This interplay between two coexistent systems is an example of what Classical prosodists called “epiploce” (see glossary), a term that denotes the various possibilities of scansion. Epiploce generally, and more specifically the particular interplay we have been examining beetween a metrically determined and a phrasally determined scansion, creates and organizes variations in stress and intonation.

There was indeed a mousery of vast proportions, far from general view on an upper floor. . . . A member of the Institute's research staff, unaware of its existence and unexpectedly admitted, found himself in a city of mice, thousands of them, elaborately housed and cared for.

If thou be abſent long, thy wife then thinkes, / Th'art drunke, at eaſe, or with ſome pretty minkes, / 'Tis well with thee, or elſe beloued of ſome, / Whil'ſt ſhee poore ſoule doth fare full ill at home.

She danced with a loose flowing movement.