countenanced, but it is perfectly allowable when it is used to obtain a
certain effect.

Take this stanza from Whitman's "Song of the Broad-Axe," one of the few
specimens we have of his attempts at rhyme and meter. It is a true
barbaric chant whose full-mouthed syllables reproduce in little the
blows of the axe.

"Weapon shapely, naked, wan,
Head from the mother's bowels drawn,
Wooded flesh and metal bone, limb only one and lip only one,
Gray blue leaf by red-heat grown, helve produced from a little seed sown,
Resting the grass amid and upon,
To be leaned and to lean on."

Though our English verse largely disregards the quantity or length of a
syllable, in some lines this must be considered as well as accent. A
light meter and stanza may very easily be spoiled by the introduction of
a too-strong word. For instance, "gnarled," "strength," "thrust," and so
on are very much longer than "may," "well," "the," "for," and many other
of the one-syllabled words. When a line scans correctly but "somehow
sounds wrong," in nine cases out of ten the fault can be traced to a
long syllable that should have been short or a short syllable that
should have been long.

VI

THE QUATRAIN AND SONNET

CHAPTER VI

THE QUATRAIN AND SONNET

_The Quatrain_

In the seventeenth century the quatrain was a favorite tool of the old
English writers who wished to embody a stinging epigram or epitaph in
verse. The works of Robert Herrick contain several, most of them,
unfortunately, not fit for print. Nor was he the only unblushing
exponent of the questionable quatrain.

But times have changed and like everything else the quatrain has grown
respectable. From the disuse and misuse into which it had fallen the
modern magazine editor rescued it and by creating a market revived the
art of quatrain making. To-day sometimes the four lines are descriptive;
again they contain a kindly or clever epigram, or perhaps an unexpected
twist at the end that makes for a joke.

The average quatrain is in iambic pentameter with alternate lines
rhyming. Sometimes the first and fourth lines rhyme and the second and
third, and occasionally one sees a detached Omaric stanza. It all
depends upon the thought and the way it is to be expressed. One thing is
certain, that the quatrain because of its very brevity demands more care
and polishing than a longer piece of verse. The thought must not only be
concise and clearly expressed but the fo