A History of English Versification

"A History of English Versification" by J. Schipper, is an academic book from the early 1900s that looks closely at how English poems are built, from their rhythms to their structures. It follows how poetry changed over time, focusing on the rules that guided how verses were made. The book deeply inspects the use of metre, rhymes, and stanzas in English writing. It begins by explaining how important English metre is to understanding both the history of the language and what makes poetry beautiful. Schipper explains the basic ideas of how verses are structured, like what makes poetry different from regular writing and the rhythms that give poetry its shape. He talks about how important accents are, what syllables are like, and the features that describe different kinds of verses, which sets the scene for a complete analysis later on.