The Rhythm of the Masters

By: Sean Savoie 

            Although the many articles I have written for the New York Community Times have seemed so academic, I most love to read classic literature. Because I have written so much lately about the use of rhythm in writing, it is now best to introduce some of the most classic works of writing from celebrated authors. I am currently reading the first novel written by Joseph Conrad, entitled Almayer's Folly. This book, although shorter than 300 pages, took Joseph Conrad five years to write and was published in 1895. Many great authors of the 19th century had a profound understanding of rhythm and its effect on the reader, using long, connected ideas, followed by short clear sentences. Joseph Conrad is an author who is able to capture rhythmic feeling within a passage in order to help create a mood. In this case, the mood is love. In the beginning of the novel, the son of a sultan falls in love with the young daughter of a trader. Read the two paragraphs below more than once, attempting to feel how the rhythm of the words captures the feeling between the two lovers. If you can read it in the right way, the rhythm of the words and the words themselves take on the characteristics of a melody. 

“From the very first moment when his eyes beheld this -- to him -- perfection of loveliness he felt in his inmost heart the conviction that she would be his; he felt the subtle breath of mutual understanding passing between their two savage natures and he did not want Mrs. Almayer’s encouraging smiles to take every opportunity of approaching the girl; and every time he spoke to her, every time he looked into her eyes, Nina, all the while averting her face, felt as if this bold-looking being who spoke burning words into her willing ear was the embodiment of her fate, the creature of her dreams -- reckless, ferocious, ready with flashing kriss for his enemies, and with passionate embrace for his beloved -- the ideal Malay chief of her mother's tradition.

She recognized with the thrill of delicious fear the mysterious consciousness of her identity with that being. Listening to his words, it seemed to her she was born only then to a knowledge of a new existence, that her life was complete only when near him, and she abandoned herself to a feeling of dreamy happiness, while with half-veiled face and in silence -- as became a Malay girl -- she listened to Dane’s words giving up to her the whole treasure of love and passion his nature was capable of with all the unrestrained enthusiasm of a man totally untrammeled by any influence of civilized self-discipline.” 

Now, I am not known to be especially romantic, but this prose does stir my blood. Maybe it is simply my musical blood, but I am moved to strong feelings of passion nonetheless. In a paragraph soon to follow, the son of the Sultan is depicted waiting to hear from the woman that he loves while standing in a river in the fog. Joseph Conrad writes: 

"Standing there alone, as if separated from the world; the heavens, earth; the very water roaring under him swallowed up in the thick veil of the morning fog, he breathed out the name of Nina before him into the apparently limitless space, sure of being heard, instinctively sure of the nearness of the delightful creature; certain of her being aware of his near presence as he was aware of hers." 

What is it that makes this paragraph so romantic? Is it the confusion that some people feel when they fall in love? Does the choppy, yet rhythmic movement of the sentences create a feeling similar to a heartbeat? This paragraph is not only romantic and steamy, it is mystical and poetic. Each of the master writers has his or her own way of using rhythm to affect the reader. On the very next page of this novel, Conrad describes the couple drifting down the river in a canoe. Although this passage is merely a few paragraphs later, you may notice the more relaxed feeling of how the words move. It is clear that the two people have the feeling of ease and comfort. This is conveyed to the reader in its rhythm and movement. 

"And so they drifted on, he speaking with all the rude eloquence of a savage nature giving itself up without restraint to an overmastering passion, she bending low to catch the murmur of words sweeter to her than life itself. To those two nothing existed then outside the gun wells up the narrow and fragile craft. It was their world, filled with their intense and all-absorbing love. They took no heed of thickening mist, or of the breeze dying away before sunrise; they forgot the existence of the great forest surrounding them, of all the tropical nature awaiting the advent of the sun in a solemn and impressive silence." 

Notice how, in the above paragraph, the phrases and clauses have an almost similar length, which is how the mood is made to relax. Of course, rhythmically analyzing this effect can prevent one from truly experiencing it, yet the young writer best learn from the techniques of the Masters, from whom we can see that the gap between music and literature is actually quite small.