--
Lanier's theory is a good one in so far as it applies to the ideal rhythm,
for the melody of verse does approximate that of music. If one considers
actual rhythm, however, he is forced to come to the conclusion that
no such mathematical relation exists between the syllables of a foot of verse
as that existing between the notes of a musical bar. In poetry
another element enters in to interfere with the ideal rhythm of music,
and that is what Mr. More has called "the normal unrhythmical
enunciation of the language." The result is a compromise
shifting toward one extreme or another. Lanier's theory would apply
to the earliest folk-songs. He illustrated his point
by referring to the negro melodies, which, says Joel Chandler Harris,
"depend for their melody and rhythm upon the musical quality of the time,
and not upon long or short, accented or unaccented syllables."
His citation of Japanese poetry was also a case in point.
Unquestionably, the lyrics and choruses of the Greek drama were
thoroughly musical; Sophocles and Aeschylus were both teachers of the chorus.
Many of the lyrics of the Elizabethan age were written especially for music,
and more than one collector of these lyrics has bemoaned the fact
that in later times there has been such a divorce between the two arts.
Who will say that Coleridge's "Christabel" and "Kubla Khan"
are not disembodied music? Lamb said that Coleridge repeated the latter poem
"so enchantingly that it irradiates and brings heaven and elysian bowers
into any parlor when he says or sings it to me.
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