A SYSTEM OF ENGLISH VERSIFICATION f CONTAINING RULES FOR THE STRUCTURE OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF VERSE ; ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS EXAMPLES FROM THE BEST POETS. BY ERASTUS EVERETT, A.M. Munus et officium, nil scribens ipse, docebo ; Unde parentur opes ; quid alat formetque poetam ; Quid deceat, quid non ; quo virtus, quo ferat error. HOR. V E R S I T Y NEW- YORK: D. APPLETON & COMPANY, 200 BROADWAY. PHILADELPHIA : GEO. S. APPLETON, 148 CHESNUT-ST. MDCCCXLVIII. GENERAL l\\ < ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1847, BY ERASTUS EVERETT, in the Clerk s Office of the District Conrt for the District of Louisiana. CONTENTS. HUM PREFACE, . . . 1 TITLE I. QUANTITY. CHAPTER I. IAMBIC MEASURES. SECT. 1. Quantity of the Iambus, . .14 2. The Iambus followed by a short syllable, . ib. 3. The line of two Iambuses, . . . .15 4. The line of two Iambuses followed by a short syllable, 18 5. The line of three Iambuses, . . . . 19 6. The line of three Iambuses followed by a short syllable, 22 1. The line of four Iambuses, . . . .25 8. The line of Four Iambuses followed by a short syllable, 35 9. The Heroic line, . . . * 36 10. Blank verse, .... 52 11. The line of five Iambuses followed by a short syllable, . 58 12. The Alexandrine, 13. The line of seven Iambuses, 14. The line of seven Iambuses followed by a short syllable, 15. General remarks on the Iambus, . . . .78 CHAPTER II. TROCHAIC MEASURES. 16. Quantity of the Trochee, 17. The line of a single Trochee, 185936 Vl CONTENTS. 8ECT. AGE IS. The line of a Trochee followed by a long syllable, . * 82 19. The line of two Trochees, . . .-83 20. The line of two Trochees followed by a long syllable, 85 21. The line of three Trochees, . . . .86 22. The line of three Trochees followed by a long syllable, 87 23. The line of four Trochees, . . 90 24. The line of four Trochees followed by a long syllable, 93 25. The line of five Trochees, ";. * . .94 26. The line of six Trochees, ^_ .^. 95 CHAPTER III. ANAPESTIC MEASURES. 27. Quantity of the Anapest, and the nature of this foot, . 96 28. The line of a single Anapest preceded by an Iambus, . 99 29. The line of two Anapests, . . . . 100 30. The line of two Anapests preceded by an Iambus, , 101 31. The line of three Anapests, "* . , . 103 32. The line of three Anapests preceded by an Iambus, . 105 33. The line of four Anapests, V . . . 107 34. The line of two Anapests and two Iambuses, . . 109 35. The line of four Anapests followed by a short syllable, . Ill CHAPTER IV. THE PYRRHIC. 36. Quantity of the Pyrrhic, . . . . 113 1. Its use in the first place of the line, . : 114 2. Its use in the second place of the line, . . ib. 3. Its use in the third place of the line, . . 115 4. Its use in the fourth place of the line. . . ib. CHAPTER V. THE SPONDEE. 37. Quantity of the Spondee, . . .115 1. Its use in the first place of the line, . . 116 2. Its use in the second place of the line, . . ib. 3. Its use in the third place of the line, . . ib. 4. Its use in the fourth place of the line, . . 117 5. Its use in the fifth place of the line, . ib. CONTENTS. Vll CHAPTER VI. THE AMPHIBRACH. SKCT, PAGE 38. Quantity of the foot ; line of one Amphibrach, . . 117 39. Line of two Amphibrachs, . 118 CHAPTER VII. THE TRIBRACH. 40. Quantity of the Tribrach, . . 121 1. Its use in the second place of the line, . . ib. 2. Its use in the third place of the line, . ib. 3. Its use in the fourth place, . ib. CHAPTER VIII. THE DACTYLE. Its quantity and use, .. V . . 122 TITLE II. CONSTRUCTION. CHAPTER IX. THE PAUSES. 41. Cajsural pause, 42. Secondary pauses, . * ; - 136 43 . The final pause, 140 CHAPTER X. THE HIATUS. 44. Definition of, * 146 CHAPTER XI. THE COMPLETION OF THE SENSE BY THE COUPLET. 45. General Remarks ; Examples, 148 1* Vlll CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII. MONOSYLLABIC VERSE. SECT. PAGE 46. Dryden s opinion ; Examples, . . . 150 CHAPTER XIII. THE ELISION. 47. Elision of e in the before a vowel, . ^ .., V 154 48. The Elision of a vowel so as to diminish the number of syllables, .. , . j/ : . . - . . 155 49. The Elision of an entire syllable, . . : w 156 50. Tne Elision of the vowel in the second person of the verb, 157 51. The Elision of some letter in the substantive verb, and in the auxiliaries, . . . . . ib. 52. The Elision of a consonant, in order to change a dissyllable into a monosyllable, .- . * -- ; ; 158 53. The Elision of a vowel before a consonant, or of one con sonant before another, . . . . ib. 54. Improper Elision of the Dactyle and the Anapest, . - 159 55. The e in ed final not to be elided, . . .160 CHAPTER XIV. MELODY AND HARMONY. 56. Examples of, . . . . . .J ... 163 CHAPTER XV. RHYME. 57. Perfect Rhyme, . * :J . ,, ., u ... . ." 168 58. Admissible Rhymes, . . . . 173 CHAPTER XVI. DIFFICULT COMBINATIONS. 59. Examples of, . . . . . .179 CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER XVII. INVERSION. SECT. PAGE 60. Definition of Inversion, . . * 182 61. The first species of Inversion, . 183 62. The second species, ... . 189 63. The third species, . . . . ib. 64. The fourth species, . . . .192 65. The fifth species, . . ." . 193 66. The sixth species, . . . . . ib. 67. The seventh species, . . .^ ib. 68. The eighth species, . V .; 194 69. Various inversions of the Adverb, . . . 196 ERRATA. Page 14, line 15, for feet read syllables. Page 15, line 5, for Gdes read Odes. Page 27, line 12, for others read others. Page 35, line 22, after iwi insert is. PREFACE. THE following work is intended for the use of students in the advanced classes of high schools and colleges, and is designed as a supplement to a course of Rhetoric and English Literature. Such other persons as are led by their inclinations to spend their leisure hours in the read ing of the English poets, or in wooing the Muses, may receive from it valuable assistance. It is thought to supply an important desideratum. It is a matter of surprise to the foreign student, who attempts the study of English poetry and the structure of its verse, to find that we have no work on which he can rely as au thority on this subject. In the other modern languages, the most learned philologers have treated of the subject of versification, in all its parts. In English alone, in a lan guage which possesses a body of poetical literature more extensive, as well as more valuable than any other modern language, not excepting the Italian, the student has no rules to guide him, but a few meagre and incorrect outlines appended to elementary text-books. We must except from this remark~two works, published in the latter part 2 PREFACE. of the sixteenth century. But as they were written be- fore the poetical language of the English tongue was fixed, and as the rules of verse were not then settled, these works can be of little practical utility. Hallam mentions them in his " Introduction to the Literature of Europe," and we will give his criticism of them in his own words : " The first English criticism, properly speaking, that I find, is a short tract by Gascoyne, doubtless the poet of that name, published in 1575 : Certain Notes of Instruc tion concerning the making of Verse or Rhyme in Eng lish. It consists only of ten pages, but the observations are judicious. Gascoyne recommends that the sentence should, as far as possible, be finished at the close of two lines in the couplet measure. Webbe, author of a Dis course of English Poetry, (1586,) is copious in compari son with Gascoyne, though he strelches but to seventy pages. His taste is better shown in his praise of Spenser for the Shepherd s Calendar, than of Gabriel Harvey for his Reformation of our English Verse ; that is, by forcing it into uncouth Latin measures, which Webbe has himself most unhappily attempted." Dr. Carey has also treated, in his " Art of Poetry," of some parts of the subject of versification, but not with that fulness and precision which entitle it to the appellation of a system. Dryden once formed the plan of writing a work on this subject, but was induced to abandon it by his friend Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham. His remarks on this subject I will give in his own words, as expressed in the PREFACE. 3 dedication of his JEneid : " I have long had by me the materials of an English Prosodia, containing all the me chanical rules of versification ; wherein I have treated, with some exactness, of the feet, the quantities, and the pauses. ***** g utj s i nce the evil of false quantities is difficult to be cured in any modern language ; since the French and the Italians, as well as we, are yet ignorant what feet are to be used in heroic poetry ; since I have not strictly observed those rules myself which I can teach others ; since I pretend to no dictatorship among my fel low-poets : since, if I could instruct some of them to make well-running verses, they want genius to give them strength as well as sweetness ; and, above all, since your Lordship has advised me not to publish that little which I know, I look on your counsel as your command, which I shall observe inviolably, till you shall please to revoke it, and leave me at liberty to make my thoughts public." It is to be regretted that Dryden ever received such counsel from his noble patron, and that, having received it, he yielded his own better judgment to that of his friend. Had the materials of which he speaks been wrought into an " English Prosodia," that work could have left little to be desired. Unfortunately for us those materials have never been made public. Dr. Johnson has made many valuable remarks on the structure of our verse, in the Lives of the English Poets. Had these remarks been embodied into regular form, they would have furnished valuable materials for another English Prosodia. 5 But the great critic never contem- 4 PREFACE. plated such a work, and what hints he has thrown out are but " flowers that he scattered from his golden urn," in whatever paths of literature he chanced to tread. Even the elegant Blair betrays a paucity of know ledge on this subject, entirely disproportionate to his exten sive learning in other branches of polite literature. And this is the more unaccountable, that his lucid remarks on the various kinds of poetry, as well as his judicious criti cisms of the great poets, both ancient and modern, show that he had made poetry a subject of special study. The ingenious Lord Kames had already gone farther, and his treatise upon the csesural pause shows that he had not only read poetry with the eye of a philosopher, but that he had made the structure of English verse a subject of profound reflection. Had he written a complete system of English versification, the following work would not have been called for ; and had the author in that case presumed to follow in the steps of so distinguished a predecessor, it must have been said of him sequilur non passibus cequis. But Kames contented himself with treating, in connection with his remarks on the beauty of language, one part, and that by no means the most important part, of English ver sification. He performed the task which he had assigned to himself in a masterly manner, and thereby made the want of a complete treatise the more sensible. To these guides the author is indebted for many valuable hints, as will be seen in the course of the following pages ; and he is not aware that he has, in any instance, borrowed an idea from any of them without acknowledging it in form, PREFACE. O and generally citing it in their own words. He mentions this, that it may not be supposed that this work is a com pilation. It will be seen how great a share of it is origi nal ; and the author, having deduced his rules from the usage of the great poets, has the best reason for being confident of their correctness. The ignorance prevailing on this subject, even among men of considerable pretensions to critical acumen, is really astonishing. Men, whose critical works entitle them, on many accounts, to respect, betray such an igno rance of the first principles of our verse, as destroys all confidence in the value of their opinions on the merits of poetical writings, in all cases in which these merits de pend upon metrical structure. Hallam, not to mention less distinguished examples, has even spoken, and that re peatedly, in his History of Literature, of particular lines containing a certain number of syllables, as if lines were made up of syllables instead of feet. It is due, however, to Mr. Hallam, to say, that his intimate acquaintance with English Poetry, and his judicious remarks upon several parts of versification, would lead us to suppose that, in treating of Metre, he speaks of syllables instead of feet rather from habit than from ignorance. We cannot, how ever, but think it reprehensible in a writer of his accus tomed accuracy in all matters of fact, to give his sanction to errors which had their origin in ignorance, and which can be perpetuated only by misapprehension or negligence. Lord Kames, who, as has been remarked above, has treated of Pauses philosophically and fully, has slurred over the 6 PREFACE. subject of Quantity, as not meriting his attention. Not only so, but he has given several examples of heroic lines, in which the Iambic Measure is varied by secondary feet, which lines he pronounces faulty, because they are not made up of pure Iambuses, and has, thereby, shown an unpardonable ignorance of the first principles of Quantity in our verse. Even Dr. Johnson speaks of syllables in such a manner as would lead us to suppose that he was in the same error as Kames. These inaccuracies can be accounted for only from the fact that Prosodians have not thought Quantity of sufficient importance to merit their attention, and on this subject have copied from their pre decessors without either acknowledging their obligations for what was correct, or altering what was erroneous. Hence it is, that blunders have been perpetuated from age to age. It would be injustice to Sheridan* not to except him from these remarks. He has especially insisted on the subject of Quantity, and complains that, in his time, u lines were denominated verses of ten, eight, six, or four syllables." " Thus," he adds, " have we lost sight of the great advantage which our language has given us over the French, in point of poetic numbers, by its being capa ble of a geometrical proportion, on which the harmony of versification depends ; and blindly reduced ourselves to that of the arithmetical kind, which contains no natural power of pleasing the ear." Sheridan s ideas of the Pauses are not so clear as those of Kames. He seems not * The Lexicographer. PREFACE. 7 to have consulted Kames on that subject. It is painful to the Author to notice errors in writers who have done so much, in their respective provinces, to extend the bounds of philosophical criticism ; especially, as he acknowledges his indebtedness to them for valuable suggestions. If these writers had merely neglected most branches of versifica tion while they treated one, their defects would not have been censurable : non omnia possumus omnes. But, when they give us false notions of their own, or propagate such as they have received from others, it is proper that the erroneousness of these notions should be pointed out, lest they should be finally adopted as correct. But, English versification has suffered more from neg lect, than from the false principles laid down by those who have treated of it. And this neglect is, without doubt, owing, in part, to the fact that our verse admits of a greater variety of structure than that of any other Modern Lan guage, and many persons have thence concluded that it is subject to none but very general laws. Now, this is a capital error. The laws of our verse are just as fixed, arid may be as clearly laid down, if we but attend to the usage of the great Poets, as are the laws of our syntax. Milton, Pope, Gray, Rogers, Campbell, and many others, from whom examples will be cited in the body of this Work, as rarely infringe these laws, as do Swift, Shaftesbury, Johnson, Burke, or Paley, transgress the rules of syntax. Nor are the laws of verse, as some would fain persuade themselves and others, arbitrary rules. With as much PREFACE. much reason might it be said, that the rules laid down by Aristotle for the conduct of the Epic Poem and the Drama, are arbitrary rules of the philosopher, and not deductions of the critic. He drew these rules, as Dryden has justly remarked, from the great Models before him, the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, and the Tragedies of ^Eschylus, Eu ripides, and Sophocles. All rules for the structure of English verse, must be drawn from the standard Poets, not be laid down a priori, as the dicta of the critic. But it may be asked, how so many have been able to produce Poems, perfect, in respect of mechanical struc ture, without the rules of which we are speaking. How, for example, did Milton and Pope, the former in blank verse, and the latter in rhyme, carry English poetry to a point of metrical excellence, which it has since attained in scarce a single instance ? The answer is obvious. They deduced their own rules from the reading of all the great Poets that had gone before them, and perfected these rules by a more critical study of the poetical capacities of our language, than any other Poet has since made. It is not to be supposed that the great Masters, either in verse or in prose, refer, for their rules, to text-books. They go to the source. They study nature as represented in the works of the great Masters who have preceded them. The prose writers of Queen Anne s time had never read Lowth, Harris, or Home Tooke, and yet they wrote in a style more purely English, and more elegant, than after generations that learned syntax of these philosophical Grammarians. It is said that Madame de Sevigne never PREFACE. 9 studied the grammar of her mother tongue, except at the Court of Louis XIV., and yet she not only surpassed, in elegance and naivete, all that had gone before her in the epistolary style, but also wrote the French Language as idiomatically as any professed Authors, not excepting La Fontaine and Moliere. From these remarks, what follows ? Evidently this that men of uncommon genius may write, in verse or in prose, without the aid of rules, either of Versification, Syn tax, or Rhetoric. Many, like Monsieur Jourdain in the Play, may have spoken prose all their lives without know ing what prose is, but we should not, for this reason, decry the rules of Grammar or of Rhetoric. In the same man ner many may write verse without knowing the rules to which it is subject ; but it is not the less convenient for most persons that these rules should be clearly defined. To the mass of persons it is not only convenient, but ne cessary, that these rules should be methodically arranged, and illustrated by numerous examples. " The man," says Campbell,* " who, in a country like ours, should com pile a succinct, perspicuous, and faithful digest of the laws, though no lawgiver, would be universally acknowledged to be a public benefactor. How easy would that important branch of knowledge be rendered by such a work, in com parison of what it must be, when we have nothing to have recourse to but a labyrinth of statutes, reports, and opin ions. That man also would be of considerable use, though * Philosophy of Rhetoric, Book II. ch. 2. 10 PREFACE. not in the same degree, who should vigilantly attend to every illegal practice that were beginning to prevail, and evince its danger, by exposing its contrariety to law. Of similar benefit, though in a different sphere, are grammar and criticism. In language, the grammarian is properly the compiler of the digest ; and the verbal critic, the man who seasonably notifies the abuses that are creeping in. Both tend to facilitate the study of the tongue to strangers, and to render natives more perfect in the knowledge of it, to advance general use into universal, and to give a greater stability at least, if not a permanency, to custom, the most mutable thing in nature." The Author has attempted, in the following work, a digest of the laws of English verse from the writings of the standard Poets, and has ventured, in several instances, to point out abuses that have crept in, in contempt of their authority. Examples have been drawn from the writers of the latter part of the seventeenth, the whole of the eighteenth, and the beginning of the present contury. It has not been thought safe to rely, in doubtful points, on authorities prior to the middle of the seventeenth century, as usage had not yet become confirmed. "Denham and Waller," says Prior, " improved our versification, and Dryden perfected it." Nor has it been thought safe, on the other hand, to place great reliance on the Poets of the present century. Their reputation is of too recent origin to have become established. Rogers, Campbell, Coleridge, Byron, Crabbe, Moore, and some others, form exceptions to this remark. They have followed Waller, Milton, Dryden, and Pope, PREFACE. 11 in the structure of their verse, and have not, like many of their contemporaries, thought that contempt of poetical laws is a proof of poetical inspiration. How many of those who imagine themselves to be firmly seated upon Pegasus, and soaring above the clouds, are labouring under the same delusion as the crazy Knight of la Mancha, who, when he thought himself mounted, with his trusty squire upon Clavileno, and coursing through the fields of space among the heavenly bodies, was seen by all but himself to be astride a wooden horse in the garden of his hostess ! Among the examples quoted,* will be found many of the choicest morsels in our language, and besides being apt illustrations of the rules which they exemplify, they possess an intrinsic merit that will bespeak for them the careful attention of the student. * The pieces marked "ORIGINAL," are by the Author of the Treatise. ENGLISH VERSIFICATION. TITLE I. QUANTITY. VERSIFICATION is the proper arrangement of words in a line according to their quantity, and the disposition of these lines in couplets, stanzas, or in blank verse, in such order, and according to such rules, as are sanctioned by usage. A FOOT is a combination of two or more syllables, whether long or short. A LINE is one foot, or more than one. The QUANTITY of each word depends on its accent. In words of more than one syllable all accented syllables are long, and all unaccented syllables are short. Monosyl lables are long or short, according to the following Rules : 1st. All Nouns, Adjectives, Verbs and Participles are long. 2nd. The Ai tides are always short. 3rd. The Pronouns are long or short, according to em phasis. 4th. Interjections and Adverbs are generally long, but sometimes made short by emphasis. 5th. Prepositions and Conjunctions are almost always short, but sometimes made long by emphasis. 14 QUANTITY. [TIT. I. The long syllable requires generally twice the time to pronounce it that the short syllable does. There are in English verse eight kinds of feet. They are the Iambus, the Trochee, the Spondee, the Pyrrhic, the Anapest, the Dactyle, the Amphibrach, and the Tribrach. Three of these, the Iambus, the Trochee and the Anapest, are called principal feet, because lines may be composed entirely of any one of them without the assistance of others. The re maining five are called secondary feet, because they are never used except in combination with the principal feet. CHAPTER I. IAMBIC MEASURES. 1. Quantity of the Iambus. The Iambus, which is the ground of English num bers, consists of two" v feet, the first short and the last long, as behold, expire, alarms. This foot is found in every place in the line, as : Where slaves once more their native land behold. We shall now proceed to give examples of the various Iambic measures, laying down such rules as are founded upon the usage of the best Poets, and making such re marks as are suggested by the examples given. It will be seen in the course of these remarks, that we shall take occasion to insist much upon the adaptation of certain measures to certain sentiments. We shall do this be cause it is a point that has hitherto been almost entirely neglected. 2. The Iambus followed by a short syllable. The first and shortest Iambic line known to En glish verse, is the Iambus with an additional short sylla- CHAP. 1.] IAMBIC MEASURES. 15 ble. This corresponds to the Amphibrach. We have no example of an entire piece written in this measure, but it is sometimes found intermingled with other measures, as : My heart in my bosom a bumping, Goes thumping, And jumping, And thumping ; Is t a a spectre I see ? Hence, vanish. Ah me ! My senses deceive me ; Soon reason will leave me ; What a wretch am I destined to be ! The Padlock, Act II. Sc. 1. 3. The line of two Iambuses. The second species of the Iambic line is made up of two Iambuses. There are some instances of entire pieces written in this measure, but these are extremely rare. It is generally introduced among longer measures, as in the following examples : With ravished ears The monarch hears, Assumes the god, Affects to nod, And seems to shake the spheres ! DRYDEN S Ode on St. Cecilia s Day. Again : Unheard, unknown, He makes his moan, And calls her ghost, For ever, ever, ever, lost ! POPE S Ode on St. Cecilia s Day. Again : To me the rose No longer glows, Every plant Has lost its scent. ADDISON S Rosamond, Act I. Sc. 4. 16 QUANTITY. [TIT. i. Dr. YOUNG S Ocean is written chiefly in this measure : as it possesses a good deal of spirit, we shall give several stanzas of it. Where, where are they Whom Paean s ray Has touched, and bid divinely rave 1 What ! none aspire 1 I snatch the lyre, And plunge into the foaming wave. The wave resounds ! The rock rebounds ! The Nereids to my song reply! I lead the choir, And they conspire, With voice and shell, to lift it high. They spread in air Their bosoms fair, Their verdant tresses pour behind ; The billows beat With nimble feet, With notes triumphant swell the wind. Who love the shore, Let those adore The god Apollo, and his nine, Parnassus hill, And Orpheus skill, But let Arion s harp be mine. The main ! the main ! Is Britain s reign ; Her strength, her glory, is her fleet : The main ! the main ! Be Britain s strain ; As Triton s strong, as Siren s sweet. # * * * * When rushes forth The frowning North On blackening billows, with what dread CHAP. I.] IAMBIC MEASURES. 17 My shuddering soul Beholds them roll, And hears their roarings o er my head ! With terror mark Yon flying bark ! Now centre-deep descend the brave ; Now tossed on high, It takes the sky, A feather on the towering wave ! Now spins around In whirls profound : Now whelmed, now pendent near the clouds ; Now stunned, it reels Midst thunder s peals, And now fierce lightning fires the shrouds. All ether burns, Chaos returns ! And blends, once more, the seas and skies ; No space between Thy bosom green, O Deep ! and the blue concave lies. The northern blast, The shattered mast, The syrt, the whirlpool, and the rock, The breaking spout, The stars gone out, The boiling streight, the monster shock. Let others fear ; To Britain dear Whate er promotes her daring claim ; Those terrors charm Which keep her warm [ In chase of honest gain or fame. The stars are bright To cheer the night, And shed, through shadows, tempered fire ; And Phoebus flames, With burnished beams, Which some adore, and all admire. 18 QUANTITY. [TIT. I. Are then the seas Outshone by these 1 Bright Thetis ! thou art not outshone : With kinder beams, And softer gleams, Thy bosom wears them as thy own. There, set in green, Gold stars are seen, A mantle rich, thy charms to wrap : And when the sun His race has run, He falls enamoured in thy lap. Those clouds, whose dyes Adorn the skies, That silver snow, that pearly rain, Has Phoebus stole, To grace the pole, The plunder of the invaded main ! The gaudy bow, Whose colours glow, Whose arch with so much skill is bent To Phoebus ray, Which paints so gay, By thee the watery woof was lent. 4. The line of two Iambuses followed by a short syllable. The third species of Iambic line is made up of two Iambuses and an additional short syllable. There is no example of an entire piece in this measure, but it is frequently used intermingled with other measures as in the following : When we two parted In silence and tears, Half broken hearted To sever for years. BYRON S Poems. U N I V E CHAP. I.] IAMBIC MEASURES. 19 It will be observed that in this example the first line and the third are in the above measure, and the second and the fourth are composed of an Iambus and an Ana- pest. Again : Could Love for ever Run like a river, And Time s endeavour Be tried in vain No other pleasure With this could measure ; And like a treasure -"We d hug the chain. But since our sighing Ends not in dying, And, formed for flying, f Love plumes his wing ; Then for this reason Let s love a season, But let that season be only Spring. BYRON S Poems. In this example every fourth line is composed of two Iambuses, and all the others are in the same measure as the first line of the preceding example. 5. The line of three Iambuses. The fourth species of the Iambic line is made up of three Iambuses and is of very frequent occurrence. Not only are there many pieces written in this measure com bined with the line of four Iambuses, but there are not a few written exclusively in this measure. Of this line alternating with other measures take the following : Ye flowery banks o bonnie Doon, How can ye blume sae fair, How can ye chant, ye little birds, And I sae fu o care ! BURNS Songs. 20 QUANTITY. [TIT. i. Again : The noon was shady, and soft airs] Swept Ouse s silent tide, When, scaped from literary cares, I wandered on his side. COWPER S Poems. Again : Alas ! the joys that fortune brings, Are trifling, and decay ; And those who prize the paltry things, More trifling still than they. w GOLDSMITH S Hermit. Friend, for your epitaphs I m grieved, Where still so much is said ; One half will never be believed, The other never read. POPE S Epigrams. Again : Lo ! where the rosy-bosomed hours, Fair Venus train, appear, Disclose the long-expecting flowers, And wake the purple year ; The attic warbler pours her throat Responsive to the cuckoo s note, ] The untaught harmony of spring, While, whispering pleasure as they fly, Cool zephyrs through the clear blue sky Their gathered fragrance fling. Where er the oak s thick branches stretch A broader, browner shade, Where er the rude and moss-grown beech O er-cancpies the glade. Beside some water s rushy brink With me the Muse shall sit, and think (At ease reclined in rustic state) How vain the ardour of the crowd, How low, how little, are the proud, How indigent the great. CHAP. I.] IAMBIC MEASURES. ^1 Still is the toiling hand of Care, The panting herds repose, Yet hark ! how through the peopled air, The busy murmur glows ! The insect youth are on the wing, Eager to taste the honeyed spring, And float amid the liquid noon ; Some lightly o er the current skim, Some show their gayly-gilded trim, Quick-glancing to the sun. To contemplation s sober eye, Such is the race of man, And they that creep and they that fly Shall end where they began. Alike the busy and the gay But flutter through life s little day, In fortune s varying colours drest ; Brushed by the hand of rough Mischance, Or chilled by Age, their airy dance They leave, in dust to rest. Methinks I hear, in accents low, The sportive kind reply, Poor moralist ! and what art thou ? A solitary fly ! Thy joys no glittering female meets, No hive hast thou of hoarded sweets, No painted plumage to display ; On hasty wings thy youth is flown, Thy sun is set, thy spring is gone We frolic while tis May. GRAY S Ode to Spring. In the following example the lines are all in the above measure : The king was on his throne, The satraps thronged the hall ; A thousand bright lamps shone O er that high festival. 2* 22 QUANTITY. [TIT. I. A thousand cups of gold, In Judah deemed divine Jehovah s vessels hold The godless Heathen s wine ! In that same hour and hall, The fingers of a hand Came forth against the wall, And wrote as if on sand : The fingers of a man ; A solitary hand Along the letters ran, And traced them like a wand. BYRON S Vision of Belshazzar. 6. The line of three Iambuses followed by a short syllable. The fifth species of the Iambic line is made up of three Iambuses and an additional short syllable. It is rarely, if ever, used except as alternating with other measures ; generally with lines of three or four Iambuses. The additional short syllable imparts a life and sprightli- ness to this measure that is surpassingly beautiful. In the following example it alternates with the line of three Iambuses : V. / -/ Now slain is king Amulius, Of the great Sylvian line, Who reigned in Alba Longa, On the throne of Aventine. Slain is the Pontiff Gamers, Who spake the words of doom : " The children to the Tiber, The mother to the tomb." In Alba s lake no fisher His net to-day is Hinging : On the dark rind of Alba s oaks To-day no axe is ringing : IAMBIC MEASURES. 