Hopkins` Sprung Rhythm is probably the famous and perplexing case of a meter from the view of conventional meter. A syllable is corresponded to a metrical position in conventional meter, but this one-to-one correspondence does not occur in Sprung Rhyt...
Hopkins` Sprung Rhythm is probably the famous and perplexing case of a meter from the view of conventional meter. A syllable is corresponded to a metrical position in conventional meter, but this one-to-one correspondence does not occur in Sprung Rhythm. In Sprung Rhythm, the number of strong positions is fixed in each line, but the number of weak positions between them is free. Sprung Rhythm is said to be the most natural and rhythmical meter for reciting. To prove this fact, I have shown that Sprung Rhythm is based on a mora foot. I suggested the following rules for each position and outriders. 1) A weak position contains at most a M or a ρ. 2) A strong position must contain a M. 3) If a weak position contains a ρ or a M, the syllables after its preceding strong position(M) become a outrider except the mora foot of a weak position. 4) A mora foot is formed in following constraint ranks : NoCoda ≫ S→W, Align-μ, Nonfinality (in the case of VCV), and S→W ≫ Nonfinality (in the case of a word-final stressed syllable).