Blank verse

Pagina titularis libri Vergilii a Roberto Andrews e lingua Latina in blank verse Anglicum conversi, a Ioanne Baskerville anno 1766 impressi.

Blank verse, sive versus blancus vel versus albus, est poesis pentametro iambico (sive iambus pentametris) sine homoeoteleutone composita. Appellatus est "probabiliter communissima et potentissima poesis Anglicae forma ex saeculo sexto decimo," et Paulus Fussell aestimavit "circa tres partes omnis poesis Anglicae esse blank verse."

Primus versus vacui usus in lingua Anglica notus ab Henrico Howard confectus est, in suo Aeneide converso (circa 1540 composito; 1554–1557 prolato). Howard fortasse a poemate Vergilii tactus est, quia versus Latinus classicus (et versus Graecus) consonantia in finibus versuum non usus est; vel fortasse a forma Italiana versi sciolti Italice appellata tactus est, quae etiam nullam consonantiam exactam contibuit. Ludus Arden of Faversham (circa 1590 ab auctore ignoto) est notabile end-stopped versus vacui exemplum.

Ludus Gorboduc fuit primus ludus Anglicus versu vacuo scriptus. Christophorus Marlowe fuit primus auctor Anglicus qui versum vacuum plene usus est. Maximae in versu vacuo Anglico confectiones a Gulielmo Shakesperio factae sunt, qui multum quod in suis ludis continetur in pentametro iambico sine consonantia composuit, et ab Ioanne Miltono, cuius Paradise Lost versu vacuo compositus est. Iacobus Thomson (in The Seasons), Gulielmus Cowper (in The Task), et poetae similies versus vacuos Miltonicos saeculo duodevicensimo late imitati sunt. Romantici poetae Anglici sicut Gulielmus Wordsworth, Percy Bysshe Shelley, et Ioannes Keats versu vacuo usi sunt pro forma maiore. Mox Alfredus Tennyson versui vacuo vehementer studebat, quo usus est, exempli gratia, in "The Princess," suo poemate narrativo, atque in "Ulysses," uno ex suis poematibus latissime lectis. Inter poetas Americanos, Hart Crane et Wallace Stevens versu vacuo insigniter usi sunt in compositionibus extensis cum multi poetae alii se in versum liberum dedicarent.

Historia blank verse Anglici

Marlowe et tum Shakesperius potestatem blank verse magnopere saeculo sexto decimo exeunte evolverunt. Marlowe fuit primus qui potestatem blank verse orationis gravis et implicatae effodit, sic:

You stars that reign'd at my nativity,

Whose influence hath allotted death and hell,

Now draw up Faustus like a foggy mist

Into entrails of yon labouring clouds,

That when they vomit forth into the air,

My limbs may issue from their smoky mouths,

So that my soul may but ascend to Heaven.

(Doctor Faustus)

Shakespeare hanc proprietatem cum potestate blank verse orationis abruptae et inordinatae evolvit. Exempli gratia, in hoc diverbio in King John, unus versus inter duas personas frangitur:

My lord?

A grave.

He shall not live.

Enough.

Domine?

Sepulcrum.

Non vivet.

Satis.

(King John, 3.3)

Shakespeare etiam imbricatione magis atque magis in suis versibus usus est, et in suis ludis ultimis finibus femineis uti solebat (in quibus ultima syllaba cuiusque lineae vi caret, ut in versibus tertio et quinto exempli sequentis); quod omnino fecit ut suum blank verse recens esset flexibile, expolitum, floridissimum, sic:

Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves,

And ye that on the sands with printless foot

Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and fly him

When he comes back; you demi-puppets that

By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make

Whereof the ewe not bites; and you whose pastime

Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice

To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid,

Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimmed

The noontide sun, called forth the mutinous winds,

And 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault

Set roaring war—to the dread rattling thunder

Have I given fire, and rifted Jove's stout oak

With his own bolt. . . .

(The Tempest, 5.1)

Aequaevi Shakespereani hanc liberissimam blank verse tractationem imitati sunt, quod ad remissionem metricam generalem a poetis minus sollertibus duxit. Blank verse autem Shakespereanum a Ioanne Webster et Thoma Middleton in eorum ludis feliciter adhibitum est. Beniaminus Jonson interdum blank verse strictiore, minore imbricatione adhibitum, in Volpone et The Alchemist suis comoediis magnis, usus est.

Blank verse in poesi non dramatica saeculi septimi decimi usque ad Paradise Lost haud maxime adhibitum est, epico in quo Miltonus eo licentia et sollertia usus est. Milton quidem facilitate per quam blank verse multiplicitatem syntacticam maxime sustinere potest usus est in locis ut hic:

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Into what Pit thou seest

From what highth fal'n, so much the stronger provd

He with his Thunder: and till then who knew

The force of those dire Arms? yet not for those

Nor what the Potent Victor in his rage

Can else inflict do I repent or change,

Though chang'd in outward lustre; that fixt mind

And high disdain, from sence of injur'd merit,

That with the mightiest rais'd me to contend,

And to the fierce contention brought along

Innumerable force of Spirits arm'd

That durst dislike his reign, and me preferring,

His utmost power with adverse power oppos'd

In dubious Battel on the Plains of Heav'n,

And shook his throne. What though the field be lost?