23 The yoke hangs o er the manger : The scythe lies in the hay : Through all the Alban villages No work is done to-day. And every Alban burgher Hath donned his whitest gown ; And every head in Alba { Weareth a poplar crown ; And every Alban door-post With boughs and flowers is gay ; For to-day the dead are living ; The lost are found to-day. The troubled river knew them, And smoothed his yellow foam, And gently rocked the cradle That bore the fate of Rome. The ravening she- wolf knew them, And licked them o er and o er, And gave them of her own fierce milk, Rich with raw flesh and gore. Twenty winters, twenty springs, Since then have rolled away ; And to-day the dead are living, The lost are found to-day. Blithe it was to see the twins, Right goodly youths and tall, Marching from Alba Longa To their old grandsire s hall. Along their path fresh garlands Are hung from tree to tree : Before them stride the pipers, Piping a note of glee. On the right goes Romulus, With arms to the elbows red, And in his hand a broadsword, And on the blade a head QUANTITY. [ TJT< J( A head in an iron helmet, With horse hair hanging down, A shaggy head, a swarthy head, Fixed in a ghastly frown The head of King Amulius Of the great Sylvian line, Who reigned in Alba Longa, On the throne of Aventine. On the left side goes Remus, With wrists and fingers red, And in his hand a boar-spear, And on the point a head A wrinkled head and aged, With silver beard and hair, And holy fillets round it, Such as the pontiffs wear The head of ancient Gamers, Who spake the words of doom : " The children to the Tiber, The mother to the tomb." MACAULAY The Prophecy of Capys. This line sometimes alternates with lines of four lam- buses, and when it does so it always has a happy effect, as the following examples will show : Sweet fa s the eve on Cragie-burn, And blithe awakes the morrow, But a the pride o spring s return Can yield me nocht but sorrow. I see the flowers and spreading trees, I hear the wild birds singing ; But what a weary wight can please, And care his bosom wringing 1 Fain, fain would I my griefs impart, Yet dare na for your anger ; But secret love will break my heart, If I conceal it langer. CHAP. I.] IAMBIC MEASURES. 25 If thou refuse to pity me, If thou shall love anither, When yon green leaves fade frae the tree, Around my grave they ll wither. BURNS Songs. Again : Yon roaring boys, who rave and fight On t other side th Atlantic, I always held them in the right, But most so when most frantic. Such civil broils are my delight, Though some folks can t endure them, Who say the mob are mad outright, And that a rope must cure them. A rope ! I wish we patriots had Such strings for all who need em What ! hang a man for going mad ! Then farewell British freedom. COWPER The Modern Patriot. Again : Misses ! the tale that I relate This lesson seems to carry Choose not alone a proper mate, But proper time, to marry. COWPER Pairing Time Anticipated. 7. The line of four Iambuses. The sixth species of the Iambic line is made up of four Iambuses, and is frequently called the octo-sylla- bic measure. It is a favourite measure with the English Poets, and may be employed to great advantage through out an entire poem, as in BYRON S Mazeppa, SCOTT S Lady of the Lake, and BUTLER S Hudibras, or, it may alternate with the line of three feet, as in the examples given in illustration of the fourth species of Iambus. GRAY S Ode to Adversity furnishes an example of its use in connection with the Alexandrine, and this forms a noble stanza. 26 QUANTITY. [TIT. Daughter of Jove, relentless power, Thou tamer of the human breast, Whose iron scourge and torturing hour, The bad affright, afflict the best ! Bound in thy adamantine chain, The proud are taught to taste of pain, And purple tyrants vainly groan With pangs unfelt before, unpitied and alone. When first thy sire to send on earth Virtue, his darling child, designed, To thee he gave the heavenly birth, And bade to form her infant mind ; Stern rugged nurse ! thy rigid lore, With patience many a year she bore : What sorrow was thou bad st her know, And from her own she learned to melt at others wo. Scared at thy frown terrific fly Self-pleasing Folly s idle brood, Wild laughter, noise and thoughtless joy, And leave us leisure to be good. Light they disperse ; and with them go The summer friend, the flattering foe ; By vain Prosperity received, To her they vow their truth, and are again believed. Wisdom, in sable garb arrayed, Immersed in rapturous thought profound, And Melancholy, silent maid, With leaden eye that loves the ground, Still on thy solemn steps attend ; Warm Charity, the general friend, With Justice to herself severe, And Pity, dropping soft the sadly-pleasing tear. Oh ! gently on thy suppliant s head, Dread Goddess ! lay thy chastening hand, Not in thy Gorgon terrors clad, Nor circled with the vengeful band ; CHAP. I.] IAMBIC MEASURES. 27 (As by the impious thou art seen,) With thundering voice and threatening mien, With screaming Horror s funeral cry, Despair, and fell Disease, and ghastly Poverty. Thy form benign, Goddess ! wear, Thy milder influence impart, Thy philosophic train be there, To soften, not to wound my heart : The generous spark extinct revive ; Teach me to love and to forgive ; Exact my own defects to scan, What others are to feel, and know myself a man. A favourite stanza of the earlier Scottish Poets, was made up of six lines, four being octo-syllabic lines, and two being composed of two Iambuses. This stanza has become unfashionable, but from the examples we have of it, it is to be regretted that this stanza has not been re tained. Numerous examples occur in Burns, with whom this was a favourite measure. That it is equally adapted to the pathetic and the humorous, the following exam- pies will show : Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin, Its silly wa s the win s are strewin ! An naething, now, to big a new ane, O foggage green ! An bleak December s winds ensuin, Baith snell and keen ! Thou saw the fields laid bare an waste, An weary winter comin fast, An cozie here, beneath the blast, Thou thought to dwell, Till crash ! the cruel coulter past Out thro thy cell. That wee bit heap o leaves an stibble, Has cost thee many a weary nibble ! 28 QUANTITY. [TIT. I. Now thou s turned out, for a thy trouble, But house or hald, To thole the winter s sleety dribble, An cranreuch cauld ! But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane, In proving foresight may be vain : The best laid schemes o mice an me/?, Gang aft a-gley, An lea e us nought but grief an pain, For promised joy. Still thou art blessed, compared wi me ! The present only toucheth thee : But, Och ! I backward cast my e e, On prospects drear, An forward, tho I canna see, I guess an fear, BURNS Poems. To a Mouse. This morsel is truly pathetic, nor is it easy to conceive of a form of stanza better adapted to the sentiment than this. The four long lines rhyming with each other would produce monotony if alone, but being relieved by the two short lines, the effect is remarkably happy. That this stanza is equally consistent with humour, is proved by many of Burns most humorous effusions. Among others we will select the following : Of a 5 the thoughtless sons o man, Commen me to the Bardie clan ; Except it be some idle plan rhymin clink. The devil-haet, that I sud ban, They ever think. Nae thought, nae view, nae scheme o livin , Nae cares to give us joy or grievin : But just the pouchie put the nieve in, An while aught s there, Then, hiltie, skiltie, we gae scrievin , An fash nae mair. CHAP. 1.] IAMBIC MEASURES. Leeze me on rhyme ! it s aye a treasure, My chief, amaist my only pleasure, At hame, a-fiel , at wark or leisure, The Muse, poor hizzie ! Tho rough an raplock be her measure, She s seldom lazy. BURNS second Epistle to Davie. We have remarked above, that this stanza seems to be going out of fashion. Campbell, however, has written a piece of great merit in this measure. A few stanzas must suffice : What hallows ground where heroes sleep? Tis not the sculptured piles you heap ! In dews that heavens far distant weep Their turf may bloom ; Or Genii twine beneath the deep Their coral tomb. But strew his ashes to the wind Whose sword or voice has served mankind And is he dead whose glorious mind Lifts thine on high 1 To live in hearts we leave behind Is not to die. Is t death to fall for Freedom s right? He s dead alone that lacks her light ! And murder sullies in Heaven s sight The sword he draws : What can alone ennoble fight ? A noble cause. Give that ! and welcome War to brace Her drums ! and rend Heaven s reeking space ! The colours planted face to face, The charging cheer, Though Death s pale horse lead on the chase, Shall still be dear. 30 QUANTITY. [TIT. j. And place our trophies where men kneel To Heaven ! but Heaven rebukes my zeal ! The cause of truth and human weal, O God above ! Transfer it from the sword s appeal To Peace and Love. Another species of the octo-syllabic stanza is com- posed of three lines all rhyming, and a fourth either of a less number of feet or of the same number. In this measure the fourth line of the several stanzas, is generally a repetition, in whole or in part, and it forms a kind of refrain which is very agreeable. Of this measure Mrs. BARBAULD S Thought on Death is an example, as admirable for the truth and sublimity of the sentiments as for the melody of the verse : When life as opening buds is sweet, And golden hopes the spirit greet, And youth prepares his joys to meet, Alas ! how hard it is to die ! When scarce is seized some valued prize, And duties press, and tender ties Forbid the soul from earth to rise, How awful then it is to die ! When, one by one, those ties are torn, And friend from friend is snatched forlorn, And man is left alone to mourn, Ah ! then, how easy tis to die. When trembling limbs refuse their weight, And films, slow-gathering, dim the sight, And clouds obscure the mental light, Tis nature s precious boon to die ! When faith is strong, and conscience clear, And words of peace the spirit cheer, And visioned glories half appear, Tis joy, tis triumph, then to die ! CHAP. I.] IAMBIC MEASURES. 31 The translation of the Dies Ira, by DILLON, Earl of Roscommon, is in triplets of the line of four Iambuses. As this piece, besides being in a measure that is very un common, possesses great poetical merit, we shall give it entire. The day of wrath, that dreadful day, Shall the whole world in ashes lay, As David and the Sibyls say. What horror will invade the mind, When the strict Judge, who would be kind, Shall have few venial faults to find ! The last loud trumpet s wondrous sound, Must through the rending tombs rebound, And wake the nations under ground. Nature and death shall, with surprise, Behold the pale offender rise, And view the Judge with conscious eyes. Then shall, with universal dread, The sacred mystic book be read, To try the living and the dead. The Judge ascends his awful throne : He makes each secret sin be known, And all with shame confess their own. O then ! what interest shall I make, To save my last important stake, When the most just have cause to quake 1 Thou mighty formidable King ! Thou mercy s unexhausted spring ! Some comfortable pity bring. Forget not what my ransom cost, Nor let my dear-bought soul be lost, In storms of guilty terror toss d. 3^ QUANTITY. [TIT. Thou, who for me didst feel such pain, Whose precious blood the cross did stain ; Let not those agonies be vain. Thou, whom avenging powers obey, Cancel my debt (too great to pay) Before the sad accounting day. Surrounded with amazing fears, Whose load my soul with anguish bears, I sigh, I weep : accept my tears. Thou, who wast moved with Mary s grief, And, by absolving of the thief, Hast given me hope, now give relief. Reject not my unworthy prayer, Preserve me from the dangerous snare, Which death and gaping hell prepare. Give my exalted soul a place Among the chosen right-hand race, The sons of God, and heirs of grace. From that insatiate abyss, Where flames devour and serpents hiss, Promote me to thy seat of bliss. Prostrate, my contrite heart I rend, My God, my Father, and my Friend ! Do not forsake me in the end. Well may they curse their second birth, Who rise to a surviving death. Thou great Creator of mankind, Let guilty man compassion find. In the following sweet morsel the triplet, succeeded by a line made up of two Iambuses and an Amphibrach, is made to express in a most tender and delicate manner the passion of love : CHAP. I.] IAMBIC MEASURES. WILLY. O Philly, happy be that day When roving through the gathered hay My youthfu heart was stown away, And by thy charms, my Philly. PHILLY. Willy, ay I bless the grove Where first I owned my maiden love, Whilst thou did pledge the Powers above To be my ain dear Willy. \y IL> As songsters of the early year Are ilka day mair sweet to hear, So ilka day to me mair dear And charming is my Philly. PHIL. As on the brier the budding rose Still richer breathes, and fairer blows, So in my tender bosom grows The love I bear my Willy. WIL. The milder sun and bluer sky, That crown my harvest cares wi joy, Were ne er sae welcome to my eye As is a sight o Philly. PHIL. The little swallow s wanton wing, Tho wafting o er the flowery spring, Did ne er to me sic tidings bring, As meeting o my Willy. WIL. The bee that thro the sunny hour Sips nectar in the opening flower, Compared wi my delight is poor, Upon the lips o Philly. PHIL. The woodbine in the dewy weet, When evening shades in silence meet, Is nocht sae fragrant or sae sweet As is a kiss o Willy. . Let Fortune s wheel at random rin, And fools may tine, and knaves may win ; My thoughts are a bound up in ane, And that s my ain dear Philly. QUANTITY. [ TIT> j. PHIL. What s a the joys that gowd can gie ! I care nae wealth a single flie ; The lad I love s the lad for me, And that s my ain dear Willy. BURNS. A Duet. To attempt to give an example of all the varieties of stanza composed of this line would be an endless task. The above are sufficient to show its capabilities. The great number of poems in this measure, when it is em- ployed in consecutive verse, renders it unnecessary to give many examples. It has generally an animated effect, and is peculiarly adapted to description. The fol lowing will suffice : The hunter marked that mountain high, The lone lake s western boundary, And deemed the stag must turn to bay, Where that huge rampart barred the way ; Already glorying in the prize, Measured his antlers with his eyes ; For the death-wound, and death-halloo, Mustered his breath, his whinyard drew ; But thundering as he came prepared, With ready arm and weapon bared, The wily quarry shunned the shock, And turned him from the opposing rock ; Then dashing down a darksome glen, Soon lost to hound and hunter s ken, In the deep Trossach s wildest nook His solitary refuge took. There, while close couched, the thicket shed Cold dews and wild flowers on his head, He heard the baffled dogs in vain Rave through the hollow pass amain, Chiding the rocks that yelled again. SCOTT S Lady of the Lake. CHAP. I.] IAMBIC MEASURES. 35 8. The line of four Iambuses followed by a short syllable. The seventh species of Iambic measure is made up of four Iambuses and an additional short syllable. It is peculiarly adapted to the familiar style, and to the bur lesque. The beginning of Canto I. of BUTLER S Hudibras, from the 7th line to the 17th, is a fine specimen of this measure. It adds much to the burlesque effect of one of the most celebrated mock-heroic poems of modern times. The Canto begins with the line of four Iambuses, which is succeeded by this line with a short syllable added, as follows : ^)v~ \ When gospel-trumpeter, surrounded With long-eared rout, to battle sounded, And pulpit, drum ecclesiastick, Was beat with fist instead of a stick ; Then did Sir Knight abandon dwelling, And out he rode a colonelling. A wight he was whose very sight would Entitle him Mirror of Knighthood. In the following examples this line alternates very happily with the line of four Iambuses. This forms a very neat stanza, but rarely employed. I know the thing that s most uncommon ; (Envy, be silent and attend !) I know a reasonable woman, Handsome and witty, yet a friend. Not warped by passion, awed by rumour ; Not grave through pride, nor gay through folly ; And equal mixture of good humour, And sensible, soft melancholy. " Has she no faults, then," Envy says, " Sir?" Yes, she has one, I must aver : 36 QUANTITY. [TIT. r. When all the world conspires to praise her, The woman s deaf and does not hear. POPE. On a certain Lady at Court. 9. The Heroic line. Wp now come to the eighth species of Iambic line. This is the heroic line composed of five Iambuses. This line is suited to solemn and sublime subjects, and it has far more dignity than any of the measures before mentioned. In long pieces it is frequently varied by the intermingling of secondary feet, but there are numerous in stances of a succession of Iambuses through several lines. It is employed in couplets, as in POPE S Essay on Man, PARNELL S Hermit, and GOLDSMITH S Deserted Village ; it is employed in quatrains, as in GRAY S Elegy in a Coun try Churchyard ; it is employed in the Spenserean stanza, as in the Faery Queen and Childe Harold ; it is employed in blank verse, as in MILTON S Paradise Lost, THOMSON S Seasons, ROGERS Italy, and COWPER S Task ; lastly, it is employed in triplets, with an additional short line to com plete the stanza. It is peculiarly suited to all subjects where dignity is required, and should never be employed when the subject is either trivial or gay. A specimen from GRAY S Elegy, showing the fitness of this measure for solemn subjects, will furnish the first example : The curfew tolls, the knell of parting day, The lowing herd winds slowly o er the lea, The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me. Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, And all the air a solemn stillness holds, Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds. CHAP. I.J IAMBIC MEASURES. 37 Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower, The moping owl does to the moon complain Of such as, wandering near her secret bower, Molest her ancient solitary reign. This, it will be perceived, is written in quatrains, a species of stanza peculiarly adapted to solemn subjects. The quatrain was a favourite stanza with Dryden, but his quatrains, though they possess merit, are by no means so perfect as those of Gray. As Dryden is one of the fathers of English Verse, we shall give several stanzas from his Annus Mirabilis. Many fine lines this piece contains, but it also contains many that are tame. In judging, however, the works of Dryden, we must consider what he did rather than what he left undone. By viewing Nature, Nature s handmaid, Art, Makes mighty things from small beginnings grow ; Thus fishes first to shipping did impart, Their tail the rudder, and their head the prow. Some log perhaps upon the waters swam, An useless drift, which, rudely cut within, And hollowed first, a floating trough became, And cross some rivulet passage did begin. In shipping such as this, the Irish kern, And untaught Indian on the stream did glide : Ere sharp- keeled boats to stem the flood did learn, Or fin-like oars did spread from either side. Add but a sail, and Saturn so appear d When from lost empire he to exile went, And with the golden age to Tyber steer d, Where coin and commerce first he did invent. Rude as their ships was navigation then ; No useful compass or meridian known ; Coasting, they kept the land within their ken, And knew no north but when the Pole-star shone. 3 38 QUANTITY. [TIT. I. Of all who since have used the open sea, Than the bold English none more fame have won ; Beyond the year, and out of Heaven s highway, They make discoveries where they see no sun. But what so long in vain, and yet unknown, By poor mankind s benighted wit is sought, Shall in this age to Britain first be shpwn, And hence be to admiring nations taught. The ebbs of tides and their mysterious flow, We, as Art s elements, shall understand, And as by line upon the ocean go, Whose paths shall be familiar as the land. Instructed ships shall sail to quick commerce, By which remotest regions are ally d ; Which makes one city of the universe, Where some may gain, and all may be supply d, Then we upon our globe s last verge shall go, And view the ocean leaning on the sky : From thence our rolling neighbours we shall know, And on the lunar world securely pry. This I foretell from your auspicious care, Who great in search of God and nature grow ; Who best your wise Creator s praise declare, Since best to praise his works is best to know. In the following stanza we have the heroic quatrain with an addition of three lines composed each of three Iambuses. This combination forms a noble stanza : I mix in gaudy throngs and festive halls, Where beauty charms, wit sparkles, wine inspires, I see my smiles in all the mirrored walls, But verdant ^Etna burns with inward fires. I shun the giddy dance And turn from beauty s glance, Now I have lost my Jane. CHAP. I.] IAMBIC MEASURES. 39 I fain would drown my care in classic lore, But when I read of lovelorn Dido s pain, How brave Leander sunk off Sestos shore And Hero grieved till madness fired her brain, I loathe my wretched state, And wish Leander s fate Would join me to my Jane. I read how Petrarch sung his Laura s praise, How Abelard left Aristotle s rules, In Eloisa s arms forgot his bays, And all the learned jargon of the schools. I pardon Laura s bard And erring Abelard, When I remember Jane. I wander forth at summer eve or morn To breathe the fragrance of the new-mown hay, I stray through flowery meads and fields of corn, All Nature smiles, but still I am not gay. The earth is clad in gloom, For the cold, silent tomb Has robbed me of my Jane. I flee from crowds and seek the twilight groves, Fit place for Brahmin s god or Druid s shrine, Where widowed turtles mourn their tender loves, And Philomela s notes respond to mine. Tis here I mean to dwell, And chant with Philomel The love I bore my Jane. . ORIGINAL : The Lover s Lament. A passage from POPE S Essay on Man showing the effect of this measure when formed into couplets, will furnish the next example : Lo, the poor Indian ! whose untutored mind Sees God in clouds, and hears him in the wind ! His soul proud Science never taught to stray Far as the solar walk, or milky-way ; Yet simple nature to his hope has given, Behind the cloud-topped hill, an humbler heaven ; 40 QUANTITY. [TIT. i. Some safer world in depth of woods embraced, Some happier island in the watery waste, Where slaves once more their native land behold, No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold. To be, contents his natural desire, He asks no angel s wing, no seraph s fire ; But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, His faithful dog shall bear him company. It will be observed that this species of the heroic line possesses great dignity but less solemnity than the qua train, which has been said by Dryden to be the most mag- nificent of all the English stanzas. It has been remarked above, that this line sometimes forms a triplet making with a fourth line, generally com- posed of a single Amphibrach, a very plaintive measure, peculiarly fitted for elegies. The following stanzas in this measure will furnish the next example of the heroic line :* Oh ! whither, lost one, whither art thou fled 1 Hold st thou thy vigils by my lonely bed, Where, racked with grief, I mourn that thou art dead, My Brother 1 My bed is now no more a place of rest, But pining sorrow wastes my widowed breast ; I fain would be with thee among the blest, My Brother. Know st thou the fancies that possess my brain, When in my dreams thou seem st alive again, And thy embrace assuages all my pain, My Brother ? Rejoicest thou before the throne of God, No more to smart beneath Affliction s rod Or tread the thorny path that thou hast trod, My Brother ? Where er thou art, in bright angelic spheres, Or sent to calm thy doubting brother s fears, I strive in vain to check my flowing tears, My Brother. * In this piece the Author has paid a slight tribute to the memory of his late twin- brother. CHAP. I.] IAMBIC MEASURES. 41 To me the world is palled in constant gloom, For thou art gathered to the mouldering tomb, And none I find on earth can fill thy room, My Brother. Though Fortune smile, give all she ever gave, My life will be a bark on stormy wave, For Hope lies buried with thee in thy grave, My Brother. But heavenly visions dawn upon my sight ; I see thee clad in robes of living light And I rejoice that thou hast won the fight, My Brother. Though left in this drear world, bereft and lorn, I ll no more grieve for thee thus from me torn, For thou art gone where mortals cease to mourn, My Brother. ORIGINAL. The following is made up of triplets alone. This stanza is uncommon : Dictate, O mighty judge, what thou hast seen Of cities and of courts, of books and men, And deign to let thy servant hold the pen. Through ages, thus, I may presume to live, And from the transcript of thy prose receive What my own short-lived verse can never give. Thus shall fair Britain, with a gracious smile Accept the work, and the instructed isle, For more than treaties made, shall bless my toil. No longer hence the Gallic style preferred, Wisdom in English Idiom shall be heard, While Talbot tells the world where Montaigne erred. PRIOR. The Spenserian stanza, so called from Spenser, who employed it in his Faery Queen, was borrowed from the Italian poets. It is rather artificial, but when in the hands of a master it has a noble effect. On account of its diffi culty of execution, it was pretty generally laid aside A little low|y hermitage it was, ^ w Downe in a dale, hard by a forest s side, 42 QUANTITY. [TIT. i. as early as the beginning of the seventeenth century, and gave place to the couplet, to the quatrain, and to blank verse. Only three of the late poets have succeeded in it in pieces of any considerable length. These are THOMSON in the Castle of Indolence, BEATTIE in the Min strel, and BYRON in the Childe Harold. The following specimens will show that it possesses great dignity as well as harmony. Our first example shall be taken from him who has given his name to this stanza : V e it was, w A Far from resort of people that did pas In traveill too and froe ; a little wyde There was an holy chapel I edify de, A*-" Wherem thehermite dewly wont to say Efts holy things each morne and eventyc[e:$r Thereby a chrystall streame did gently play, - Which from a sacred fountaine welled forth a1way~.C- Arrived there, the little house they fill, o^ Ne looke for entertainement where none was ; $*~ Rest is their feast, and all thinges at their will : ~ The noblest mind the best contentment has. >- With faire discourse the evening so they pas ; ^ For that olde man of pleasing wordes had store, ^* And well could file his tongue, as smooth as glas : l>"* He told of saintes and popes, and evermore He strowd an Ave-Mary after and before. The drouping night thus creepeth on them fast, And the sad humor loading their eye-liddes ; As messenger of Morpheus on them cast Sweet slumbring deaw, the which to sleep them biddes : Unto their lodgings then his guestes he riddes : Where when all drownd in deadly sleepe he findes, He to his study goes, and their amiddes His magic bookes, and artes of sundry kindes, He seeks out mighty charmes to trouble sleepy minds. CHAP. I.] IAMBIC MEASURES. 43 And forth he cald out of deepe darknes dredd Legions of sprights, the which, like litle flyes, Fluttring about his ever-damned hedd, Awaite whereto their service he applyes, To aide his friendes, or fray his inimies ; Of those he chose out two, the falsest twoo, And fittest for to forge true-seeming lyes ; The one of them he gave a message too, The other by himselfe staide other worke to doo. lie making speedy way through spersed ayre, And through the world of waters wide and deepe, To Morpheus house doth hastily repaire. Amid the bowels of the earth full steepe, And low, where dawning day doth never peepe, His dwelling is ; there Tethys his wet bed Doth ever wash, and Cynthia still doth steepe In silver deaw his ever-drouping hed, While sad night over him her mantle black doth spred. Whose double gates he findeth locked fast ; The one faire framed of burnisht yvory, The other all with silver overcast : And wakeful dogges before them farre doe lye, Watching to banish Care their enimy, Who oft is wont to trouble gentle sleepe. By them the sprite doth passe in quietly, And unto Morpheus comes, whom, drowned, deepe In drowsie fit he findes ; of nothing he takes keepe. Again : Or view the Lord of the unerring bow, The God of life, and poesy, and light The Sun in human limbs arrayed, and brow All radiant from his triumph in the fight ; The shaft hath just been shot the arrow bright With an immortal s vengeance ; in his eye And nostril beautiful disdain, and might And majesty, flash their full lightnings by, Developing in that one glance the Deity, 44 QUANTITY. [TIT. I. But in his delicate form a dream of Love, Shaped by some solitary nymph, whose breast Longed for a deathless lover from above, And maddened in that vision are expressed All that ideal beauty ever blessed The mind with in its most unearthly mood, When each conception was a heavenly guest A ray of immortality and stood Starlike, around, until they gathered to a god ! And if it be Prometheus stole from Heaven The fire which we endure, it was repaid By him to whom the energy was given Which this poetic marble hath arrayed With an eternal glory which, if made By human hands, is not of human thought, And Time himself hath hallowed it, nor laid One ringlet in the dust nor hath it caught A tinge of years, but breathes ihe flame with which twas wrought. Childe Harold, Canto IV. The Sonnet. The Sonnet (Sonnetto) like the Spenserian Stanza, was borrowed from the Italians. Petrarch is reckoned the father of it. It is still more difficult of construction than the Spenserian stanza; for, besides requiring a great number of rhymes, it demands a terseness of con struction, and a point in the thought, which that does not. In the Sonnet no line should be admitted merely for orna ment, and the versification should be faultless. Sonnets, like Spenserian Stanzas, are somewhat affected, and this is to be attributed to the age in which they were intro duced, when far-fetched thoughts and ingenious ideas were more in vogue than simplicity and natural expres sion. As an illustration of this remark, we have only to CHAP. I.] IAMBIC MEASURES. 45 refer to the sonnets of Shakspeare, which abound almost as much in conceits as do the writings of Donne or Covvley. Merlin de S. Gelais first introduced the Sonnet into France. He was followed by du Bellai, Malherbe, Ron- sard, Maynard, and others. The French, however, do not seem to have succeeded in this species of verse. Their epigrammatic turn would seem to warrant success, and their failure must be attributed to the genius of their tongue, which is but illy adapted to poetical composition. The English have succeeded perhaps a little better, but our language is not rich enough in rhymes to give the Sonnet its native beauty. It is a flower of Italian soil, and never will in other climate grow. The Sonnet is subject to more rigorous rules than any other species of verse. It is composed of exactly fourteen lines, so constructed that the first eight lines shall contain but two rhymes, and the last six but two more. Boileau, in his Art Poetique, has explained the nature of this verse so correctly, and at the same time so beautifully, that I cannot deny myself the pleasure of quoting in his own words. He says : " On dit, &, ce propos, qu un jour ce dieu bizarre, Voulant pousser a. bout tous les rimeurs fransais,-,- Inventa du sonnet les rigoureuses lois^; Voulut qu en deux quatrains de mesure pareille,- La rime avec deux sons frappai huit fois Poreille : Et qu ensuite six vers artistement ranges, Fussent en deux tercets par le sens partages.- Surtout de ce poeme il bannit la licence^ _ Lui-meme en mesura le nombre et la cadence ; DeTendit qu un vers faible y put jamais entrer, Ni qu un mot de ja mis ost s y remontrer. 3* 46 QUANTITY. [TIT. i. Du reste il J enrichit d une beaute supreme : Un sonnet sans deTaut vaut seul un long poeme. Mais en vain mille auteurs y pensent arriver, Et cet heureux phe"nix est encore a trouver. A peine dans Gombaut, Maynard et Malleville, En peut-on admirer deux ou trois entre mille." Of the arrangement of the two stanzas, or first eight lines, there are several forms. The most approved is that in which the first line is made to rhyme with the fourth, the fifth and the eighth, the second rhyming with the third, the sixth and the seventh. The following is an example of this form : Loclged with me useless, though my^soTfl more bent *- To serve therewith my Maker, and present <L* My true account, lest he, returning, chide ; Vr* Doth God exact day-labour, light denied ? Kr- I fondly ask : but Patience, to prevent A That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need 4* Either man s work, or his own gifts ; who best *- Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best ; his state /. Is kingly ; thousands at his bidding speed, ^ And pass o er land and ocean without rest : C* They also serve who only stand and wait. ^ MILTON. On his own Blindness. Again : Lonely and thoughtful o er deserted plains, I pass with melancholy steps and slow, Mine eyes intent to shun where er I go, The track of man : from him to hide my pains, No refuge save the wilderness remains : The curious multitude would quickly know, Amidst atfected smiles, the cherished woe That wrings my bosom and consumes my veins. CHAP. I.] IAMBIC MEASURES. 