and there can be no doubt that, according to your reading, the line has
much more vigour than grace. The ungracefulness, however, seems to me
produced, not so much by the choriambus, as by that very rough
termination of the whole—a spondee preceded by a pyrrhic; so that,
according to my idea, ce n’est que le _dernier_ pas qui coute,—unless
indeed we take into consideration the cacophonous assembage of harsh
consonants and vowels which are “rather seen than heard.” As the line
stands, however, it is extremely expressive, but perhaps hardly a fair
specimen of the introduction of a choriambus into the second place.
There is a considerable degree less roughness and more impetuous energy
in the following example