EXAMPLES OF MEDIAN STRESS.-CONCERT DRILL. In median stress, prolong the vowel sounds and make long pauses. What a world of happiness their harmony foretells! How they ring out their delight! What a liquid ditty floats To the turtle-dove that listens, while she glóats On the moon! Oh, from out the sounding célls, How it dwells On the Future! how it tells Of the bells, bells, bēlls, bēlls, Bells, bells, bēlls— To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells! POE. II. THE PAST. Thou unrelenting Pàst! Strong are the barriers | round thy dark domain, And fetters, sure and fást, Hold all that enter thy unbreathing reign. Childhood, with all its mirth, Youth, Manhood, Age, that draws us to the ground, And lást, Man's Life on earth, Glide to thy dim dominions, and are bound. BRYANT, III. FROM THE BOOK OF PSALMS. Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord, my God, thou art very great! thou art clothed with honor and majesty; who coverest thyself with light as with a garment; who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain; who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters; who maketh the clouds his chariot, who walketh upon the wings of the wind; who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever. IV. OSSIAN'S ADDRESS TO THE SUN. O thou that rollest above, round as the shield of my fathers! whence are thy beams, O sun! thy everlasting light? Thou comest forth in thy awful beauty; the stars hide themselves in the sky; the moon, cold and pale, sinks in the western wave. But thou thyself movest alone: who can be a companion of thy course? EXAMPLES OF RADICAL STRESS.-CONCERT DRILL. I. FROM WEBSTER'S SPEECH OF JOHN ADAMS. Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote! Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come. My judgment approves the measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope, in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it; and I leave off, as I began, that, live or die, survive or perish, I am for the declaration. It is my living sentiment, and, by the blessing of God, it shall be my dying sentiment:-independence now, and INDEPENDENCE FOREVER! II. FROM SCOTT. But Douglas round him drew his cloak, "My manors, halls, and bowers shall still And "This to me!" he said,- Here in thy hold, thy vassals near And if thou said'st I am not peer Lord Angus, thou hast lied!" On the earl's cheek, the flush of rage O'ercame the ashen hue of age; Fierce he broke forth: "And dar'st thou, then, To beard the lion in his dén, The Douglas in his hall? And hop'st thou hence unscathed to go?— Nò, by Saint Bride of Bothwell, nô!” This is the arsenal. From floor to ceiling, 2. Ah, what a sound will rise, how wild and dreary, When the death angel touches those swift keys! What loud lament and dismal miserere Will mingle with their awful symphonies! 3. I hear even now the infinite fierce chorus, 4. On helm and harness rings the Saxon hammer, Through Cimbric Forest roars the Norseman's song, And loud, amid the universal clamor, O'er distant deserts, sounds the Tartar gong. 5. I hear the Florentine, who from his palace Beat the wild war-drums made of serpent's skin; 6. The tumult of each sacked and burning village; The soldiers' revels in the midst of pillage, 7. The bursting shell, the gateway wrenched asunder, 8. Is it, O man, with such discordant noises, 9. Were half the power that fills the world with terror, Given to redeem the human mind from error, 10. The warrior's name would be a name abhorréd! 11. Down the dark future, through long generations, I hear once more the voice of Christ say, "Peace!" 12. Peace and no longer from its brazen portals The blast of War's great organ shakes the skies! But beautiful as songs of the immortals, The holy melodies of love arise. LONGFELLOW. |