47 O that the rocks and streams of solitude, The vales and woods alone, my griefs might see ! But paths, however secret, wild and rude, I find not from tormenting passion free ; Where er I wander, still by Love pursued, With Him I hold communion, He with me. MONTGOMERY. Imitated from the Italian of Petrarch. Again : Rousseau Voltaire our Gibbon and de Stafil Leman ! these names are worthy of thy shore, Thy shore of names like these ! wert thou no more, Their memory thy remembrance would recall : To them thy banks were lovely as to all, But they have made them lovelier, for the lore Of mighty minds doth hallow in the core Of human hearts the ruin of a wall Where dwelt the wise and wondrous ; but by thee How much more, Lake of Beauty ! do we feel, In sweetly gliding o er thy crystal sea, The wild glow of that not ungentle zeal, Which of the heirs of immortality Is proud, and makes the breath of glory real ! BYRON. As Keats wrote most of his sonnets in this measure, one example shall be given from him : Nymph of the downward smile, and sidelong glance ! In what diviner moments of the day Art thou most lovely ? when gone far astray Into the labyrinths of sweet utterance ? Or when serenely wandering in a trance Of sober thought ? or when starting away, With careless robe to meet the morning ray, Thou sparest the flowers in thy mazy dance ? Haply tis when thy ruby lips part sweetly, And so remain, because thou listenest : But thou to please wert nurtured so completely That I can never tell what mood is best. I shall as soon pronounce which Grace more neatly Trips it before Apollo than the rest. 48 QUANTITY. [ TIT . j. I cannot deny myself the pleasure of giving one more example of this from Voiture. Boileau regarded this as a perfect specimen of the sonnet. Des portes du matin 1 amante de Ce phale Ses roses 6pandait dans le milieu des airs, Et jetait sur les cieux nouvellement ouverts Ces traits d or et d azur qu en naissant elle etale ; Quand la nymphe divine, & mon repos fatale, Apparut, et brilla de tant d attraits divers, Qu il semblait qu elle seule e"clairait 1 univers, Et remplissait de feu la rive orientale. Le soleil se hatant pour la gloire des cieux, Vint opposer sa flaume a 1 eclat de ses yeux Et prit tous les rayons dont TOlympe se dore. L onde, la terre et I air s allumaient & 1 entour ! Mais auprfes de Philis, on le prit pour 1 Aurore, Et 1 on crut que Philis dtait 1 astre du jour. This form is considered the best, of all the forms of the sonnet, but there is another very generally adopted by the Italian Poets. In that the first line rhymes with the third, the fifth and the seventh, the second rhyming with the fourth, the sixth and the eighth.* It is to be regretted * The following, from Foscolo, will illustrate this form. Non son chi fui ; peri di noi gran parte : CJuesto che avanza, e sol languors e pian^o ; E secco e il mirto, e son le foglie sparte v Del lauro, speme al giovenil mio canto : x Perche dal di ch empia lisenza e Marte Vestivan me del lor sanguineo manto, v Cieca e la mente e guasto il core, ed arte L umana strage, arte e in me fatta e vanto. Che se pur sorge di moiir consiglio, A mia fiera ragion chiudon le porte Furor di gloria e caritk di figlio. Tal di me schiavo, e d altri, e dellasorte, Conosco il meglio ed alpeggior mi appiglio, E so invocare e non darmi la morte. CHAP. I.] IAMBIC MEASURES. 49 that these forms have not been generally adopted by the English Poets. They have departed from the rules laid down by their Italian Masters, and have in many instances made the first stanza contain three and even four rhymes. This is an unwarrantable license. It is a sonnet only in name, for it is just as essential to this verse that it should contain only two rhymes in the first eight lines, as that it should contain fourteen lines in all. Witness the follow ing from Coleridge : Thou gentle Look, that didst my soul beguile, Why hast thou left me 1 Still in some fond dream Revisit my sad heart, auspicious Smile ! As falls on closing flowers the lunar beam ; What time in sickly mood, at parting day I lay me down and think of happier years ; Of joys, that glimmered in hope s twilight ray, Then left me darkling in a vale of tears. O pleasant days of Hope forever gone ! Could I recall you ! But that thought is vain, Availeth not Persuasion s sweetest tone To lure the fleet-winged travellers back again : Yet fair, though faint, their images shall gleam, Like the bright rainbow on a willowy stream. Shakspeare s sonnets are all, with a single exception, written in this measure, and this is the more strange as he had his Italian models before him, and was one of the first that introduced the sonnet into English. A form different from either of these has been adopted by several of our Poets. In this the first line rhymes with the fourth, the fifth and the seventh, the second rhyming with the third, the sixth and the eighth. The following from Byron furnishes an appropriate example : Of two fair virgins, modest, though admired, Heaven made us happy ; and now, wretched sires, Heaven for a nobler doom their worth desires ; And gazing upon either, both required. 50 QUANTITY. [TIT. 1 Mine, while the torch of Hymen newly fired Becomes extinguished, soon too soon expires: But thine, within the closing grate retired, Eternal captive, to her God aspires. But thou at least from out the jealous door, Which shuts between your never-meeting eyes, May st hear her sweet and pious voice once more : I to the marble where my daughter lies, Rush, the swollen flood of bitterness I pour, And knock, and knock, and knock but none replies. This form, though admissible, is by no means so good as the two preceding ones. We now come to the two triplets which close the son net. There are several arrangements for these as there are for the preceding stanzas. For these we will give the opinion of Mr. Hallam in his own words. " The rhymes of the last six lines are capable of many arrangements: but by far the worst, and also the least common in Italy, is that we usually adopt, the fifth and sixth rhyming toge ther, frequently after a full pause, so that the sonnet ends with the point of an epigram. ^*The best form, as the Ital v ianshold, is the rhyming together of the three uneven and the three even lines ; but, as our language is less rich in consonant terminations, there can be no objection to what has abundant precedents even in theirs, the rhyming of the first and fourth, second and fifth, third and sixth lines./ This, with a break in the sense at the third line, will make a real sonnet, which Shakspeare, Milton, Bowles, and Wordsworth have often failed to give us, even where they have given us something good instead." The following is an example of the best arrangement : Methought I saw my late espoused saint Brought to me, like Alcestis, from the grave, Whom Jove s great son to her glad husband gave, Rescued from death by force, though pale and faint CHAP. I.] IAMBIC MEASURES. 51 Mine, as whom washed from spot of child-bed taint, Purification in the old Law did save, And such, as yet once more I trust to have Full sight of her in Heaven without restraint, - Came vested all in white, pure as her mind : <?v Her face was veiled ; yet, to my fancied sight, Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shined * So clear, as in no face with more delight : But ! as to embrace me she inclined, ; , I waked ; she fled ; and day brought back my night. * MILTON. On his deceased Wife. The following is an example of the arrangement next to be preferred after the preceding : Had I a man s form, then might my sighs Be echoed swiftly through that ivory shell Thine ear, and find thy gentle heart ; so well Would passion arm me for the enterprise ; But ah ! I am no knight whose foeman dies : No cuirass glistens on my bosom s swell ; I am no happy shepherd of the dell, Whose lips have trembled with a maiden s eyes, Yet must I dote upon thee, call thee sweet, Sweeter by far than Hybla s honied roses When steeped in dew rich to intoxication. Ah ! I will taste that dew, for me tis meel, And when the moon her pallid face discloses, I ll gather some by spells and incantation. KEATS. The worst form, in the opinion of Mr. Hallam, is that in which the fifth line and the sixth are made to rhyme together. Witness the following example : Oh ! it is pleasant, with a heart at ease, Just after sunset, or by moonlight skies, To make the shifting clouds be what you please, Or yield the easily persuaded eyes 52 QUANTITY. [TIT. I. To each quaint image issuing from the mould Of a friend s fancy ; or with head bent low, And cheek aslant, see rivers flow of gold Twixt crimson banks ; and then, a traveller, go From mount to mount through Cloudland, gorgeous land ! Or listening to the tide with closed sight, Be that blind bard, who on the Chian strand, By those deep sounds possessed, with inward light Beheld the Iliad and the Odyssey Rise to the swelling of the voiceful sea ! COLERIDGE. It must be acknowledged that this, beautiful as it is in point of sentiment, has in it nothing of the sonnet except the name. 10. Blank Verse. Blank verse is measure without rhyme, and should always be in the heroic measure. This, though not peculiar to the English among modern languages, has been em ployed with greater success in this than in any other. It will be found that but few comparatively of those who have attempted this measure have succeeded in it, from the fact that the music is produced entirely by the dispo se sition of the feet, unaided by rhyme, which is one of the chief characteristics of modern poetry. To succeed in this requires a great sensibility of taste, an ear unerringly correct. It may be laid down as a maxim, that rhyme is more difficult of construction than blank verse, but that good blank verse is more difficult of construction than good rhyme. ( The music not being aided by rhyme, /it is frequently necessary to resort to inversions in order V to avoid being prosaic. We have only to compare dif ferent passages of the Paradise Lost with passages of Pope s Homer, for example, and we shall see that inver sions are far more frequent in the former than in the OHAP. 1.] IAMBIC MEASURES. 53 latter. Addison says that " blank verse is such a due medium between rhyme and prose that it seems wonder fully adapted to tragedy." **0ne way in which this verse may be said to be a due medium between rhyme and prose is its carrying the sense through several lines and not confining it to two as in couplets. The Spenserian stanza in this respect allows the same liberties as blank verse. Nearly all the dramatic writers have adopted this measure, but with a few exceptions, their productions are more distinguished for propriety and beauty of sentiment than for the harmony of the verse. And it is not among our tragic Poets that we must look for the finest specimens of blank verse. The only Poet that seems to have perfectly succeeded in this measure is Milton. Dr. Johnson in his life of Milton makes the following remarks upon blank verse. " Poetry," he observes, " may subsist without rhyme ; but English poetry will not often please, nor can rhyme ever be safely spared, but where the subject is able to support it self. Blank verse makes some approach to that which is called the lapidary style ; has neither the easiness of prose, nor the melody of numbers, and therefore tires by long continuance. Of the Italian writers without rhyme, whom Milton alleges as precedents, not one is popular ; what reason could urge in its defence, has been confuted by the ear." " But whatever be the advantages of rhyme," he further observes, " I cannot prevail on myself to wish that Milton had been a rhymer ; for I cannot wish his work to be other than it is ; yet, like other heroes, he is to be admired rather than imitated. He that thinks himself capa ble of astonishing, may write blank verse : but those that hope only to please must condescend to rhyme." Mil ton s great genius seems to have been able not only to con ceive the sentiments of a higher order of beings, but to express these sentiments in language truly divine. The 54 QUANTITY. [TIT. I. Greeks said of their beloved Plato, that if the gods should come upon the earth they would adopt his language ; and we may say of Milton, that if the spirits he describes were to visit the earth they would find a language already formed to their use in Paradise Lost. A single extract will show that this remark is not an exaggeration. This will furnish the fifth example of heroic measure : ,1>- . vi. , ( _ What, if the breath, that kindled those grim fires, Awaked, should blow them into sevenfold ragp, And plunge us in the flames? or from above Should intermitted vengeance arm again His red right hand to plague us 1 what if all Her stores were opened, and this firmament Of Hell should spout her cataracts of fire, Impendent horrors, threatening hideous fall One day upon our heads ; while we, perhaps, Designing or exhorting glorious war, Caught in a fiery tempest shall be hurled Each on his rock transfixed, the sport and prey Of wracking whirlwinds ; or forever sunk Under yon boiling ocean, wrapt in chains, There to converse with everlasting groans, Unrespited, unpitied, unreprieved, Ages of hopeless end ! The above passage shows how peculiarly fitted blank verse is for sublime subjects. Milton has shown in various parts of Comus as well as Paradise Lost that this verse is capable of great harmony. As a proof of the truth of this last remark take the following passage of Comus, which, whether we consider the sweetness of the words, their combined harmony, or the beauty of the sentiments, is one of the most beautiful passages in our language. The Poet is speaking of chastity. ;HAP. [.] IAMBIC MEASURES. 55 Hence had the huntress Dian her dread bow, Fair silver-shafted queen, forever chaste, Wherewith she tamed the brinded lioness And spotted mountain-pard, but set at naught The frivolous bolt of Cupid : gods and men Feared her stern frown, and she was queen o the woods. What was that snaky-headed Gorgon shield, That wise Minerva wore, unconquered virgin, Wherewith she freezed her foes to congealed stone, By rigid looks of chaste austerity, And noble grace, that dashed brute violence With sudden adoration and blank awe 1 So dear to Heaven is saintly Chastity, That, when a soul is found sincerely so, A thousand liveried Angels lackey her, Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt ; And, in clear drearn and solemn vision, Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear ; Till oft converse with heavenly habitants Begin to cast a beam on the outward shape, The unpolluted temple of the mind, And turn it by degrees to the soul s essence, Till all be made immortal. Shakspeare wrote most of his plays in blank verse, but he has few passages of any considerable length which can be considered correct. He had before him no models, and with him Art never came to the aid of Nature. There are in his works many passages of remarkable beauty, but their beauty is generally owing rather to the propriety and delicacy of the sentiments than to the sweetness of the verse. He followed no rules, and wrote in a style pecu liar to himself, a style called from him Shaksperean, which term implies a locse kind of verse, subjected to no law, and not amenable to the tribunal of criticism. There are, however, passages which will form exceptions to these remarks, and which are not only not harsh but quite har- 56 QUANTITY. [TIT. i. monious. The following example, descriptive of the effect of music heard in the stillness of night, contains many notes kindred to the subject treated of: How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank ! Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music Creep in our ears ; soft stillness, and the night, Become the touches of sweet harmony. Sit, Jessica : Look, how the floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold ; There s not the smallest orb, which thou behold st, But in his motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins. Such harmony is in immortal souls, But whilst this muddy vesture of decay Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it. Her. of Yen,, Act, V. Scene. 1. In this passage not only is the general effect good but the several lines are very melodious, a circumstance rather rare with Shakspeare, even in his best pieces. I cannot deny myself the pleasure of adding to the foregoing examples in blank verse, a few lines from BRYANT, who has written some of the choicest morsels in rhyme that have been produced by American genius, and it is no disparagement to others to say that he has succeeded better than any other American poet in the construction of blank verse. The following is truly sublime : - ... -r Ye t not to thy eternal resting-place Shalt thou retire alone nor couldst thou wish Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie down With patriarchs of the infant world with kings, The powerful of the earth the wise, the good, Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past, All in one mighty sepulchre. The hills Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun the vales CHAP. 1.] IAMBIC MEASURES. 57 Stretching in pensive quietness between ; The venerable woods rivers that move In majesty, and the complaining brooks That make the meadows green ; and, poured round all, Old Ocean s gray and melancholy waste, Are but the solemn decorations all Of the great tomb of man. The golden sun, The planets, all the infinite host of heaven, Are shining on the sad abodes of death, Through the still lapse of ages. All that tread The globe are but a handful to the tribes That slumber in its bosom. Take the wings Of morning and the Barcan desert pierce, Or lose thyself in the continuous woods Where rolls the Oregan, and hears no sound, Save his own dashings yet the dead are there, And millions in those solitudes, since first The flight of years began, have laid them down In their last sleep the dead reign there alone. Thanatopsis. It is proper to remark, that blank verse should never consist of more or of less than five feet. It will be found that lines composed of any number of feet less than five, being void of harmony, on account of extreme monotony, require rhyme to give them melody. A few lines from SOUTHEY S Thalaba will make the truth of this remark evident : Through the broken portal, Over weedy fragments, Thalaba went his way. Cautious he trod, and felt The dangerous ground before him with his bow. The jackal started at his steps ; The stork, alarmed at sound of man, From her broad nest upon the old pillar top, Affrighted fled on flapping wings ; The adder, in her haunts disturbed, Lanced at the intruding staff her arrowy tongue. THf 58 QUANTITY. [TIT. I. Twilight and moonshine, dimly mingling, gave An awful light obscure : Evening not wholly closed The moon still pale and faint, An awful light obscure, Broken by many a mass of blackest shade ; Long columns stretching dark through weeds and moss, Broad length of lofty wall, Whose windows lay in light, And of their former shape, low-arched or square, Rude outline on the earth Figured with long grass fringed. It is to be regretted that sentiments so appropriate to the subject should be expressed in such unwarrantable measure. We here close our remarks on the subject of blank verse, and with them the subject of the heroic line; hav ing given a sufficient number of examples to show that this line is employed in a great variety of measures, in all of which it is adapted to the expression of all noble sentiments, whether solemn, beautiful, or sublime. 11. The line of five Iambuses followed by a short syllable. The ninth species of the Iambic line, consists of five Iambuses and an additional short syllable. This measure is adapted to burlesque and humorous subjects. It is of rare occurrence. BYRON S Beppo is written for the most part in this measure ; nor would it have been possible to choose a measure better suited to the subject than this. It will be perceived that the seventh species of Iambic line differs from this only in having one foot less. This has an effect equally ludicrous with that, but not quite so animated. It cannot be too often remarked that CHAP. I.] IAMBIC MEASURES. 59 the short syllable added to any number of feet always adds vivacity and briskness, and hence, all these Amphi- brachic measures should be employed only in treating gay subjects. We will give an example of this measure from Beppo : They lock them up, and veil and guard them daily, They scarcely can behold their male relations, So that their moments do not pass so gaily As is supposed the case with northern nations ; Confinement, too, must make them look quite palely : And as the Turks abhor long conversations, Their days are either past in doing nothing, Or bathing, nursing, making love and clothing. They cannot read, and so don t lisp in criticism ; Nor write, and so they don t affect the muse ; Were never caught in epigram or witticism, Have no romances, sermons, plays, reviews, In harems learning soon would make a pretty schism ! But luckily these beauties are no " blues," No bustling Botherbys have they to show em " That charming passage in the last new poem." Again : I also like to dine on becaficas, To see the sun set, sure he ll rise to-morrow, Not through a misty morning twinkling weak as A drunken man s dead eye in maudlin sorrow, But with all Heaven t himself; that day will break as Beauteous as cloudless, nor be forced to borrow That sort of farthing candlelight which glimmers Where reeking London s smoky caldron simmers. I love the language, that soft bastard Latin, Which melts like kisses from a female mouth, And sounds as if it should be writ on satin, With syllables which breathe of the sweet South, And gentle liquids gliding all so pat in, That not a single accent seems uncouth, 60 QUANTITY. [TIT. I. Like our harsh northern whistling, grunting guttural, Which we re obliged to hiss, and spit and sputter all. 12. The Alexandrine. The tenth species of the Iambic line consists of six Iambuses, and forms what is called the Alexandrine. This is chiefly used at the end of a stanza, but sometimes intermingled with the common heroic of five feet. It is found employed in this latter way by many writers of Queen Elizabeth s time, but Cowley seems to have been the first that gave it the stamp of authority and made it current. Dryden* gives the following account of its introduction into English heroic poetry. He says, " Spenser has also given me the boldness to make use sometimes of his Alexandrine line, which we call, though improperly, the Pindaric, because Mr. Cowley has often employed it in his odes. It adds a certain majesty to the verse, when it is used with judgment, and stops the sense from over flowing into another line. Formerly the French, like us, and the Italians, had but five feet, or ten syllables, in their heroic verse: but since Ronsard s time, as I suppose, they found their tongue too weak to support their epic poetry without the addition of another foot." The same critic says again : " When I mentioned the Pindaric (Alexan drine) line, I should have added that I take another license in my verses : for I frequently make use of triplet rhymes, and for the same reason, because they bound the sense. And therefore I generally join these two licenses together, and make the last verse of the triplet a Pindaric : for, be sides the majesty which it gives, it confines the sense within the barriers of three lines, which would languish * Dedication of the JSneid, CHAP. I.] IAMBIC MEASURES. 61 if it were lengthened into four. Spenser is my example for both these privileges of English verse; and Chapman has followed it in his translation of Homer ; Mr. Cowley has given in to them after both, and all succeeding writers after him. I regard them now as the Magna Charta of heroic poetry, and am too much of an English man to lose what my ancestors have gained for me. Let the French and Italians value themselves on their regu larity ; strength and elevation are our standard." Upon these remarks, it is proper to observe, that since the time of Dryden and Pope, Spenser and Cowley are no longer regarded as the Magna Charta of heroic poetry ; and the judgment of all these fathers of English verse though they were has been thought to have been, in this respect, erroneous. Later poets have judged that the line of five feet has already sufficient strength and elevation even for epic poetry, and the Alexandrine intermingled with couplets is used very sparingly. The triplet, except in the stanza before mentioned ( 9) under the head of heroic measure, or the stanzas formed of a triplet and an additional short line, ( 7) is fallen almost completely into desuetude. It will be sufficient to give the following examples of the triplet and Alexandrine combined : In fear of this, the father of the gods Confined their fury to those dark abodes, And locked them safe within, oppressed with mountain loads. DBYDEN S JEneid, B. I. 1. 90. Again : Their fury falls ; he skims the liquid plains, High on his chariot, and, with loosened reins, Majestic moves along, and awful peace maintains. Ibid. 1. 223. 4 62 QUANTITY. [TIT. J. Again : Athwart her breast a golden belt she throws, Amid the press alone provokes a thousand foes, And dares her maiden arms to manly force oppose. Ibid. 1. 692, Again : If our hard fortune no compassion draws, Nor hospitable rights, nor human laws, The gods are just, and will revenge our cause. Ibid. 1. 764. These examples, and others that might be quoted, con firm the judgment of the later poets/ and show, in my opinion, that how majestic soever the Alexandrine may be (and that it is highly so, no ear can fail to perceive) when intermingled with couplets, the measure loses more in animation than it gains in majesty. For the same reason that the Alexandrine should be avoided in triplets as rendering them too clumsy, it should never form the closing line of the quatrain. Its use in this way is not perhaps sufficiently common to render this caution necessary ; but it is proper to point out the rule distinctly, though it may never have been violated in more than one or two instances. To show the unwiehn ness of the quatrain ending with this line, one example will abun dantly suffice : Mark how it snows ! how fast the valley fills, And the sweet groves the hoary garment wear ; Yet the warm sunbeams, bounding from the hills, Shall melt the veil away, and the young green appear. But when old age has on your temples shed Her silver frost, there s no returning sun : Swift flies our summer, swift our autumn s fled, When youth and love and spring and golden joys are gone. How easy to have avoided this drawling close. CHAP. I.] IAMBIC MEASURES. 63 The word away in the last line of the first stanza, adds nothing to the force of the expression, and might have been omitted without prejudice to the sense, and the line, though it could not be made smooth without entirely changing the construction, would have contained the same number of feet as the three preceding lines, and would have been much less cumbrous than it now is. In the last line of the second stanza, the word youth has its synonyme under the form of a trope, in the word spring a tautology of the worst species and the line would be far more nervous if the word youth were omitted. The line, with a slight inversion, would read thus : When spring and love and golden joys are gone. In the following stanzas the Alexandrine might better have been shortened into a heroic line, though the two middle lines being of eight syllables, the stanza is by no means so clumsy as that just mentioned : The silent globe is struck with awful fear, When thy majestic shades appear : Thou dost compose the air and sea, And earth a Sabbath keeps, sacred to rest and thee. In thy serener shades our ghosts delight, And court the umbrage of the night ; In vaults and gloomy caves they stray, But fly the morning beams, and sicken at the day. Though solid bodies dare exclude the light, Nor will the brightest ray admit ; No substance can thy force repel, Thou reign st in depths below ; dost in the centre dwell. The sparkling gems, and ore in mines below, To thee their beauteous lustre owe ; Though formed within the womb of night, Bright as their Sire they shine, with native rays of light. YALDEN. Hymn to Darkness. 64 QUANTITY. [TIT. i. That the Alexandrine has great beauty at the close of a stanza where majesty is requisite, must be obvious to all. GRAY S Ode to Adversity, already quoted ( 7) for another purpose, furnishes a good example of its use at the end of the stanza of eight lines of four Iambuses. His Ode on the Progress of Poesy furnishes some Alexan drines, among the most musical as well as most majestic in the whole range of English poetry. I cannot forbear quoting the following examples : Far from the sun and summer gale, In thy green lap was Nature s darling laid ; What time, where lucid Avon strayed, To him the mighty mother did unveil Her awful face ; the dauntless child Stretched forth his little arms, and spiled. i This* pencil take (she said) whose colours clear Richly paint the vernal year ; Thine too these golden keys, immortal boy ; This can unlock the gates of joy ; Of horrpr that,. and thrilling fears, ^. _^ Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears. Nor second he that rode sublime Upon the seraph-wings of ecstasy, The secrets of the abyss to spy. He passed the flaming bounds of place and time ; The living throne, the sapphire blaze, Where angels tremble while they gaze, He saw, but blasted with excess of light, Closed his eyes in endless night. Behold where Dryden s less presumptuous car Wide o er the fields of glory bear Two coursers of etherealj^ce, ^ ^^ ^ ^.v, With necks in thunder clothed, and long resounding pace. Part II. Stanzas 1 and 2. Of the use of the Alexandrine at the close of the Spenserian stanza, one example will suffice : CHAP. I.] IAMBIC MEASURES. 65 Shall I be left abandoned in the dust, When Fate relenting, lets the flower revive? Shall nature s voice, to man alone unjust, Bid him, though doomed to perish, hope to live ? Is it for this fair virtue oft must strive With disappointment, penury, and pain] No ; Heaven s immortal spring shall yet arrive, And man s majestic beauty bloom again, Bright through the eternal year of Love s triumphant reign. BEAT/TIE S Minstrel. The Spenserian was a favourite stanza with Dr. Beattie, who declares that " it admits both simplicity and magnificence of sound and of language, beyond any other stanza he is acquainted with." This is not in accordance with the opinion of Dryden, who regards the quatrain of the heroic line as surpassing all the other stanzas in majesty. The greater part of refined ears will, I think, pronounce in favour of Dr. Beattie s opinion. But what ever may be the merit of this stanza in point of majesty, as compared with the quatrain, it must be obvious that the Alexandrine at the close adds majesty to a stanza in other respects majestic. It is worthy of remark, that this line is never admitted into blank verse. Nor is it easy to discover why a species of measure that admits of so many licenses has denied itself the use of a line so well suited to the fullness of expression required in blank verse. The Alexandrine was formerly employed, like our heroic measure, in consecutive lines, and carried through an entire piece. But this has been long laid aside as un wieldy. One of the happiest examples of the use of this measure occurs in DRAYTON S Description of a Stag-Hunt. As this measure is of rare occurrence, even among the older poets, we shall give the greater part of this piece, omitting the introduction : 66 QUANTITY. [TIT. I. Now when the hart doth hear The often-bellowing hounds to vent his secret lair, He rousing rusheth out, and through the brakes doth drive, As though up by the roots the bushes he would rive. And through the cumb rous thicks, as fearfully he makes, He with his branched head the tender saplings shakes, That sprinkling their moist pearl do seem for him to weep ; When after goes the cry, with yellings loud and deep, That all the forest rings, and every neighbouring place : And there is not a hound but falleth to the chase. Rechating with his horn, which then the hunter cheers, Whilst still the lusty stag his high-palm d head upbears, His body showing state, with unbent knees upright, Expressing from all beasts, his courage in his flight. But when th approaching foes still following he perceives, That he his speed must trust, his usual walk he leaves, And o er the champain flies ; which when the assembly find, Each follows, as his horse were footed with the wind. But being then imbost, the noble stately deer When he hath gotten ground (the kennel cast arrear) Doth beat the brooks and ponds for sweet refreshing soil ; That serving not, then proves if he his scent can foil, And makes amongst the herds, and flocks of shag-wooled sheep, Them frighting from the guard of those who had their keep. But when as all his shifts his safety still denies, Put quite out of his walk, the ways and fallows tries ; Whom when the ploughman meets, his team he letteth stand, T assail him with his goad : so with his hook in hand, The shepherd him pursues, and to his dog doth hallow, When, with tempestuous speed, the hounds and huntsmen follow, Until the noble deer, through toil bereaved of strength, His long and sinewy legs then failing him at length, The villages attempts, enraged, not giving way To any thing he meets now at his sad decay. The cruel ravenous hounds and bloody hunters near, This noblest beast of chase, that vainly doth but fear, Some bank or quick-set finds ; to which his haunch opposed, He turns upon his foes, that soon have him inclosed. The churlish-throated hounds then holding him at bay, And as their cruel fangs on his harsh skin they lay, CHAP. I.] IAMBIC MEASURES. 67 With his sharp-pointed head he dealeth deadly wounds. The hunter, coming in to help his wearied hounds, He desperately assails ; until opprest by force, He, who the mourner is to his own dying corse, Upon the ruthless earth his precious tears lets fall To forests that belongs. I cannot dismiss this part of the subject without quoting an example of a happy use of two Alexandrines rhyming with each other, from NEAL S American Eagle. This may justly be regarded as one of the happiest efforts of the American Muse. I will cite the last twelve lines : That monarch Bird ! she slumbers in the night Upon the lofty air-peak s utmost height ; Or sleeps upon the wing, amid the ray Of steady, cloudless, everlasting day : Rides with the Thunderer in his blazing march, And bears his lightnings o er yon boundless arch ; Soars wheeling through the storm, and screams away, Where the young pinions of the morning play ; Broods with her arrows in the hurricane ; Bears her green laurel o er the starry plain, And sails around the skies, and o er the rolling deeps, With still unwearied wing, and eye that never sleeps. Here all the lines except the last two are composed of Iambuses, varied by Trochees and Spondees, a measure full of dignity and majesty ; but even this measure was too tame to express the lofty flight of the bird of our ban ner, as she bears the stars around the world ; the poet closes by two Alexandrines, which in strength and majesty are not excelled by Gray or Dryden. 