming to deny the real poetry by
our preoccupation with its metrical expression. "Under pretence that we
want to study it more in detail, we pulverize the statue." This is an
old charge, and our answer is easy. For, however it may be with the
statue, a poem is never pulverized; it is still there on the page! No
amount of analyzing can injure the poem. If we think it has injured us,
even then we err, and need only recall our natural aversion to hard
labor. In nearly every instance it was the work and not the analysis
that bothered us.

This is a small book and therefore not exhaustive. And since it is as
elementary, especially in the treatment of the principles of rhythm, as
is consistent with a measure of thoroughness, the apparatus of mere
learning has been suppressed, even where it might perhaps seem needed,
as in footnote references to the scientific investigations on which part
of the text is based. I have consulted and used, of course, all the
books and articles I could find that had anything of value to offer; but
I have rarely cited them, not because I wish to conceal my indebtedness,
but because there is no room for elaborate documentation in such a book
as this. On the other hand, I owe a very great deal, both directly and
indirectly, to Professor Bliss Perry--although my manuscript was
finished before I saw his Study of Poetry; and this debt I wish to
acknowledge most fully and gratefully.

In lieu of a formal bibliography, I think it sufficient (in addition to
the footnotes that occur in their proper place) to refer the reader to
the larger works of Schipper and Saintsbury, to the smaller volumes of
Professor Perry and Professor R. M. Alden, and particularly to Mr. T. S.
Omond's English Metrists, 1921.

P. F. B.

CONTENTS

PAGE
I. RHYTHM 3