A. E. HOUSMAN Sta, : —There is a reference to my comments
on A. E. Housman (Post-Victorian Poetry, page 40) in recent Spectator issues. The fact is, as I•have written, that HOusman's metrical basis was syllabic and not in any way relative to sprung rhythm. Therefore his Worst tendency was towards tumpty-tunt. Cowper's metrical basis was also syllabic, and so were Dryden's and Pope's.
The difference between syllabic measures and those natural English rhythms using the shifting stresses of the old ballad (i.e. sprung rhythm) is best seen by comparing the old ballad of 'Chevy Chase' (so 'admired by Sir Philip Sidney) and the later broad- sheet ballad of the streets, where the wild rhythm is tamed and made regular—mere tumpty-tum. But Housman was never so lifeless because of the artist in him. I have written most of my own poems on a sprung-rhythm basis, though some of than do wore out with syllabic measures.—Yours faithfully;
St. Albans
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