OBS. 25.--The passage just cited represe_The Grammar of English Grammars

only as partly constituting _quantity_, but as being, in its or their turn,

"_the divisions of time_;"--as being also stops, pauses, or

"_interruptions_" of sound else continuous;--as being of two sorts,

"_metrical_" and "_prosaic_," which "usually coincide," though it is said,

they "often differ," and their "interference" is "very frequent;"--as being

"the points" of stress "in the _feet_," but not always such in "the

_words_," of verse;--as striking different feet differently, "each _iambic_

foot" on the latter syllable and every _trochee_ on the former, yet

causing, in each line, only such waves of sound as conclude and begin

"_alike_;"--as coinciding with the long quantities and "_the prosaic

accents_," in iambics and trochaics, yet not coinciding with these

always;--as giving to verse "a part of its musical character," yet

_diminishing_ that character, by their usual coincidence with "_the prose

accents_;"--as being kept distinct in Latin and Greek, "_the metrical" from

"the prosaic_" and their "coincidence avoided," to make poetry more

poetical,--though the old prosodists, in all they say of accents, acute,

grave, and circumflex, give no hint of this primary distinction! In all

this elementary teaching, there seems to be a want of a clear, steady, and

consistent notion of the things spoken of. The author's theory led him to

several strange combinations of words, some of which it is not easy, even

with his whole explanation before us, to regard as other than _absurd_.

With a few examples of his new phraseology, Italicized by myself, I dismiss

the subject: "It frequently happens that _word and verse accent_ fall

differently."--P. 489. "The _verse syllables_, like _the verse feet_,

differ _in the prosaic and_ [the] _metrical reading_ of the line."--_Ib._

"If we read it by _the prosaic syllabication_, there will be no possibility

of measuring the quantities."--_Ib._ "The metrical are perfectly distinct

from the _prosaic properties of verse_."--_Ib._ "It may be called _an

iambic dactyl_, formed by the substitution of two short for one long time

in the last portion of the foot. _Iambic spondees and dactyls_ are to be

distinguished by the _metrical accent_ falling on the last syllable."--P.

491.

SECTION IV.--THE KINDS OF VERSE.

The principal kinds of verse, or orders of poetic numbers, as has already

been stated, are four; namely, _Iambic, Trochaic, Anapestic_, and

_Dactylic_. Besides these, which are sometimes called "_the simple orders_"

being unmixed, or nearly so, some recognize several "_Composite orders_" or

(with a better view of the matter) several kinds of mixed verse, which are

said to constitute "_the Composite order_." In these, one of the four

principal kinds of feet must still be used as the basis, some other species

being inserted therewith, in each line or stanza, with more or less

regularity.

PRINCIPLES AND NAMES.

The diversification of any species of metre, by the occasional change of a

foot, or, in certain cases, by the addition or omission of a short

syllable, is not usually regarded as sufficient to change the denomination,

or stated order, of the verse; and many critics suppose some variety of

feet, as well as a studied diversity in the position of the cæsural pause,

essential to the highest excellence of poetic composition.

The dividing of verses into the feet which compose them, is called

_Scanning_, or _Scansion_. In this, according to the technical language of

the old prosodists, when a syllable is wanting, the verse is said to be

_catalectic_; when the measure is exact, the line is _acatalectic_; when

there is a redundant syllable, it forms _hypermeter_.

Since the equal recognition of so many feet as twelve, or even as eight,

will often produce different modes of measuring the same lines; and since

it is desirable to measure verses with uniformity, and always by the

simplest process that will well answer the purpose; we usually scan by the

principal feet, in preference to the secondary, where the syllables give us

a choice of measures, or may be divided in different ways.

A single foot, especially a foot of only two syllables, can hardly be said

to constitute a line, or to have rhythm in itself; yet we sometimes see a

foot so placed, and rhyming as a line. Lines of two, three, four, five,

six, or seven feet, are common; and these have received the technical

denominations of _dim'eter, trim'eter, tetram'eter, pentam'eter,

hexam'eter_, and _heptam'eter_. On a wide page, iambics and trochaics may

possibly be written in _octom'eter_; but lines of this measure, being very

long, are mostly abandoned for alternate tetrameters.

ORDER I.--IAMBIC VERSE.

In Iambic verse, the stress is laid on the even syllables, and the odd ones

are short. Any short syllable added to a line of this order, is

supernumerary; iambic rhymes, which are naturally single, being made double

by one, and triple by two. But the adding of one short syllable, which is

much practised in dramatic poetry, may be reckoned to convert the last foot

into an amphibrach, though the adding of two cannot. Iambics consist of the

following measures:--

MEASURE I.--IAMBIC OF EIGHT FEET, OR OCTOMETER.

_Psalm XLVII, 1 and 2_.

| -ph~ant v=oi | -c~es s=ing;

| -niver | -sal King."

See the "_Psalms of David, in Metre_," p. 54.

Each couplet of this verse is now commonly reduced to, or exchanged for, a

simple stanza of four tetrameter lines, rhyming alternately, and each

commencing with a capital; but sometimes, the second line and the fourth

are still commenced with a small letter: as,

"Your ut | -most skill | in praise | be shown,

for Him | who all | the world | commands,

Who sits | upon | his right | -eous throne,

and spreads | his sway | o'er heath | -en lands."

_Ib._, verses 7 and 8; _Edition bound with Com. Prayer_,

N. Y., 1819.

_An other Example_.

"The hour | is come | --the cher | -ish'd hour,

When from | the bus | -y world | set free,

I seek | at length | my lone | -ly bower,

And muse | in si | -lent thought | on thee."

THEODORE HOOK'S REMAINS: _The Examiner_, No. 82.

MEASURE II.--IAMBIC OF SEVEN FEET, OR HEPTAMETER.

_Example I.--Hat-Brims_.

"It's odd | how hats | expand [ their brims | as youth | begins

| to fade,

| for shade."

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES: _From a Newspaper_.

_Example II.--Psalm XLII_, 1.

| the chase;

| -ing grace."

EPISCOPAL PSALM-BOOK: _The Rev. W. Allen's Eng. Gram._, p. 227.

_Example III.--The Shepherd's Hymn_.

| sun pant,

| me want;

| -y green,

| between.

| I sink,

| -ing drink,

And save | me harm | -less from | his hands, and strength | -en me

| in toil,

And bless | my home | and cot | -tage lands, and crown | my head

| with oil.

| me still,

| -'ry ill,

| -ly care,

| -er there."

W. GILMORE SIMMS: _North American Reader_, p. 376.

_Example IV.--"The Far, Far Fast."--First six Lines._

| the last,

| -y past;

| and care,

| despair:

| -ward breast,

_Edinburgh Journal_; and _The Examiner_,

_Example V.--"Lament of the Slave."--Eight Lines from thirty-four._

"Behold | the sun | which gilds | _yon heaven_, how love | -ly it

| appears!

| of tears?

| of God,

| -pled sod?

| -son cry,

| -anny?

| in vain;

| -man pain?"

ALONZO LEWIS: _Freedom's Amulet_, Dec. 6, 1848.

_Example VI.--"Greek Funeral Chant."--First four of sixty-four Lines._

| the young;

| -er sung.

'I-an | -this dost | thou sleep?-- | Thou sleepst!-- | but this

| is not | the rest,

| my breast!'"

FELICIA HEMANS: _Poetical Works_, Vol. ii, p. 37.

Everett observes, "The _Iliad_ was translated into this measure by CHAPMAN,

and the _Æneid_ by PHAER."--_Eng. Versif._, p. 68. Prior, who has a ballad

of one hundred and eighty such lines, intimates in a note the great

antiquity of the verse. Measures of this length, though not very uncommon,

are much less frequently used than shorter ones. A practice has long

prevailed of dividing this kind of verse into alternate lines of four and

of three feet, thus:--

"To such | as fear | thy ho | -ly name,

myself | I close | -ly join;

To all | who their | obe | -dient wills

to thy | commands | resign."

_Psalms with Com. Prayer: Psalm_ cxix, 63.

This, according to the critics, is the most soft and pleasing of our lyric

measures. With the slight change of setting a capital at the head of each

line, it becomes the regular ballad-metre of our language. Being also

adapted to hymns, as well as to lighter songs, and, more particularly, to

quaint details of no great length, this stanza, or a similar one more

ornamented with rhymes, is found in many choice pieces of English poetry.

The following are a few popular examples:--

"When all | thy mer | -cies, O | my God!

My ris | -ing soul | surveys,

Transport | -ed with | the view | I'm lost

In won | -der, love, | and praise."

_Addison's Hymn of Gratitude_.

"John Gil | -pin was | a cit | -izen

Of cred | -it and | renown,

A train | -band cap | -tain eke | was he

Of fam | -ous Lon | -don town."

_Cowper's Poems_, Vol. i, p. 275.

"God pros | -per long | our no | -ble king,

Our lives | and safe | -ties all;

A wo | -ful hunt | -ing once | there did

In Chev | -y Chase | befall,"

_Later Reading of Chevy Chase_.

"Turn, An | -geli | -na, ev | -er dear,

My charm | -er, turn | to see

Thy own, | thy long | -lost Ed | -win here,

Restored | to love | and thee."

