A Study Of The Rhythmic Properties Of Francis Bacon's Essays

Francis Bacon, the great essayist, employs a variety of rhythmic patterns in his famous collection, Essays. The most prominent rhythmic patterns used are the phonological, the lexical, and the syntactical.The phonological rhythm of Bacon's essays in his Essays falls into two general categories. One type of rhythm, like the rhythm of English verse, is produced by the repetition of stress patterns, such as rising rhythm, falling rhythm, falling-rising rhythm, rising-falling rhythm, and rocking rhythm. Different rhythmic forms originate from different stress patterns, as falling rhythm arises from a stress pattern consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one, and rising rhythm results from a stress pattern which is made up of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one. The other type of phonological rhythm does not occur upon repeated stress patterns but upon the natural alternating between stressed and unstressed syllables, which is much more free, flexible and elastic, and thus termed free rhythm. The phonological rhythm contributes to the musical cadence of the essays, and meanwhile seems an echo to the sense of the essays.The lexical rhythm in Bacon's essays is decided by four factors: the length of a word, the repetition of phrases, the use of certain words in fixed conditions, and the omission of a word or word groups. Different ways of employing words conduce to different lexical rhythms. Different lexical rhythms produce different rhythmic effects: the rhythm created by big words (containing more than seven letters) is slow and heavy; the rhythm cultivated by small words (containing not more than seven letters) is quick and strong; the rhythm based upon phrases is light and brisk; the rhythm produced by the omission of words is flowing and smooth, and the like. The variable lexical rhythms match with and reinforce the sense of the essays.The syntactical rhythm of Bacon's essays is mainly established by sentences with different length, sentences with different types, and different balanced structures. The syntactical rhythm based upon sentence length always changes if sentence length alters; the rhythm derived from a long languid sentence is quite different from that of a short choppy one. The syntactical rhythm caused by sentence types specifically refers to the rhythm produced by a simple sentence, a coordinate sentence, or a subordinate sentence; different sentence types create different syntactical rhythms. The syntactical rhythm grounded upon balanced structures often produces the effects of balance and symmetry, no matter if the whole sentence is made up of a balanced structure, or some part of the sentence consists of a balanced structure. The syntactical rhythm, as well as the phonological rhythm and the lexical rhythm, constitutes one of the important rhythmic forms of Bacon's essays.The making of the rhythms in Bacon's essays can be detected from two aspects. One is from Bacon, the composer of the rhythm. Bacon's family background, his educational background, and his experiences as a statesman, philosopher and scientist all have an influence upon the making of the rhythms of the essays. Another is from the world outside of Bacon. The spirit of the Renaissance, the popularity of Latin and French at that time, the Euphuism and the Biblical language all influence Bacon as well, shaping the creation and employment of rhythmic modes in his Essays. The factors which contribute to the making of the rhythms of Bacon's essays reveal the origins of these rhythms.Bacon's essays, though in prose, are of many verse qualities due to the abundance of rhythm, which is one of the basic elements of verse. In this sense, the essays can be called verse essays, or essays in verse.