13. The line of seven Iambuses. The eleventh species of Iambic measure is the line of seven feet. It is now divided into two lines, the first four 68 QUANTITY. [TIT. I. feet forming the first line, and the remaining three feet the second line. Two lines of seven feet form in this manner a stanza of four lines, the first and third contain ing four feet and the second and fourth containing three feet. The second and fourth are of course the only lines that rhyme. This is a favourite stanza with the English poets. The seven feet were thrown into one line, the cee- sura always falling after the fourth foot, till near the end of the seventeenth century, when two lines were broken down into a stanza of four lines, which form it has since generally retained. It is, in the opinion of Dr. Johnson, " the most soft and pleasing of our lyric measures." It possesses terseness, and what the French call nettett, in a high degree. The Iliad was translated into this measure by CHAPMAN, and the JEneid by PHAER. It is now con fined mostly to lyric poetry, and some of our choicest morsels are in this measure. Among these may be men tioned ADDISON S Hymn on Gratitude, COWPER S John Gilpin, and COLERIDGE S Three Graves. The Hymn 022 Gratitude will show the capacities of this stanza : li _ / l/ f tf> **tW i i/ When all thy mercies, O my God ! My rising soul surveys, Transported with the view, I m lost In. wonder, love, and praise. O how shall words, with equal warmth, The gratitude declare, That glows within my ravished heart 1 But thou canst read it there. Thy providence my life sustained, And all my wants redressed, When in the silent womb I lay And hung upon the breast. To all my weak complaints and cries, Thy mercy lent an ear, CHAP. I.J IAMBIC MEASURES. 69 Ere yet my feeble thoughts had learned To form themselves in prayer. Unnumbered comforts to my soul Thy tender care bestowed, Before my infant heart conceived From whom those comforts flowed. When in the slippery paths of youth, With heedless steps, I ran, Thine arm, unseen, conveyed me safe, And led me up to man. Through hidden dangers, toils and death, It gently cleared my way ; And through the pleasing snares of vice, More to be feared than they. When worn with sickness, oft hast Thou, With health renewed my face ; And when in sins and sorrow sunk, Revived my soul with grace. Thy bounteous hand, with worldly bliss, Has made my cup run o er ; And, in a kind and faithful friend Has doubled all my store. Ten thousand thousand precious gifts, My daily thanks employ ; Nor is the least a cheerful heart, That tastes those gifts with joy. Through ev ry period of my life, Thy goodness I ll pursue ; And, after death, in distant worlds, The glorious theme renew. When nature fails, and day and night Divide thy works no more, My ever grateful heart, O Lord ! Thy mercy shall adore. 4* 70 QUANTITY. [TIT. J. Through all eternity, to thee A joyful song I ll raise ; For O ! eternity s too short To utter all thy praise. ADDISON. This stanza is admirably adapted to quaint subjects, and it is for this reason that many of the old ballads are written in this measure. Among these BURNS John Bar leycorn holds no mean place ; and as it shows the capaci ties of this stanza in the treatment of quaint subjects, be sides possessing great intrinsic merit, it is given entire : There were three kings into the east, Three kings both great and high, An they hae sworn a solemn oath John Barleycorn should die. They took a plough and ploughed him down, Put clods upon his head, And they hae sworn a solemn oath John Barleycorn was dead. But the cheerful spring came kindly on, And showers began to fall ; John Barleycorn got up again, And sore surprised them all. The sultry suns of summer came, And he grew thick and strong, His head weel armed wi pointed spears, That no one should him wrong. The sober autumn entered mild, When he grew wan and pale ; His bending joints and stooping head Showed he began to fail. His colour sickened more and more, He faded into age ; CHAP. I.J IAMBIC MEASURES. 71 And then his enemies began To show their deadly rage. They ve ta en a weapon long and sharp, And cut him by the knee ; And ty d him fast upon a cart, Like a rogue for forgerie. They laid him down upon his back, And cudgelled him full sore ; They hung him up before the storm, And turned him o er and o er. They filled up a darksome pit With water to the brim, They heaved in John Barleycorn, There let him sink or swim. They laid him out upon the floor, To work him farther wo, And still as signs of life appeared, They tossed him to and fro. They wasted o er a scorching flame, The marrow of his bones ; But a miller used him worst of all, For he crushed him between two stones. And they hae ta en his very heart s blood, And drank it round and round ; And still the more and more they drank, Their joy did more abound. John Barleycorn was a hero bold, Of noble enterprise, For if you do but taste his blood { Twill make your courage rise. Twill make a man forget his wo ; Twill heighten all his joy ; Twill make the widow s heart to sing, Tho the tear were in her eye. 72 QUANTITY. [TIT. i. Then let us toast John Barleycorn, Each man a glass in hand ; And may his great posterity Ne er fail in old Scotland ! In farther illustration of this interesting measure, I cannot deny myself the pleasure of quoting a few lines from one of the ingenious Lays of Ancient Rome, by Mr. MACAULAY. The scene is laid near four hundred years after the founding of the city. The form of the line is retained without breaking it into stanzas : Over the Alban mountains the light of morning broke ; From all the roofs of the Seven Hills curled the thin wreaths of smoke ; The city gates were opened ; the Forum, all alive, With buyers and with sellers, was humming like a hive. Blithely on brass and timber the craftsman s stroke was ringing, And blithely o er her panniers the market-girl was singing, And blithely young Virginia came smiling from her home : Ah ! wo for young Virginia, the sweetest maid in Rome ! With her small tablets in her hand, and her satchel on her arm, Forth she went bounding to the school, nor dreamed of shame or harm. She crossed the Forum, shining with stalls in alleys gay, And just had reached the very spot whereon I stand this day, When up the varlet Marcus came ; not such as when erewhile He crouched behind his patron s heels with the true client smile : He came with lowering forehead, swollen features, and clenched fist, And strode across Virginia s path, and caught her by the wrist. Hard strove the frighted maiden, and screamed with look aghast ; And at her scream from right and left the folk came running fast ; The money-changer Crispus, with his thin silver hairs, And Hanno from the stately booth glittering with Punic wares, And the strong smith Murasna, grasping a half-forged brand, And Volero the flesher, his cleaver in his hand, All came in wrath and wonder ; for all knew that, fair child ; And, as she passed them twice a day, all kissed their hands and smiled And the strong smith Mursna gave Marcus such a blow, The caitiff reeled three paces back, and let the maiden go. CHAP. .[.] IAMBIC MEASURES. 73 As several of SCOTT S specimens of the " Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border" are in this measure, we will give one example from that curious collection of ancient bal lads. In this piece, the quaintness of the subject is ad mirably adapted to the measure : Lord William was the bravest knight That dwalt in fair Scotland, And though renowned in France and Spain, Fell by a ladie s hand ! And she was walking maid alone, Down by yon shady wood, She heard a smit o bridle reins, She wished might be for good. " Come to my arms, rny dear Willie, You re welcome hame to me ; To best o cheer and charcoal red, And candle burning free." " I winna light, I darena light, Nor come to your arms at a ; A fairer maid than ten o you I ll meet at Castle-law." " A fairer maid than me, Willie ! A fairer maid than me ! A fairer maid than ten o me Your eyes did never see." He louted ower his saddle lap, To kiss her ere (hey part, And wi a little keen bodkin, She pierced him to the heart. " Ride on, ride on, Lord William, now, As fast as ye can dree ! Your bonnie lass at Castle-law Will weary you to see." 74 QUANTITY. [TIT. Out up then spake a bonny bird, Sat high upon a tree, " How could you kill that noble lord, Who came to marry thee 1" " Come down, come down, my bonny bird, And eat bread affmy hand ! Your cage shall be of wiry goud, Whar now it s but the wand." " Keep ye your cage o goud, lady, And I will keep my tree ; As ye hae done to Lord William, Sae wad ye do to me." She set her foot on her door step, A bonny marble stane ; And carried him to her chamber, O er him to make her mane. And she has kept that good lord s corpse Three quarters of a year, Until that word began to spread, Then she began to fear. Then she cried on her waiting maid, Aye ready at her ca , " There is a knight into my bower, Tis time he were awa !" The ane has ta en him by the head, The ither by the feet, And thrown him in the wan water, That ran baith wide and deep. " Look back, look back, now lady fair, On him that lo ed ye weel ! A better man than that blue corpse N er drew a sword of steel." CHAP. I.] IAMBIC MEASURES. 75 14. The line of seven Iambuses followed ly a snort syllable. The twelfth and longest species of Iambic verse con sists of seven feet, with a short syllable added. It is only used where an additional short syllable is added to the line of seven feet, and, except in burlesque pieces, it detracts from the beauty of that line. Some examples from COLERIDGE S Three Graves will suffice to show the justness of this remark: The wind was wild ; against the glass The rain did beat and bicker ; The church-tower swinging overhead, You scarce could hear the vicar ! Again : There was a hurry in her looks, Her struggles she redoubled ; " It was a wicked woman s curse, And why should I be troubled 1" Again : Had Ellen lost her mirth ? Oh ! no ! But she was seldom cheerful ; And Edward looked as if he thought That Ellen s mirth was fearful. Again : Then harder, till her grasp at length Did gripe like a convulsion ! Alas! said she, we ne er can be Made happy by compulsion ! So gentle Ellen now no more Could make this sad house cheery ; And Mary s melancholy ways Drove Edward wild and weary. The use of this measure, in a tale of wo, like that from which we have taken these examples, is entirely out of 76 QUANTITY. [TIT. I. place ; the additional short syllable at the end of the second and the fourth lines, gives an air of burlesque to the whole performance. This measure is appropriate only when the subject is humorous or satiric, and then it adds greatly, as the short syllable always does, to the briskness required in the treatment of such subjects. It is for this reason, that many humorous ballads have been written in this measure. When the subjects of these ballads are serious, the measure last treated of ( 13) is preferable, and that is the measure employed in most of the old ballads. The following example from PERCY S Reliques is written in this measure, but as the subject is a doleful one, it would have been far more appropriately treated in the measure of the preceding section. BARBARA ALLEN. In Scarlet towne, where I was borne, There was a laire maiddwemn, \ Made every youth crye, " Wel-awaye !" Her name: was Barbara Allen. All in the merrye month of May, When greene buds they were swellin, Yong Jemmye Grove on his death-bed lay, For love of Barbara Allen. He sent his man unto her then, To the town where shee was dwellin ; " You must come to my master deare, Giffyour name be Barbara Allen. For death is printed on his face, And ore his harte is stealin : Then haste away to comfort him, O lovelye Barbara Allen." CHAP. 1.] IAMBIC MEASURES. 77 " Though death be printed on his face, And ore his harte is stealin, Yet little better shall he bee, For bonny Barbara Allen." So slowly, slowly, she came up, And slowly she came nye him ; And all she sayd, when there she came, " Yong man, I think y are dying." He turned his face unto her straight, With deadlye sorrow sighing ; " O lovely maid, come pity mee, Ime on my deth-bed lying." " If on your death-bed you doe lye What needs the tale you are tellin ; I cannot keep you from your death ; Farewell," sayd Barbara Allen. He turned his face unto the wall, As deadlye pangs he fell in : " Adieu ! adieu ! adieu to you all, Adieu to Barbara Allen." As she was walking ore the fields, She heard a bell a knellin ; And every stroke did seem to saye, " Unworthye Barbara Allen !" She turned her bodye round about, And spied the corps a coming : Laye down, laye down the corps," she sayd, " That I may look upon him." With scornful eye she looked downe, Her cheeke with laughter swellin ; Whilst all her friends cryd out amaine, " Unworthye Barbara Allen !" 78 QUANTITY. [TIT. i, When he was dead, and laid in grave, Her harte was struck with sorrowe, " O mother, mother, make my bed, For I shall die to-morrowe. Hard-hearted creature him to slight, Who loved me so dearlye : O that I had beene more kind to him, When he was alive and neare me !" She, on her death-bed as she laye, Beg d to be buried by him ; And sore repented of the daye, That she did ere denye him. " Farewell," she sayd, "ye virgins all, And shun the fault I fell in : Henceforth take warning by the fall Of cruel Barbara Allen." 15. General Remarks on the Iambus. We have now given an account sufficiently complete of the use of the Iambic foot, and of the various lines which it forms. In the previous examples of the Iambic line, there are various intermixtures of other feet ; but the Iambus forms the groundwork, and the other feet are intermixed only for the sake of variety. Isolated examples may be found of lines composed of a single Iambus, and even of a single* long syllable ; but these are licenses not sanctioned by good usage, and are blemishes upon any work whether serious or comic. It must have been remarked that the briskness of the measure is always increased by short syllables, and lessened by long ones. So true is it that the short syllable increases the rapidity of the movement, * Fall of Hebe, by T. MOORE. CHAP. I.] IAMBIC MEASURES. 79 that a line of three Iambuses or a line of four Iambuses, is rendered more sprightly by the addition of a short sylla ble, though the time required to utter it is thereby neces sarily increased. All those lines, therefore, which take a short syllable at the end, and which are sometimes on that account called Amphibrachic, are admirably adapted to trivial, gay, familiar, humorous, or burlesque subjects. They are, on the contrary, so inconsistent with serious or dignified subjects, that they never fail, when employed on these subjects, if not to give them a burlesque effect, to detract at least from the dignity which such subjects ought always to maintain. The reason of this seems to be that we never dwell on a short syllable, nor can we do this without an effort. The voice slides over it, and hurries on to the next word. A long syllable, on the other hand, arrests the voice, and forces the reader to dwell upon it. I would bespeak the attention of the stu dent to these remarks, as they will be of great use to him in the study of English poetry, particularly that of the lyric kind. I would also call his attention to the exist ence of the principle above mentioned in Trochaic verse, where he will not fail to observe that the long syllable so frequently added to this verse always imparts to it an air of dignity, solemnity, or sadness. I dwell the longer on this subject, that it has never been stated with sufficient distinctness, nor insisted on so much as it deserves to be. It is a principle pretty generally practised on by our best poets, but some of them have erred egregiously in the choice of their measures. It is time that the nature of these measures should be distinctly understood. We shall soon come to a consideration of the several Trochaic lines, and the examples which we shall give will fully sustain the correctness of these remarks. It must have been observed, not only that the Iambus 80 QUANTITY. [TIT. I. is capable of forming a great variety of lines, but these lines are capable of a great number of different combina tions into stanzas. Though we have given several dif ferent kinds of stanza under almost every section, it must not be supposed that we have given all. The variety of stanzas in English verse is almost unlimited, and to attempt to give all, would be an endless task. All we can do is to give the principal, and for rules on this head refer the student to the writings of the best poets. It is proper to observe that almost all the stanzas are capable of being carried on, that is, the sense may be carried from one to the next. The Spenserian, being a long stanza and closing with an Alexandrine, generally com pletes the sense. The triplet stanza ( 7) also generally completes the sense. CHAPTER II. TROCHAIC MEASURES. 16. Quantity of the Trochee. THE Trochee consists of two syllables, the first long and the last short. Before proceeding to the purely Trochaic line, we will give a few examples of its use as a secondary foot employed for the sake of variety in heroic measure. And here it must not be employed in discriminately. It is not allowable either in the second or the fifth place of the heroic line. It has peculiar beauty in the first place, particularly when followed by a Spondee, and is admissible in the third and the fourth places. The following are examples of a Trochee in the first place : CHAP. II.] TROCHAIC MEASURES. 81 Warms in the sun, refreshes In the breeze, Glows in the stars and blossoms in the trees, Lives through all life, extends through all extent Spreads undivided, operates unspent. Again : Longer thy offered good ; why else set here 1 In the third place, the effect is less agreeable : Forbid who will, none shall from me withhold. In the fourth place, the effect is not more happy : Could not but taste. Forthwith up to the clouds. Again : Than when fair morning first smiles on the world. 17. The line of a single Trochee. We now proceed to the first and shortest species of the purely Trochaic line. This is the single Trochee. It will readily be perceived that this line can never be continued for any considerable extent, and its occur rence in isolated instances is exceedingly rare. It adds a briskness to the piece, on account of the frequent recur rence of the rhymes, as well as the sprightliness of the short syllable at the close of this foot. The following example, with the context, will show the ingenuity of this measure and its effect, which is remarkably happy : From walk to walk, from shade to shade, From stream to purling stream conveyed, Through all the mazes of the grove, Through all the mingling tracks I rove, Turning, Burning, 82 QUANTITY. [TIT. j. Changing, Ranging, Full of grief and full of love. ADDISON S Rosamond, Act I. Scene 4. Nothing could more fully express the fickleness and impatience of the passion of Love, than this example. 18. The line of a Trochee followed by a long syllable. The second species of the Trochaic line is made up of one Trochee and an additional long syllable. It is not so rare as the first species, but still it is very uncommon. The following examples show the beauty of this measure when intermingled with others : Or we sometimes pass an hour Under a green willow, That defends us from the shower, Making earth our pillow ; Where we may Think and pray, Before death Stops our breath : Other joys Are but toys, And to be lamented. JOHN CHALKHILL. Adieu ye wanton shades and bowers, Wreaths of myrtle, beds of flowers, Rosy brakes, Silver lakes, To love and you A long adieu ! Eosamond, Act III. Scene 1. Here the two middle lines are in this measure. CHAP. II.] TROCHAIC MEASURES. 83 Again : Mysterious love, uncertain treasure, Hast thou more of pain or pleasure ! Chiil d with tears, Kill d with fears, Endless torments dwell about thee : Yet who would live, and live without thee ! Ibid. Act III. Scene 2, Again : What sounds were heard, What scenes appeared, O er all the dreary c,gasts ! l>rc;uiful gleams, Dismal screams, Fires that glow, Shrieks of wo, Sullen moans, Hollow groans, And cries of tortured ghosts. POPE S Ode on St. Cecilia s Day. 19. The line of two Trochees. The third species of the Trochaic line is made up of two Trochees : Absence wounds me, Fear surrounds me, Guilt confounds me, Was ever passion crossed like mine 1 ADDISON S Rosamond, Act I. Scene 4. Again : Oh, the pleasing, pleasing anguish, When we love and when we languish ! Wishes rising ! Thoughts surprising ! Pleasure courting! 84 QUANTITY. [ TIT . K Charms transporting ! Fancy viewing Joys ensuing ! Oh, the pleasing, pleasing anguish ! Ibid. Act I. Scene 6. The fifth and sixth lines of the following examples are happy examples of the use of this measure among other short measures : COL. O. Oh what a night is here for love ! Cynthia brightly shining above ; Among the trees, To the sighing breeze, Fountains tinkling ; Stars a twinkling : DIANA. Oh what a night is here for love ! So may the morn propitious prove. ISAAC BICKERSTAFF. Comic Opera of Lionel and Clarissa, Act II. Scene 3. This measure is never continued through a piece, but when mingled with other measures, as in these examples, it adds briskness to the movement and has a very happy effect. This remark is happily illustrated by the following example, in which this line is combined with the line of four Trochees : On a bank, beside a willow, Heaven her covering, earth her pillow, Sad Amynta sighed alone : From the cheerless dawn of morning, Till the dews of night returning, Sighing thus she made her moan : Hope is banished Joys are vanished, Damon, my beloved, is gone ! Time, I dare thee too discover Such a youth, and such a lover ; CHA.P- It.] TROCHAIC MEASURES, Oh ! BO true, so kind was he ! Damon was the pride of Nature, Charming in his every feature : Damon lived alone for me ; Melting kisses, Murmuring blisses ; Who so lived and loved as we ! DRYDEN. Tears of Amynta The following dialogue between Daphne and Nysa. being part of a quintette in Midas, has considerable merit : DAPH. Mother, sure you never Will endeavour To dissever From my favour So sweet a swain ; None so clever E er trod the plain. N YSA. Father, hopes you gave her, Don t deceive her, Can you leave her Sunk forever In pining care ? Haste and save her From black despair. DAPH. Think of his modest grace, His voice, shape, and face ; NYSA. Hearts alarming, DAPH. Bosoms warming, NYSA. Wrath disarming DAPH. With his soft lay : NYSA. He s so charming, Ay, let him stay. BOTH. He s so charming, Ay, let him stay. 20. The line of two Trochees followed ly a long syllable. The fourth species of the Trochaic line is composed of two Trochees and a long syllable. This is of rare 5 8$ {jfUANTITT. [TIT. T. occurrence, and is generally intermingled with other measures. It produces a slow movement,, and is suited to sad subjects. All that s bright must fade, The brightest still the fleetest ; All that s sweet was made But to be lost when sweetest. ***** Who would seek or prize Delights that end in aching? Who would trust to ties That every hour are breaking-? MOOP.E. National Airs, This measure is not agreeable by itself, but when alternating, as above, with lines in which short syllables preponderate, it forms a quatrain of great beauty. 21. The line of three Trochees. The fifth species of the Trochaic line is composed o-f three Trochees. It is of still rarer occurrence than the line last mentioned ; and is never continued through a piece, but is intermingled with other measures, as in the following example, where it is very ingeniously combined with the Iambic line. Every third line, except in one in stance, is composed of three Iambuses, and all the rest are composed of three Trochees. Go where glory waits thee, But, while fame elates thee, Oh ! still remember me. When the praise thou meetest To thine ear is sweetest, Oh ! then remember me. Other arms may press thee, Dearer friends caress thee, All the joys that bless thee Sweeter far may be ; CHAP. II.] TROCHAIC MEASURES. 87 But when friends are nearest, And when joys are dearest, Oh ! then remember me. MOORE. Irish Melodies. 22. The line of three Trochees followed ly a long syllable. The sixth species of the Trochaic line is composed of three Trochees and an additional long syllable. It is of frequent occurrence, particularly among the later poets, and is often continued through an entire piece. It has a sol emn effect, and is employed with great propriety in the treatment of serious subjects. It imparts to all pieces more dignity than any of the other short measures. It is hardly necessary to remark that no trivial or humorous subject should be treated in this measure. Besides dig nity, it imparts an air of sadness to the subject, and is therefore very properly adopted by BYRON in his Maid of Athens. Maid of Athens, ere we part, Give, oh, give me back my heart ! Or, since that has left my breast, Keep it now, and take the rest ! Hear my vow before I go, Zco>7 juoi; ffuj dyairw. ***** Maid of Athens ! I am gone ; Think of me, sweet, when alone. Though I fly to Istambol, Athens holds my heart and soul : Can I cease to love thee ? No ! Zw/7 juor) ffds dyintw. This measure is peculiarly calculated to express en ergy and earnestness, as will appear by the following well known stanzas, from BURNS Bannockburn. 83 QUANTITY. [TIT. i. Scots, wha hae wi Wallace bled, Scots, wham Bruce has often led, Welcome to your gory bed, Or to glorious victory. Now s the day, and novv s the hour; See the front o battle lower ; See approach proud Edward s power, Edward ! chains and slavery ! Wha will be a traitor knave ? Wha can fill a coward s grave 1 Wha sae base as be a slave 1 Traitor ! coward ! turn and flee ! This measure is better calculated than any other for quaint subjects. The following is a very happy example : CLAUD HALCRO Mother darksome, Mother dread Dweller on the Fitful-head, Thou canst see what deeds are done Under the never setting sun. Look through sleet, and look through frost, Look to Greenland s caves and coast, "Ry the iceberg is a sail Chasing of the swarthy whale ; Mother doubtful, Mother dread, Tell us, has the good ship sped? SCOTT. Pirate, ch. xxi. Again : Menseful maiden ne er should rise, Till the first beam tinge the skies ; Silk-fringed eyelids still should close, Till the sun has kissed the rose ; Maiden s foot we should not view, Marked with tiny print on dew, Till the opening flowrets spread Carpet meet for beauty s tread. Ibid, ch. xxiii. CHAP. II.] TROCHAIC MEASURES. 69 Milton, in his Allegro, has very ingeniously alternated . this with the line of four Iambuses. As this method of employing it is not very common, we shall give an example from I* Allegro. Haste thee,.nymnh,ind bring with thee Quips, andj^ranks, andj,yanton Wiles, itfocfs.lmd Becks, and wreatlied ^mUes, -SochUs hangjm Hefce scheek, ^tncrTove to live ifTdimplp sleek ; - j^ ! 4^- *MP*"^ ^/ !> Sport that wrinkled Carejlerides, _ . An^ LalighYer holding both_his sides : Come and trijMtjjisjroujjo, OrTtfTe light fantastic toe ; ,- .-.And in thy right hand lead with thee, The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty ; And, if I give thee honour due, Mirth, admit me of thy crew, To live with her, and live with thee, In unreproved pleasure free ; To hear the lark begin his flight, And singing startle the dull Night From his watchtower in the skies, Till the dappled dawn doth rise ; Then to come, in spite of Sorrow, And at my window bid good morrow Through the sweetbrier, or the vine, Or the twisted eglantine : While the cock, with lively din, Scatters the rear of darkness thin ; And to the stack, or the barn door, Stoutly struts his dames before : Oft list ning how the hounds and horn Cheerly rouse the slumbering Morn, From the side of some hoar hill, Through the high wood echoing shrill ; Sometime walking, not unseen, By hedge-row elms, on hillocks green, 90 QUANTITY. [TIT. I, Right against the eastern gate, Where the great sun begins his state, Robed in flames, and amber light, The clouds in thousand liveries dight ; While the ploughman, near at hand, Whistles o er the furrowed land, And the milk-maid singeth blithe, And the mower whets his scythe, And every shepherd tells his tale Under the hawthorn in the dale. Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures, Whilst the landscape round it measures, Russet lawns, and fallows gray, Where the nibbling flocks do stray, Mountains, on whose barren breast The lab ring clouds do often rest ; Meadows trim with daises pied, Shallow brooks, and rivers wide ; Towers and battlements it sees Bosomed high in tufted trees, Where perhaps some beauty lies, The cynosure of neighbouring eyes. 23. The line of four Trochees. The seventh species of the Trochaic line is composed of four Trochees. It is difficult of construction, and it is without doubt for this reason that it is not of more fre quent occurrence. It is the most agreeable of all the Trochaic measures, and is remarkably well adapted to lively subjects. Though sometimes carried through an entire piece, we generally meet with it interspersed among other measures, where, by giving a certain hurry to the movement, it is peculiarly expressive of the eagerness and fickleness of the passion of love. The well-known pas sage in DRYDEN S Ode on St. Cecilia s Day has been ad mired by every critic of taste, and it is unquestionably CHAP. II. TROCHAIC MEASURES. 91 one of the finest specimens of Trochaic verse, as well as one of the happiest examples of the adaptation of the metre lo the subject, that is to be found in the English language. Softly sweet in Lydian measures, Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures, War, he sang, is toil and trouble.; Honour but an empty bubble : Never ending, still beginning, Fighting still and still destroying. If the world be worth thy winning, Think, Oh ! think it worth enjoying.; Lovely Thais sits beside thee ; Take the goods the gods provide thee. CAMPBELL has written a choice morsel, mostly in this measure. It is in stanzas of six lines, the first three and the fifth being in this measure, and all rhyming, and the fourth and the sixth containing two Trochees and an additional long syllable, and rhyming. Witness their beauty : Never wedding, ever wooing, Still a love-lorn heart pursuing, Read you not the wrong you re doing, In my cheek s pale hue ? All my life with sorrow strewing, Wed, or cease to woo. Rivals banish d, bosoms plighted, Still our days are disunited ; Now the lamp of hope is lighted, Now half quench d appears, Damp d, and wavering, and benighted, Midst my sighs and tears. Charms you call your dearest blessing, Lips that thrill at your caressing, #2 QUANTITY,, TfT, f. Eyes a mutual soul confessing, Soon you ll make them grow Dim,, and worthless your possessing, Not with age, but woe T The following from BURNS, of a nature kindred to the preceding, possesses great merit* Stay, my charmer,, can you leave me I Cruel, cruel to deceive me ! Well you know how much you grieve me ; Cruel charmer, can you go 1 Cruel charmer r can you go 1 By my love so ill requited ; By the faith you fondly plighted; By the pangs of lovers slighted ; Do not, do not leave me so ? Do not, do not leave me so ! It will be seen that all of these pieces treat of the soft passion, and in no measure can it be expressed with more tenderness. I cannot resist the temptation of adding to the fore going examples The Christian s Address to Ids Soul, by POPE. It possesses great merit, sentimental as well as metrical. It will be seen that it is composed partly in the measure treated of in 22, and partly in Iambic measure : Vital spark of heavenly flame, Quit, oh quit, this mortal frame : Trembling, hoping, lingering, flying Oh, the pain, the bliss, of dying ! Cease, fond nature, cease thy strife, And let me languish into life. Hark ! they whisper : angels say, " Sister spirit, come away." CHAP. II.] TROCHAIC MEASURES. 93 What is this absorbs me quite 1 Steals ray senses, shuts my sight, Drowns my spirit, draws rny breath 1 Tell me, my soul, can this be death? The world recedes : it disappears ! Heaven opens on my eyes ! my ears With sounds seraphic ring ! Lend, lend your wings ! I mount ! I fly ! grave ! where is thy victory ? O death ! where is thy sting ? We have already had occasion to remark the animat ing effect of the short syllable at the end of the line. We have only to compare the examples of this measure with those of the last, to see the truth of this remark. For the examples in this section, though they contain the same number of long syllables as those in the last, and one short syllable more, are still more brisk in the move ment of the verse, for the obvious reason that the lines are closed by a short syllable. POPE S Chorus to the Tragedy of Brutus shall furnish the next and last example of this measure : Hence, guilty joys, distastes, surmises ; Hence, false tears, deceits, disguises, Dangers, doubts, delays, surprises, Fires that scorch, yet dare not shine : Purest Love s unwasting treasure, Constant faith, fair hope, long leisure ; Days of ease, and nights of pleasure, Sacred Hymen ! these are thine. 