_Goldsmith's Poems_, p. 67.

"'Come back! | come back!' | he cried | in grief,

Across | this storm | -y wa_ter_:

'And I'll | forgive | your High | -land chief,

My daugh | -ter!--oh | my daugh_ter_!

'Twas vain: | the loud | waves lashed | the shore,

Return | or aid | prevent_ing_:--

The wa | -ters wild | went o'er | his child,--

And he | was left | lament_ing_."--_Campbell's Poems_, p. 110.

The rhyming of this last stanza is irregular and remarkable, yet not

unpleasant. It is contrary to rule, to omit any rhyme which the current of

the verse leads the reader to expect. Yet here the word "_shore_" ending

the first line, has no correspondent sound, where twelve examples of such

correspondence had just preceded; while the third line, without previous

example, is so rhymed within itself that one scarcely perceives the

omission. Double rhymes are said by some to unfit this metre for serious

subjects, and to adapt it only to what is meant to be burlesque, humorous,

or satiric. The example above does not confirm this opinion, yet the rule,

as a general one, may still be just. Ballad verse may in some degree

imitate the language of a simpleton, and become popular by clownishness,

more than by elegance: as,

"Father | and I | went down | to the camp

Along | with cap | -tain Goodwin,

And there | we saw | the men | and boys

As thick | as hast | -y pudding;

And there | we saw | a thun | -dering gun,--

It took | a horn | of powder,--

It made | a noise | like fa | -ther's gun,

Only | a na | -tion louder."

_Original Song of Yankee Doodle_.

Even the line of seven feet may still be lengthened a little by a double

rhyme: as,

| is _dashing_!

| is _flashing_!

Of this length, T. O. Churchill reckons the following couplet; but by the

general usage of the day, the final _ed_ is not made a separate syllable:--

| de_cli | -n~ed_;

| -n~ed_."

_Churchill's New Grammar_, p. 188.

MEASURE III.--IAMBIC OF SIX FEET, OR HEXAMETER.

_Example I.--A Couplet_.

"S~o v=a | _-r~y~ing still_ | th~eir m=oods, | ~obs=erv | -~ing =yet

| ~in =all

Their quan | -tities, | their rests, | their cen | -sures met

| -rical."

MICHAEL DRAYTON: _Johnson's Quarto Dict., w. Quantity_.

_Example II.--From a Description of a Stag-Hunt_.

That all | the for | -est rings, | and ev | -ery neigh

| -bouring place:

DRAYTON: _Three Couplets from twenty-three,

in Everett's Versif._, p. 66.

_Example III.--An Extract from Shakespeare_.

Thine eye | Jove's light | -ning seems, | thy voice | his dread

| _-ful thunder_,

_The Passionate Pilgrim, Stanza IX_;

SINGER'S SHAK., Vol. ii, p. 594.

_Example IV.--The Ten Commandments Versified_.

Nor spill | the guilt | -less blood, | nor let | the guilt

| -y live;[507]

Forbear | to blast | his name | with false | -hood or deceit;

DR. ISAAC WATTS: _Lyric Poems_, p. 46.

This verse, consisting, when entirely regular, of twelve syllables in six

iambs, is the _Alexandrine_; said to have been so named because it was

"first used in a poem called _Alexander_."--_Worcester's Dict._ Such metre

has sometimes been written, with little diversity, through an entire

English poem, as in Drayton's Polyolbion; but, couplets of this length

being generally esteemed too clumsy for our language, the Alexandrine has

been little used by English versifiers, except to complete certain stanzas

beginning with shorter iambics, or, occasionally, to close a period in

heroic rhyme. French heroics are similar to this; and if, as some assert,

we have obtained it thence, the original poem was doubtless a French one,

detailing the exploits of the hero "_Alexandre_." The phrase, "_an

Alexandrine verse_," is, in French, "_un vers Alexandrin_." Dr. Gregory, in

his Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, copies Johnson's Quarto Dictionary,

which says, "ALEXANDRINE, a kind of verse borrowed from the French, first

used in a poem called Alexander. They [Alexandrines] consist, among the

French, of twelve and thirteen syllables, in alternate couplets; and, among

us, of twelve." Dr. Webster, in his American Dictionary, _improperly_ (as I

think) gives to the name two forms, and seems also to acknowledge two sorts

of the English verse: "ALEXAN'DRINE, or ALEXAN'DRIAN, _n._ A kind of verse,

consisting of twelve syllables, or of twelve and thirteen alternately."

"The Pet-Lamb," a modern pastoral, by Wordsworth, has sixty-eight lines,

all probably meant for Alexandrines; most of which have twelve syllables,

though some have thirteen, and others, fourteen. But it were a great pity,

that versification so faulty and unsuitable should ever be imitated. About

half of the said lines, as they appear in the poet's royal octave, or "the

First Complete American, from the Last London Edition," are as sheer prose

as can be written, it being quite impossible to read them into any proper

rhythm. The poem being designed for children, the measure should have been

reduced to iambic trimeter, and made exact at that. The story commences

thus:--

I heard | a voice; | it said, | 'Drink, pret | -ty crea

| -ture, drink!'

A snow | -white moun | -tain Lamb | w=ith =a M=aid | -en at

| its side."

All this is regular, with the exception of one foot; but who can make any

thing but _prose_ of the following?

"Thy limbs will shortly be twice as stout as they are now,

Then I'll yoke thee to my cart like a pony in the plough."

"Here thou needest not dread the raven in the sky;

Night and day thou art safe,--our cottage is hard by."

WORDSWORTH'S _Poems_, New-Haven Ed., 1836, p. 4.

In some very ancient English poetry, we find lines of twelve syllables

combined in couplets with others of fourteen; that is, six iambic feet are

alternated with seven, in lines that rhyme. The following is an example,

taken from a piece of fifty lines, which Dr. Johnson ascribes to the _Earl

of Surry_, one of the wits that flourished in the reign of Henry VIII:--

| accord;

| -vers stroke.

| -er's harte;

See _Johnson's Quarto Dict., History of the Eng. Lang._, p. 4.

MEASURE IV.--IAMBIC OF FIVE FEET, OR PENTAMETER.

_Example I.--Hector to Andromache._

"Andr=om | -~ach=e! | m=y s=oul's | f~ar b=et | -t~er p=art,

No hos | -tile hand | can an | -tedate | my doom,

Till fate | condemns | me to | the si | -lent tomb.

Fix'd is | the term | to all | the race | of earth;

And such | the hard | conditi | -on of | our birth,

No force | can then | resist, | no flight | can save;

All sink | alike, | the fear | -ful and | the brave."

POPE'S HOMER: _Iliad_, B. vi, l. 624-632.

_Example II.--Angels' Worship._

"No soon | -er had | th' Almight | -y ceas'd | _but_ all

The mul | -titude | of an | -gels with | a shout

Loud as | from num | -bers with' | -out num | -ber, sweet

As from | blest voi | -ces ut | _t~er ~ing j=oy_, | heav'n rung

With ju | -bilee, | and loud | hosan | -nas fill'd

Tow'rds ei | -ther throne | they bow, | and to | the ground

With sol | -emn ad | -ora | -tion down | they cast

Their crowns | inwove | with am | -arant | and gold."

MILTON: _Paradise Lost_, B. iii, l. 344.

_Example III.--Deceptive Glosses_.

"The world | is still | deceiv'd | with or | -nament.

In law, | what plea | so taint | -ed and | corrupt,

But, be | -ing sea | -son'd with | a gra | -cious voice,

Obscures | the show | of e | -vil? In | _religi~on_,

What dam |--n~ed er | -ror, but | some so | -ber brow

Will bless | it, and | approve | it with | a text,

_Hid~ing_ | the gross | -ness with | fair or | -nament?"

SHAKSPEARE: _Merch. of Venice_, Act iii, Sc. 2.

_Example IV.--Praise God_.

"Ye head | -long tor | -rents, rap | -id, and | profound;

Ye soft | -er floods, | that lead | the hu | -mid maze

Along | the vale; | and thou, | majes | -tic main,

A se | -cret world | of won | -ders in | thyself,

Or bids | you roar, | or bids | your roar | -ings fall."

THOMSON: _Hymn to the Seasons_.

_Example V.--The Christian Spirit_.

"Like him | the soul, | thus kin | -dled from | above,

Spreads wide | her arms | of u | -niver | -sal love;

And, still | enlarg'd | as she | receives | the grace,

Includes | cr~e=a | -tion in | her close | embrace.

Behold | a Chris | -tian! and | without | the fires

The found | -_~er ~of_ | that name | alone | inspires,

Though all | accom | -plishment, | all knowl | -edge meet,

To make | the shin | -ing prod | -igy | complete,

Whoev | -er boasts | that name-- | behold | a cheat!"

COWPER: _Charity; Poems_, Vol. i, p. 135.

_Example VI.--To London_.

"Ten right | -eous would | have sav'd | a cit | -y once,

And thou | hast man | -y right | -eous.--Well | for thee--

That salt | preserves | thee; more | corrupt | -ed else,

And there | -fore more | obnox | -ious, at | this hour,

Than Sod | -om in | her day | had pow'r | to be,

For whom | God heard | his Abr' | -ham plead | in vain."

