Star In the West TNR.pdf - The Hermetic Library

not till we get to “Rodin in Rime” that we find practically every sonnet and
quatorzain possessing some infringement of the orthodox rules of poetry; yet
it cannot be said that these poems, chiefly in iambic verse broken by the
occasional introduction of another foot, usually an anapaest, read
unmusically on account of its presence. Take for instance:
Cloistral seclusion of the galleried pines
Is mine to-day: these groves are fit for Pan—
O rich with Bacchic frenzy, and his wine’s
Atonement for the infinite woe of man!*
*W.E. Henley, Rodin in Rime, vol. iii, p. 119.
Here “cloistral” is a spondee; “eried pines,” an (imperfect) anapaest; and so
on.
Again in “La Fortune”:
“Hail, Tyche! From the Amalthean horn
Pour forth the store of love! I lowly bend
Before thee: I invoke thee at the end
When other gods are fallen and put to scorn.
Thy foot is to my lips; my sighs unborn
Rise, touch and curl about thy heart; they spend
Pitiful love. Lovelier pity, descend
And bring me luck who am lonely and forlorn.”*
*W.E. Henley, Rodin in Rime, vol. iii, p. 120. Compare the following verse in
Swinburne’s poem, The Centenary of the Battle of the Nile:
The strong and sunbright lie whose name was France
Arose against the sun of truth, whose glance
Laughed large from the eyes of England fierce as fire
Whence eyes wax blind that gaze in truth askance.
Here “piti” is a trochee; “lovelier,” a spondee; “pity,” a trochee. The whole
metre breaks up, as if the singer’s heart burst in despair.
Whilst in “Bouches d’Enfer” we find such lines as:
From the long-held leash! The headlong, hot-mouthed girl,*