24. The line of four Trochees followed by a long syllable. The eighth species of the Trochaic line consists of four feet with an additional long syllable. It may be con tinued through a piece, but is generally intermingled with other measures, as in the following example : 5* 94 QUANTITY. [TIT. I. Where the long reeds quiver, Where the pines make moan, By the forest river, Sleeps our babe alone ; England s field flowers may not deck his grave, Cypress shadows o er him darkly wave. Now let thought behold him With his angel look, Where those arms enfold him, Which benignly took Israel s babes to their good Shepherd s breast, When his voice their tender meekness blest. Turn thee now, fond mother, From thy dead, oh, turn ! Linger not, young brother, Here to dream and mourn : Only kneel once more around the sod, Kneel, and bow submitted hearts to God ! MRS. HEMAMS. Funeral Hymn, from the Burial of an Emigrant s child in the forest. It will be observed that the above stanzas are purely Trochaic. The first and the third lines belong to the fifth species of this verse, composed of three Trochees. ( 21) The second and the fourth lines belong to the fourth species, composed of two Trochees and a long syl lable. ( 20. ) The last two lines belong to the species now under consideration, composed of four feet and an ad ditional long syllable. This measure is rarely employed, though it has a solemn air, and is well adapted to elegiac subjects. 25. The line of jive Trochees. The ninth species of Trochaic verse is composed of five feet. Like the last, it is extremely uncommon. This measure forms the first and the third lines of the CHAP. II. J TROCHAIC MEASURES. 95 following stanzas, the second and the fourth being exam ples of the measure treated of under the last head : Mountain windsj /)h| whilher_do ysj^ll me ~ Vainly j^ainly, wpuld ray steps pursue : Chains of care to lower earth enmral me, Wherefore thus my weary spirit woo 1 Oh ! the strife of this divided being ! Is there peace where ye are borne, on high ! Could we soar to your proud eyries fleeing, In our hearts would haunting memories die ? Wild and mighty, and mysterious singers ! At whose tone my heart within me burns; Bear me where the last red sunbeam lingers, Where the waters have their secret urns ! MRS. HEMANS. To the Mountain Winds. 26. The line of six Trochees. The tenth species is composed of six Trochees. This measure is languishing, and rarely used. The following example is often cited : On a mountain, stretched beneath a hoary willow, Lay a shepherd swain, amLview d the rolling billow. We have the followin from BISHOP HEBER : Holy, holy, holy ! all the saints adore thee, Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea ; Cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee, Which wert and art and evermore shalt be ! Holy, holy, holy ! though the darkness hide thee, Though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see, Only thou art holy ; there is none beside thee, Perfect in power, in love, and purity. 96 QUANTITY. [TIT. i. Only the first and the third lines of these stanzas are to our purpose. It is worthy of remark that the second line of each of these stanzas is composed of six Trochees and an addition al 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 there fore conclude that the tenth is the longest species of Tro chaic line known to English verse. Having now completed our remarks upon the Trochee, and illustrated them by numerous examples, we proceed to the Anapest. CHAPTER III. ANAPESTIC B1EASURES. 27. Quantity of the Anapest, and the nature of tins fool. THIS foot consist of three syllables, the first two short, and the last long. This, like the Trochee, is used both as a primary and as a secondary foot. As a second ary foot it is often employed in heroic verse, for the sake of variety ; and it is admissible in every place in the line. In the first place it is not often found, nor has it an agree able effect, as a line rarely begins well with two short syllables. In the following line it is found in the first place and the second : . The imperial consort of the crdwn of spades. This line would have been more melodious if the An apest in the first place had been made an Iambus by CHAP. III.] ANAPESTIC MEASURES. 97 elision of the the. In the second place of the line this foot has great beauty. Examples are numerous : Nor glistering, may of solid good contain. Their wandering course now high, now low, then hid. In the third place it is often found, and is still beauti ful : That to corporeal substances could add. In the fourth place it rarely occurs, nor is its effect so good as in the second or the third place. In the follow- ing line it is found in the fourth place and in the fifth : Not with more glories in the ethereal plain. In the fifth place it is always agreeable : Sent from her through the wide transpicuous air. Such disproportions with superfluous hand. The purely Anapestic measure is more easily con structed than the Trochee, and of much more frequent occurrence. It is better adapted than any other measure to lively and spirited subjects, and it will be found that, whenever this measure is employed in the treating of sad subjects, the effect is destroyed. Whoever should attempt to write an elegy in this measure would be sure to fail. The words might express grief, but the measure would express joy. It would be the plaint of the nightingale caroled by the lark. The Anapest is the vehicle of gayety and joy. When these are not felt, some other measure should be adopted. COWPER, in his Alexander Selkirk, and CAMPBELL, in his Soldier s Dream, have improperly chosen this measure. In both of these pieces there is an air of despondency, and we feel that there is a want of sympathy between the subject and the measure. The sentiments of both of these pieces would have been much better expressed by the Iambus. When we say that the 98 QUANTITY. [TIT. i. subjects treated in this measure should be gay or joyous, we would not by any means wish to exclude serious sub jects. These may be treated in this measure with great propriety, and perhaps better than in any other, provided there is in them an air of exultation. The Destruction of Sennacherib is in this measure, and perhaps no other would have so well expressed the exultation of triumph that forms the chief merit of that piece ; and it will be found that, in the most successful Anapestic pieces, there is a certain buoyancy of spirits, whether the subject be serious or gay, important or trivial, that cannot make itself felt in any other measure. I insist the more upon this point, that the nature of the Anapest does not seem to have been properly understood. The correctness of these remarks will be seen in the numerous examples to be given here after. It will be evident that the Anapest should never be employed throughout a long piece, and this for two rea sons : First, the buoyancy of spirits and enthusiasm re quisite to the successful employment of it, can never be supposed to last for a long time. Sadness never leaves us, but joy remains but for a moment. Second, the measure is exceedingly monotonous. There is the same recurrence of lively movement, the same rise and fall, and we soon become weary. It is proper to remark, that when the Anapestic foot is mingled with Iambuses in the same line, the piece ac quires a certain dignity which the Iambus always imparts, without losing the briskness peculiar to Anapestic verse. The Voice of Spring, by MRS. HEMANS, and the Burial of Sir John Moore, by WOLFE, are admirable examples of this kind of verse. We have stated, at the beginning of this section, that the Anapest is composed of two short CHAP. III.] ANAPESTIC MEASURES. 99 syllables, and one long one. The following line is made up of pure Anapests : I have tasted the sweets and the bitters of love. It frequently happens that syllables long by quantity become short by emphasis ; this is the case with the first syllable of the first foot of the following line : Bids me live but t5 hope for posterity s praise. Here the word bids, though long by quantity, becomes short by emphasis.* 28. The Line of a single Anapest preceded by an Iambus. We are now to treat of the various species of Ana- pestic lines. The first and shortest of these is composed of a single Anapest following an Iambus. In the fol lowing example we have this measure alternating with Amphibrachic lines : The captive usurper Hurl d down from the throne, Lay buried in torpor, Forgotten and lone ; * It has been remarked ( 15) that though the Iambus with an additional short syllable is the shortest line that is known to Iambic verse, there are isolated instances of a single Iambus, and even of a single long syllable. There are examples of lines made up of a single Anapest, as the following example will show : Jove in his chair, Even Fate, Of the sky lord mayor, Though so great, With his nods Must not prate ; Men and gods His b;ild pate Keeps in awe ; Jove would cuff, When he winks, lie s so bluff, Heaven shrinks ; For a straw. Cowed deities, Cock of the school, Like mice in cheese, He bears despotic rule ; To stir must cease His word, Or gnaw. Though absurd, Must be law. O HARA. Midas, Act. I. Sc. 1. 100 QUANTITY. [TIT. I. I broke through his slumbers, I shivered his chain, I leagued him with numbers He s tyrant again ! Manfred, Act II., Sc. 3. In the following each line is in this measure : O Rourke s noble fare Will ne er be forgot By those who were there, Or those who were not. His revels to keep, We sup and we dine On seven score sheep, Fat bullocks, and swine. Usquebaugh to our feast In pails was brought up, A hundred at least, And a madder our cup. DEAN SWIFT. Description of an Irish Feast. 29. The Line of two Anapests. The second species of the Anapestic line is made up of two feet. It is the most lively and the most agree able of the shorter Anapestic measures. Example : Pry thee Cupid no more Hurl thy darts at threescore, To thy girls and thy boys Give thy pains and thy joys; Let Sir Trusty and me From thy frolics be free. Rosamond, Act II., Sc. 2. In the following, from POPE S Ode on St. Cecilia s Day, we have a fine instance of representative versification : CHAP. II1.J ANAPESTIC MEASURES. 101 In a sadly pleasing strain Let the warbling lute complain : Let the loud trumpet sound, Till the roofs all around The shrill echSes rebound : While in more lengthened notes and slow, The deep, majestic, solemn organs blow. Here the two sadly pleasing lines in the beginning are in the sixth species of Trochaicllne. (22.) These, containing four long syllables to three short ones, are slow in their movement. The next three, by means of the brisk Anapest, awake us from the sleep into which the other had lulled us ; and the example closes with the solemn Iambus, intermingled with Trochees and Spondees, I know of no passage in our language in which the mea sure is better suited to the sense, or in which the sense better shows the capacities of the measure. The quantity of each of the syllables in the above example is indicated by the appropriate accents. The next and last example we shall give of this mea sure, is from DRYDEN S Ode on St. Cecilia s Day. It pos sesses great merit : Revenge, revenge ! Timotheus cries See the furies arise ! See the snakes that they rear, How they hiss in their hair, And the sparkles that flash from their eyes. 30. The Line of two Anapests preceded by an Iambus. The third speci es of the Anapestic line, is com posed of two Anapests preceded by one Iambus. This forms a neat and brisk measure. It is not often employed. In the following piece it is well adapted to the subject : 102 QUANTITY. [TIT. I. All these are not half that I owe To one, from her earliest youth To me ever ready to show Benignity, friendship, and truth ; For time, the destroyer declared, And foe of our perishing kind, If even her face he has spared, Much less could he alter her mind. Thus compassed about with the goods And chattels of leisure and ease, I indulge my poetical rnoods, In many such fancies as these ; And fancies I fear they will seern Poets goods are not often so fine ; The poets will swear that I dream, When I sing of the splendour of mine. COWPER. Gratitude^ addressed to Lady Heskcth. The following stanzas, selected from Jack Frenchman s Lamentation, by SWIFT, contain lines belonging to the first, the second, the third, and the fourth species of the Ana- pestic line. The piece is of the burlesque kind, and the measure is highly appropriate to the sentiment : To a steeple on high The battle to spy, Up mounted these clever young men ; But when from the spire They saw so much fire, Most cleverly came down again. What a racket was here, (I think twas last year,) For a little misfortune in Spain ! For by letting em win, We have drawn the puts in, To lose all they re worth this campaign. CHAP. III.] ANAPESTIC MEASURES. 103 From this dream of success, They ll awaken, we guess, At the sound of great Marlborough s drums : They may think, if they will, Of Almanza still, But tis Blenheim wherever he comes. 31. The line of three Anapests. The fourth species of the Anapeslic line is composed of three feet. It is a very agreeable measure, and well adapted to trivial and gay subjects. SHENSTONE S Pas toral is perhaps the best example we have of this measure. There is a certain delicacy admirably expressed by this measure. Witness the following example : My banks they are furnished with bees, Whose murmur invites me to sleep ; My grottoes are shaded with trees, And my hills are white over with sheep. I seldom have met with a loss, Such health do my fountains bestow : My fountains all border d with moss, Where the hare-bells and violets grow. Not a pine in my grove is there seen, But with tendrils of woodbine is bound : Not a beech s more beautiful green, But a sweetbrier entwines it around. Not my fields, in the prime of the year, More charms than my cattle unfold ; Not a brook that is limpid and clear, But it glitters with fishes of gold. One would think she might like to retire To the bower I have laboured to rear ; Not a shrub that I heard her admire, But I hasted and planted it there. 104 QUANTITY. [TIT. I, how sudden the jessamine strove With the lilac to render it gay ! Already it calls for my love To prune the wild branches away. From the plains, from the woodlands and groves, What strains of wild melody flow ! How the nightingales warble their loves From thickets of roses that blow ! And when her bright form shall appear, Each bird shall harmoniously join In a concert so soft and so clear, As she may not be fond to resign. 1 have found out a gift for my fair ; I have found where the wood-pigeons breed : But let me that plunder forbear, She will say twas a barbarous deed. For he ne er could be true, she averr d, Who would rob a poor bird of its young : And I loved her the more when I heard Such tenderness fall from her tongue. I have heard her with sweetness unfold How that pity was due to a dove : That it ever attended the bold ; And she called it the sister of love. But her words such a pleasure convey, So much 1 her accents adore, Let her speak, and whatever she say, Methinks I should love her the more. Can a bosom so gentle remain Unmov d, when her Corydon sighs 1 Will a nymph that is fond of the plain, These plains and this valley despise 1 Dear regions of silence and shade ! Soft scenes of contentment and ease 1 Where I could have pleasingly stray d, If aught, in her absence, could please. CHAP. III.] ANAPESTIC MEASURES. 105 But where does my Phyllida stray ? And where are her grots and her bowers ? Are the groves and the valleys as gay, And the shepherds as gentle as ours 1 The groves may perhaps be as fair , And the face of the valleys as fine ; The swains may in manners compare, But their love is not equal to mine. It will be seen that, in this piece, the third species of the Anapest alternates with the fourth, and it may be re marked generally that several Anapestic measures are very often found together in the same piece. This is more frequently the case with the Anapestic measures than with others, probably because this measure is more monotonous than any other. 32. The line of three Anapests preceded liy an Iambus. The fifth species of the Anapestic line is composed of three Anapests, preceded by a single Iambus. This verse is well adapted to lyric poetry, and some of our best and most popular songs and ballads have been composed in this measure. It is a very spirited line : I ll give thee, good fellow, a twelvemonth or twain, To search Europe through, from Byzantium to Spain ; But ne er shall you find, should you search till you tire, So happy a man as the Barefooted Friar. ******* He s expected at noon, and no wight till he comes May profane the great chair, or the porridge of plums ; For the best of the cheer, and the seat by the fire, Is the undenied right of the Barefooted Friar. He s expected at night, and the pasty s made hot, They broach the brown ale, and they fill the black pot, And the goodwife would wish the goodman in the mire, Ere he lacked a soft pillow, the Barefooted Friar. 106 QUANTITY. [TIT. I. Long flourish the sandal, the cord, and the cope, The dread of the devil and trust of the Pope ; For to gather life s roses, unscathed by the brier, Is granted alone to the Barefooted Friar ! SCOTT. Ivanhoe. This is an admirable specimen of the Anapestic mea sure. It will be seen that a part of it is composed of four Anapests. That verse will soon be treated of. Again : As I was a-wand ring ae morning in spring, I heard a young ploughman sae sweetly to sing, And as he was singiri thir words he did say, There s nae life like the Ploughman in the month o sweet May. The lav rock in the morning she ll rise frae her nest, And mount to the air wi the dew on her breast, And wi the merry ploughman she ll whistle and sing, And at night she ll return to her nest back again. BURNS. Songs. Again : Tis night, and the landscape is lovely no more ; I mourn, but, ye woodlands, I mourn not for you ; For mom is approaching, your charms to restore, Perfumed with fresh fragrance, and glittering with dew. Nor yet for the ravage of Winter I mourn ; Kind Nature the embryo blossom will save. But when shall Spring visit the mouldering urn 1 O when shall it dawn on the night of the grave 1 Twas thus, by the glare of false science betrayed, That leads, to bewilder ; and dazzles, to blind ; My thoughts, wont to roam from shade onward to shade, Destruction before me, and sorrow behind. " O pity, great Father of light !" (then I cried) " Thy creature, who fain would not wander from Thee ! Lo, humbled in dust, I relinquish my pride ; From doubt and from darkness thou only canst free." CHAP. III.] ANAPESTIC MEASURES. 107 And darkness and doubt are now flying away ; No longer I roam in conjecture forlorn ; So breaks on the traveller, faint and astray, The bright and the balmy effulgence of morn. See Truth, Love, and Mercy, in triumph descending, And Nature all glowing in Eden s first bloom ! On the cold cheek of Death smiles and roses are blending, And Beauty immortal awakes from the tomb. BEATTIE. Hermit. I have chosen the above three stanzas that the nature of this foot may be fully seen. In the first two, the sen timent is that of the lowest despondency, and we feel that the movement is too brisk ; but when we come to the last, in which the Hope of Immortality triumphs over Doubt and Despair, we sympathize with the movement of the verse as well as the sentiment of the Poet. 33. The line of four Anapests. The sixth species of the Anapestic line is composed of four feet, and differs from the preceding only in taking an Anapest instead of an Iambus, in the first place. It is on that account rather more lively than the preceding measure. Of this measure we cannot select a more beau tiful example than the Destruction of Sennacherib. The first three stanzas will show how admirably this measure is fitted to express the joy of triumph : The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold ; And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee. Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green, That host with their banners at sunset were seen : Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown, That host on the morrow lay withered and strown. 108 QUANTITY. [TIT. I. For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed ; And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, And their hearts but once heaved and forever grew still. That this measure is well fitted for humorous subjects, will be made evident by the Retaliation of GOLDSMITH. Let us take his description of Garrick : / (/ / v / / / \/ , \J / Here lies David Garrick, describe him who can, An abridgment of all that was pleasant in man ; As an a*ctor, confesfe d without rival to shine ; As a wit, if not first, in the very first line ; Yet, with talents like these, and an excellent heart, The man had his failings, a dupe to his art. Like an ill-judging beauty, his colours he spread, And beplastered with rouge his own natural red. On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting ; Twas only when he was off, he was acting. With no reason on earth to go out of his way, He turned, and he varied full ten times a day : Though secure of our hearts, yet confoundedly sick If they were not his own by finessing and trick: He cast off his friends, as a huntsman his pack, For he knew when he pleased he could whistle them back. Of praise a mere glutton, he swallowed what came, And the puff of a dunce, he mistook it for fame ; Till his relish, grown callous almost to disease, Who peppered the highest, was surest to please. But let us be candid, and speak out our mind, If dunces applauded, he paid them in kind. It will be observed that several of these lines are com- posed of three Anapests preceded by an Iambus, instead of containing four Anapests, and these two species of line are very frequently found intermingled and used promis cuously in the same piece. They are so similar as al most to form but one species of verse, but for the sake of distinctness we have thought best to class them separately. CHAP. III.] ANAPESTIC MEASURES. 109 The ballad of Lochinvar, in SCOTT S Marmion, is com- posed of both these measures used promiscuously. As this ballad shows very well the capacities of this measure, and its appropriateness to ballads in general, we shall give the last three stanzas of it. It is proper to remark that this metre gains much by being sung, and for this reason is highly appropriate for popular ballads, as has been re marked above. So stately his form, and so lovely her face, That never a hall such a galliard did grace : While her mother did fret, and her father did fume, And the bridegroom stood dangling his bonnet and plume ; And the bride-maidens whispered, " Twere better by far To have matched our fair cousin to young Lochinvar." One touch to her hand, and one word in her ear, When they reached the hall-door, and the charger stood near ; So light to the croupe the fair lady he swung, So light to the saddle before her he sprung! " She is won ! we are gone, over bank, bush, and scaur ; They ll have fleet steeds that follow," quoth young Lochinvar. There was mounting mong Graemes of the Netherby clan ; Forsters, Fenwicks, and Musgraves, they rode and they ran: There was racing and chasing on Cannobie Lee, But the lost bride of Netherby ne er did they see. So daring in love, and so dauntless in war, Have ye e er heard of gallant like young Lochinvar ? 34. The Hue of two Anapesls and two Iambuses. The seventh species of^Anapestic line is made up of two Anapests and two Iambuses; the Iambus either beginning the line, ending it, or alternating with the Ana- pests. In either case the effect is nearly the same. 6 110 QTjANTirr. Though the time required to pronounce this line, syllable by syllable, is less than that required for the pronunciation of the line of four Anapests, it is more languid than that. The experiment may be made on any of the examples we are about to give, and the result will always be the same. To show the effect of this measure, which possesses the dignity of the Iambus and the briskness of the Ana- pest, the following example will suffice : I have~ breathea on the Spath, and thediestnut flowers By th ousands hare burst From tne fores Ao we rs, And the ancient graves, and the fallen fanes, Are veiled with wreaths on Italian plains. But it is not forme, in my hour of bloom, To speak of the ruin or the tomb ! I have passed o er the hills of the stormy North, And the larch has hung all his tassels forth, j The fisher is out on the sunny sea, And the reindeer bounds through the pasture free, And the pine has a fringe of softer green, And the moss looks bright, where my step has been. I have sent through the wood-paths a glowing sigh, And called out each voice of the deep blue sky, From the night-bird s lay through the starry time, In the groves of the soft Hesperian clime, To the swan s wild note by the Iceland lakes, When the dark fir-bough into verdure breaks. From the streams and founts 1 have loosed the chain ; They are sweeping on to the silvery main, They are flashing down from the mountain-brows, They are flinging spray on the forest boughs, They are bursting fresh frofh their sparry caves, And the earth resounds with the joy of waves. MRS. HEMANS. The Voice of Spring. CHAP. III.] ANAPESTIC MEASURES. Ill 35. The line of four Anapests followed ly a short syllable. The eighth and longest species of Anapestic line is made up of four Anapests and one short syllable. This measure is rarely used throughout a piece ; but when em ployed at all, which is not often, it is generally found intermingled with lines of four Anapests, or regularly alternating with them. The short syllable added rather detracts from the beauty of the line than increases it. This measure is rarely appropriate except in burlesque. The following from SWIFT will show the nature of this verse : From a town that consists of a church and a steeple, With three or four houses and as many people, There went an address in great form and good order, Composed, as tis said, by Will Crowe, their recorder. And thus it began to an excellent tune : Forgive us, good madam, that we did not, as soon As the rest of the cities and towns of this nation, Wish your majesty joy on this glorious occasion. Not that we re less hearty or loyal than others, But having a great many sisters and brothers, Our borough in riches and years far exceeding, We let them speak first to show our good breeding. In the following piece it alternates with the fifth species of Anapest ( 32). This measure is well calculated for the jovial occasion on which these stanzas were produced :* O, dread was the time, and more dreadful the omen, When the brave on Marengo lay slaughtered in vain, And beholding broad Europe bowed down by her foemen, Pitt closed in his anguish the map of her reign ! * The Anniversary Meeting of the Pitt Club of Scotland. 112 QUANTITY. [TIT. I. Not the fate of broad Europe could bend his brave spirit To take for his country the safety of shame ; O, then in her triumph remember his merit, And hallow the goblet that flows to his name. Round the husbandman s head, while he traces the furrow, The mists of the winter may mingle with rain, He may plough it with labor, and sow it in sorrow, And sigh while he fears he has sowed it in vain ; He may die ere his children shall reap in their gladness, But the blithe harvest-home shall remember his claim ; And their jubilee-shout shall be softened with sadness, While they hallow the goblet that flows to his name. We have now completed what we had to say on the Iambus, the Trochee, and the Anapest. These, as has been heretofore remarked, are called principal feet, be cause a piece may be wholly composed of any of them. Of these, the Iambus is by far the most common, and may be regarded as the ground of English numbers. We are now to consider the five other feet employed in English verse, viz. : the Pyrrhic, the Spondee, the Amphibrach, the Tribrach, and the Dactyle. These are called secon dary feet, because they are never made use of throughout a piece, but employed, in connection with the principal feet (particularly the Iambus), for the sake of variety. Only one of the secondary feet can be employed through out a line. This is the Amphibrach, and this is very rarely made to compose a whole line. We will begin with the Pyrrhic. CHAP. IV.] THE PYRRHIC. 113 CHAPTER IV. THE PYRRHIC. 36. Quantity of the Pyrrhic. THIS foot, being composed of two short syllables, adds briskness to the movement, and is often employed to great advantage in the heroic line, particularly when the subject is gay. It may be employed in any Iambic line of three feet or more, but it has more beauty in the heroic line or the Alexandrine, than in the shorter ones.* Our exam- * The secondary feet are rarely admitted to advantage into the octo-syllabic line. In the example given below, there are one Anapest and one Dactyle used as secondary feet, which possess uncommon beauty. These are the words hovering and quivering, in the third stanza. It would be impossible to select two other words that so nearly resemble the sense as do these ; and we have only to elide the second syllable of each, to see how much effect is produced by the short syllable of the Anapest : O Venus, beauty of the skies, To whom a thousand temples rise, Gaily false in gentle smiles, Full of love-perplexing wiles ; O Goddess ! from my heart remove The wasting cares and pains of love. If ever thou hast kindly heard A song in soft distress preferred, Propitious to my tuneful vow, gentle Goddess ! hear me now ; Descend, thou bright, immortal guest, In all thy radiant charms confessed. Thou once didst leave almighty Jove, And all the golden roofs above ; The caj thy .wanioj>sna] rows drew. IjkfVfrmjfmnir, they lightly /few ; As to my bower they winged their way, 1 saw their quiverjag phiionsplajk The birds disrmssea, (while you remain,) Bore back their empty car again ; Then you with looks divinely mild, In ev ry heavenly feature smiled, And asked what new complaints I made, And why I called you to my aid. 114 QUANTITY. [TIT. T. pies shall therefore be taken from the heroic line, either in blank verse or rhyme. This foot may be employed in any place in the line except the last, though it has a happier effect in some places than in others, as will be seen by examples. It may occur twice in the same line, but in this case it has a bad effect, as it produces a superabundance of short syl lables, and injures both melody and harmony. I. In the first place of the line the Pyrrhic is not gen- erally agreeable, as the following examples will show : And in soft sounds your grace salutes their ear. In the clear mirror of thy ruling star. But with swift wheel reverse, deep ent ring shared. II. In the second place of the line the Pyrrhic has an effect less disagreeable than in the first j but still it is not very agreeable. This nymph to the destruction of mankind. Sings darkling in shadiest covert hid. By thousands and by millions ranged for fight. What frenzy in my bosom raged, And by what cure to be assuaged ? What gentle youth I would allure Whom in my artful toils secure ? Who does thy tender heart subdue, Tell me, my Sappho, tell me who ? Though now he shuns thy longing arms, He soon shall court thy slighted charms ; Though now thy offerings he despise, He soon to thee shall sacrifice ; Though now he freeze, he soon shall burn, And be thy victim in his turn. Celestial visitant, once more Thy needful presence I implore ! In pity come and ease my grief, Bring my distempered soul relief, Favour thy suppliant s hidden fires, And give me all my heart desires. AMBROSE PHILIPS. Translation of Sappho s Ode to Venus. C&AP. V.] THE SPONDEE. III. This foot has the most agreeable effect of all in the third place, especially if the csesural pause divide the foot, as in the following examples : And sport and flutter in the fields of air. The silver token, and the circled green. And bask and whiten in the plains of day. Each warrior single as in chief expert, IV. The Pyrrhic has still a very agreeable effect in the fourth place: Led through a sad variety of wo, A weary waste expanding to the skies. Such hast thou armed the minstrelsy of Heaven, Sidelong, had pushed a mountain from his seat. I have now given examples of the Pyrrhic as found in all the places of the heroic line, except the fifth, where, as has been remarked above, it never occurs. We say it never occurs in the last place, and for the reason that, when the second syllable of the last foot is short by quan tity, it becomes long by emphasis, and forms with the pre ceding an Iambus, instead of a Pyrrhic. CHAPTER V, THE SPONDEE. 37. Quantity of the Spondee. THE Spondee is composed of two long syllables. It has an effect contrary to that of the Pyrrhic. The former re tards the movement as much as the latter hastens it. The Pyrrhic is not better adapted to gay subjects than the Spon- I If? QUANTITY. [TIT. I, dee is to solemn ones. This foot makes a stronger im pression, and fixes the attention more than any other. It is admissible in every place in the line, and has peculiar beauty after a Trochee or a Pyrrhic. I. In the first place of the line it possesses great beauty, and adds much to the dignity of the verse. Hung over her, enamoured, and beheld. Hung high with diamond flaming, and with gold, That day I oft remember, when from sleep. Thee, bold Longinus ! all the Nine inspire. Fair Liberty, Britannia s goddess, rearsv Couched close he lies, and meditates the prey. II. This foot has a still better effect in the second place, particularly if it be preceded by a Trochee. When it is preceded by an Iambus, the number of long syllables is too great. Or brew fierce tempests on the wintry main. Chains and these torments? better these than worse. From the bleak air ; a stable was our warmth. Blest be that spot, where cheerful guests retire. My soul, turn from them ; turn we to surrey. When the bleak Swiss their stormy mansions tread. III. In the third place the effect is not so good. Each wanton judge new penal statutes draws. See the bold youth strain up the threat ning steep. Hail, sacred peace ! hail, long expected days. Irradiate, there plant eyes ; all mist from thence. These lines, it will be observed, are rather heavy, and the more so for containing two Spondees. CHAP. VI.] THE AMPHIBRACH. 