Arthur Waley

VI. Notes on Chinese Prosody

Certain elements are found, but in varying degree, in all human speech. Thus it is difficult to conceive of a language in which rhyme, stress-accent, tone-accent would not to some extent occur. In all languages some vowel-sounds are shorter than others, and in certain cases two consecutive words begin with the same sound. If we number these speech-elements we get (1) rhyme, (2) stress-accent, (3) tone-accent, (4) vowel-quantity, (5) alliteration. No doubt other characteristics could be enumerated, but for the purposes of poetry it is these five which have been principally exploited. English poetry has used chiefly (1), (2), and in earlier times (5); it is doubtful whether (3) has played any part, but an unconscious use has probably been made of (4).