Is it not true, furthermore, as some metri-
cal sceptics like to remind us, that if we once
admit the principle of substitution and equiv-
alence, of hypermetrical and truncated sylla-
bles, of pauses taking the place of syllables,
that you can often make one metre seem
very much like another? The question of
calling a given group of lines "iambic" or
"trochaic," for instance, can be made quite
arbitrary, depending upon where you begin
to count syllables. "Iambic" with initial
truncation or "trochaic" with final trunca-
tion? Tweedle-dum or tweedle-dee? Do
you count waves from crest to crest or from
hollow to hollow? When you count the links
in a bicycle chain, do you begin with the slen-
der middle of each link or with one of the
swelling ends? So is it with this "iambic"
and "trochaic" matter. Professor Alden, in
a suggestive pamphlet, ¹ confesses that these
contrasting concepts of rising and falling
metre are nothing more than concepts, alter-
able at will.

But while the experts in prosody continue
to differ and to dogmatize, the lover of poetry
should remember that versification is far

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