IDEM: _The Task_, Book iii, at the end.

This verse, the iambic pentameter, is the regular English _heroic_--a

stately species, and that in which most of our great poems are composed,

whether epic, dramatic, or descriptive. It is well adapted to rhyme, to the

composition of sonnets, to the formation of stanzas of several sorts; and

yet is, perhaps, the only measure suitable for blank verse--which latter

form always demands a subject of some dignity or sublimity.

The _Elegiac Stanza_, or the form of verse most commonly used by elegists,

consists of four heroics rhyming alternately; as,

"Thou knowst | how trans | -port thrills | the ten | -der breast,

Where love | and fan | -cy fix | their ope | -ning reign;

How na | -ture shines | in live | -lier col | -ours dress'd,

To bless | their un | -ion, and | to grace | their train."

SHENSTONE: _British Poets_, Vol. vii, p. 106.

Iambic verse is seldom continued perfectly pure through a long succession

of lines. Among its most frequent diversifications, are the following; and

others may perhaps be noticed hereafter:--

(1.) The first foot is often varied by a substitutional trochee; as,

"_Bacchus_, | that first | from out | the pur | -ple grape

_Crush'd the_ | sweet poi | -son of | mis-=us | -~ed wine,

_After_ | the Tus | -can mar | -iners | transform'd,

_Coasting_ | the Tyr | -rhene shore, | ~as th~e | winds list_~ed_,

On Cir | -ce's isl | -and fell. | Who knows | not Cir_c~e_,

The daugh | -ter of | the sun? | whose charm | -~ed cup

Whoev | -er tast | -ed, lost | his up | -right shape,

And down | -ward fell | _=int~o_ a grov | -elling swine."

MILTON: _Comus; British Poets_, Vol. ii, p. 147.

(2.) By a synæresis of the two short syllables, an anapest may sometimes be

employed for an iambus; or a dactyl, for a trochee. This occurs chiefly

where one unaccented vowel precedes an other in what we usually regard as

separate syllables, and both are clearly heard, though uttered perhaps in

so quick succession that both syllables may occupy only half the time of a

long one. Some prosodists, however, choose to regard these substitutions as

instances of trissyllabic feet mixed with the others; and, doubtless, it is

in general easy to make them such, by an utterance that avoids, rather than

favours, the coalescence. The following are examples:--

"No rest: | through man | _-y a dark_ | and drear | -y vale

They pass'd, | and man | _-y a re_ | -gion dol | -orous,

_O'er man_ | _-y a fro_ | -zen, man | _-y a fi_ | _-ery Alp_."

--MILTON: _P. L._, B. ii, l. 618.

"Rejoice | ye na | -tions, vin | -dicate | the sway

Ordain'd | for com | -mon hap | -piness. | Wide, o'er

The globe | terra | _-queous, let_ | Britan | _-nia pour_

The fruits | of plen | -ty from | her co | _-pious horn_."

--DYER: _Fleece_, B. iv, l. 658.

"_Myriads_ | of souls | that knew | one pa | -rent mold,

See sad | -ly sev | er'd by | the laws | of chance!

_Myriads_, | in time's | peren | _-nial list_ | enroll'd,

Forbid | by fate | to change | one tran | _-sient glance!_"

SHENSTONE: _British Poets_, Vol. vii, p. 109.

(3.) In plays, and light or humorous descriptions, the last foot of an

iambic line is often varied or followed by an additional short syllable;

and, sometimes, in verses of triple rhyme, there is an addition of two

short syllables, after the principal rhyming syllable. Some prosodists call

the variant foot, in die former instance, an _amphibrach_, and would

probably, in the latter, suppose either an _additional pyrrhic_, or an

amphibrach with still a _surplus syllable_; but others scan, in these

cases, by the iambus only, calling what remains after the last long

syllable _hypermeter_; and this is, I think, the better way. The following

examples show these and some other variations from pure iambic measure:--

_Example I.--Grief._

"Each sub | st~ance ~of | a grief | hath twen | -ty shad_~ows_,

Which show | like grief | itself, | but are | not so:

For sor | -row's eye, | gl=az~ed | with blind | -ing tears,

Divides one thing | entire | to man |--y ob_j~ects_;

Like per | -spectives, | which, right | -ly gaz'd | upon,

Show noth | -ing but | confu | -sion; ey'd | awry,

Distin | -guish form: | so your | sweet maj | -esty,

Lo=ok~ing | awry | upon | your lord's | depart_~ure_,

Finds shapes | of grief, | more than | himself, | to wail;

Which, look'd | on as | it is, | is nought | but shad_~ows_."

SHAKSPEARE: _Richard II_, Act ii, Sc. 2.

_Example II.--A Wish to Please_.

"O, that | I had | the art | of eas | -y _writing_

Parnas | -sus, where | the Mus | -es sit | in_diting_

Those pret | -ty po | -ems nev | -er known | to fail,

How quick | -ly would | I print | (the world | de_lighting_)

A Gre | -cian, Syr | -ian, or | Assy | -ian tale;

And sell | you, mix'd | with west | -ern sen | -ti_mentalism_,

Some sam | -ples of | the fin | -est O | -ri_entalism_."

LORD BYRON: _Beppo_, Stanza XLVIII.

MEASURE V.--IAMBIC OF FOUR FEET, OR TETRAMETER.

_Example I.--Presidents of the United States of America_.

"First stands | the loft | -y Wash | -ington,

That no | -ble, great, | immor | -tal one;

The eld | -er Ad | -ams next | we see;

And Jef | -ferson | comes num | -ber three;

Then Mad | -ison | is fourth, | you know;

The fifth | one on | the list, | Monroe;

The sixth | an Ad | -ams comes | again;

And Jack | -son, sev | -enth in | the train;

Van Bu | -ren, eighth | upon | the line;

And Har | -rison | counts num | -ber nine;

The tenth | is Ty | -ler, in | his turn;

And Polk, | elev | -enth, as | we learn;

The twelfth | is Tay | -lor, peo | -ple say;

The next | we learn | some fu | -ture day."

ANONYMOUS: _From Newspaper_, 1849.

_Example II.--The Shepherd Bard_.

"The bard | on Ett | -rick's moun | tain green

In Na | -ture's bo | -som nursed | had been,

And oft | had marked | in for | -est lone

Her beau | -ties on | her moun | -tain throne;

Had seen | her deck | the wild | -wood tree,

And star | with snow | -y gems | the lea;

In love | _-li~est c=ol_ | -ours paint | the plain,

And sow | the moor | with pur | -ple grain;

By gold | -en mead | and moun | -tain sheer,

Had viewed | the Ett | -rick wav | -ing clear,

Where shad | _-=ow=y fl=ocks_ | of pur | -est snow

Seemed graz | -ing in | a world | below."

JAMES HOGG: _The Queen's Wake_, p. 76.

_Example III.--Two Stanzas from Eighteen, Addressed to the Ettrick

Shepherd_.

"O Shep | -herd! since | 'tis thine | to boast

The fas | -cinat | -ing pow'rs | of song,

Far, far | above | the count | -less host,

Who swell | the Mus | -es' sup | -_pli~ant throng_,

The GIFT | OF GOD | distrust | no more,

His in | -spira | -tion be | thy guide;

Be heard | thy harp | from shore | to shore,

Thy song's | reward | thy coun | -try's pride."

B. BARTON: _Verses prefixed to the Queen's Wake_.

_Example IV.--"Elegiac Stanzas," in Iambics of Four feet and Three_.

"O for | a dirge! | But why | complain?

Ask rath | -er a | trium | -phal strain

When FER | MOR'S race | is run;

A gar | -land of | immor | -tal boughs

To bind | around | the Chris | -tian's brows,

Whose glo | _-rious work_ | is done.

We pay | a high | and ho | -ly debt;

No tears | of pas | -sionate | regret

Shall stain | this vo | -tive lay;

Ill-wor | -thy, Beau | -mont! were | the grief

That flings | itself | on wild | relief

When Saints | have passed | away."

W. WORDSWORTH: _Poetical Works_, First complete Amer. Ed., p. 208.

This line, the iambic tetrameter, is a favourite one, with many writers of

English verse, and has been much used, both in couplets and in stanzas.

Butler's Hudibras, Gay's Fables, and many allegories, most of Scott's

poetical works, and some of Byron's, are written in couplets of this

measure. It is liable to the same diversifications as the preceding metre.

The frequent admission of an additional short syllable, forming double

rhyme, seems admirably to adapt it to a familiar, humorous, or burlesque

style. The following may suffice for an example:--

"First, this | large par | -cel brings | you _tidings_

Of our | good Dean's | eter | -nal _chidings_;

Of Nel | -ly's pert | -ness, Rob | -in's _leasings_,

And Sher | -idan's | perpet | -ual _teasings_.

This box | is cramm'd | on ev | -ery side

With Stel | -la's mag | -iste | -rial pride."

DEAN SWIFT: _British Poets_, Vol. v, p. 334.