All is not lost; the unconquerable Will,

And study of revenge, immortal hate,

And courage never to submit or yield.

Milton praeterea Paradise Regained et partes Samsonis Agonistis in blank verse composuit.

Saeculo post Miltonum erant pauci blank verse dramatici aut non dramatici usus insignes; pro desiderio constantiae, plurimum blank verse illius temporis est aliquantum frigidum. Optima illius temporis exempla probabiliter sunt All for Love tragoedia Ioannis Dryden et The Seasons Iacobi Thomson. Exemplum notabile tam pro offensione publica quam pro gratia formali est The Fleece Ioannis Dyer.

Saeculo duodevicensimo exeunte, Gulielmus Cowper redintegrationem blank verse coepit in "The Task" ('Opus'), volumine meditationum efferatiorum, anno 1784 prolatum. Post Shakesperium et Miltonum, Cowper maxime valuit apud proximam aetatem maiorum poetarum qui blank verse usi fuerint, iuvenes cum Cowper suum magnum opus edidit. Qui Poetae Lacuum appellati sunt, praecipue Gulielmus Wordsworth et Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Wordsworth genus usus est in multis ex Lyrical Ballads (1798 et 1800), atque in The Prelude et The Excursion, suis conatibus longissimis. Versus Wordsworthianus aliquantulum libertatis Miltoni recuperavit, sed multo iustior generatim est:

Five years have past; five summers, with the length

Of five long winters! And again I hear

These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs

With a soft inland murmur.—Once again

Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs...

(Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey, versus 1–5)

Blank verse Coleridgeanus elegantior est quam blank verse Wordsworthianus, sed paululum composuit:

Well, they are gone, and here must I remain,

This lime-tree bower my prison! I have lost

Beauties and feelings, such as would have been

Most sweet to my remembrance even when age

had dimmed mine eyes to blindness! They, meanwhile. . . .

(This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison, lines 1–5)

Sua opera poemata sermonis appellata, sicut "The Aeolian Harp" et "Frost at Midnight" sunt optime nota ex suis operibus in blank verse conceptis. Ioannis Keats blank verse in Hyperion praecipue ex eo Miltoni adumbratur, sed minus liber se in pentametrum gerit et pulchritudines proprias ipsius Keats ostendit. Blank verse Shelleyanus in The Cenci et Prometheus Unbound similius est usus Elizabethani quam Miltoniani.

Ex numero scriptorum Victorianorum qui blank verse uti solebant, notissimi sunt Alfredus Tennyson et Robertus Browning. Blank verse Tennysonianum in poematibus sicut "Ulysses" et "The Princess" est musicum et strictum; carmen "Tears, Idle Tears" dicitur primum exemplum magnum poematis stanzaici in blank verse scripti. Usus Browningianus in "Fra Lippo Lippi" et poematibus similibus est abruptior, quasi in colloquio usitatus. Princess Ida, opera Gilbert et Sullivan anno 1884 ducta, in The Princess Tennysoniano conditur. Diverbium Gilbertianum omnino in blank verse est (quamquam aliae tredecim operae Sabaudienses diverbium in prosa habent). Infra scriptum est locus a Principissa Ida dicta postquam ea "Oh, goddess wise" ('O sapiens dea') ariam intrantem cantat.

Women of Adamant, fair neophytes—

Who thirst for such instruction as we give,

Attend, while I unfold a parable.

The elephant is mightier than Man,

Yet Man subdues him. Why? The elephant

Is elephantine everywhere but here (tapping her forehead)

And Man, whose brain is to the elephant’s

As Woman’s brain to Man’s—(that’s rule of three),—

Conquers the foolish giant of the woods,

As Woman, in her turn, shall conquer Man.

In Mathematics, Woman leads the way:

The narrow-minded pedant still believes

That two and two make four! Why, we can prove,

We women—household drudges as we are—

That two and two make five—or three—or seven;

Or five-and-twenty, if the case demands!

Blank verse, per varios constantiae gradus, saepissime saeculo vicensimo in poesi originali et in poematibus narrativis conversis adhibitum est. Multa poemata narrativa et conloquia usitata Roberti Frost in blank verse concepta sunt; similiter alia poemata magna, sicut Wallace Stevens "The Idea of Order at Key West" et "The Comedian as the Letter C," Gulielmi Butler Yeats "The Second Coming," W. H. Auden "The Watershed," et Ioannis Betjeman Summoned by Bells. Praeterea, Glory for Me, novella a MacKinlay Kantor anno 1945 prolata, quae certamina veteranorum Belli Orbis Terrarum II redientium in blank verse conscripta enarrat, fundamenta est pelliculae The Best Years of Our Lives. Index plenus fieri non potest, quia blank verse laxum unum ex fundamentis poesis lyrici factum est, sed blank verse hodiernum tam praestans quam in prioribus trecentis annis profecto est.

Nexus interni

• Oratio soluta
• Versus
• Versus liber

Bibliographia

• Department of English. 1995. Blank Verse. In The UVic Writer's Guide. University of Victoria.
• Deutsch, Babette. 1974. Poetry Handbook. Ed. 4a.
• Milton, John. 1985. Paradise Lost. Novi Eboraci: Merritt Hughes.
• Shaw, Robert Burns. 2007. Blank Verse: A Guide to its History and Use. Ohio University Press. ISBN 9780821417577, ISBN 0821417576.

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