This  is  shown  by  the  large  amount  of  poetry,  including
much  of  the  most  important  poetry  in  the  language,
which  is  without  rime. The  principal  form  of  unrimed
Blank  verse  is  the  iambic  pentameter,  popularly  called
Verse. «  blank  verse."  But  other  kinds  exist ;  such
as  the  trochaic  tetrameter  of  The  Song  of  Hiawatha;
the  dactylic  hexameter  (often  loosely  called  "  hexa-
meter "  simply)  of  Longfellow's  Evangeline^  Kingsley's
Andromeda,  and  Clough's  Bothie  of  Tober-na-Vuolich  ;
the  irregular  measures  of  Southey's  Thalaba  the
Destroyer^  Shelley's  Queen  Mab,  and  some  of  Arnold's
poems,  like  The  Strayed  Reveller  and  The  Future,
These,  however,  have  no  established  place  in  English
poetry,  unless,  indeed,  an  exception  be  made  in  favour
of  the  dactylic  hexameter,  which  I  personally  hold  to
have  justified  itself  completely,  though  many  fierce
critical  attacks  have  been  made  upon  it.^

^  For  some  interesting  remarks  on  the  English  hexameter,  see  Arnold's
On  Translating  Homer. For  the  study  of  English  versification  in  general,
the  reader  may  be  referred  to  E. Guest's  History  of  English  Rhythms


THE  STUDY  OF  POETRY  163

The  study  of  versification  does  not,  of  course,  ex-
haust the  interest  of  poetry  on  the  technical. ,         ^,. ^        -'. other

side. There  are  innumerable  other  matters  Aspects  of

which  are  equally  deserving  of  attention. !!°®?*\
There  is,  for  instance,  the  whole  vast  problem
of  poetic  diction ;  of  the  qualities  which  make  it
peculiarly  strong  or  tender,  passionate  or  beautiful ;  of
the  specific  differences  between  it  and  the  diction  of
prose ;  of  the  mysterious  power  of  certain  words  and
combinations  of  words,  whether  through  association  or
through  sound,  to  stir  the  imagination  and  go  home
to  the  heart ;  of  the  "  natural  magic  "  of  expression
which  belongs  to  the  rare  moments  of  highest  inspira-
tion, and  that  final  felicity  of  phrasing  by  which
language  is  steeped  in  meanings  beyond  the  formal
definitions  of  the  lexicographer. Since  the  diction  of
poetry  is  inevitably  figurative  and  allusive,  those  figures
of  speech  and  subtle  suggestions  and  innuendoes  which
are  so  important  an  element  in  its  texture,  have  also
to  be  considered  from  the  point  of  view  alike  of  their
sources  and  of  their  aesthetic  value. 