The following lines have _ten syllables_ in each, yet the measure is not

iambic of five feet, but that of four with hypermeter:--

"There was | ~an =an | -cient sage | phi_losopher_,

Who had | read Al | -exan | -der _Ross over_."--_Butler's Hudibras_.

"I'll make | them serve | for per | -pen_diculars_,

As true | as e'er | were us'd | by _bricklayers_."

--_Ib._, Part ii, C. iii, l. 1020.

MEASURE VI.--IAMBIC OF THREE FEET, OR TRIMETER.

_Example.--To Evening_.

"Now teach | me, maid | compos'd

To breathe | some soft | -en'd strain."--_Collins_, p. 39.

This short measure has seldom, if ever, been used alone in many successive

couplets; but it is often found in stanzas, sometimes without other

lengths, but most commonly with them. The following are a few examples:--

_Example I.--Two ancient Stanzas, out of Many_,

"This while | we are | abroad,

Shall we | not touch | our lyre?

Shall we | not sing | an ode?

Shall now | that ho | -ly fire,

In us, | that strong | -ly glow'd,

In this | cold air, | expire?

Though in | the ut | -most peak,

A while | we do | remain,

Amongst | the moun | -tains bleak,

Expos'd | to sleet | and rain,

No sport | our hours | shall break,

To ex | -ercise | our vein."

DRAYTON: _Dr. Johnson's Gram._, p. 13; _John Burn's_, p. 244.

_Example II.--Acis and Galatea_.

"For us | the zeph | -yr blows,

For us | distils | the dew,

For us | unfolds | the rose,

And flow'rs | display | their hue;

For us | the win | -ters rain,

For us | the sum | -mers shine,

Spring swells | for us | the grain,

And au | -tumn bleeds | the vine."

JOHN GAY: _British Poets_, Vol. vii, p. 376.

_Example III.--"Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin_."

"The king | was on | his throne,

The sa | -traps thronged | the hall;

A thou | -sand bright | lamps shone

O'er that | high fes | -tival.

A thou | -sand cups | of gold,

In Ju | -dah deemed | divine--

Jeho | -vah's ves | -sels, hold

The god | -less Hea | -then's wine!

In that | same hour | and hall,

The fin | -gers of | a hand

Came forth | against | the wall,

And wrote | as if | on sand:

The fin | -gers of | a man,--

A sol | -ita | -ry hand

Along | the let | -ters ran,

And traced | them like | a wand."

LORD BYRON: _Vision of Belshazzar_.

_Example IV.--Lyric Stanzas_.

"Descend, | celes | -tial fire,

And seize | me from | above,

Melt me | in flames | of pure | desire,

A sac | -rifice | to love.

Let joy | and wor | -ship spend

The rem | -nant of | my days,

And to | my God, | my soul | ascend,

In sweet | perfumes | of praise."

WATTS: _Poems sacred to Devotion_, p. 50.

_Example V.--Lyric Stanzas_.

"I would | begin | the mu | -sic here,

And so | my soul | should rise:

O for | some heav'n | -ly notes | to bear

My spir | -it to | the skies!

There, ye | that love | my say | -iour, sit,

There I | would fain | have place

Amongst | your thrones | or at | your feet,

So I | might see | his face."

WATTS: _Same work_, "_Horæ Lyricæ_," p. 71.

_Example VI.--England's Dead_.

"The hur | -ricane | hath might

Along | the In | -dian shore,

And far, | by Gan | -ges' banks | at night,

Is heard | the ti | -ger's roar.

But let | the sound | roll on!

It hath | no tone | of dread

For those | that from | their toils | are gone;--

_There_ slum | -ber Eng | -land's dead."

HEMANS: _Poetical Works_, Vol. ii, p. 61.

The following examples have some of the common diversifications already

noticed under the longer measures:--

_Example I.--"Languedocian Air_."

"_L=ove ~is_ | a hunt | -er boy,

Who makes | young hearts | his prey;

_And in_ | his nets | of joy

Ensnares | them night | and day.

In vain | conceal'd | they lie,

Love tracks | them ev' | -ry where;

In vain | aloft | they fly,

Love shoots | them fly | -ing there.

But 'tis | his joy | most sweet,

At earl | -y dawn | to trace

The print | of Beau | -ty's feet,

And give | the trem | -bler chase.

And most | he loves | through snow

To track | those foot | -steps fair,

For then | the boy | doth know,

None track'd | before | him there."

MOORE'S _Melodies and National Airs_, p. 274.

_Example II.--From "a Portuguese Air_."

"Flow on, | thou shin | -ing _river_,

But ere | thou reach | the sea,

Seek El | -la's bower, | and _give her_

The wreaths | I fling | o'er thee.

But, if | in wand' | -ring _thither_,

Thou find | she mocks | my pray'r,

Then leave | those wreaths | to _wither_

Upon | the cold | bank there."

MOORE: _Same Volume_, p. 261.

_Example III.--Resignation_.

"O Res | -igna | -tion! yet | unsung,

Untouch'd | by for | -mer strains;

Though claim | -ing ev | -_ery mu_ | -se's smile,

And ev | -_ery po_ | -et's pains!

All oth | -er du | -ties cres | -cents are

Of vir | -tue faint | -ly bright;

The glo | -_rious con_ | -summa | -tion, thou,

Which fills | her orb | with light!"

YOUNG: _British Poets_, Vol. viii, p. 377.

MEASURE VII.--IAMBIC OF TWO FEET, OR DIMETER.

_Example--A Scolding Wife_.

"There was | a man

Whose name | was Dan,

Who sel | -dom spoke;

His part | -ner sweet

He thus | did greet,

Without | a joke;

My love | -ly wife,

Thou art | the life

Of all | my joys;

Without | thee, I

Should sure | -ly die

For want | of noise.

O, prec | -ious one,

Let thy | tongue run

In a | sweet fret;

And this | will give

A chance | to live,

A long | time yet.

When thou | dost scold

So loud | and bold,

I'm kept | awake;

But if | thou leave,

It will | me grieve,

Till life | forsake.

Then said | his wife,

I'll have | no strife

With you, | sweet Dan;

As 'tis | your mind,

I'll let | you find

I am | your man.

And fret | I will,

To keep | you still

Enjoy | -ing life;

So you | may be

Content | with me,

A scold | -ing wife."

ANONYMOUS: _Cincinnati Herald_, 1844.

Iambic dimeter, like the metre of three iambs, is much less frequently used

alone than in stanzas with longer lines; but the preceding example is a

refutation of the idea, that no piece is ever composed wholly of this

measure, or that the two feet cannot constitute a line. In Humphrey's

English Prosody, on page 16th, is the following paragraph; which is not

only defective in style, but erroneous in all its averments:--

"Poems are never composed of lines of two [-] feet metre, in succession:

they [combinations of two feet] are only used occasionally in poems, hymns,

odes, &c. to diversify the metre; and are, in no case, lines of poetry, or

verses; but hemistics, [_hemistichs_,] or half lines. The shortest metre of

which iambic verse is composed, in lines successively, is that of three

feet; and this is the shortest metre _which_ can be denominated lines, or

verses; and _this is not frequently used_."

In ballads, ditties, hymns, and versified psalms, scarcely any line is

_more common_ than the iambic trimeter, here denied to be "frequently

used;" of which species, there are about seventy lines among the examples

above. Dr. Young's poem entitled "Resignation," has eight hundred and

twenty such lines, and as many more of iambic tetrameter. His "Ocean" has

one hundred and forty-five of the latter, and two hundred and ninety-two of

the species now under consideration; i.e., iambic dimeter. But how can the

metre which predominates by two to one, be called, in such a case, an

occasional diversification of that which is less frequent?

Lines of two iambs are not very uncommon, even in psalmody; and, since we

have some lines _yet shorter_, and the lengths of all are determined only

by the act of measuring, there is, surely, no propriety in calling dimeters

"hemistichs," merely because they are short. The following are some

examples of this measure combined with longer ones:--

_Example I.--From Psalm CXLVIII_.

1, 2.

"Ye bound | -less realms | of joy,

Exalt | your Ma | -ker's fame;

His praise | your songs | employ

Above | the star | -ry frame:

Your voi | -ces raise,

Ye Cher | -ubim,

And Ser | -aphim,

To sing | his praise.

3, 4.

Thou moon, | that rul'st | the night,

And sun, | that guid'st | the day,

Ye glitt' | -ring stars | of light,

To him | your hom | -age pay:

His praise | declare,

Ye heavens | above,

And clouds | that move

In liq | -uid air."

_The Book of Psalms in Metre_, (_with Com. Prayer_,) 1819.

_Example II.--From Psalm CXXXVI._

"To God | the might | -y Lord,

your joy | -ful thanks | repeat;

To him | due praise | afford,

as good | as he | is great:

For God | does prove

Our con | -stant friend,

His bound | -less love

Shall nev | -er end."--_Ib._, p. 164.

_Example III.--Gloria Patri_.

"To God | the Fa | -ther, Son,

And Spir | -it ev | -er bless'd,

Eter | -nal Three | in One,

All wor | -ship be | address'd;

As here | -tofore

It was, | is now,

And shall | be so

For ev | -ermore."--_Ib._, p. 179.

