POETRY is the language of passion, or of enlivened imagination.
VERSIFICATION, in English, is the harmonious arrangement of a particular
number and variety of accented and unaccented syllables, according to
particular laws.
RHYME is the correspondence of the sound of the last syllable in one
line, to the sound of the last syllable in another; as,
"O'er the glad waters of the dark-blue _sea_,
"Our thoughts as boundless and our souls as _free_."
BLANK VERSE consists in poetical thoughts expressed in regular numbers,
but without the correspondence of sound at the end of the lines which
constitutes rhyme.
POETICAL FEET consist in a particular arrangement and connexion of a
number of accented and unaccented syllables.
They are called _feet_, because it is by their aid that the voice, as it
were, _steps_ along through the verse in a measured pace.
All poetical feet consist either of two, or of three syllables; and are
reducible to eight kinds; four of two syllables, and four of three, as
follows:
DISSYLLABLE. TRISYLLABLE.
A Trochee - u A Dactyle - u u
An Iambus u - An Amphibrach u - u
A Spondee - - An Anapaest u u -
A Pyrrhic u u A Tribrach u u u
A Trochee has the first syllable accented, and the last unaccented; as,
Hātefŭl, péttish:
Rēstlĕss mōrtăls tōil fŏr nāught.
An Iambus has the first syllable unaccented, and the last accented; as,
Bĕtrāy, consíst:
Thĕ sēas shăll wāste, thĕ skīes ĭn smōke dĕcāy.
A Dactyle has the first syllable accented, and the two latter
unaccented; as, Lābŏrĕr, póssible:
Frōm thĕ lŏw plēasŭres ŏf thīs făllĕn nātŭre.
An Anapaest has the first two syllables unaccented, and the last
accented; as, Cŏntrăvēne, acquiésce:
ăt thĕ clōse ŏf thĕ dāy whĕn thĕ hāmlĕt ĭs stīll.
A Spondee; as, The pāle mōōn: a Pyrrhic; as, ŏn thĕ tall
tree: an Amphibrach; as, Dēlightfūl: a Tribrach; as,
Numērăblĕ.