117 IV. The Spondee has also a rather harsh effect in the fourth place. Ran nectar, visiting each plant, and fed. And hard that out of Hell leads up to light. Of ancient pile ; all else deep snow and ice. High throned above all height, bent down his eye. To wreak on innocent, frail man, his loss. Meanwhile, as Nature wills, night bids us rest. While day arises, that sweet hour of prime. What modes of light betwixt each wide extreme. That such are happier, shocks all common sense. When nature, sickened, aud each gale was death. The above will suffice to show the effect of the Spon dee in the fourth place. V. In the fifth place it contributes, if not to melody, at least to strength and majesty. A few examples will suffice. For God tow rds thee hath done his part ; do thine. Came prologue and apology too prompt. Through dread of worse ; to cling to this rude rock. Her joys, at brightest, pallid to that font. CHAPTER VI. THE AMPHIBRACH. 38. Quantity of the foot ; line of one Amphibrach. THE Amphibrach is composed of three syllables ; the first short, the second long, and the third short : as, de fenceless, uncommon, delightful. 118 QUANTITY. [TIT. I. The Amphibrach, though reckoned as a secondary foot, is sometimes employed throughout the line. In this case, however, the line is composed of only one or two feet. In the following examples we have three lines, each composed of a single Amphibrach : Roses and lilies her cheeks disclose, But her ripe lips are more sweet than those ; Press her, Caress her, With blisses Her kisses Dissolve us in pleasure and soft repose. Beggars" Opera, Act II., Sc. 1. Again : Whisp rings heard by wakeful maids, To whom the night-stars guide us ; Stolen walks through moonlight shades, With those we love beside us ; Hearts beating,*-^ At meeting ; Tears starting, v At parting; Oh, sweet youth, how soon it fades ! Sweet joys of youth, how fleeting ! MOORE. In this example the sixth line and the eighth are Am- phibrachs by quantity, and the fifth and seventh are made so by emphasis. As this measure corresponds to the shortest species of Iambic line ( 2), the student is referred to that section for another example. These examples will suffice for this measure, and we will proceed to the line composed of two Amphibrachs. 39. Line of two Amphibrachs. This line, like the preceding, is exceedingly rare. It has an agreeable effect, as the following example will show : CHAP. VI.] TEE AMPHIBRACH. 119 Now cold and denying, Now kind and complying, Consenting, repenting, Disdaining, complaining, Indiff rence now feigning, Again with quick feet the ground beat, beat, beat. Comus (Stage ed.), Act II., Sc. 1. BURNS has alternated this line to great advantage with the Iambus of three feet, at the close of several stanzas in his Epistle to Davie : It warms me, it charms me, To mention but her name ; It heats me, it beats me, And sets me a on flame ! Thou Being, All-seeing, O hear my fervent prayer ; Still take her, and make her Thy most peculiar care ! It lightens, it brightens, The tenebrific scene, To meet with, and greet with My Dame or my Jean. The first and the third lines of each of these portions of stanzas are composed of two Amphibrachs, and the effect is very beautiful. When intermingled with other short measures, this line has a very animated effect. Witness the following : But sense gives a grace To the homeliest face : Wise books and reflection Will mend the complexion : (A civil divine ! I suppose, meaning mine !) No lady who wants them Can ever be handsome. DEAN SWIFT. 120 QUANTITY. [TIT. i. As a secondary foot, the Amphibrach is not infre quently used in heroic measure for the sake of variety, and then it increases the rapidity of the movement : Full many a gem of purest ray serene The dark unfa;homed caves of ocean bear ; Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its fragrance on the desert air. In this example, the first foot of the first line and of the third may be regarded as Amphibrachs, or they may be regarded as Iambuses followed by Anapests. And generally, whenever the Anapest occurs in the middle of the line, intermingled with other feet, the line may be considered as containing either an Amphibrach and an Iambus, or an Iambus and an Anapest. But the most frequent and happiest instance of this foot, is produced when it ends the line. Various exam ples have been given of this measure, when treating of the Iambus ; for it will be borne in mind that the Iambic line frequently closes with an Amphibrach. The follow ing example, already quoted in illustration of the Iambus, will suffice : And prove their doctrine orthodox By apostolic blows and knocks : Call fire and sword and desolation A godly thorough reformation, etc. BUTLER. Hudibras. This measure is admirably adapted to burlesque pieces, as may be seen in various passages of Hudibras, and BY RON S Beppa. It is always well adapted to gay subjects. For further remarks on this foot used as a secondary one, the student is referred to what has already been said of it when treating of the Iambus. CHAP. VII.] THE TRIBRACH. 121 CHAPTER VII. THE TRIBRACH. 40. Quantity of the Tribrach. THE Tribrach, composed of three short syllables, is not often used, and always for the sake of variety alone. MILTON, who understood the advantages resulting from variety in blank verse, has employed this and the other secondary feet as often, and as happily, as any of the Poets. This foot is used sparingly. Its effect is better in blank verse than in rhyme. It is employed in the second, third, and fourth places of the line. I. In the second place, its effect is not agreeable : Innumerable, before the Almighty s throne. Immediately inordinate desires. Inhospitably, and kills their infant males. II. In the third place, it is more agreeable than in any other; and it may be remarked generally, that feet com- posed of short syllables should be placed as near as possi. ble to the middle of the line, while the Spondee should be near the beginning : Amongst innumerable stars that shone. The portal shone inimitable on earth. III. In the fourth place, it will be seen that the melo dy of the verse is rather injured than improved by this foot; but the harmony may still be improved, on account of the pleasing variety produced by a large number of short syllables. 122 QUANTITY. [TIT. I. CHAPTER VIII. THE DACTYLE. THE Dactyle is composed of one long syllable and two short. It is never used except as a secondary foot, and then in the first place of the line. Milton has admitted this foot with great beauty. Dryden and Pope seem to have studiously avoided it. It is scarcely ever employed by either of them ; and, when employed, it has been forced upon them by the pronunciation of some proper name, which could not well be wrought into any other part of the line. Thomson has made use of this foot in a few instances, to advantage. This foot is more rarely employed than any other. It is to be regretted, since it possesses so much beauty, that it has not been oftener employed. The following examples will show that its effect is always good. And first, from MILTON : Murmuring, and with him fled the shades of night. Following his track, such was the will of heaven. Suppliant the venerable father stands. Abdiel, than whom none with more zeal adored. Chariots, and flaming arms, and fiery steeds. Zdphiel, of cherubim the swiftest wing. Myriads, between two brazen mountains lodged. Numerous, and every star perhaps a world. Again, from THOMSON : Sheltering, embrace, direct their lazy flight. CHAP. VIII.] THE DACTYLE. 123 Issuing from out the portals of the morn. Myriads of gems, that in the waving gleam. Again, from Dr. YOUNG : Measuring his motions by revolving spheres. Punctual as lovers to the moment sworn. Glittering a moment, nor that moment sure. Again, from ROGERS : Whispering seraphic visions of her heaven. Glittering the river ran ; and on the bank. Bartering my bread and salt for empty praise. Following his track to glory. He returned not. Answering each other as in mockery ! Dangerous and sweet, charmed Venice. As for me. Numbering eight Doges to convey her home. We have now said all that we intended to say upon the different kinds of feet and their combinations, and have given numerous examples, fully illustrating the power of each foot and each measure. It will be perceived that the variety of measure, by means of the different feet, is un limited. All subjects, " from grave to gay, from lively to severe." may be appropriately treated in some one of these measures. The student will find that no language con tains such a vast variety of measure as the English. The Greek and Latin heroic measure admitted only two kinds of feet ; and though these were differently disposed, it is doubted whether the variety was any greater than in the blank verse of Milton. The French language having, properly speaking, no accented syllables, has only one foot; and this, being always of two syllables, the verse is 124 QUANTITY. [TIT. I. so monotonous as to tire any ear accustomed to the har mony of English verse. We shall see, in the next Section, that our verse has a great advantage over most other mo dern languages in the disposition of the csesural pause. To this we now proceed. TITLE II. CONSTRUCTION. CHAPTER IX. THE PAUSES. 41. The Casural Pause. IT is important to distinguish between the csesural pause in English, and other modern languages, and the caesura of Greek and Latin verse. In the latter the ccesura, from cado to cut, was the cutting of a word so as to make its final long syllable begin the next foot. For exam ple, in the following line, Tityre, lu patu||lse recu||bans sub tegmine fagi, the two syllables la and bans are caesuras, because they are each long syllables final, and begin a foot. So in the lines following this, it will be observed that each long syl lable final, which begins another foot, is a caesura : Sylves|]trem tenu||i Musam meditaris avena ; Nos patri||ae fin||es et dulcia linquimus arva ; Nos patri|]am fugi||mus ! tu, Tityre, lentus in umbra, Formo|]sam resonare dojjces Amaryllida silvas. 126 CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. II. In the modern languages the caesura, or caesural pause, is the pause which divides a line into two parts, called hemistichs. In the disposition of the caesura, English verse possesses an immense advantage over the other mo dern languages. Dryden tells us that the French had no caesura in their heroic line till Malherbe introduced it. They place their pause in the middle of their Alexandrine or heroic line, and after the fourth syllable of the line of ten syllables. With them, no line of less than ten syllables has a caesura. We will give an example of the line of twelve syllables, with the pause marked : Non, je ne puis souffrir |J cette l&che methode Qu affectent la plupart |] de vos gens a. la mode ; Et je ne hais rien tant J| que les contortions De tous ces grands faiseurs || de protestations, Ces affables donneurs |] d embrassades frivoles, Ces obligeants diseurs |j d inutiles paroles, Qui de civilites J| avec tous font combat, Et traitent du meme air j] 1 honnete homme et le fat. Quel avantage a-t-on II qu un homme vous caresse, Vous jure amitie, || foi, zele, estime, tendresse, Et vousfasse de vous || un eloge eclatant, Lorsqu au premier faquin || il court en faire autant 1 Non, non, il n est point d ame || un peu bien situee Qui venille d une estime || ainsi prostituee ; Et la plus glorieuse )] a des regals peu chers, Des qu on voit qu on nous mele |] avec tout 1 univers. Sur quelque preference |j une estime se fonde, Et c est n estimer rien |] qu estimer tout le monde. Puisque vous y donnez, |j dans ces vices du temps, Marbleu ! vous n eles pas H pour etre de mes gens ; Je refuse d un cceur j| la vaste complaisance Qui ne fait de merite |] aucune difference : Je veux qu on me distingue ; || et, pour le trancher net, L ami du genre humain |] n est point du tout mon fait. MOLIERE. Misanthrope, Act I. Sc. 1. CHAP. IX.] THE PAUSES. 127 This example will suffice to show the monotony of French heroic verse, and this monotony is owing not only to the fact that there is only one foot of two syllables in French, but also to the caesura s being placed uniformly in the middle of the line. We will now give an example of the line often sylla bles, in which the caesura falls uniformly after the fourth syllable. This corresponds to our line of eight syllables. In both, the caesura falls after the fourth syllable, and in both the monotony is tiresome. Witness the following example : Un fanfaron, || amateur de la chasse, Venant de perdre |j un chien de bonne race, Qu il soup<jonnait || dans le corp d un lion, Vit un berger: || enseigne-moi, de gra.ce, De mon voleur, || lui dit-il, la maison, Que de ce pas || je me fasse raison. Le berger dit : || c est vers cette montagne. En lui payant || de tribut un mouton Par chaque mois ; [| j erre dans la campagne Comme il me plait, || et je suis en repos. Dans le moment || qu ils tenaient ces propos, Le lion sort, || et vint d un pas agile. Le fanfaron || aussitot d esquiver : " O Jupiter, || montre-moi quelque asile, S ecria-t-il ! || qui me puisse sauver !" La male epreuve du courage, JV est que dans le danger |] que I on touche du doigt ; Tel le cherchait, dit-il, \\ qui, changeant de langage, S enfuit aussitdt qu il le voit. LA FONTAINE. Le lion et le chasseur. Here it will be seen that, in the two lines next to the last, the caesura falls in the middle, these being lines of twelve syllables, and in the line preceding these, as well as that following, there is no caesura, these being lines of only eight syllables. 128 CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. II. In English verse, our line of twelve syllables (the Alexandrine) takes the pause in the middle, after the man- ner of the French : but our formo. Hn^ ^f ten Fyllgbl^q dcMSiS not, like the_FVeneh, take the pause uniformly after the fouirtl^svllable.^_ltjs varied^ as will be seen hereaf ter, so as to fali^ in one of at least four different places . Our line of four feet, sometimes called the octo-syllabic line, takes its pause in the middle of the line, and the monotony is disagreeable. Our lines of less than eight syllables have not uniformly a pause. The caesural pause, though not indispensable to English verse, adds greatly to its harmony, and a good line can scarcely be found with out it. It is generally placed after either the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, or the seventh syllable. When it corres ponds with the pause required by the sense, the melody is complete. Before proceeding to give examples of this pause, we shall lay down the rules established on this subject ; and for these we are indebted chiefly to Lord Kames, who has treated of the csesural pause in a masterly manner. The principal rules laid down by Kames, and of which he has explained the reasons in full, are the following : I. The csesural pause should never divide a word.* II. The csesural pause should never separate an ad jective from the noun immediately following. III. An adverb, preceding the verb which it modifies, does not admit of a pause between it and the verb. IV. A pause may be inserted between the active verb and the object on which it is exerted. V. Words connected by conjunctions and prepositions, admit a pause between the first word and the connective, but not between the connective and the last word. * The secondary pause, of which hereafter, may divide a word. CHAP. IX.] THE PAUSES. 129 VI. Adverbs and adjectives admit a pause between themselves and the words which they modify, when the words so modified precede their modifiers. VII. In general, the pause may fall in any place not prohibited by the preceding rules. " What is said about the pause," says Kames, " leads to a general observation, that the natural order of placing the active substantive and its verb, is more friendly to a pause than the inverted order ; but that in all the other connections, inversion affords a far better opportunity for a pause. And hence," he continues, " the great advantage of blank verse over rhyme ; its privilege of inversion giving it a much greater choice of pauses, than can be had in the natural order of arrangement." From the following examples of the pause, it will be seen that the nearer it comes to the beginning of the line, the brisker is the movement ; the nearer it comes to the middle of the line, the more uniform is the movement ; the nearer it comes to the end of the line, the slower is the movement. Hence we may account for the fact that the greatest harmony of a series of lines does not always consist with the greatest melody of these lines considered by themselves. The greatest melody requiring the pause in the middle of the line, it is obvious that this would result in a series of lines, melodious, indeed, but monotonous in the extreme, and for this reason devoid of harmony, which abhors monotony. This will also explain, what to some has appeared unaccountable, that in Milton we often meet with passages sweet as the notes of Orpheus lyre, but made up of lines either indifferently smooth or positively harsh and prosaic. As illustrations of the above remarks, we will give some examples from our best poets. And first from Pope, who understood the music of English numbers better than 130 CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. II. any that had gone before him, if we except Milton, and incontestably better than any that have followed him.* Ye Sylphs and Sylphids, || to your chief give ear; Fays, Fairies, Genii, Elves, || and Demons hear ; Ye know the spheres, || and various tasks assigned By laws eternal || to the aerial kind. Some in the fields || of purest ether play, And bask and whiten || in the blaze of day ; Some guide the course || of wandering orbs on high, Or roll the planets || through the boundless sky ; Some, less refined, || beneath the moon s pale light, Pursue the stars, || that shoot athwart the night, Or suck the mists || in grosser air below, Or dip their pinions || in the painted bow, Or brew fierce tempests || o er the wintry main, Or o er the glebe || distil the kindly rain. Others on earth, || o er human race preside, Watch all their ways, || and all their actions guide ; Of these the chief || the cares of nations own, And guard with arms divine || the British throne. Rape of the Lock, Canto II. It will be seen that in this example the pause falls generally after the second, or in the middle of the third foot. These are the places in which the pause contributes most to melody. Witness the following passage : But anxious cares || the pensive nymph oppressed, And secret passions || laboured in her breast. Not youthful kings || in battle seized alive, Not scornful virgins || who their charms survive, Not ardent lovers || robbed of all their bliss, Not ancient ladies || when refused a kiss, Not tyrants fierce, || that unrepenting die, Not Cynthia, || when her mantua s pinned awry, E er felt such rage, || resentment, and despair, As thou, sad virgin ! || for thy ravished hair. Id. Canto IV. * In this example, and those which follow, the place of the pause is indicated by parallel lines. CHAP. IX.] THE PAUSES. 131 These lines, like the preceding, taking the pause after the second, or in the middle of the third foot, are brisk and melodious. Indeed, it would be difficult to find more melodious passages than the foregoing in our language. The following is less brisk, but scarcely less melo dious : Lo, the poor Indian ! || whose untutored mind Sees God in clouds, || or hears him in the wind ! His soul proud science || never taught to stray Far as the solar walk, || or milky way ; Yet simple nature || to his hope has given Behind the cloud-topped hill || an humbler heaven ; Some safer world, || in depth of woods embraced, Some happier island || in the watery waste, Where slaves once more || their native land behold, No fiends torment, || no Christians thirst for gold. Essay on Man, Epistle I. These examples will suffice to show the effect of the csesural pause in Rhyme. We shall now give some ex amples from Milton, to show its effect in Blank Verse, and here we shall see that it does not fall so uniformly in the middle of the line. We shall also find that, though the melody is less perfect, the harmony, as in most parts of Milton, is truly divine. High on a throne || of regal state, which far Outshone the wealth || of Ormus and of Ind, Or where the gorgeous east || with richest hand Showers on her kings || barbaric pearl and gold, Satan exalted sat, || by merit raised To that bad eminence ; \\ and, from despair Thus high uplifted || beyond hope, aspires Beyond thus high, || insatiate to pursue Vain war with Heaven, || and by success untaught, His proud imaginations || thus displayed. Paradise Lost, B. II. 132 CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. II. Again : Now morn, her rosy steps || in th eastern clime Advancing, sowed the earth || with orient pearl, When Adam waked, |j so customed ; for his sleep Was airy light, || from pure, digestion bred, And temperate vapours bland, || which th only sound Of leaves and fuming rills, || Aurora s fan, Lightly dispersed, || and the shrill matin song Of birds on every bough ; || so much the more His wonder was || to find unwakened Eve With tresses discomposed, || and glowing cheek, As through unquiet rest : || he on his side Leaning half raised, || with looks of cordial love, Hung over her enamoured, || and beheld Beauty, which, whether waking j| or asleep, Shot forth peculiar graces ; || then, with voice Mild, as when Zephyrus || on Flora breathes, Her hand soft touching, || whispered thus : " Awake, My fairest, my espoused, || my latest found, Heaven s last, best gift, || my ever new delight, Awake ; the morning shines, || and the fresh field Calls us ; we lose the prime, || to mark how spring Our tended plants, || how blows the citron grove, What drops the myrrh, || and what the balmy reed, How nature paints her colours, || how the bee Sits on the bloom, || extracting liquid sweet." Id. Book V. Our next example shall be from Cowper, and it may be remarked that in his poems the Caesura is less sensible than in Milton. He is also far inferior in the sweetness of his numbers. He allowed himself far greater license than Milton, both in the frequent admission of the second ary feet, and in the disposition of them. To one whose ear has been tuned in the reading of Paradise Lost, the Task is harsh, and in many places, as far at least as the construction is concerned, prosaic. It is to be regretted that one of sentiments so delicate, and taste so refined* CHAP. IX.] THE PAUSES. 133 should have admitted additional licenses into English verse, and thereby opened wide the doors for the anarchy of style and metre that distinguishes the rhapsodies of a prominent class of poets of the present century, of the head of whom Byron has said, with as much truth as bitter- ness, that he shows. " That prose is verse, and verse is merely prose." By these remarks we by no means intend to say, that Cowper allowed himself all the licenses found in the writ ings of those who cite his authority for every departure from the established rules of English verse. His minor pieces possess a certain terseness and delicacy of expres sion which show that he was not ignorant of poetical rules, and that, if he ever departed from them, it was from a de sire to sacrifice smoothness to strength. It would not, perhaps, be possible to find in any English poet, more faultless productions than the occasional pieces of Cow per, and we should not believe, were we not assured of the fact, that they were written by the author of the Translation of Homer, and of the Task. As an illustra tion of these remarks, witness the following : By ceaseless action j| all that is subsists. Constant rotation || of the unwearied wheel That Nature rides upon, fj maintains her health, Her beauty, her fertility. || She dreads An instant s pause, || and lives but while she moves ; Us own revolvency j| upholds the world, Winds from all quarters || agitate the air, And fit the limpid element || for use, Else noxious ; |j oceans, rivers, lakes, and streams, All feel the freshening impulse, || and are cleans d By restless uudulation : || e en the oak Thrives by the rude concussion || of the storm, This is among the more harmonious passages of the 7 134 CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. Task, and we have only to compare it wkh Milton to see how infinitely Cowper falls below him both in poetical dic tion and in the sweetness of his numbers, We will now give one example of the Spenserean stanza, and this shall be from BYRON S Childe Harold : And yet how lovely \] in thine age of wo, Land of lost gods || and godlike men ! art thou r . Thy vales of evergreen, \\ thy hills of snow, Proclaim thee || Nature s varied favorite now ; Thy fanes, thy temples, [| to thy surface bow, Commingling slowly [| with heroic earth, Broke by the share H of every rustic plow ; So perish monuments |] of mortal birth, So perish all in turn [| save well-recorded worth ~ T Save where some solitary column |) mourns Above its prostrate brethren 1) of the cave ; Save where Tritonia s airy shrine || adorns Colonna s cliff, H and gleams along the wave ; Save o er some warrior s half-forgotten grave, Where the gray stones \\ and unmolested grass Ages, but not oblivion, H feebly brave, While strangers U only not regardless pass, Lingering like me, perchance, [j to gaze and sigh " alas." In the last stanza, the fifth line has absolutely no cae sura, and the melody of this line is thereby materially injured. And it may be laid down, as a rule, that no line can be melodious without a distinct csesural pause. This pause sometimes corresponds to the pause required by the sense, and sometimes it does not. When it corres ponds to the sense pause, the melody is complete. It is worthy of remark, that, in the Alexandrine the caesura falls uniformly in the middle of the line. From the preceding rules and examples it will be easy for the student to fix upon the place of the caesura in any given verse, and to detect the absence of it, if it be wanting. CJHAl 1 . IX.] THE PAUSES. 135 These rules and observations apply more particularly to the heroic line. In the octo-syllabic line the caesura falls generally in the middle of the line ; this is so uni formly the case, that this verse partakes of the monotony of the French heroic verse, in which the ccesura can fall in no place but in the middle of the line.* A single line in which the ccesura falls in the middle, cannot fail to be melodious ; but when there is a succession of lines with the caesura disposed in this manner, their monotony is sure to fatigue the ear. This is a great advantage, and, it is believed, the principal advantage which English has over French verse. The following example will suf fice to show the monotony of the octo-syllabic line, com pared with the heroic : The western waves || of ebbing day Rolled o er the glen |] their level way ; Each purple peak, || each flinty spire, Was bathed in floods || of living fire ; But not a setting || beam could glow Within the dark || ravines below, Where twined the path || in shadow hid, Round many || a rocky pyramid, Shooting abruptly || from the dell Its thunder-splintered || pinnacle ; Round many || an insulated mass, The native bulwarks || of the pass, Huge as the tower || which builders vain Presumptuous piled || on Shinar s plain. SCOTT. Lady of the Lake. In this example the ccesura, in the fifth and sixth lines, falls between an adjective and the substantive which it qualifies, contrary to usage, in heroic verse. But in most of the lines it falls legitimately in the middle, and the * Vid. 41. 13G CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. II. melody is charming, but the monotony is irksome. Wit ness the following example : A kind of change || came in my fate, My keepers grew || compassionate ; I knew not what || had made them so, They were inured || to sights of wo ; But so it was : 1| my broken chain With links unfastened || did remain, And it was liberty || to stride Along my cell || from side to side, And up and down, || and then athwart, And tread it over || ev ry part ; And round the pillars || one by one, Returning where || my walk begun, Avoiding only, || as I trod, My brother s graves || without a sod ; For if I thought || with heedless tread My step profaned || their lowly bed, My breath came || gaspingly and thick, And rny crushed heart || fell blind and sick. BYRON. Prisoners of Chilian. 42. Secondary Pauses. The above observations, illustrated as they are by numerous examples, will suffice for the csesural pause. This is generally called the principal pause, for, besides this, there are two other pauses, the one preceding and the other following it, called secondary pauses. These are called secondary pauses because they are not essential to English verse, as the principal pause is, nor are they so sensible to the ear. That secondary pause which precedes the principal pause, falls uniformly after the first long syllable ; and that which follows the principal pause, generally follows after the fourth foot, but may fall after the third, in the CHAP. IX.] THE PAUSES. 137 middle of the third, or in the middle of the fifth. Pope, who understood the power of English numbers better than any other, has disposed of the pauses, both principal and secondary, to the best advantage. This the following ex amples will show : But now secure || the painted vessel glides, The sunbeams trembling || on the floating tides : While melting music || steals upon the sky, And softened sounds || along the water die; Smooth flow the waves, || the zephyrs gently play, Belinda smiled, || and all the world was gay. All but the Sylph ; || with careful thoughts ( ppressed, Th impending woe || sat heavy on his breast ; He summons straight || his denizens of air : The lucid squadrons || round the sails repair : Soft o er the shrouds || aerial whispers breathe, That seemed but zephyrs || to the train beneath. Some to the sun || their insect wings unfold, Waft on the breeze, || or sink in clouds of gold ; Transparent forms || too fine for mortal sight, Their fluid bodies || half dissolved in light. Loose to the wind || their airy garments flew, Thin glittering textures |] of the filmy dew, Dipped in the richest tinctures || of the skies, Where light disports || in ever mingling dyes. Rape of the Lock. It will be seen by this example that the secondary pause, unlike the principal pause, may separate a word ; though like that, it has the best effect when it falls in the place of the sense pauses. One more example, from MIL TON, will complete what we have to say of the secondary pause. With thee conversing || I forget all time ; All seasons and their change, || all please alike. Sweet is the breath of morn, || her rising sweet, With charm of earliest birds ; || pleasant the sun, 138 CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. 11. When first on this delightful land || he spreads His orient beams || on herb, tree, fruit, and flower, Glistering with dew ; || fragrant the fertile earth After soft showers , || and sweet the coming on Of grateful evening mild ; || then silent night With this her solemn bird,|| and this fair moon, And thfese the gems of heaven || her starry train ; But neither breath of morn, || when she ascends With charm of earliest birds ; || nor rising sun On this delightful land ; || nor herb, fruit, flower, Glist ring with dew ; || nor fragrance after showers ; Nor grateful evening mild ; |) nor silent night With this her solemn bird, || nor walk by noon, Or glittering star-light, || without thee is sweet. Paradise Lost, B. IV. It has been remarked above, that the secondary pause is not essential to English verse, and lines frequently occur in which the secondary pause following the principal pause, is wanting, though never is that preceding the principal pause wanting. That the proper disposition of the pause is one of the chief elements of melody in verse, is obvious to every delicate ear. That couplet often quoted from DENHAM S Cooper s Hill is one of the sweet est in our language, and it owes its sweetness to the happy disposition of the csesural pauses. In the first line the principal pause falls after the second foot, the first sec ondary after the first foot, and the last secondary after the fourth. In the second line, the principal pause falls after the second foot, the first secondary in the middle of the first foot, and the last secondary in the mid dle of the fourth. Observe the easy flow of these two lines : Though deep, yet clear, |j though gentle, yet not. dull : Strong, without rage, || without o erflowing full. I cannot deny myself the pleasure of giving one more example from POPK, in which the pauses, both cresural and secondary, are disposed with admirable art. CHAP. IX. J THE PAUSES, Oh lasting || as those c61ors may they shine, Frefe as thy stroke ; [j yet faultless as thy line j New graces yearly j| like thy works display, Soft without weakness, j] without glaring gay ; Led by some rule that guides, j| but not constrains ; And finished more || through happiness than pains! The kindred hearts [] shall in their praise conspire. One dip the pencil ; |] and on6 string the lyre. ROGERS and CAMPBELL have followed in POPE S school : the Pleasures of Memory, and the Pleasures of Hope, fur nish many examples of great harmony produced by the happy disposition of the csesuras. Witness the following from ROGERS: Mark yon old mansion [] frowning through the trees, Whose hollow turret || wooes the whistling breeze. That casement, arch d || with ivy s brownest shade, First to these eyes || the light of heaven convey d. The mouldering gateway j| strews the grass-grown court, Once the calm scene j| of many a simple sport, When nature pleased, || for life itself was new, And the heart promised || what the fancy drew. See, through the fractured pediment reveal d, Where moss inlays jj the rudely sculptured shield* The martin s old || hereditary nest : Long may the rnin ft spare its hallow d guest As jars the hinge, j| what sullen echoes calli Oh haste, || unfold the hospitable hall ! That hall, where once, <|| in antiquated state, The chair of justice [| held the grave debate. Now stain d with dews, fl with cobwebs darkly hung, Oft has its roof |.