_Example IV.--Part of Psalm III_.

[O] "Lord, | how man | -y are | my foes!

How man | -y those

That [now] | in arms | against | me rise!

_Many_ | are they

That of | my life | distrust | -fully | thus say:

'No help | for him | in God | there lies.'

But thou, | Lord, art | my shield | my glo_ry_;

Thee, through | my sto_ry_,

Th' exalt | -er of | my head | I count;

Aloud | I cried

Unto | Jeho | -vah, he | full soon | replied,

And heard | me from | his ho | -ly mount."

MILTON: _Psalms Versified, British Poets_, Vol. ii, p. 161.

_Example V.--Six Lines of an "Air."_

"As when | the dove

Laments | her love

All on | the na | -ked spray;

When he | returns,

No more | she mourns,

But loves | the live | -long day."

JOHN GAY: _British Poets_, Vol. vii, p. 377.

_Example VI.--Four Stanzas of an Ode_.

"XXVIII.

Gold pleas | -ure buys;

But pleas | -ure dies",

Too soon | the gross | fruiti | -on cloys:

Though rapt | -ures court,

The sense | is short;

But vir | -tue kin | -dles liv | -ing joys:

XXIX.

Joys felt | alone!

Joys ask'd | of none!

Which Time's | and For | -tune's ar | -rows miss;

Joys that | subsist,

Though fates | resist,

An un | -preca | -rious, end | -less bliss!

XXX.

The soul | refin'd

Is most | inclin'd

To ev | -_~er=y m=or_ | -al ex | -cellence;

All vice | is dull,

A knave's | a fool;

And Vir | -tue is | the child | of Sense.

XXXI.

The vir | -_tuous mind_

Nor wave, | nor wind,

Nor civ | -il rage, | nor ty | -rant's frown,

The shak | -en ball,

Nor plan | -ets' fall,

From its | firm ba | -sis can | dethrone."

YOUNG'S "OCEAN:" _British Poets_, Vol. viii, p 277.

There is a line of five syllables and double rhyme, which is commonly

regarded as iambic dimeter with a supernumerary short syllable; and which,

though it is susceptible of two other divisions into two feet, we prefer to

scan in this manner, because it usually alternates with pure iambics.

Twelve such lines occur in the following extract:--

LOVE TRANSITORY

"Could Love | for ev_er_

Run like | a riv_er_,

And Time's | endeav_our_

Be tried | in vain,--

No oth | -er pleas_ure_

With this | could meas_ure_;

And like | a treas_ure_

We'd hug | the chain.

But since | our sigh_ing_

Ends not | in dy_ing_,

And, formed | for fly_ing_,

Love plumes | his wing;

Then for | this rea_son_

Let's love | a sea_son_;

But let | that sea_son_

Be on | -ly spring."

LORD BYRON: See _Everett's Versification_, p. 19;

_Fowler's E. Gram._, p. 650.

MEASURE VIII.--IAMBIC OF ONE FOOT, OR MONOMETER.

"The shortest form of the English Iambic," says Lindley Murray, "consists

of an Iambus with an additional short syllable: as,

Disdaining,

Complaining,

Consenting,

Repenting.

We have no poem of this measure, but it may be met with in stanzas. The

Iambus, with this addition, coincides with the Amphibrach."--_Murray's

Gram._, 12mo, p. 204; 8vo, p. 254. This, or the substance of it, has been

repeated by many other authors. Everett varies the language and

illustration, but teaches the same doctrine. See _E. Versif._, p. 15.

Now there are sundry examples which may be cited to show, that the iambus,

without any additional syllable, and without the liability of being

confounded with an other foot, may, and sometimes does, stand as a line,

and sustain a regular rhyme. The following pieces contain instances of this

sort:--

_Example I.--"How to Keep Lent."_

"Is this | a Fast, | to keep

The lard | -er lean

And clean

From fat | of neats | and sheep?

Is it | to quit | the dish

Of flesh, | yet still

To fill

The plat | -ter high | with fish?

Is it | to fast | an hour,

Or ragg'd | to go,

Or show

A down | -cast look | and sour?

No:--'Tis | a Fast | to dole

Thy sheaf | of wheat,

And meat,

Unto | the hun | -gry soul.

It is | to fast | from strife,

From old | debate,

And hate;

To cir | -cumcise | thy life;

To show | a _heart_ | grief-rent;

To starve | thy sin,

Not _bin_:

Ay, that's | to keep | thy Lent."

ROBERT HERRICK: _Clapp's Pioneer_, p. 48.

Example II.--"To Mary Ann."

[This singular arrangement of seventy-two separate iambic feet, I find

_without intermediate points_, and leave it so. It seems intended to be

read in three or more different ways, and the punctuation required by one

mode of reading would not wholly suit an other.]

"Your face Your tongue Your wit

So fair So sweet So sharp

First bent Then drew Then hit

Mine eye Mine ear Mine heart

To like To learn To love

Your face Your tongue Your wit

Doth lead Doth teach Doth move

Your face Your tongue Your wit

With beams With sound With art

Doth blind Doth charm Doth rule

Mine eye Mine ear Mine heart

With life With hope With skill

Your face Your tongue Your wit

Doth feed Doth feast Doth fill

O face O tongue O wit

With frowns With cheek With smart

Wrong not Vex not Wound not

Mine eye Mine ear Mine heart

This eye This ear This heart

Shall joy Shall bend Shall swear

Your face Your tongue Your wit

To serve To trust To fear."

ANONYMOUS: _Sundry American Newspapers_, in 1849.

_Example III.--Umbrellas._

"The late George Canning, of whom Byron said that 'it was his happiness to

be at once a wit, poet, orator, and statesman, and excellent in all,' is

the author of the following clever _jeu d' esprit_:" [except three lines

here added in brackets:]

"I saw | a man | with two | umbrellas,

(One of | the lon |--gest kind | of fellows,)

When it rained,

M=eet =a | l=ady

On the | shady

Side of | thirty |-three,

Minus | one of | these rain |-dispellers.

'I see,'

Says she,

'Your qual | -ity | of mer | -cy is | not strained.'

[Not slow | to comprehend | an inkling,

His eye | with wag |-gish hu |-mour twinkling.]

Replied | he, 'Ma'am,

Be calm;

This one | under | my arm

Is rotten,

[And can |-not save | you from | a sprinkling.]

Besides | to keep | you dry,

'Tis plain | that you | as well | as I,

'Can lift | your cotton.'"

See _The Essex County Freeman_, Vol. i, No. 1.

_Example IV.--Shreds of a Song._

I. SPRING.

"The cuck |--oo then, | on ev |--ery tree,

Mocks mar |--ried men, | for thus | sings he, _Cuckoo'_;

Cuckoo', | cuckoo',-- | O word | of fear,

Unpleas |-ing to | a mar |-ried ear!"

II. WINTER.

"When blood | is nipp'd, | and ways | be foul,

Then night | -ly sings | the star |-ing owl, _To-who_;

To-whit, | to-who, | a mer | -ry note,

While greas | -y Joan | doth keel | the pot."

--SHAKSPEARE: _Love's Labour's Lost_, Act v, Sc. 2.

_Example V.--Puck's Charm._

[_When he has uttered the fifth line, he squeezes a juice on Lysander's

eyes_.]

"On the ground,

_Sleep sound_;

I'll apply

To your eye,

Gentle | lover, | remedy.

When thou wak'st,

_Thou tak'st_

True delight

In the sight

Of thy | former | lady's eye." [508]

IDEM: _Midsummer-Night's Dream_, Act iii, Sc. 2.

ORDER II.--TROCHAIC VERSE.

In Trochaic verse, the stress is laid on the odd syllables, and the even

ones are short. Single-rhymed trochaic omits the final short syllable, that

it may end with a long one; for the common doctrine of Murray, Chandler,

Churchill, Bullions, Butler, Everett, Fowler, Weld, Wells, Mulligan, and

others, that this chief rhyming syllable is "_additional_" to the real

number of feet in the line, is manifestly incorrect. One long syllable is,

in some instances, used _as a foot_; but it is one or more _short

syllables_ only, that we can properly admit _as hypermeter_. Iambics and

trochaics often occur in the same poem; but, in either order, written with

exactness, the number of feet is always the number of the long syllables.

_Examples from Gray's Bard._

(1.)

"_Ruin | seize thee,| ruthless | king_!

Confu | -sion on | thy ban |-ners wait,

Though, fann'd | by Con | -quest's crim | -son wing.

They mock | the air | with i | -dle state.

_Helm, nor | hauberk's | twisted | mail_,

Nor e'en | thy vir | -tues, ty | -rant, shall | avail."

(2.)

"_Weave the | warp, and | weave the | woof_,

The wind | -ing-sheet | of Ed | -ward's race.

Give am | -ple room, | and verge | enough,

The char | -acters | of hell | to trace.

_Mark the |year, and | mark the | night_,

When Sev | -ern shall | re-ech | -o with | affright."

