Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/252

 246 Seiberth failure of so much philosophical and otherwise difficult verse is chiefly due to the writer's failure to realize the fundamental requirement of poetic expression, which should always be simple, sensuous and passionate. At this point a brief reference to another factor, setting a superior limit upon the length of the line, should be inserted, viz., the exigencies of breathing. At the earlier period when poetry was always recited or sung, this circumstance was highly cooperative in punctuating the poet's recital, and in influencing the division in the direction of units of equal length. However, it is not to be expected that the individual poetic thought or image, expressed in a sentence, should always coin- cide exactly with the accent group of regular rhythmical form. "In language, rhythmical expression is bound up with the mean- ing of words, and the context of thought expressed by the words. Thereby certain limits are set upon rhythmical movement." (Wundt). This means that the perfect coincidence of the rhyth- mical with the ideational series, assuming that it is desirable, is not always possible. In Wundt's opinion this coincidence is much more the rule in ancient than in modern poetry which leans toward the tempo and stress of ordinary speech. He also observes that displeasure is caused when the rhythmically arranged ideas exceed the range of comprehension, or when unexpected variations interrupt the rhythmical series, and finally when a certain rhythm by monotonous regularity wearies the attention. In order to get a satisfactory practical solution of this aspect of our question, we must turn to the poetical compositions themselves, to see what the practice of the poets really is. Reading a fairly large amount of various poetry "ad hoc" made it certain to my judgment, that the agreement of the ideational series with the rhythmical group is decidedly the rule in poetry. The fidelity with which the* language of poetry follows and reflects the process of ideation is in close harmony with the essential purpose of the poet's art, which is to present the emotional experience of life genuinely, simply and pleasing- ly. Thus, the formal principle of rhythmical and symmetrical