Bridges' Prosody of Accentual Verse

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In this final section of his book Milton's Prosody, Robert Bridges describes a prosody of accentual verse.

Contents 1 Terms and notation 2 Rules 2.1 Stress governs rhythm 2.2 True speech-stresses 2.3 A stress carries the syllable next to it 2.4 Stress is attracted to verbal unity 2.5 A stress will not carry a distant heavy syllable 2.6 A stress can carry at most one heavy or two light syllables on a given side 3 List of common stress units

[edit] Terms and notation

Bridges classifies the following types of syllable (alternative symbols have been added for browsers that do not display symbols correctly):

Symbol	Alternative	Syllable Type	Description
⋀	^	Stressed	Syllable carries the stress
–	-	Heavy	Is genuinely long, slows down the reading. For example: broad, bright, down.
⌣	~	Light	All syllables with short vowels, even those that would be long 'by position' in Classical terms. That is, if the consonants around a short vowel do not genuinely retard the syllable then it will be counted 'light'. Light also includes all classically short syllables. For example the second syllables of 'brighter' and 'brightest' are both light, despite the consonants in the latter.

Bridges also has a shorter version of the 'Light' symbol for 'very short' syllables. We can use ⌵ ('.').

[edit] Rules

Bridges lists six "rules" for accentual verse. He states (p.89) "These 'laws' are merely the tabulation of what my ear finds in English stressed or accentual verse". The rules are as follows:

1. the stress governs the rhythm
2. the stresses must all be true speech-stresses
3. a stress has more carrying power over the syllable next to it, than it has over a syllable removed from it by an intervening syllable
4. stress has a peculiarly strong attraction towards verbal unity and for its own proclitics and enclitics
5. a stress will not carry a heavy syllable which is removed from it by another syllable
6. a stress will not carry more than one heavy or two light syllables on the same side of it

[edit] Stress governs rhythm

[edit] True speech-stresses

[edit] A stress carries the syllable next to it

[edit] Stress is attracted to verbal unity

[edit] A stress will not carry a distant heavy syllable

Here Bridges cites several lines from Shelley which violate this rule, such as:

Each and all like ministering angels were.

[edit] A stress can carry at most one heavy or two light syllables on a given side

[edit] List of common stress units

Bridges lists the common stress units or 'feet:

1st	Bare Stress	⋀	^
2nd	The 2 falling disyllabic feet	⋀–	^-
		⋀⌣	^~
3rd	The 2 rising disyllabic feet	–⋀	-^
		⌣⋀	~^
4th	The britannics or mid-stress trisyllabics	⌣⋀⌣	~^~
		–⋀⌣	-^~
		⌣⋀–	~^-
		–⋀–	-^-
5th	The falling and rising trisyllabics	⌣⌣⋀	~~^
		⋀⌣⌣	^~~
6th	The quadrisyllabics	⌣⋀⌣⌣	~^~~
		–⋀⌣⌣	-^~~
		⌣⌣⋀⌣	~~^~
		⌣⌣⋀–	~~^-
6th	The five syllable foot	⌣⌣⋀⌣⌣	~~^~~