"_The Bard, a Pindaric Ode_;"

_British Poets_, Vol. vii, p. 281 and 282.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.--Trochaic verse without the final short syllable, is the same as

iambic would be without the _initial_ short syllable;--it being quite

plain, that iambic, so changed, _becomes trochaic, and_ is iambic no

longer. But trochaic, retrenched of its last short syllable, is trochaic

still; and can no otherwise be made iambic, than by the prefixing of a

short syllable to the line. Feet, and the orders of verse, are

distinguished one from an other by two things, and in general by two only;

the number of syllables taken as a foot, and the order of their quantities.

Trochaic verse is always as distinguishable from iambic, as iambic is from

any other. Yet have we several grammarians and prosodies who contrive to

confound them--or who, at least, mistake catalectic trochaic for catalectic

iambic; and that too, where the syllable wanting affects only the last

foot, and makes it perhaps but a common and needful cæsura.

OBS. 2.--To suppose that iambic verse may drop its initial short syllable,

and still be iambic, still be measured as before, is not only to take a

single long syllable for a foot, not only to recognize a pedal cæsura at

the _beginning_ of each line, but utterly to destroy the only principles on

which iambics and trochaics can be discriminated. Yet Hiley, of Leeds, and

Wells, of Andover, while they are careful to treat separately of these two

orders of verse, not only teach that any order may take at the end "an

additional syllable," but also suggest that the iambic _may drop_ a

syllable "from the first foot," without diminishing the number of

feet,--without changing the succession of quantities,--without disturbing

the mode of scansion! "Sometimes," say they, (in treating of iambics,) "a

syllable is cut off from the first foot; as,

Práise | to Gód, | immór |-tal práise,

Fór | the lóve | that crówns | our dáys."[--BARBAULD.]

_Hiley's E. Gram._, Third Edition, London, p. 124;

_Wells's_, Third Edition, p. 198.

OBS. 3.--Now this couplet is the precise exemplar, not only of the

thirty-six lines of which it is a part, but also of the most common of our

trochaic metres; and if this may be thus scanned into iambic verse, so may

all other trochaic lines in existence: distinction between the two orders

must then be worse than useless. But I reject this doctrine, and trust that

most readers will easily see its absurdity. A prosodist might just as well

scan all iambics into trochaics, by pronouncing each initial short syllable

to be hypermeter. For, surely, if deficiency may be discovered at the

_beginning_ of measurement, so may redundance. But if neither is to be

looked for before the measurement ends, (which supposition is certainly

more reasonable,) then is the distinction already vindicated, and the

scansion above-cited is shown to be erroneous.

OBS. 4.--But there are yet other objections to this doctrine, other errors

and inconsistencies in the teaching of it. Exactly the same kind of verse

as this, which is said to consist of "_four iambuses_" from one of which "a

syllable _is cut off_," is subsequently scanned by the same authors as

being composed of "_three trochees_ and an _additional_ syllable; as,

'Haste thee, | Nymph, and | bring with | _thee_

Jest and | youthful | Jolli |-_ty_.'--MILTON."

_Wells's School Grammar_, p. 200.

"V=it~al | sp=ark of | he=av'nly | _fl=me_,

Q=uit ~oh | q=uit th~is | m=ort~al | _fr=ame_." [509][--POPE.]

_Hiley's English Grammar_, p. 126.

There is, in the works here cited, not only the inconsistency of teaching

two very different modes of scanning the same species of verse, but in each

instance the scansion is wrong; for all the lines in question are _trochaic

of four feet_,--single-rhymed, and, of course, catalectic, and ending with

a cæsura, or elision. In no metre that lacks but one syllable, can this

sort of foot occur _at the beginning_ of a line; yet, as we see, it is

sometimes _imagined_ to be there, by those who have never been able to find

it _at the end_, where it oftenest exists!

OBS. 5.--I have hinted, in the main paragraph above, that it is a common

error of our prosodists, to underrate, by one foot, the measure of all

trochaic lines, when they terminate with single rhyme; an error into which

they are led by an other as gross, that of taking for hypermeter, or mere

surplus, the whole rhyme itself, the sound or syllable most indispensable

to the verse.

"(For rhyme the _rudder_ is of verses,

With which, like ships, they steer their courses.)"--_Hudibras._

Iambics and trochaics, of corresponding metres, and exact in them, agree of

course in both the number of feet and the number of syllables; but as the

former are slightly redundant with double rhyme, so the latter are

deficient as much, with single rhyme; yet, the number of feet may, and

should, in these cases, be reckoned the same. An estimable author now

living says, "Trochaic verse, with an additional long syllable, is the same

as iambic verse, without the initial short syllable."--_N. Butler's

Practical Gram._, p. 193. This instruction is not quite accurate. Nor would

it be right, even if there could be "iambic verse without the initial short

syllable," and if it were universally _true_, that, "Trochaic verse may

take an additional _long_ syllable."--_Ibid._ For the addition and

subtraction here suggested, will inevitably make the difference of a foot,

between the measures or verses said to be the same!

OBS. 6.--"I doubt," says T. O. Churchill, "whether the _trochaic_ can be

considered as a legitimate English measure. All the examples of it given by

Johnson have an additional long syllable at the end: but these are

_iambics_, if we look upon the additional syllable to be at the beginning,

which is much more agreeable to the analogy of music."--_Churchill's New

Gram._, p. 390. This doubt, ridiculous as must be all reasoning in support

of it, the author seriously endeavours to raise into a general conviction

_that we have no trochaic order of verse!_ It can hardly be worth while to

notice here all his remarks. _"An additional long syllable"_ Johnson never

dreamed of--"at the end"--"at the beginning"--or anywhere else. For he

discriminated metres, not by the number of feet, as he ought to have done,

but by the number of _syllables_ he found in each line. His doctrine is

this: "Our _iambick_ measure comprises verses--Of four syllables,--Of

six,--Of eight,--Of ten. Our _trochaick_ measures are--Of three

syllables,--Of five,--Of seven. These are the measures _which are now in

use_, and above the rest those of seven, eight and ten syllables. Our

ancient poets wrote verses sometimes of twelve syllables, as Drayton's

Polyolbion; and of fourteen, as Chapman's Homer." "We have another measure

very quick and lively, and therefore much used in songs, which may be

called the _anapestick_.

'May I góvern my pássion with ábsolute swáy,

And grow wiser and bétter as life wears awáy.' _Dr. Pope_.

"In this measure a syllable is often retrenched from the first foot, [;] as

[,]

'When présent we lóve, and when ábsent agrée,

I th'nk not of I'ris [.] nor I'ris of mé.' _Dryden_.

"These measures are varied by many combinations, and sometimes by _double

endings_, either with or without rhyme, as in the _heroick_ measure.

''Tis the divinity that stirs _within us_,

'Tis heaven itself that points out an _hereafter._.' _Addison_.

"So in that of eight syllables,

'They neither added nor confounded,

They neither wanted nor abounded.' _Prior_.

"In that of seven,

'For resistance I could _fear none_,

But with twenty ships had done,

What thou, brave and happy _Vernon_,

Hast achieved with six alone.' _Glover_.

"To these measures and their laws, may be reduced every species of English

verse."--_Dr. Johnson's Grammar of the English Tongue_, p. 14. See his

_Quarto Dict._ Here, except a few less important remarks, and sundry

examples of the metres named, is Johnson's _whole scheme_ of versification.

OBS. 7.--How, when a prosodist judges certain examples to "have an

additional long syllable at the end," he can "look upon the additional

syllable to be at the beginning," is a matter of marvel; yet, to abolish

trochaics, Churchill not only does and advises this, but imagines short

syllables removed sometimes from the beginning of lines; while sometimes he

couples final short syllables with initial long ones, to make iambs, and

yet does not always count these as feet in the verse, when he has done so!

Johnson's instructions are both misunderstood and misrepresented by this

grammarian. I have therefore cited them the more fully. The first syllable

being retrenched from an _anapest_, there remains an _iambus_. But what

countenance has Johnson lent to the gross error of reckoning such a foot an

anapest still?--or to that of commencing the measurement of a line by

including a syllable not used by the poet? The preceding stanza from

Glover, is _trochaic of four feet_; the odd lines full, and of course

making double rhyme; the even lines catalectic, and of course ending with a

long syllable counted as a foot. Johnson cited it merely as an example of

"_double endings_" imagining in it no "additional syllable," except perhaps

the two which terminate the two trochees, "fear none" and "Vernon." These,

it may be inferred, he improperly conceived to be additional to the regular

measure; because he reckoned measures by the number of syllables, and

probably supposed single rhyme to be the normal form of all rhyming verse.

OBS. 8.--There is false scansion in many a school grammar, but perhaps none

more uncouthly false, than Churchill's pretended amendments of Johnson's.

The second of these--wherein "the old _seven_[-]_foot iambic_" is

professedly found in two lines of Glover's _trochaic tetrameter_--I shall

quote:--

"In the anapæstic measure, Johnson himself allows, that a syllable is often

retrenched from the first foot; yet he gives _as an example of trochaics

with an additional syllable at the end of the even lines_ a stanza, which,

by adopting the _same principle_, would be in the iambic measure:

"For | resis- | tance I | could fear | none,

But | with twen | ty ships | had done,

What | thou, brave | and hap | py Ver- | non,

Hast | achiev'd | with six | alone.

