narrative; it was unmusical in the sense that it could not be 
sung; it had marked proclivities toward rant and noise.”

     But the paradox is that the blank verse, being one of the 
first kinds of “spoken,” as opposed to sung, poetry is very 
much faster than song, or perhaps even than speech itself. It is 
very safe, however, to commence with the consideration that 
blank verse, unlike rhymed poetry, answered the new need of 
the vernacular to have recognition and implementation as a 
public address system. Aretino had been the first to seize the 
vernacular as the mass medium which print had made it. His 
biographers note his extraordinary resemblance to the most 
vulgar press lords and emperors of our own century. Reviewing 
a biography Citizen Hearst  by W. A. Swanberg, the New York  
Times  headlined the review (September 10, 1961): “The Man 
Who Made Headlines Scream.”