| with peals of rapture rung ; When round yon ample board, || in due degree. We sweeten d every meal, |] with social glee. The heart s light laugh || pursiied the circling jest ; And all was sunshine |] in each little breast. Twas here we chased the slipper || by its sound ; And turn d the blindfold hero II round and round. 140 CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. II. Twas here, at eve, || we form d our fairy ring ; And fancy flutter d || on her wildest wing. Giants and genii |] chained each wondering ear ; And orphan-sorrows [| drew the ready tear. Oft with the babes [[ we wander d in the wood, Or viewed the forest-feats || of Robin Hood ; Oft, fancy-led, j| at midnight s fearful hour, With startling step || we scaled the lonely tower ; O er infant innocence || to hang and weep, Murder d by ruffian hands, || when smiling in its sleep. Pleasures of Memory, Part I. 43. The Final Pause. Besides the caesura and the secondary pauses, there is a pause at the end of the line called, from its position, the final pause. This pause frequently, and indeed gener ally, corresponds with the pause required by the sense, but this is not uniformly the case. It is obvious to remark that, when the final pause is the same as the sense pause, the line is more melodious. In the first of the following examples, the final pause and the sense pause are the same : But small the bliss that sense alone bestows, And sensual bliss is all the nation knows. In florid beauty groves and fields appear, Man seems the only growth that dwindles here. Contrasted faults through all his manners reign : Though poor, luxurious ; though submissive, vain : Though grave, yet trifling ; zealous, yet untrue ; And e en in penance planning sins anew. GOLDSMITH. Traveller : In the following examples, the sense pause does not accord with the final pause : But hark ! through those old firs, with sullen swell. The church-clock strikes ! ye tender scenes, farewell ! CHAP. IX.] THE PAUSES. 141 It calls me heace, beneath their shade, to trace The few fond lines that Time may soon efface. ROGERS. Again : Her eyes had blessed the beacon s glimmering height That faintly tipt the feathery surge with light ; But now the morn with orient hues portrayed Each castled cliff, and brown monastic shade. Id. Again : Then are they blessed indeed ; and swift the hours Till her young sisters wreathe her hair in flowers, Kindling her beauty while, unseen, the least Twitches her robe, then runs behind the rest, Known by her laugh that will not be suppressed. Then before all they stand the holy vow And ring of gold, no fond illusions now, Bind her as his. Id. Again : Yet here high passions, high desires unfold, Prompting to noblest deeds ; here links of gold Bind soul to soul ; and thoughts divine inspire A thirst unquenchable, a holy fire, That will not, cannot but with life expire ! Now, seraph-winged, among the stars we soar, Now distant ages, like a day, explore, And judge the act, the actor now no more ; Or, in a thankless hour condemned to live, From other claims that these refuse to give, And dart, like Milton, an unerring eye Through the dim curtains of Futurity. Id. If these passages be read without regard to the final pause, the harmony will be almost entirely destroyed. The foregoing rules on pauses, apply exclusively to Iambic measures. The pauses of the Trochaic and the Anapestic measures do not seem, so far as the author is 7* 142 CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. II. aware, to have attracted the particular attention of any English prosodian, or even to have been incidentally al luded to by any critic. This seems the more strange that pauses have not shared the neglect which has been the fate of the other branches of versification, but have been considered by every writer, that has treated of Prosody. We have remarked above ( 41), that in Iambic mea sures, lines of less than four feet have not generally any perceptible pause. It is otherwise with Trochaic and An- apestic measures. In these, the pauses are not subjected to all the laws which govern them in Iambic verse. And first of the Trochee. As every Trochaic line begins with a long syllable, it takes a sensible pause after this syllable, except in the line of a single Trochee. This pause is not a cesural pause, but of the nature of the secondary pause. One or two examples will suffice. Witness the follow. ing: Purple scenes, Winding greens, Glooms inviting, Birds delighting, (Nature s softest, sweetest store,) Chkrm my tortured soul no more. ADDISON. Rosamond, Act I. Sc. 4. In this example, we have three different measures ; the first two lines being composed of a single Trochee with along syllable added ; the second and third composed of two Trochees ; and the fourth and fifth composed of three Trochees, an additional long syllable ; and in all of them the pause after the first syllable is sensible. The experiment may be made upon any of the Trochaic mea sures (Chap. II.), and the result will be the same. This is the only pause in lines of two Trochees or less. In all lines of more than two, there is also a cresural pause. CHAP. IX.] THE PAUSES. 143 This falls uniformly in the middle of the second foot, ex- cept in lines composed of five feet or more, in which case it sometimes falls in the middle of the third foot. The following examples will suffice to illustrate this remark : When the shades |] of night retire From the morn s || advancing beams, 1 Ere the hills || are tipt with fire, And the raj|diance lights the streams, L6, the lark || begins her song, Early on |j the wing, and long. Summoned by |] the signal notes, Soon her si?||ters quit the lawn, With their wild|]!y warbling throats. Soaring in ]| the dappled dawn ; Brighter, warm Her, spread the rays, Louder, sweet Her, swell their lays. MONTGOMERY. Again : Oh ! be less, || be less enchanting . Lfct some lit||tle grace be wanting ; Lfet my eyes, || when I m expiring, Gftze awhile H without admiring - MOORE. In these examples, the first composed of three feet and a long syllable, and the second of four feet, the secondary pause and the caesura, are both quite sensible, and the harmony of the verse without them would be destroyed. For longer lines, the reader is referred to the examples given under the head of Quantity, ( 24, 25, 23.) Besides these pauses, there is sometimes a secondary pause, following the csesura. This is not sensible, how ever, in the shorter lines. Tn the line composed of three Trochees and a long syllable it is marked, as well as in all longer lines, and it always falls on the next long sylla ble after the caesura. One example will be sufficient : 144 CONSTRUCTION. [fiT. II. Hy the streams j| that fever flow, By the fra [[grant winds that blow O er the Elysian flowers ; By those hapj|py souls, who dwell In yellow meads of asphodel, Or amaranthine bowers ! By the hej|ro s armed shades, Glittering through || the gloomy glades ; By the youths || that died for love, Wandering in [| the myrtle grove, Restore, restore, Eurydice to life ! POPE. Ode to St. Cecilia s Day. It will be seen that there are four Iambic lines in this piece. In these there is no pause, except in the last, and the pauses follow the rules for the line of four feet. We now come to the pauses of Anapestic measures ; and these pauses differ still more from the pauses of Iambic measures, than do the pauses of the Trochaic measures. In Anapestic measures as in Trochaic, the pauses are of nearly equal effect ; the csesural is scarcely more per ceptible than the secondary pauses. But the Anapestic measures differ from the Trochaic, as well as the Iam bic, inasmuch as they are far more sensible to the ear. Even the secondary pauses of the Anapest are quite as long as the caesura of the heroic line. The Anapest, like the Trochee, takes a pause in the short lines. All lines of two Anapests or more, take a pause after every long syllable. In the following stanzas these pauses are quite distinct : Sweet bud of the wild([erness ! emblem of al! That remains in this desolate heart ; The fabric of bliss || to its centre may fall, But patience shall never depart; Though the wilds of enchant ||ment, all vernal and bright, In the days of delusion by fancy combined With the vanishing phantoms of love and delight, CHAP. IX.] THE PAUSES. 145 Abandoned my soul || like a dr&am of the night, And leave but a desert behind. Be hushed, my dark spi||rit! for wisdom condemns When the faint and the feeble deplore ; Be strong as the rock || of the ocean that stems A thousand wild w&ves in the shore : Through the perils of chance, || and the scowls of disdain, May thy front be unal||tered, thy courage elate ! Yea ! even the name || I have worshipped in vain, Shall awake not the sigh || of remembrance again, To bear is to conquer our fate. CAMPBELL. We now find a confirmation of the principles before laid down, when treating of the quantity of the Anapest.* It was there stated that this measure is very lively, and that for this reason it cannot be employed for any con- siderable length. It was also stated that it is extremely monotonous. We now see that its monotony results, not only from the uniformity of its feet, but from the invaria- bleness of its pauses. There is such a remarkable re semblance between these pauses and the pauses of Spanish verse, in which, as in the Anapest, there is a marked pause after every accented syllable, that I cannot resist the temptation of giving, for the satisfaction of the curious, an example with the pauses marked. This shall be taken from the Fables of YRIARTE : Trabajando un Gusano su capullo, La Arana, que tejia a toda prisa, De esta suerte le hablo con faJsa risa Muy propia de su orgullo : [ Que dice de mi tela el seor Gusa.no 1 Esta manana la ernpece temprano, Y ya estara acab&da a mediodia. Mire que sutil es, mere que bella. Chapter III. 146 CONSTRUCTION. [ PIT. II. El Gusano con sorna respondia : Usted tifene razon ; asi sale fella. El Gusano de seda y la Arana. There is a final pause in the Trochaic and Anapestic measures, as in the Iambic measures. This pause is found in all measures, whether long or short. With these remarks we close the subject of pauses. Its importance and interest have beguiled us into a more extended con sideration of the subject than we first intended to devote to it. In searching for fruit, we cannot always resist the temptation of turning aside to admire the flowers that bor der our path, and arrest our attention, both by the fra grance of their odours, the beauty of their forms, and the delicacy of their variegated tints. CHAPTER X. THE HIATUS. 44. Definition of. THE Hiatus is the juxtaposition of two vowels : or, in the language of Dryden, it is one vowel gaping on another. This, among the Greeks, was not only allowable, but of frequent occurrence. The Latins admitted it more rarely. In English it always has a disagreeable effect, and, though sometimes found in our best Poets, it should be carefully avoided. The best example that we can give of it, is that line in POPE S Essay on Criticism, in which he has intention ally given an example of what he condemns : Though oft the ear the open vowels tire. CHAP. X.] THE HIATUS. 147 When the final vowel is silent, the following word may begin with a vowel without producing a hiatus, for in this case there is only one vowel sound, and it is not the eye, but the ear, that is consulted. A proper diphthong seems to participate of the nature of a consonant so far as to admit the vowel after it, without producing a hiatus. Whenever the final vowel of a word can be elided, there is no hiatus. In the instances which follow the hiatus is apparent. And, first, from MILTON : Fast by the oracle of God ; I thence. And mad st it pregnant : what in me is dark. More than can be in heaven, we now return. No inconvenient diet, nor too light fare. Again, from THOMSON : Lift her pale eye t/njoyous. Then appears. Of Mauritania, or the tufted isles. Fiery and foul, the small prognostic hangs. Which spoils unhappy Guinea of her sons. Divinely great ; they in their powers exult. Though oft amidst th irriguous vale it springs. Again, from Dr. YOUNG : Assist me : I will thank you in the grave. To % at infinite, and reach it there. Thy sports, thy pomps? I grant thee in a state. Nor like its elder sisters, die a fool. 148 CONSTRUCTION. [tlT. II. CHAPTER XI. THE COMPLETION OF THE SENSE BY THE COUPLET.* 45. General Remarks ; Examples. ACCORDING to Dr. Johnson, Denham was one of the first that reduced our couplet to such a degree of regu larity, as to make it uniformly complete the sense. Den- ham wrote in the middle of the seventeenth century, and from his time the practice seems to have been pretty generally adopted. "The general structure of the coup let," says Hallam, " through the seventeenth century, may be called abnormous ; the sense is not only often car ried beyond the second line, which the French avoid, but the second line of one couplet and the first of the next are not seldom united in a single sentence, or a portion of one, so that the two, though not rhyming, must be read as a couplet. The former, when as dexterously managed as it was by Dryden, adds much to the beauty of the general versification; but the latter, a sort of adultery of the lines already wedded to other companions at rhyme s altar, can scarcely ever be pleasing, unless it be in narrative poetry, where it may bring the sound nearer to prose. A ten dency, however, to the French rule of constantly terminat ing the sense with the couplet, will be perceived to have increased with the Restoration." These remarks, so far as they concern English verse, are sufficiently correct, though it seems now to be admit ted that the sense should always be completed by the couplet; but it is somewhat astonishing that Mr. Hallam should have committed so egregious an error as to suppose * This rule, as Hallam informs us, had been laid down by Gas- coyne as early as 1575, but does not seem to have been regarded. \ CHAP. XI.] COMPLETION OF SENSE BY THE COUPLET. 149 that the French Poets avoid carrying " the sense beyond the second line." Nothing is farther from the truth ; for the French not only carry the sense beyond the second line, but they unite the last line of one couplet and the first line of the next, so that the two have to be read together. This may be seen by reference to any of the French Poets. "Sometimes," says Dr. Johnson,* " Dryden con cludes a period or paragraph with the first line of a couplet, which, though the French seem to do it with ir regularity, always displeases in English poetry." It will be seen, that, though Hallam has fallen into an unaccount able error with regard to the French rule, he confirms the opinion of Dr. Johnson with regard to the English rule as at present established, that the two lines of a couplet should never le separated ly the sense. This rule is universal. We may also safely lay it down as a general rule, that the sense should not be carried beyond the second line. The following examples will illustrate the license of carrying on the sense beyond the second line of the couplet : Thou seest me here at midnight, now at rest : Time s dead low-water; when all minds divest To-morrow s business ; when the labourers have Such rest in bed, that iheir last church-yard grave, Subject to change, will scarce be a type of this : Now when the client, whose last hearing is To-morrow, sleeps ; the condemned man, Who, when he opes his eyes, may shut them then Again by death, although sad watch he keep, Doth practise dying by a little sleep ; Thou at this midnight seest me. DR. TONNE. Again : And as the Indies were not found before Those rich perfumes, which from ihe happy shore * Lives of the Poets, Vol. I. page 300. 150 CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. II. The winds upon their balmy wings conveyed, Whose guilty sweetness first their world betrayed ; So by your counsels we are brought to view A new and undiscovered world in you. DRYDEN. Verses to Clarendon. Examples of the couplet separated by the period, so that the last line has to be carried on to the next couplet, are extremely rare. The following examples will suffice to show that, though rare, a more frequent occurrence of them would be even less desirable than that of the exam ples just given. The harmony of verse is utterly destroy ed by this " adultery of rhymes." The speedy horse all passages belay, And spur their smoking steeds to cross the way ; And watch each entrance of the winding wood. Black was the forest : thick with beech it stood, Horrid with fern, and intricate with thorn : Few paths of human feet, or tracks of beasts were worn. DRYDEN Virgil s JEneid, Again : Then thus they spoke, and eased my troubled mind : " What from the Delian god thou go st to find, He tells thee here, and sends us to relate. Those powers are we, companions of thy fate, Who from the burning town by thee were brought, Thy fortune followed, and thy safety wrought." Id. CHAPTER XII. MONOSYLLABIC VERSE. 46. Dry den s Opinion; Examples. ON Monosyllabic verse Dryden* makes the following judicious remarks : * Dedication to the JEneid. CHAP. XI .] MONOSYLLABIC VERSE. 151 " It is possible, I confess, though it rarely happens, that a verse of monosyllables may sound harmoniously ; and some examples of it 1 have seen. My first line of the ^Eneid is not harsh : Arms, and the man I sing, who, forced by fate : but a much better instance may be given from the last line of Manilius, made English by our learned and judi cious Mr. Creech : Nor could the world have borne so fierce a fiame where the many liquid consonants are placed so artfully, that they give a pleasing sound to the words, though they are all of one syllable. " It is true," continues Dryden, " I have been some times forced on it in other places of this work : but I never did it out of choice : I was either in haste, or Virgil gave me no occasion for the ornament of words, for it seldom happens but a monosyllable line turns verse to prose; and even that prose is rugged and unharmonious." Pope seems to have confirmed the judgment of Dryden in that noted instance of representative versification : And ten low words oft creep in one dull line. It will be easy to find monosyllabic lines in English verse which are far from being either prosaic or rugged, but it will be found that the melody is owing to a supera bundance of liquid sounds, or to the happy disposition of the words and pauses, rather than the monosyllables. I have selected some of this nature. The six following are from DRYDEN The queen might force them from her town and state. Purge from your sight the dross, and make you see. 152 CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. If. With some small glimpse of hope to find her there. And where they left their ships, and what their fate. We furl our sails, and turn the prows to shore. Who fights finds death, and death finds him who flies. All these are melodious. In COWLEY we have the following : Till the whole stream that stopped him shall be gone. From whence these take their birth, which now are here. In these lines there is nothing remarkable. The first is rather melodious than otherwise, the last is quite so. The following line from COLERIDGE is as sweet as the airs he speaks of: Breathes in his flute sad airs, so wild and slow. There are others from the same author which are scarcely surpassed by lines containing polysyllables. Witness the following : There, in that bower, where first she owned her love. And let me kiss my own warm tear of joy. And at his side I saw the Sun and Moon. At our first birth, the wreath of love was woven. How bad she looked, and pale ! but not like guilt The following, from MILTON, also possess great merit: From off the files of war ; there they him laid. Borne even or high ; for this day will pour down. Thou shalt be all in all, and I in thee. And wings were set with eyes, with eyes the wheels. Yet half his strength he put not forth, but checked. And war so near the peace of God in bliss. Till night, then in the east her turn she shines. By fowl, fish, beast, was flown, was swum, was walked. CHAP. XII.] MONOSYLLABIC VERSE. 153 To love thou blam st me not, for love thou say st Leads up to heaven, is both the way and guide. Man shall not quite be lost, but saved who will Rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air. Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death. Heard far and wide, and all the host of hell. Some of these lines possess great strength, as well as sweetness; but they have been selected with a view to show that monosyllabic lines are not always dull, that they are sometimes hardly less musical and energetic than polysyllabic lines. It is proper, however, to caution the student against employing them too frequently. They should rather be avoided than sought after. CHAPTER XIII. THE ELISION. THE Elision is the suppression of a letter or letters, and is employed for the sake of measure alone, when the next word begins with a consonant ; but when the next word begins with a vowel, it is also employed to prevent a hiatus. On this subject we shall give the opinion of Dryden, as we have done on the monosyllabic verse. "Wherever it is used," says this judicious critic, "it gives a roughness to the verse, of which we can have little need in a language which is overstocked with con sonants. Such is not the Latin, where the vowels and consonants are mixed in. proportion to each other : yet Virgil judged the vowels to have somewhat of an over balance, and therefore tempers their sweetness with cse- 154 CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. II. suras.* Such difference there is in tongues, that the same figure which roughens one gives majesty to another: and that was it which Virgil studied in his verses. Ovid uses it but rarely ; and hence it is that his versification cannot so properly be called sweet, as luscious. The Italians are forced on it once or twice in every line, because they have a redundancy of vowels in their language. Their metal is so soft, that it will not coin without alloy to harden it. On the other side, for the reason already named, it is all we can do to give sufficient sweetness to our language : we must not only choose our words for elegance, but for sound." 47. Elision of E in THE before a vowel. These remarks are well founded. The elision should be employed only when indispensably necessary, for the purpose of avoiding some greater evil. But it must be observed that it is not always possible to arrange words in such a manner that the article definite shall precede a consonant, and where this cannot be done we must toler ate either the elision or the hiatus. In this case the Elision is preferable. The following examples of this figure are therefore proper. And first, from DRYDEN S Virgil s JEneid : Th CEnotrians held it once by common fame. Receive th unhappy fugitives to grace. So hot th assault, so high the tumult rose. Amazed th augmented number to behold. Again, from MILTON : Who durst defy th Omnipotent to arms. Th infernal serpent, he it was whose guile. * In the sense of hiatus. CHAP. XII.] THE ELISION. 155 Hurled headlong flaming from th ethereal sky. Thus to th empyreal minister he framed. Following, above th Olympian hill I soar. In presence of th Almighty Father, pleased. Again, from COWPER : He bruised beneath his feet th infernal powers. Too scanty for th exertion of his beams. A Jordan for th ablution of our woes. The pillar of th eternal plan appears. Again, from YOUNG : What read we here ? th existence of a God ? How such ideas of th Almighty s power, And such ideas of th Almighty s plan. Objects are but th occasion, ours th exploit. Again, from BEATTIE : Stunned with th eternal turbulence of waves. Bright through th eternal year of Love s triumphant reign. 48. The Elision of a Vowel, so as to diminish Ihe number of Syllables. The elision of a vowel so as to cut dissyllables into monosyllables, or two monosyllables into one, is authorized by the best Poets, as will be seen by the following exam ples. And first, from YOUNG : Lean not on earth ; twill pierce thee to the heart. Redemption ! twas the favour of the skies. Tis this makes Christian triumph a command. Tis this makes joy a duty to the wise. Tis impious in a good man to be sad. If twas a dream why wake me my worst foe. I5f) CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. II. Again, from BYRON : Gainst whom he raged with fury strange and blind. Of men and empires, tis to be forgiven. And now again tis black, and now, the glee. Twas not for fiction chose Rousseau this spot. To the mind s purified beings ; twas the ground. And hallowed it with loveliness; tis lone. Again, from MILTON : Shall scape his punishment ordained, and we. If thence he scape into whatever world. Again, from BEATTIE : For though I fly to scape from Fortune s rage. Again, from GOLDSMITH : To scape the pressure of contiguous pride. 49. The Elision of an entire Syllable. The Elision of an entire syllable is authorized, as the following examples will show. And first, from YOUNG : The phantom of an age twixt us and Death. Twixt stage and stage of riot and cabal. Again, from COWPER : Gan make his instrument of music speak. Again, from BEATTIE : Her legends when the Beldam gan impart. His deep, majestic melody gan roll. Again, from BYRON : And steer twixt fertile shores, where yet few rustics reap. CHAP. X11I.] THE ELISION. 157 50. The Elision of the Vowel in the second person of the Verb, The elision of the \owel in the second person of the verb for the purpose of suppressing a syllable, is author ized. Witness the following examples; and first, from YOUNG : Thou think st perhaps thy soul alone, at stake, Believ st thou this, Lorenzo ? lend an ear. Again, from BYRON : Thou know st not, reck st not to what region, so. Again, from COLERIDGE : To call him villain ! why stand st thou aghast ? I ll dash thee to the earth if thou but think st it ! Alas ! how aptly thou forgett st a tale. What, art thou mad 1 look st thou upward so 1 51. The Elision of some letters in the Substantive Verb and in the Auxiliaries. The elision of some letters in the substantive verb arid in the auxiliaries, so as to combine these with the preceding pronoun and to form a single syllable, is al lowable. This is similar to the elision under the second head ( 48). From YOUNG : I ll try if I can pluck thee from thy rock. She s elegantly pained from morn till night, No, he s forever in a smiling mood. Again, from BYRON : Sir Childe, I m not so weak If aught that s kindred cheer the welcome hearth. 8 158 CONSTRUCTION. [lIT. rf. 52. The Elision of a Consonant in order to change a Dissyllable into a Monosyllable. The elision of a consonant in order to change a dis syllable into a Monosyllable, is frequently employed. The following examples will suffice : From BYRON : The mightiest of the storms hath ta en his stand. From GOLDSMITH : E en children followed with endearing wile. From YOUNG : Can t injure, which holds on its glorious course. From MILTON : O er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp. The above include the several classes of elisions admitted into English verse. There are, it is believed, none which may not be reduced to one of these heads. It now remains to notice some instances of the elision that are to be avoided. 53. The Elision of a Vowel before a Consonant, or of one Consonant before another. The elision of a vowel before a consonant, and even of one consonant before another, was admitted by the older poets ; but as it increases the number of the conso nant sounds, it is not considered admissible by the later poets. The following examples from MILTON will show the nature of this elision : Because the father t whom in heaven supreme. Regent of day, and all th horizon round. CHAP. XI11.] THE ELISION. 159 Obscure some glimpse of joy, t have found their chief. Not in despair t have found themselves not lost. Fled o er Adria to th Hesperian fields. Of Phlegra with th heroic race were joined. In billows, i th midst, a horrid vale. The last line is particularly objectionable, containing, besides the elision of e in the, the elision of n in in. 54. Improper Elision of the Dactyle and the Anapest. The Anapest and the Dactyle should never, in heroic poetry, be cut by elision into Iambuses. An elision of this kind destroys the most beautiful of the secondary feet. The following examples, not probably admitted for the most part by the authors in the first instance, but inserted by injudicious editors subsequently, are not to be tolerated. From MILTON : Him haply slumb ring on the Norway foam. Jehovah thund ring out of Zion, throned. His odious off rings, and adore the gods. Pond ring the danger with deep thoughts ; and each In other s count nance read his own dismay. Much wond ring how the subtle fiend had stol n. Comes thund ring back with dreadful revolution. As in a glist ring zodiac hung the sword. From GOLDSMITH : Or drives his vent rous ploughshare to the steep. The decent church that topped the neigh bring hil:. 160 CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. II. 55. The E in ED final not to le elided. For the manifest reason that the design of the elision is to diminish the number of syllables, the e in ed final, where this does not add another syllable in the pronuncia tion, should never be elided. The following elisions, then, are out of place. First, from BYRON : Thus Harolde inly said, and pass d along. For I have cherish d them as dear. Within a window d niche of that high wall. From COWPER : Let laurels drench d in pure Parnassian dews. A prologue interdash d with many a stroke. The laurel seem d to wait on his command. From THOMSON : Now call d abroad, enjoy the falling day. Cemented firm ; till, seiz d from shore to shore. Examples of this kind are so numerous that it is not necessary to give additional ones. It is to be regretted that elisions of this class are so improperly admitted. In the same author we frequently find words elided in one stanza, and written in full in the next. This fault, it is presumed, is frequently typographical, and it is to be hoped that it will soon disappear. The only specious apology for eliding the e in ed final, is, that it is mute. But let it be observed that there exists the same reason for eliding it in prose, as in verse. And if we look into the prose writers of the early part of the last century, we shall CHAP. XIII.] THE ELISION. 161 find that they actually did elide the e in the case above mentioned. They went even farther. They elided the 7 in should and would, and made other elisions still more barbarous. But it was soon seen that if all mutes were to be elided, there would be no end to elision, and authors became alarmed at this innovation, and arrested it in time. For the same reason that we should not elide e in ed final, we should not elide it in words ending in er, as flower, dower, power ; since, in these instances, er does not form an additional syllable, but these words rhyme with hour, pour, &c. For the same reason the e in the words heaven, given, even, siolen, should never be elided. The elision does not change the pronunciation. It is here proper to remark, that those words terminat ing in ed, formerly took with this termination an addi tional syllable. This syllable has been dropped, and it would be just as reasonable to elide it in prose as in verse. It is greatly to be regretted that this syllable is not still pronounced in all words. Its pronunciation formerly ren dered our language far less rugged than it now is. As Addison has enlarged upon this idea, I shall quote what he has said on this subject, in his own words.* " The same natural aversion to loquacity has of late years made a very considerable alteration in our language, by closing in one syllable the termination of our prreterperfect tense, as in these words, * drown d, walk d, arriv d, for drowned, walked, arrived, which has very much disfigured the tongue, and turned a tenth part of our smoothest words into so many clusters of consonants. This is the more remarkable, because the want of vowels in our language has been the general complaint of our politest authors, who, nevertheless, are the men that have made these re- * Spectator, No. 135. 