In fact, _the second and fourth lines_ here stamp the character of the

measure; [Fist] _which is the old seven[-]foot iambic broken into four and

three_, WITH AN ADDITIONAL SYLLABLE AT THE BEGINNING."--_Churchill's New

Gram._, p. 391.

After these observations and criticisms concerning the trochaic order of

verse, I proceed to say, trochaics consist of the following measures, or

metres:--

MEASURE I.--TROCHAIC OF EIGHT FEET, OR OCTOMETER.

_Example I.--"The Raven"--First Two out of Eighteen Stanzas_.

| weary,

| -gotten | lore,

| tapping,

| door.

| door--

Only | this, and |nothing | more."

|-cember,

|-on the | floor;

| borrow

|-nore--

| name Le |-nore--

Nameless | here for | ever |-more."

EDGAR A. POE: _American Review for February_, 1845.

Double rhymes being less common than single ones, in the same proportion,

is this long verse less frequently terminated with a full trochee, than

with a single long syllable counted as a foot. The species of measure is,

however, to be reckoned the same, though catalectic. By Lindley Murray, and

a number who implicitly re-utter what he teaches, the verse of _six

trochees_, in which are _twelve syllables_ only, is said "to be _the

longest_ Trochaic line that our language admits."--_Murray's Octavo Gram._,

p. 257; _Weld's E. Gram._, p. 211. The examples produced here will

sufficiently show the inaccuracy of their assertion.

_Example II.--"The Shadow of the Obelisk."--Last two Stanzas._

| time:

| sprang sub |-lime.

| -biding | prove;

|-move:

| ceased to | roll--

| whole.

|-hind,

| kind!

|-neath my | feet,

| street;

|-nowned,

| sound?"

T. W. PARSONS: _Lowell and Carter's "Pioneer,"_ Vol. i, p. 120.

_Example III.--"The Slaves of Martinique."--Nine Couplets out of

Thirty-six._

| flash and | glisten,

| look and | listen.

| song,

| wrong.

| garb and | hue,

| true;

| heart,

| gaze a | -part.

| horn

| cane and | corn;

| limb;

| him.

| stern;

| deigned to | learn."

"And, at evening | when his | comrades | dance be | -fore their

| master's | door,

|-more.

| lot

| form is | not!"

--J. G. WHITTIER: _National Era, and other Newspapers_, Jan. 1848.

_Example IV.--"The Present Crisis"--Two Stanzas out of sixteen._

|-cide,

| side;

| bloom or | blight,

| -on the | right,

| and that | light.

| stand,

| -gainst our | land?

| strong,

| throng

| from all | wrong."

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL: _Liberator_, September 4th, 1846.

_Example V.--The Season of Love.--A short Extract_.

| breast;

| crest;

| dove;

| thoughts of | love.

| one so | young;

| hung.

| me;

| thee.'"

_Poems by_ ALFRED TENNYSON, Vol. ii, p. 35.

Trochaic of eight feet, as these sundry examples will suggest, is much

oftener met with than iambic of the same number; and yet it is not a form

very frequently adopted. The reader will observe that it requires a

considerable pause after the fourth foot; at which place one might divide

it, and so reduce each couplet to a stanza of four lines, similar to the

following examples:--

PART OF A SONG, IN DIALOGUE.

SYLVIA.

"Corin, | cease this | idle | teasing;

Love that's | forc'd is | harsh and | sour;

If the | lover | be dis | -pleasing,

To per | -sist dis | -gusts the | more."

CORIN.

"'Tis in | vain, in | vain to | fly me,

_Sylvia_, | I will | still pur | -sue;

Twenty | thousand | times de | -ny me,

I will | kneel and | weep a | -new."

SYLVIA.

"Cupid | ne'er shall | make me | languish,

I was | born a | -verse to | love;

Lovers' | sighs, and | tears, and | anguish,

Mirth and | pastime | to me | prove."

CORIN.

"Still I | vow with | patient | duty

Thus to | meet your | proudest | scorn;

You for | unre | -lenting | beauty

I for | constant | love was | born."

_Poems by_ ANNA LÆTITIA BARBAULD, p. 56.

PART OF A CHARITY HYMN.

"Lord of | life, all | praise ex | -celling,

thou, in | glory | uncon | -fin'd,

Deign'st to | make thy | humble | dwelling

with the | poor of | humble | mind.

As thy | love, through | all cre | -ation,

beams like | thy dif | -fusive | light;

So the | scorn'd and | humble | station

shrinks be | -fore thine | equal | sight.

Thus thy | care, for | all pro | -viding,

warm'd thy | faithful | prophet's | tongue;

Who, the | lot of | all de | -ciding,

to thy | chosen | _Israel_ | sung:

'When thine | harvest | yields thee | pleasure,

thou the | golden | sheaf shalt | bind;

To the | poor be | -longs the | treasure

of the | scatter'd | ears be | -hind.'"

_Psalms and Hymns of the Protestant Episcopal Church_, Hymn LV.

A still more common form is that which reduces all these tetrameters to

single rhymes, preserving their alternate succession. In such metre and

stanza, is Montgomery's "Wanderer of Switzerland, a Poem, in Six Parts,"

and with an aggregate of eight hundred and forty-four lines. Example:--

"'_Wanderer_, | whither | wouldst thou | roam?

To what | region | far a | -way,

Bend thy | steps to | find a | home,

In the | twilight | of thy | day?'

'In the | twilight | of my | day,

I am | hastening | to the | west;

There my | weary limbs | to lay,

Where the | sun re | -tires to | rest.

Far be | -yond the At | -lantic | floods,

Stretched be | -neath the | evening | sky,

Realms of | mountains, | dark with | woods,

In Co | -lumbia's | bosom | lie.

There, in | glens and | caverns | rude,

Silent | since the | world be | -gan,

Dwells the | virgin | Soli | -tude,

Unbe | -trayed by | faithless | man:

Where a | tyrant | never | trod,

Where a | slave was | never | known,

But where | nature | worships | God

In the | wilder | -ness a | -lone.

Thither, | thither | would I | roam;

There my | children | may be | free;

I for | them will | find a | home;

They shall | find a | grave for | me.'"

_First six stanzas of Part VI_, pp. 71 and 72.

MEASURE II.--TROCHAIC OF SEVEN FEET, OR HEPTAMETER.

_Example.--Psalm LXX,[510] Versified._

| double.

| loudly;

| -nying;

This verse, like all other that is written in very long lines, requires a

cæsural pause of proportionate length; and it would scarcely differ at all

to the ear, if it were cut in two at the place of this pause--provided the

place were never varied. Such metre does not appear to have been at any

time much used, though there seems to be no positive reason why it might

not have a share of popularity. To commend our versification for its

"boundless variety," and at the same time exclude from it forms either

unobjectionable or well authorized, as some have done, is plainly

inconsistent. Full trochaics have some inconvenience, because all their

rhymes must be double; and, as this inconvenience becomes twice as much

when any long line of this sort is reduced to two short ones, there may be

a reason why a stanza precisely corresponding to the foregoing couplets is

seldom seen. If such lines be divided and rhymed at the middle of the

fourth foot, where the cæsural pause is apt to fall, the first part of each

will be a trochaic line of four feet, single-rhymed and catalectic, while

the rest of it will become an iambic line of three feet, with double rhyme

and hypermeter. Such are the prosodial characteristics of the following

lines; which, if two were written as one, would make exactly our full

trochaic of seven feet, the metre exhibited above:--

"Whisp'ring, | heard by | wakeful | maids,

To whom | the night | stars _guide_ | _us_,

Stolen | walk, through | moonlight | shades,

With those | we love | _beside_ | _us_"--_Moore's Melodies_, p. 276.

But trochaic of seven feet may also terminate with single rhyme, as in the

following couplet, which is given anonymously, and, after a false custom,

erroneously, in N. Butler's recent Grammar, as "trochaic of _six feet, with

an additional long syllable_:--

| crew." [511]

In Frazee's Grammar, a separate line or two, similar in metre to these, and

rightly reckoned to have _seven feet_, and many lines, (including those

above from Tennyson, which W. C. Fowler erroneously gives for

_Heptameter_,) being a foot longer, are presented as trochaics of _eight_

feet; but Everett, the surest of our prosodists, remaining, like most

others, a total stranger to our octometers, and too little acquainted with

trochaic heptameters to believe the species genuine, on finding a couple of

stanzas in which two such lines are set with shorter ones of different

sorts, and with some which are defective in metre, sagely concludes that

all lines of more than "_six trochees_" must necessarily be condemned as

prosodial anomalies. It may be worth while to repeat the said stanzas here,

adding such corrections and marks as may suggest their proper form and

scansion. But since they commence with the shorter metre of six trochees

only, and are already placed under that head, I too may take them in the

like connexion, by now introducing my third species of trochaics, which is

Everett's tenth.

MEASURE III.--TROCHAIC OF SIX FEET, OR HEXAMETER.

_Example.--Health_.

