Sixteen Experimental Investigations from the Harvard Psychological Laboratory, Hugo Münsterberg [top fiction books of all time TXT] 📗

verse has a certain

definite cumulative effect, a synthetic effect which results from the

echoes of the various movements and the total effect on the organism.

One may call it the tetrameter feeling. The verse pause may vary

within large limits, but after a few verses there is a definite

scheme, or ‘Gestaltqualität,’ which represents the verse unity. It is

some sort of a memory image, which functions as a cue to the motor

process. This motor image, set of strains, or whatever it be, is more

than a mere standard by which we judge the present verse. The memory

image fuses in some way with the living motor process. _The preceding

verse affects the character of the following verse._ An irregularity,

easily noted in the first verse, is obscure in the second, and not

detected in the third verse, when the verses are identical.

 

The experiments of Hofbauer and Cleghorn, and many facts about the

unit groups themselves, make it evident that the function of stimuli,

during the movement cycle, varies with the position of the stimulus in

that cycle. This offers a possible explanation of the striking

peculiarities of the unit groups. The iamb [/ ‘] and the trochee [’

/] should be quite alike for a general synthesizing process; but not

only is the experiential character of the two quite unlike, but the

ratio between their intervals is entirely different.

 

A number of measurements by different observers show that in the

iambic foot the unaccented syllable is proportionately much shorter

than the unaccented syllable in the trochaic foot. It is very easy to

beat a simple up-and-down accompaniment to a series of simple feet of

nonsense syllables; in the accompaniment the bottom of the down

stroke, the limiting sensation of the movement cycle, coincides with

the accented syllable of the foot. It is not an unwarranted assumption

that such a fundamental accompaniment represents the fundamental

movement cycle of that rhythm.

 

During the present investigation several observers were asked to

determine at just what point in the fundamental movement the

unaccented syllable occurred, when the subject gave a series of

nonsense syllables. In the fundamental accompaniment the excursion of

the hand and arm was at least.4 meter. Four subjects were thus tested,

and the results were uniform in the case of all the simple types of

unit groups.

 

In the case of the iamb the unaccented syllable occurs at the top of

the movement, at the very beginning of the contraction phase (A, in

Fig. 5).

 

In the case of the trochee the unaccented syllable occurs in the first

third of the relaxation phase (B).

 

It is interesting to note that the unaccented element of the trochee

comes at the earlier part of the relaxation phase, where it must

intensify the relaxation process, and tend to shorten the total length

of the cycle. This may be the reason for its peculiar buoyant,

vigorous and non-final character. On the other hand the unaccented

element of the iamb occurs at a point where it may initiate and

intensify the contraction, which gives the limiting sensation; it is,

therefore, more closely bound to the limiting sensation, and has the

character of intensifying the beat. There is a similar contrast in the

cases of the dactyl and anapæst. The accented syllable of the dactyl

is longest, and the second unaccented syllable, the last in the group,

is shortest. The accented syllable of the anapæst is much longer in

proportion than that of the dactyl, and the unaccented syllables are

very short, and hence, very close to the accented syllable, as

compared with the dactyl.

 

In the case of the dactyl the first unaccented syllable in the

movement cycle occurs at the beginning of the relaxation phase (B), in

the same zone as the unaccented of the trochee. The second unaccented

syllable of the dactyl appears at the beginning of the next

contraction phase (A), in the zone of the unaccented syllable of the

iamb. The group seems a sort of combination of the iamb and trochee,

and has an element in every possible zone of the movement cycle. Like

the trochee the dactyl is a non-final foot.

 

The unaccented syllables of the anapæst both occur at the beginning of

the contraction phase (A). They are both within the zone of the

unaccented syllable of the iamb. The group seems an iamb with a

duplicated unaccented syllable. It is possible to form a unit group in

nonsense syllables where the unaccented syllable of the iamb shall be

represented not by two syllables, as in the anapæst, but by even

three.

 

The anapæst and dactyl, if they correspond to this construction,

should show a decided difference as to the possibility of prolonging

the foot pause. The prolongation of the foot pause would make the

dactyl but a modified trochee.

 

It is significant that in poetry no other types of unit groups are

often recognized. The amphibrach, laid out on this scheme, would

coincide with the dactyl, as there are but three possible zones for

foot elements: the zone of the limiting sensation (always occupied by

the accented syllable), the zone of the contraction phase (occupied by

the unaccented syllables of the iamb and anapæst), and the zone of the

relaxation phase (occupied by the unaccented syllable of the trochee

and the middle syllable of the dactyl).

 

The simple sound series is fairly regular, because of its cyclic and

automatic character. It is not a matter of time estimation, and the

‘Taktgleichheit’ is not observed with accuracy. The primary requisite

for the unit groups is that they shall be alike, not that they shall

be equal. The normal cycle with a heavy accent is longer than the

normal cycle with a lighter accent, for the simple reason that it

takes muscles longer to relax from the tenser condition. Time is not

mysteriously ‘lost’; the objective difference is not noticed, simply

because there are no striking differences in the cycles to lead one to

a time judgment. Ebhardt’s notion that the motor reaction interferes

with the time judgment, and that a small amount of time is needed in

the rhythmic series in which to make time judgments, is a mere myth.

