Robert Bridges' Theory of Elision is a theory of elision

Elision

Elision is the omission of one or more sounds in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce...

 developed by the poet Robert Bridges

Robert Bridges

Robert Seymour Bridges, OM, was a British poet, and poet laureate from 1913 to 1930.-Personal and professional life:...

, while he was working on a prosodic analysis of John Milton

John Milton

John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...

's poems Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...

, Paradise Regained

Paradise Regained

Paradise Regained is a poem by the English poet John Milton, published in 1671. It is connected by name to his earlier and more famous epic poem Paradise Lost, with which it shares similar theological themes...

, and Samson Agonistes

Samson Agonistes

Samson Agonistes is a tragic closet drama by John Milton. It appeared with the publication of Milton's Paradise Regain'd in 1671, as the title page of that volume states: "Paradise Regained / A Poem / In IV Books / To Which Is Added / Samson Agonistes"...

. Bridges describes his theory in thorough detail in his 1921 book Milton's Prosody

Milton's Prosody (book)

Milton's Prosody, or in full, Milton's Prosody, with a chapter on Accentual Verse and Notes is a book by Robert Bridges. It was first published by Oxford University Press in 1889, and a final revised edition was published in 1921....

. With his definition of poetic elision, Bridges is able to demonstrate that no line in Paradise Lost contains an extra unmetrical syllable mid-line; that is, any apparent extra mid-line syllable can be explained as an example of Bridges' elision.

Milton's Elision in Paradise Lost

Bridges identifies the following kinds of elision:

1. vowel elisions
2. elision through H
3. poetic elision of semi-vowels
4. elision through R
5. elision through L
6. elision through N

The y-glide

Bridges identifies 3 situations where this could occur:

1. where the first syllable is stressed , such as in riot
2. where the second syllable is stressed, such as in humiliation
3. where neither vowel is stressed, such as in Michael

The w-glide

Bridges identifies 3 situations where this could occur:

1. where the first syllable is stressed , such as in ruin
2. where the second syllable is stressed; he finds no indisputable example of this in Paradise Lost but suggests fluctuats in IX.668 may be an example.
3. where neither vowel is stressed, such as in virtuous

Elision through H

Bridges identifies several places where Milton apparently glides through a consonantal H. For example:

For still they knew, and ought to have still remembered (X.12)

In Gems and wanton dress; to the Harp they sing (XI.579)

Poetic elision of semi-vowels

Bridges identifies that words such as schism, prism, chasm, spasm are usually counted as monosyllables, despite the fact that in spoken language we vocalize the m separately; that is, as though prism were written pris'm.

Elision through R

Bridges states that if two unstressed syllables are separated by an r then there may be elision.

Elision through L

Bridges states that if two unstressed syllables are separated by an l then there may be elision.

Elision through N

Bridges states that if two unstressed syllables are separated by an n then there may be elision.

Milton's Later Relaxation of the Rules of Elision

Bridges notes that the Milton's concept of elision is broadened in Paradise Regained

Paradise Regained

Paradise Regained is a poem by the English poet John Milton, published in 1671. It is connected by name to his earlier and more famous epic poem Paradise Lost, with which it shares similar theological themes...

and Samson Agonistes

Samson Agonistes

Samson Agonistes is a tragic closet drama by John Milton. It appeared with the publication of Milton's Paradise Regain'd in 1671, as the title page of that volume states: "Paradise Regained / A Poem / In IV Books / To Which Is Added / Samson Agonistes"...

. Specifically, he observes the following types of elision:

• through an M (where preceding and succeeding syllables are unstressed)
• via synaloepha of a final vocalic y with an initial consonantal y
• from a short unaccented i, where the following vowel is unstressed, through the following consonants:
  • through a T (4 instances)
  • through a M (1 instance)
  • through a F (1 instance)
  • through a D (1 instance)
  • through a SH (1 instance)
  • through a ST (1 instance)

These last two, Bridges describes as "quite abhorrent to the style of Paradise Lost"