G. BROWN: _The Institutes of English Grammar_, p. 258.

This metre appears to be no less rare than the preceding; though, as in

that case, I know no good reason why it may not be brought into vogue.

Professor John S. Hart says of it: "This is the _longest_ Trochaic verse

that seems _to have been cultivated_."--_Hart's Eng. Gram._, p. 187. The

seeming of its cultivation he doubtless found only in sundry modern

grammars. Johnson, Bicknell, Burn, Coar, Ward, Adam,--old grammarians, who

vainly profess to have illustrated "every species of English verse,"--make

no mention of it; and, with all the grammarians who notice it, _one

anonymous couplet_, passing from hand to hand, has everywhere served to

exemplify it.

Of this, "the line of six Trochees," Everett says: "This measure _is

languishing_, and rarely used. The following example is often cited:

Lay a | shepherd | swain, and | view'd the | rolling

| billow.'"[512]

Again: "We have the following from BISHOP HEBER:--

C=ast~ing | d=own th~eir | g=old~en | cr=owns ~a | -r=ound th~e

| gl=ass~y | s=ea;

Ch=er~u | -b=im ~and | s=er~a | -ph=im [~_are_,] | f=all~ing

| d=own b~e | -f=ore th~ee,

_Wh~ich_ w=ert, | ~and =art, | ~and =ev | -~erm=ore | sh~alt b=e!

| -side thee,

P=erf~ect | ~in p=ow'r, | ~in l=ove, | ~and p=u | -r~it=y.'

Only the first _and the third_ lines of these stanzas are to our purpose,"

remarks the prosodist. That is, only these he conceived to be "lines of six

Trochees." But it is plain, that the third line of the first stanza, having

seven long syllables, must have seven feet, and cannot be a trochaic

hexameter; and, since the third below should be like it in metre, one can

hardly forbear to think the words which I have inserted in brackets, were

accidentally omitted.

Further: "It is worthy of remark," says he, "that the second line of each

of these stanzas is composed of _six Trochees_ and an _additional long

syllable_. As its corresponding line is an Iambic, and as the piece has

some licenses in its construction, it is _far safer_ to conclude that this

line is an _anomaly_ than that it forms a distinct species of verse. We

must therefore conclude that the tenth [the metre of six trochees] is the

longest species of Trochaic line known to English verse."--_Everett's

Versification_, pp. 95 and 96.

This, in view of the examples above, of our longer trochaics, may serve as

a comment on the author's boast, that, "having deduced his rules from the

usage of the great poets, he has the best reason for being confident of

their correctness."--_Ibid._, Pref., p. 5.

Trochaic hexameter, too, may easily be written with _single rhyme_; perhaps

more easily than a specimen suited to the purpose can be cited from any

thing already written. Let me try:--

_Example I.--The Sorcerer_.

_Example II.--An Example of Hart's, Corrected_

See _Hart's E. Gram._, p. 187; or _the citation thence below_.

A couplet of this sort might easily be reduced to a pleasant little

stanza, by severing each line after the third foot, thus:--

Hearken! | hearken! | hear ye;

Voices | meet my | ear.

Listen, | never | fear ye;

Friends--or | foes--are | near.

Friends! "So | -ho!" they're | shouting.--

"Ho! so | -ho, a | -hoy!"--

'Tis no | Indian, | scouting.

Cry, _so | -ho_! with | joy.

But a similar succession of eleven syllables, six long and five short,

divided after the seventh, leaving two iambs to form the second or shorter

line,--(since such a division produces different orders and metres both,--)

will, I think, retain but little resemblance in rhythm to the foregoing,

though the actual sequence of quantities long and short is the same. If

this be so, the particular measure or correspondent length of lines is more

essential to the character of a poetic strain than some have supposed. The

first four lines of the following extract are an example relevant to this

point:--

_Ariel's Song._

"C=ome ~un |-t=o´ th~ese | y=ell~ow | s=ands,

And th=en | t~ake h=ands:

Court'sied | when you | have and | kiss'd,

(The wild | waves whist,)

Foot it | featly | here and | there;

And, sweet | sprites, the | burden | bear."

SINGER'S SHAKSPEARE: _Tempest_, Act i, Sc. 2.

MEASURE IV.--TROCHAIC OF FIVE FEET, OR PENTAMETER

_Example I.--Double Rhymes and Single, Alternated_.

"Mountain | winds! oh! | whither | do ye | call me?

Vainly, | vainly, | would my | steps pur |-sue:

Chains of | care to | lower | earth en |-thrall me,

Wherefore | thus my | weary | spirit | woo?

Oh! the | strife of | this di |-vided | being!

Is there | peace where | ye are | borne, on | high?

Could we | soar to | your proud | eyries | fleeing,

In our | hearts, would | haunting | _m=em~or~ies_ | die?"

FELICIA HEMANS: "_To the Mountain Winds:" Everet's Versif._, p. 95.

_Example II--Rhymes Otherwise Arranged._

"Then, me |-thought, I | heard a | hollow | sound,

_G=ath~er~ing_ | up from | all the lower | ground:

_N=arr~ow~ing_ | in to | where they | sat as |-sembled,

Low vo |_-l~upt~uo~us_ | music, | winding, | trembled."

ALFRED TENNYSON: _Frazee's Improved Gram._, p. 184; _Fowler's_, 657.

This measure, whether with the final short syllable or without it, is said,

by Murray, Everett, and others, to be "_very uncommon_." Dr. Johnson, and

the other old prosodists named with him above, knew nothing of it. Two

couplets, exemplifying it, now to be found in sundry grammars, and

erroneously reckoned to _differ as to the number of their feet_, were

either selected or composed by Murray, for his Grammar, at its origin--or,

if not then, at its first reprint, in 1796. They are these:--

(1.)

"All that | walk on | foot or | ride in | _chariots_,

All that | dwell in | pala |-ces or | garrets."

_L. Murray's Gram._, 12mo, 175; 8vo, 257; _Chandler's_, 196; _Churchill's_,

187; _Hiley's_, 126; _et al._

(2.)

"Idle | after | dinner, | in his | chair,

Sat a | farmer, | ruddy, | fat, and | fair."

_Murray, same places; N. Butler's Gr._, p. 193; _Hallock's_, 244; _Hart's_,

187; _Weld's_, 211; _et al._

Richard Hiley most absurdly scans this last couplet, and all verse like it,

into "_the Heroic measure_," or a form of our _iambic pentameter_; saying,

"Sometimes a syllable is cut off from the _first_ foot; as,

=I |-dl~e =af |-t~er d=inn |-n~er =in | h~is ch=air [,]

S=at | ~a f=ar |-m~er [,] r=ud |-dý, f=at, | =and f=air."

_Hiley's English Grammar_, Third Edition, p. 125.

J. S. Hart, who, like many others, has mistaken the metre of this last

example for "_Trochaic Tetrameter_," with a surplus "syllable," after

repeating the current though rather questionable assertion, that, "this

measure is very uncommon," proceeds with our "_Trochaic Pentameter_," thus:

"This species is likewise uncommon. It is composed of five trochees; as,

=In th~e | d=ark ~and | gr=een ~and | gl=oom~y | v=all~ey,

S=at~yrs | b=y th~e | br=ookl~et | l=ove t~o | d=all~y."

And again: [[Fist]] "_The SAME with an ADDITIONAL accented syllable_; as,

Wh=ere th~e | w=ood ~is | w=av~ing |gr=een ~and |_h=igh_,

F=auns ~and | Dr=y~ads | w=atch th~e | st=arr~y | _sky._"

_Hart's English Grammar_, First Edition, p. 187.

These examples appear to have been made for the occasion; and the latter,

together with its introduction, made unskillfully. The lines are of five

feet, and so are those about the ruddy farmer; but there is nothing

"_additional_" in either case; for, as pentameter, they are all

_catalectic_, the final short syllable being dispensed with, and a cæsura

preferred, for the sake of single rhyme, otherwise not attainable. "Five

trochees" and a rhyming "syllable" will make trochaic _hexameter_, a

measure perhaps more pleasant than this. See examples above.

MEASURE V.--TROCHAIC OF FOUR FEET, OR TETRAMETER.

_Example I.--A Mournful Song_.

"Raving | winds a | -round her | blowing,

Yellow | leaves the | woodlands | strewing,

By a | river | hoarsely | roaring,

Isa | -bella | strayed de | -ploring.

'Farewell | hours that | late did | measure

Sunshine | days of | joy and | pleasure;

Hail, thou | gloomy | night of | sorrow,

Cheerless | night that | knows no | morrow.

O'er the | past too | fondly | _wandering_,

On the | hopeless | future | _pondering_,

Chilly | grief my | life-blood | freezes,

Fell de | -spair my | fancy | seizes.

Life, thou | soul of | _every_ | blessing,

Load to | _misery_ | most dis | -tressing,

O how | gladly | I'd re | -sign thee,

And to | dark ob | _-livion_ | join thee.'"

ROBERT BURNS: _Select Works_, Vol. ii, p. 131

_Example II.--A Song Petitionary_.

OBS. 25.--The passage just cited represents "_accent_" or "_accents_" not