 

An unusual irregularity, like a ‘lag,’ is noted because of the sense

of strain and because other events supervene in the interval. But such

lags may be large without destroying the rhythm; indeed cæsural and

verse pauses are essential to a rhythm, and in no sense

rhythm-destroying. An unbroken series of unit groups is an abstraction

to which most forms of apparatus have helped us. Between the extreme

views of Bolton[24] and Sidney Lanier,[25]who make regularity an

essential of the rhythm of verse, and Meumann, on the other hand, who

makes the meaning predominate over the rhythm, the choice would fall

with Meumann, if one must choose. Bolton comes to the matter after an

investigation in which regularity was a characteristic of all the

series. Lanier’s constructions are in musical terms, and for that very

reason open to question. He points out many subtle and interesting

relationships, but that verse can be formulated in terms of music is a

theory which stands or falls by experimental tests.

 

[24] Bolton, T.L.: loc. cit.

 

[25] Lanier, S.: ‘The Science of English Verse.’

 

TABLE XII.

 

I saw a ship a sailing

50 16 20 13 9 18 32 23-132

A sailing on the sea

10 16 45 22 8 15 49 -68

And it was full of pretty things

8 6 20 6 6 27 37 12 8 7 20 12 41 -34

For baby and for me

14 9 27 37 18 20 14 8 46 —

 

Totals of the feet: —/66/60/187

26/45/45/117

14/59/49/47/75

23/64/60/46—

 

Who killed Cock Robin

19 34 23 24 17-77

I said the sparrow

45 21 19 3 47 29 —

With my bow and arrow

22 36 25 49 11 38 12 23 33-42

I killed Cock Robin

33 12 33 21 22 5 21 16-95

 

(The first stanza was measured in the Harvard Laboratory. The

last is modified from Scripture’s measurements of the

gramophone record (1899). As the scansion of the last is in

doubt with Scripture, no totals of feet are given.)

 

In the cases given in the above table there is an irregularity quite

impossible to music.

 

In the movement cycle of the simple sounds there is a perfect

uniformity of the movements of the positive and negative sets of

muscles from unit group to unit group. But in verse, the movements of

the motor apparatus are very complicated. Certain combinations require

more time for execution; but if this variation in the details of the

movement does not break the series of motor cues, or so delay the

movements as to produce a feeling of strain, the unit groups are felt

to be alike. We have no means of judging their temporal equality,

even if we cared to judge of it. It is a mistake, however, to say that

time relations (‘quantity’) play no part in modern verse, for the

phases of the movement cycle have certain duration relations which can

be varied only within limits.

 

Extreme caution is necessary in drawing conclusions as to the nature

of verse from work with scanned nonsense syllables or with mechanical

clicks. It is safe to say that verse is rhythmic, and, if rhythm

depends on a certain regularity of movements, that verse will show

such movements. It will of course use the widest variation possible in

the matter of accents, lags, dynamic forms, and lengths of sonant and

element depending on emphasis. The character of the verse as it

appears on the page may not be the character of the verse as it is

actually read. The verses may be arbitrarily united or divided. But in

any simple, rhythmic series, like verse, it seems inevitable that

there shall be a pause at the end of the real verse, unless some such

device as rhyme is used for the larger phrasing.

 

There is a variety of repetitions in poetry. There may be a vague,

haunting recurrence of a word or phrase, without a definite or

symmetrical place in the structure.

 

Repetition at once attracts attention and tends to become a structural

element because of its vividness in the total effect. There are two

ways in which it may enter into the rhythmic structure. It may become

a well-defined refrain, usually of more than one word, repeated at

intervals and giving a sense of recognition and possibly of

completeness, or it may be so correlated that the verses are bound

together and occur in groups or pairs. Rhyme is a highly specialized

form of such recurrence.

 

The introduction of rhyme into verse must affect the verse in two

directions.

 

It makes one element in the time values, viz., the verse pause, much

more flexible and favors ‘run on’ form of verses; it is an important

factor in building larger unities; it correlates verses, and

contributes definite ‘Gestaltqualitäten’ which make possible the

recognition of structure and the control of the larger movements which

determine this structure. Thus it gives plasticity and variety to the

verse.

 

On the other hand, it limits the verse form in several directions. The

general dynamic relations and the individual accents must conform to

the types possible with rhyme. The expressional changes of pitch,

which constitute the ‘melody,’ or the ‘inflections’ of the sentences,

play an important part. The dynamic and melodic phases of spoken verse

which have important relations to the rhyme are not determined by the

mere words. The verses may scan faultlessly, the lines may read

smoothly and be without harsh and difficult combinations, and yet the

total rhythmic effect may be indifferent or unpleasant. When a critic

dilates on his infallible detection of an