"When wealth to virtuous hands is given,
It blesses like the dew of Heaven;
Like Heaven, it hears the orphan's cries,
And wipes the tears from widow's eyes."
5. Sometimes the rhymes occur in alternate lines; that is, two lines
come together which are not rhymes, and are followed by two lines to
make rhymes to both, as follows:
"Let the sweet work of prayer and praise
Employ our youngest breath;
Thus we're prepared for longer days,
Or fit for early death."
6. There are some kinds of verses that do not rhyme. These are called
_blank_ verse. Here is an example of blank verse:
"Mark well, my child, he said; this little stream
Shall teach thee charity. It is a source
I never knew to fail: directed thus
Be that soft stream, the fountain of thy heart.
For, oh! my much-loved child, I trust thy heart
Has those affections that shall bless thyself;
And, flowing softly like this little rill,
Cheer all that droop. The good man did not err."
7. Now, there are several things that I wish you to notice in these
lines. In the first place, if you will count the syllables, you will
find that there are exactly ten syllables in each line; and it is always
the case, that in verse it is necessary that there should be a certain
number of syllables of a certain kind.
8. What that number is, I cannot now explain to you; but you will be
able to understand from a book called a grammar, which you will probably
study at some future time, if you do not study it now. It is contained
in that part of grammar called Prosody.
9. The next thing I wish you to notice is, that every line of verse
always begins with a capital letter.
10. And thirdly you will notice, that the lines of verse are more
regular in their sound than lines of prose. They have a kind of musical
sound about them, which you very rarely hear, except in verse.
11. And fourthly you will notice, that some of the words are shortened
by leaving out a letter, and putting in its place a mark called an
_apostrophe_, which looks just like a comma, only it is placed higher up
in the line, as in the following line:
"Thus we're prepared for longer days."
12. In this line, if the words were written out at full length, with all
their letters in them, the line would stand as follows:
"Thus we are prepared for longer days."
13. But this would destroy what is called the _measure_ of the line, by
putting too many syllables into it; and therefore the words _we are_ are
shortened, so as to be read as one syllable, and the line is to be read
as follows:
"Thus weer prepared for longer days."
14. The next difference I shall point out to you between prose and
verse, is that in verse the words are placed in a different order from
what they would be in prose; as you will notice in the following lines:
"When all thy mercies, oh my God!
My rising soul surveys,
Transported with the view, I'm lost
In wonder, love and praise."
15. Now, if these lines were written in prose, the words would stand in
the following order: "O my God! when my rising soul surveys all thy
mercies, I'm transported with the view of them, and lost in wonder, love
and praise."
16. And now that I have explained to you a few of the points in which
verse differs from prose, I will only add, that when you read verse, you
must not stop at the end of every line, unless there is a pause or mark
there; and that you must avoid reading it as if you were singing it to a
tune.