at the Stephen H. Hart Research Center, History Colorado, Denver
“The Song of the Wahbeek” utilizes several meters and rhyme schemes throughout, each with the intention of invoking certain atmospheres and being homages to other poets and cultural poetry. Thus, it would be prudent to provide an analysis of the meters and rhymes he uses throughout the poem and what they are invoking.
The poem is styled as a “conversational poem,” likely modeled after Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s conversational poetry, with only portions being descriptive of the scene of the conversation, notably at the beginning and the end.
One cannot underestimate how influential Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha was on the composition of “The Song of the Wahbeek.” Hiawatha uses a trochaic tetrameter, which is borrowed from the Kalevala. Bromwell opens the poem, the description of the setting prior to the conversational speech, in a trochaic tetrameter. However, Bromwell is not strict, or rather is more fluid in the exact pronunciation of the verses. For instance, the opening is a trochaic tetrameter, but line 7 has ten syllables: “To mingle draughts of marvelous power.” But it can be read as only eight, thusly: “To mingle draughts of marv’lous pow’r.” Bromwell typically contracts two-syllable words as necessary to fit the meter. These syllabic deviations have poetic purposes. For instance, John Milton’s Paradise Lost uses iambic pentameter, with one of the most infamous lines from this epic breaking this structure: “Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven” (I.263). There is a trailing, unstressed, extra syllable at the end. This is deliberate. Satan is making a very bold, assertive statement, yet, the trailing extra syllable gives an air of uncertainty. Not to mention the statement switches from iambic to trochaic. Thus, line 7 may be rendered as only having nine syllables: “To mingle draughts of marvelous pow’r,” with “pow’r” being a weak, trailing syllable, effectively taking the power away from “pow’r.”
Bromwell is not as formal as Longfellow’s Hiawatha or Kalevala, but rather allows himself to stray from the meter. Longfellow did the same in other poems, but not Hiawatha; he remains strictly in trochaic tetrameter. Bromwell certainly had a mastery over poetry, and thus felt that there were moments where he had the poetic license to deviate. For the most part, until the conversational poetry begins, the verses are trochaic tetrameter. Furthermore, when the Spirit of the Wahbeek is telling stories of old, it will occasionally make use of identical rhymes, i.e. where the same word is used to make a rhyme. Bromwell is not usually fond of doing this, but it is common in many aboriginal songs and Longfellow makes heavy use of it in Hiawatha. The fact Bromwell occasionally uses identical rhymes, typically made by the Spirit of the Wahbeek, is likely an homage to Longfellow.
When the poet, chronicler, theologist, and philosopher begin their discourse, the verses turn more into free verse poetry — albeit, it is more closely hendecasyllabic, but with many deviations and no rhyme scheme that it might as well be free verse. When their conversation is interrupted by the manifestation of the Spirit of the Wahbeek, the poetry reverts back to trochaic tetrameter, and the Spirit of the Wahbeek continues this meter, and the four men continue in the same meter, until the spirit speaks once again, in which the meter reverts back once more to hendecasyllabic meter, with more slant rhymes than proper rhymes. The use of hendecasyllabic meter is an homage to classical Greek and Latin poetry, commonly used for Aeolic poetry.
Such presents a blending of homages to other poets and cultural poetry. The Kalevala uses trochaic tetrameter because Elias Lönnrot was copying the poetry he learned from indigenous Finnish cultures, albeit it with modification. Longfellow uses the same meter, not necessarily because the Kalevala uses it, but also because many indigenous American tribal poetry uses the same meter, and it is a common meter for many aboriginal cultures. Thus, the use of trochaic tetrameter is an intonation of something old, aboriginal, a song fading from memory. Yet, when the four men — all having Western vocations — speak, they use a popular meter of classical poetry, albeit modernized by neglecting rhymes or making use of slant rhymes. Then when the spirit speaks, the verses revert back to an aboriginal meter, and the four men will match the spirit’s meter as a matter of courtesy and politely communing with this divine entity. However, the spirit does not seem to mind what meter they speak in, so the spirit uses their modernized classical meter, and the men will likewise respond in the same style. All five characters are conversing with each other, not just literally, but also in meter and rhyme.
Think of it as several people are speaking in Spanish, then someone steps in and speaks to them in English. Thus, the group begins to speak in English to be polite. The English speaker then realizes that it was rude to intrude with English, and switches to Spanish, and everyone then comfortably continues in Spanish.
The meter and rhyme scheme will alternate between these two styles for much of the poem. One gets a sense of what is being invoked by how Bromwell switches the meter. Usually when the spirit is telling a story of old, the meter changes back to trochaic tetrameter, but when the characters are discussing newer concerns — e.g. the philosopher asking what these things mean, or the theologian describing theological tenets — the meter reverts to hendecasyllabic.
The “Song of Klo lo war” is an interesting insertion, and is one of the few instances where the meter is wholly different from the rest of the poem. This is largely because it is a song nested in a song within a long poem — similar to how Melmoth the Wanderer has stories nested in stories. This song has a significantly martial quality, with each stanza beginning with three words, each being stressed, and then the following verses of the stanza are pyrrhic or anapest pentameter.
Another meter Bromwell uses that is distinct from the base tetra or hendecasyllabic meters is when the Spirit of the Wahbeek switches into heptameter, a popular meter for Medieval Latin poetry. The spirit adopts this meter specifically in response to questions from the philosopher and theologist, and the spirit speaks generally of Western philosophy and theology, speaking of the Sabbath, cherubim, seraphs, tabernacles, et al. Such indicates that the spirit is also a creature of the highest god, Yah Ho, which is a play on the Tetragrammaton, Jod He Vah He. Thus, the spirit knows of things of God, the orders of angels from the Throne of God, and things God commands.
Bromwell also plays with anapestic trimeter, which gives a faster pace to the speakers’ words. Et cetera. Ultimately, the poem will conclude with the spirit, once again, adopting a hendecasyllabic meter, and then the spirit leaves. The concluding lines revert back to a general narrative, wherein the meter is once again trochaic tetrameter.
Ultimately, Bromwell’s meter and rhyme scheme is playfully executed to illustrate a variety of poetic intentions, be it to give an aboriginal or classical atmosphere, or to invoke something martial and harsh, fast paced, or ecclesiastical. Whether Bromwell intended to give an ecclesiastical atmosphere to the verses composed in heptameter is debatable, but it may be surmised that he was inspired by, say, a heptameter ecclesiastical poem, and he was making an homage to that. Regardless, the specific meter and rhyme invokes an atmosphere that is appropriate to content of the verses themselves, and artfully executed.
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