162 CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. II. trenchments, and consequently very much increased our former scarcity." " This reflection," continues the same critic, " on the words that end in ed, I have heard in conversation, from one of the greatest geniuses* this age has produced. I think we may add to the foregoing observation the change which has happened in our language, by the abbreviation of several words that are terminated in etli, by substituting an s in the room of the last syllable, as in drowns, walks, arrives, and innumerable other words, which, in the pro nunciation of our forefathers, were drowneth, walketh, arriveth. This has wonderfully multiplied a letter which was before too frequent in the English tongue, and added that hissing in our language which is taken so much no tice of by foreigners." With these remarks we close the subject of the elision. CHAPTER XIV. MELODY AND HARMONY. IN Poetry, the terms Melody and Harmony have a signification quite different from that which they have in Music. In Music, Melody is produced by a succession of sounds ; Harmony is produced by a combination of sounds. A flute, a thrush, or a nightingale, makes melody ; a piano forte, or an organ, produces Harmony. A single voice produces Melody ; several voices produce Har mony. In Poetry, Melody is the sweetness of a single sound, word, or line, without reference to any other sound, * Probably Dean Swift. CHAP, XIV.] MELODY AND HARMONY. 163 word, or line. Harmony is such a combination of words in a line, or lines in a passage, as produces an agreeable result. When we say that a passage is melodious, we mean that it is made up of melodious lines, considered in themselves ; when we say that a passage is harmonious, we mean that the feet and pauses are so disposed as to pro duce an agreeable combination. When we say that a lino is melodious, we mean that it is not only made up of sweet sounds, but that its pauses are properly disposed. So that Melody, when applied to a line, implies a harmony between the hemistichs of this line ; though there may be harmony between these hemistichs, and the line be wanting in melody. In a single line, then, Harmony may exist without Melody, but Melody cannot exist without Harmony. In a series of lines not only may Melody exist with out Harmony, but Harmony may exist without Melody; for, in this case, Harmony is no longer the proper dispo sition of two hemistichs with regard to each other, but the proper disposition of several hemistichs and lines with re- gard to several other hemistichs and lines. Melody may exist without Harmony, since a series of melodious lines may be so monotonous as to destroy Harmony ; Harmony may exist independently of Melody, inasmuch as harsh lines may be so combined as to produce a harmonious result. 56. Examples of Melody and Harmony. Of all the older English Poets, Pope possesses the most Melody, and Milton the most Harmony. Of the more modern Poets, Moore, Rogers, and Campbell have the most Melody, and Byron and Coleridge the most Har mony. CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. II. As an example of Melody, witness the following from POPE : Then all your muse s softer art display, Let Carolina smooth the tuneful lay, Lull with Amelia s liquid name the nine, And sweetly flow through all the royal line. Sat. I. Again : Now range the hills, the gameful woods beset, Wind the shrill horn, or spread the waving net. When milder autumn summer s heat succeeds, And in the new shorn fields the partridge feeds j Before his lord the ready spaniel bounds, Panting with hope, he tries the furrowed grounds: But when the tainted gales the game betray, Couched close he lies, and meditates the prey : Secure they trust the unfaithful field beset, Till hovering o er them sweeps the swelling net. Windsor Forest. CAMPBELL has drawn from his lyre strains scarcely less sweet than those of Pope. Witness the following : But Hope can here her moonlight vigils keep, And sing to charm the spirit of the deep. Swift as yon streamer lights the starry pole, Her visions warm the watchman s pensive soul ; His native hills that rise in happier climes, The grot that heard his song of other times, His cottage home, his bark of slender sail, His glassy lake, and broomwood-blossomed vale, Rush on his thought ; he sweeps before the wind, Treads the loved shore he sighed to leave behind ; Meets at each step a friend s familiar face, And flies at last to Helen s long embrace. Pleasures of Hope. Again : Till Hymen brought his love-delighted hour, There dwelt no joy in Eden s rosy bower ! CHAP. XIV.] MELODY AND HARMONY. 165 In vain the viewless seraph lingering there, At starry midnight charmed the silent air ; In vain the wild bird carolled on the steep, To hail the sun, slow wheeling from the deep ; In vain to soothe the solitary shade, Aerial notes in mingling measure played ; The summer wind that shook the spangled tree, The whispering wave, the murmur of the bee ; Still slowly passed the melancholy day, And still the stranger wist not where to stray. The. world was sad ! the garden was a wild ! And man, the hermit, sighed till woman smiled ! Idem. ROGERS has fallen little below Pope in point of Melody : Childhood s loved group revisits every scene, The tangled wood-walk, and the tufted green ! Indulgent MEMORY wakes, and lo, they live ! Clothed with far softer hues than light can give. Thou first best friend that Heaven assigns below, To soothe and sweeten all the cares we know ; Whose glad suggestions still each vain alarm, When nature fades, and life forgets to charm ; Thee would the muse invoke ! to thee belong The sage s precept, and the poet s song. What soften d views thy magic glass reveals, When o er the landscape Time s meek twilight steals ! As when in ocean sinks the orb of day, Long on the wave reflected lustres play ; Thy temper d gleams of happiness resign d Glance on the darken d mirror of the mind. The School s lone porch, with reverend mosses gray, Just tells the pensive pilgrim where it lay. Mute is the bell that rung at peep of dawn, Quickening my truant feet across the lawn ; Unheard the shout that rent the noontide air, When the slow dial gave a pause to care. Up springs, at every step, to claim a tear, Some little friendship form d and cherish d here, 166 CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. II. And not the lightest leaf, but trembling teems With golden visions, and romantic dreams ! Pleasures of Jlemory, Part I. From MOORE we can hardly select amiss ; he is all melody. The following will suffice to show the sweet ness of his verse : Those evening bells those evening bells How many a tale their music tells Of youth, and home, and native clime, When I last heard their soothing chime. Those pleasant hours are passed away, And many a heart that then was gay, Within the tomb now darkly dwells, And hears no more those evening bells. Of Harmony, witness the following example from MILTON : She all night long her amorous descant sung, Silence was pleased : now glowed the firmament With living sapphires ; Hesperus, that led The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon, Rising in clouded majesty, at length, Apparent queen, unveiled her peerless light, And o er the dark her silver mantle threw. Paradise. Lost, Book IV. The beginning of the Fifth Book is a passage among the most harmonious, as well as the most beautiful in every other point of view, that our language affords. Since this has already been given at length ( 41) as an example of the happy disposition of the caesura, it will be necessary only to refer to it. The opening of Paradise Lost is another example. The following from BYRON are examples of perfect Harmony. In Melody the noble poet is greatly deficient. CHAP. XIV.] MELODY AND HARMONY. 167 Twas not for fiction chose Rousseau this spot, Peopling it with affections ; but he found It was the scene which passion must allot To the mind s purified beings ; twas the ground Where early Love his Psyche s zone unbound, And hallowed it with loveliness ; tis lone, And wonderful, and deep, and hath a sound, And sense, and sight of sweetness ; here the Rhone Hath spread himself a couch, the Alps have reared a throne. Childe Harold, Canto III. Again *. To fly from, need not be to hate, mankind ; All are not fit with them to stir and toil, Nor is it discontent to keep the mind Deep in its fountain, lest it overboil In the hot throng, where we become the spoil Of our infection, till too late and long We may deplore and struggle with the coil, In wretched interchange of wrong for wrong "Midst a contentious world, striving where none are strong, Idem, Canto III, Again: Soul of Alvar! Hear our soft suit, and heed my milder spell : So may the gates of Paradise, unbarred, Cease thy swift toils ! since haply thou art one Of that innumerable company, Who in broad circle, lovelier than the rainbow, Girdle this round earth in a dizzy motion, With noise too vast and constant to be heard : Fitliest unheard 1 For oh, ye numberless And rapid travellers ! What ear unstunned, What sense unmaddened, might bear up against Tfoe rushing of your congregated wings ? COLERIDGE. Remorse, Act III. Sc. 1- 168 CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. II. CHAPTER XV. RHYME. OF the advantages of Rhyme it is not our intention now to speak ; that subject has been treated in full by others. All that is proposed now, is to give some rules on the use of Rhyme. And here, as in most other parts of this treatise, we can derive little assistance from others. We shall deduce our rules from the usage of the best English poets. It is proper to premise that it is sufficient if rhyme speak to the ear. It need not, as in French, address itself to the eye. The following rhymes, though distinguished by the eye, are not distinguished by the ear, and are therefore perfect : My humble verse demands a softer theme, A painted meadow, or a purling stream. ADDISON, 57. Perfect Rhyme. It is proper to remark, also, that great license is al lowed in rhymes, as in most other parts of English verse. We must, therefore, distinguish between perfect rhymes and admissible rhymes. A rhyme is perfect, when the same vowel terminates the final syllables of a couplet ; and the greater the number of the same letters contained in the terminating words, the better is the rhyme. This is what the French call the rime riclie. The following are perfect rhymes : While you, my lord, the rural shades admire, And from Britannia s public posts retire, CHAP. XV.] K1IYME. 169 Nor longer, her ungrateful sons to please, For her advantage sacrifice your ease. ADDISON. A rhyme is also perfect when the sound is the same though the vowel be different. Witness the following : Starves in the midst of Nature s bounty curst, And in the loaded vineyard dies for thirst. ADDISON. It may he laid down as established for all rhymes: 1st. That no word can rhyme with itself. 2d. That besides the vowel in the final syllable, the consonants (if any there be) following this vowel, should also rhyme ; otherwise the rhyme is not only imperfect, but inadmissible. 3d. When the line terminates with a Trochee or an Amphibrach, the last two syllables must rhyme. It may be laid down as also established, that a perfect rhyme consists of the repetition of the same sound, whether the vowel be the same or riot ; and vice versa, that, though the vowel be the same, the rhyme is not perfect unless the sound be the same. The following then are not perfect rhymes : And him and his if more devotion warms, Down with the bible ; up with the pope s arms. POPE. Dunciad. The following, on the contrary, though terminating with different vowels, are perfect rhymes : Not with less glory mighty Dullness crowned Shall take through Grub-street her triumphant round : And, her Parnassus glancing o er at once, Behold a hundred sons, and each a dunce. Idem. These rules and observations apply to rhyme, whether 170 CONSTRUCTION. [TLT. II. in the couplet, the triplet, the quatrain, or the Spenserian stanza. Whether the rhymes be consecutive, as in heroic poetry, or alternating, as in the quatrain, the application of these rules is universal. The perfect rhymes may be conveniently classified in the following order : 1. The long a with itself: Tis Britain s care to watch o er Europe s fate, And hold in balance each contending state. 2. The short a with itself: Suppliant the venerable father stands; Apollo s awful ensigns grace his hands. 3. The broad a with itself: Let me be deemed the hateful cause of all, And suffer, rather than my people fall. 4. The grave a with itself: Submit he must ; or if they will not part, Ourself in arms shall tear her from his heart. 5. The sharp a with itself: But then prepare, imperious prince ! prepare, Fierce as thou art, to yield thy captive fair. 6. The long e with itself: And fly where er thy mandate bids them steer, To Pleasure s path, or Glory s bright career. 7. The short e with itself: A home to rest, a shelter to defend, Peace and repose, a Briton and a friend ! 8. The long i with itself: Shall swell thy heart to rapture unconfined, And breathe a holy madness o er thy mind. CIIAF. XV.] RHYME. J71 9. The short i with itgelf : What though for him no Hybla sweets distil, Nor blooming vines wave purple on the hill. 10. The long o with itself: Poor fettered man ! I hear thee whispering low, Unhallowed vows to Guilt, the child of Woe ! 11. The short o with itself: Two heroes led the secret squadron on Mason the fierce, and hardy Lycophon. 12. The broad o with itself: The noisy geese that gabbled o er the pool : The playful children just let loose from school. 13. The grave o with itself: As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm. 14. The long u with itself: Charmed as they read the verse, too sadly true, How gallant Albert, and his weary crew. 15. The short u with itself: Mysterious worlds, untravelled by the sun, Where Time s far-wandering tide has never run. 10. The broad u with itself: As when a ponderous axe, descending full, Cleaves the broad forehead of some brawny bull. 17. The proper diphthong ou with itself: White are the decks with foam ; the winds aloud Howl o er the masts, and sing through every shroud. 18. The proper diphthong oi with itself: Who, sternly marking on his native soil, The blood, the tears, the anguish, and the toil. 11 2 CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. n. Of the diphthongal terminations there are none whose sounds are not included in this list : and these eighteen vowel terminations may safely be pronounced a complete list of the perfect rhymes.* Of these rhymes it will be remarked that those closing with long sounds, as e in stream, or i in light, are more musical than those closing with short sounds, as e in wren, or i in win. It is also to be remarked, that the greater the number of the same consonants that are joined with the final vowel, the more beautiful is the rhyme. For example, light and diglit are more musical than die and high. Our best rhymers are Pope, Goldsmith, Campbell, Rogers, Moore, and Crabbe. It is hardly possible to de cide which of these elegant versifiers is the most perfect in rhyme. We cannot open upon a page without having the ear enchanted with the richness of the rhymes. As an illustration, we will give an example from CRABBE, whose pauses are not always so adjusted as to produce the most harmonious lines, but whose rhymes are remark ably rich : A quiet simple man was Abel Keene, He meant no harm, nor did he often mean ; He kept a school of loud rebellious boys, And, growing old, grew nervous with the noise ; When a kind merchant hired his useful pen, And made him happiest of accompting men ; With glee he rose to every easy day, When half the labour brought him twice the pay. * It is true that the contracted sound of o broad is by no means the same as the full sound. For example, the oo in book is not the same as oo in fool ; but the oo in book is the same as u in full. In the same manner, the contracted a broad, as in wash, is not the same as a in fall, but it does not differ materially from short o as in lot ; so that, though we have omitted these combinations in the above list, we have not omitted their equivalents. CHAP. XV.] HHYME. 173 There were young clerks, and there the merchant s son, Choice spirits all who wished him to be one ; It must, no question, give them lively joy, Hopes long-indulged to combat and destroy ; At these they levelled all their skill and strength, He fell not quickly, but he fell at length ; They quoted books to him, both old and new, And scorned as fables all he held as true ; " Such monkish stories, and such nursery lies," That he was struck with terror and surprise. What ! all his life had he the laws obeyed, Which they broke through, and were not once afraid ? Had he so long his evil passion checked, And yet at last had nothing to expect? While they their lives in joy and pleasure led, And then had nothing, at the end to dread 1 Was all his priest with so much zeal conveyed, A part, ! a speech ! for which the man was paid ? And were his pious books, his solemn prayers, Not worth one tale of the admired Voltaire s? Then was it time, while yet some years remained, To drink untroubled, and to think unchained, And on all pleasures, which his purse could give, Freely to seize, and " while he lived, to live." Much time he passed in this important strife, The bliss or bane of his remaining life ; For converts all are made with care and grief, And pangs attend the birth of unbelief ; Nor pass they soon ; with awe and fear he took The flowery way, and cast back many a look. 58. Admissible Ilhymes. The number of rhymes which are imperfect, though admissible, is very great. Comprehended under this class are all those words in which a long vowel is made to rhyme with a short one, or a grave vowel with a broad 174 CONSTRUCT10X. [llT. 11. one of the same name, as male with mat, or far with war, for example ; or when the long, or the short a, is made to rhyme with long e. The following list includes all, or nearly all, the rhymes of this class : 1. The long a with the short a : The monarch spoke : the warriors snatched with haste (Each at his post in arms) a short repast. 2. The long a with the long e : Thence his broad eye the subject world surveys, The town, and tent, and navigable seas. 3. The long a with the short e : And praise his genius, he is soon repaid In praise applied to the same part his head. 4. The short a with the broad a : Gorgonitis sits, abdominous and wan, Like a fat squab upon a Chinese fan. 5. The broad a with the grave a : I know to shift my ground, remount the car, Turn, charge, and answer every call of war. 6. The broad a with the sharp a : While round the prince the Greeks employ their care, The Trojans rush impetuous to the war. 7. The broad a with the long e : All who, true Dunces, in her cause appeared, And all who knew those Dunces to reward. S. The grave a with the sharp a : Hence, British poets, too, the priesthood shared, And every hallowed Druid was a bard. CHAP. XV.] RHYME. 175 9. The sharp a with the long e : From the red field their scattered bodies bear, And nigh the fleet a funeral structure rear. 10. The long e with the short e : The war s whole art with wonder had he seen, And counted heroes where he counted men. 11. The long e with the short i : Great Hector sorrows for his servant killed, Yet unrevenged permits to press the field. 12. The long e with the short u : Between the swords their fearful sceptres reared, And first Idaea s awful voice was heard.* 13. The short e with the short i : All that on folly frenzy could beget, Fruits of dull heat and toterkins of wit. 14. The long i with the short i : Tis man s bold task the generous strife to try, But in the hands of God is victory. 15. The long i with the diphthong oi : His radiant arms preserved from hostile spoil, And laid him decent on the funeral pile. 16. The long e with the slnrt o : Who near adored Scamander made abode, Priest of the stream, and honoured as a god. 17. The long o with the grave o : How shall, alas ! her hoary heroes mourn Their sons degenerate, and their race a scorn ! * It will be observed that in this, as in several other instances, regard is had to the power of the letter, not to the name. 176 CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. II. 18. The long o with the broad o : With all the simple and unlettered poor, Admire his learning, and almost adore. 19. The long o with the short u : O thou ! whose glory fills th ethereal throne, And all ye deathless powers, protect my son ! 20. The long o with the diphthong OIL : Yet ceased not Hector thus ; but stooping down, In his strong hand upheaved a flinty stone. 21. The short o with the broad o : That withered all their host : like Mars he stood : Dire as the monster, dreadful as the god ! 22. The short o with the short u : With all their flippant fluency of tongue, Most confident when palpably most wrong. 23. The grave o with the short u : Then raised a mountain where his bones were burned ; The mountain-nymphs the rural tomb adorned. 24. The broad o with the long u : His court the dissolute and hateful school Of Wantonness, where vice was taught to rule. 25. The broad o with the short u : Scorned by the nobler tenants of the flood, Minnows and gudgeons scorn the unwholesome food. According to the second rule, the consonants, if any there be, following the final vowel, should rhyme, other wise the rhyme is inadmissible. The best poets have fallen inadvertently into such rhymes. The two following from POPE will suffice to illustrate this remark : CHAP. XV.] RHYME. 177 The sons of Dares first the combat sought, A wealthy priest, but rich without a fault, Again : From drawing-room?, from colleges, from garrets, On horse, on foot, in hacks, and gilded chariots. It is not necessary to multiply examples of inadmissible rhymes, as the above-mentioned rule will be found a sure test in all cases. With regard to the number of words that may be made to rhyme with each other, there is no established usage. There are, however, few examples of more than four. Of these there are many ; every Spenserian stanza furnishes an example ; so also does the stanza of six lines so often employed by Burns, and mentioned un der the head of the octo-syllabic line (7). But these stanzas are both difficult ; and the difficulty arises chiefly from the number of words required to rhyme. The triplet is much easier of construction. Of those anomalies of verse, in which the ingenuity of the author seems to have been tasked to find the greatest number of words that might be tortured into metre, and made to terminate the line, we will not speak. They are, like bout-rimes and acrostics, fit only for the amusement of children. Rhymes in couplets should not be interrupted by other rhymes which do not occur in couplets. This never fails to mar the harmony of the verse. Rhymes, except in some forms of the ode, should always succeed each other accord ing to some certain law ; and as the reader expects this, he is disappointed when he finds this regularity disturbed. Byron has written several pieces in which he is quite capri cious in the disposition of his rhymes. Among other pieces we may instance The Lament of Tas so, Churchill s Grave, and the Ode on Venice. We have only to compare these 178 CONSTRUCTION. [ FIT. 11. with The Dream and The Corsair of the same author to see how inferior this irregular measure is to his hlank verse, as well as to his heroic measure in couplets. Wit ness the Ode on Venice : Oh, Venice, Venice ! when thy marble walls Are level with the waters, there shall be A cry of nations o er thy sunken halls, A loud lament along the sweeping sea ! If I, a northern wanderer, weep for thee, What should thy sons do ] any thing but weep ; And yet they only murmur in their sleep. In contrast with their fathers as the slime, The dull green ooze of the receding deep, Is with the dashing of the springtide foam That drives the sailor shipless to his home, Are they to those that were ; and thus they creep, Crouching and crab-like, through their sapping streets. Oh ! agony that centuries should reap No mellower harvest ! Thirteen hundred years Of wealth and glory turn d to dust and tears ; And every monument the stranger meets, Church, palace, pillar, as a mourner greets ; And even the lion all subdued appears, And the harsh sound of the barbarian drum, With dull and daily dissonance, repeats The echo of the tyrant s voice along The soft waves, once all musical to song, That heaved beneath the moonlight with the throng Of gondolas and to the busy hum Of cheerful creatures, whose most sinful deeds Were but the overheating of the heart, And flow of too much happiness, which needs The aid of age to turn its course apart From the luxuriant and voluptuous flood Of sweet sensations, battling with the blood. CHAP. XVJ.J DIFFICULT COMBINATIONS. 179 CHAPTER XVI. DIFFICULT COMBINATIONS. 59. Examples. UNDER this head are included all lines which are un commonly harsh, or which it is impossible to scan accord- ing to the ordinary rules of versification. MILTON abounds in such lines. He seems at times to have studied harsh ness for the sake of variety. Witness the following ex amples : His temple right against the temple of God. Forthwith his former state of being forgets, Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain. Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things. And heightened as with wine jocund and boon. What words have passed thy lips, Adam severe ! Yet willingly chose rather death with thee. Save what sin hath impaired, which yet hath wrought. So talked the spirited sly snake ; and Eve. Unbid ; and thou shall eat th herb of the field. And powers that erst in heaven sat on thrones. Moors by his side under the lee, while night. But sometimes in the air, as we, sometimes. To transubstantiate : what redounds, transpires. To whom the patriarch of mankind replied. The grateful twilight (for night comes not there.) His course intended ; else how had the world. That I mret leava ye, sons : O were T able. 150 CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. II. Soft words to his fierce passion she assayed > Fooled and beguiled, by him thou, I by thee. That excellence thought in thee, and implies. Pains only in child-bearing were foretold. Line the slant lightning, whose thwart flames driven down. With whose stolen fruit, man once more to delude. O miserable mankind, to what fall. Meanwhile the south wind rose, and with black wings. Though these lines are harsh, and some of them constructed contrary to the rules of versification, this harshness is not the result of ignorance or inadvertency. They were inserted for the sake of variety, and contribute greatly to harmony. COWPER has admitted such lines not for the purpose of harmony, but for strength, a quality to which he sacrificed almost every other. A few examples will suffice: And brethren in calamity should love. The tumult and the overthrow, the pangs. And, happy in their unforeseen release. Kindled in Heaven, that it burns down to Earth. And shamed as we have been, to th veiy beard. Object of my implacable disgust. Through the pressed nostril, spectacle-bestrid. He that negotiates between God and man. Dr. YOUNG, though he rarely violated the established rules of verse, often made such a disposition of the second ary feet as produced a great degree of harshness. Wit ness the following examples : Active, ae rial, towering, unconfined. CHAP. XVI. J DIFFICULT COMBINATIONS. 181 Man s foresight is conditionally wise. Us spendthrifts of inestimable time. Time flies, death urges, knells call, Heaven invites. Tis converse qualifies for solitude. But since friends grow not thick on every bough. Resenting, rallies, and wakes every wo, COLERIDGE, though a good versifier in general, has some lines that are quite prosaic, and many that are ex ceedingly harsh : From yon hill-point, nay, from our castle watchtower. In the same storm that baffled his own valour. You are lost in thought ; hear him no more, sweet lady ! There is no room in this heart for puling love-tales. Your mien is noble, and, I own, perplexed me. Tries to o erreach me is a very sharper. His weak eyes seethed in most unmeaning tears. When a few odd prayers have been muttered o er them. Whate er be this man s doom, fair be it, or foul. BYRON abounds in harsh lines. He has many noble Spenserian stanzas, harmonious as the notes of Apollo s lyre, but melody he seems to have regarded as a second ary beauty. The following examples will illustrate this remark : In its own eddy boiling and o erwrought. With nought of hope left, but with less of gloom. Tears, big tears, gushed from the rough soldier s lid, To that which is immediate, and require, Now, where the swift Rhone cleaves his way between. 9 182 CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. II, Such as I sought for, and at moments found. Less lovely, or more powerful, and couldst claim. These are four minds, which, like the elements. Awakening without wounding the touched heart. This uneradicable taint of sin. Too brightly on the unprepared mind. We will add the following from Dr. BEATTIE : Yet horror screams from his discordant throat. Prompting the ungenerous wish, the selfish scheme. And lo ! in the dark east, expanded high. O cruel ! will no pang of pity pierce. Alas ! how is that rugged heart forlorn ! A stag sprang from the pasture at his call. With fell revenge, lust that defies control. CHAPTER XVII. INVERSION. -v 9 .o 60. Definition of Inversion. IN the English language the grammatical order of a sentence requires that the subject should occupy the first place, the verb the second, and the attribute the third place. When we say that this is the grammatical order, it is not understood that this is necessarily the natural order. The natural order may not accord with the grammatical order, and, in many cases, it does not. By the natural order, we mean the order which assigns to the first place, CHAP. XVII.] INVERSION. 183 the word that represents the idea which is uppermost in the mind. By grammatical order, we mean, simply, the order required by the English idiom. Every departure from this is termed an inversion. It is not our intention to give examples of all the varieties of inversion found in the English Poets. We shall content ourselves with classi fying some of the inversions which are more peculiar to poetical composition, and with giving such examples as shall illustrate these classes. It is proper to remark, that inversions are more frequent in blank verse than in rhyme, because blank verse, having otherwise nothing to distinguish it from prose, except the feet, requires the aid of inversion oftener than rhyme does. We have said above that the grammatical order re quires that the nominative should take the first place, the verb the second, and the attribute the third. 61. The first species of Inversion. The first species of inversion that we shall point out, is that in which the attribute occupies the first place, the nominative the second, and the verb the third. We shall include under this head those instances in which the attribute contains : 1st. An objective governed by a transitive verb. 2d. An objective governed by a preposition which precedes it, both of these preceding the nominative and the verb. 3d. An objective preceding the verb, and the govern ing preposition following the verb. We shall also include those instances, 4th. In which the objective occupies the first place, the auxiliary the second, the nominative the third, and the principal verb the fourth place. 184 CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. II. 5th. The objective the first place, the verb the second place, and the nominative the third place ; and 6th. A verb intransitive preceding its nominative. I. We will give some examples of the objective pre ceding both the nominative and the transitive verb by which this objective is governed : So Satan spake, and Jugi Beel /ehub Thus answered. Paradise Lost, Book I. Again : - Hiip the Ammonite Worshipped in Rabba and her watery plain, In Argob, and in Basan, to the stream Of utmost Arnon ; nor content with such Audacious neighbourhood, the wises_tjjarl Of Solomon he led by fraud, to build His temple right against the temple of God, On that opprobrious hill. Id. In this example, him in the first line, and heart in the fifth, are governed by verbs which follow, the nominative coming between the objective and the verb. Again : The key of this infernal pit, by due, And by command of Heaven s all-powerful King, I keep. Paradise Lost, Book II. Again : - But this the theme I sing, enraptured, to the British Fair, Forbids, and leads me to the mountain-brow. THOMSON. Seasons Spring. Again : Thee I revisit now with bolder wing, Escaped the Stygian pool, though long detained CHAP. XVII.] f INVERSION. 185 In that obscure sojourn, while in my flight Through utter and through middle darkness borne, With other notes than to the Orphean lyre, I sung of Chaos and eternal night, Taught by^the heavenly muse to venture down The dark descent, and up to re-ascend, Though hard and rare ; thee I revisit safe. Paradise Lost, Book III. Again : Thee, too, I weep, no more thy youthful form Shall^blossom with new beauties, now no more Thy brother s arms shall twine about thy neck In strict embrace, but to the dragon s heart Swift shalt thou send thy shafts entipped with flame, And round his bosom weave the limed nets Of love ; but loathing shall possess thy soul, Thy blood shall flow upon thy father s hearth, And low the glories of thine head shall lie. LORD ROYSTON. Lycophron s Cassandra. Again : Thee shall the lion son of Iphis drag To bloody rites, and nuptial sacrifice, Like his dark mother on the Taurid shore, Who, crowned with chaplets of infernal bloom, Shall stand, and pour her life into the bowl, What time her side shall feel Candaon s blade, Raised by the priestly dragon, who, from oaths Shall free the wolves which howl about her tomb. Id. Again : Achilles wrath, to Greece the direful spring Of woes unnumbered, heavenly Goddess, sing. POPE. Homer s Iliad. Again : And this place my forefathers made for man ! COLERIDGE. Remorse, Act V. Sc. 1. This variety of the first species of inversion is often 186 CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. II. resorted to, both in blank verse and in rhyme, and it con tributes to strength even more than harmony. II. Our next examples shall be such as illustrate the use of the objective governed by a preposition, which pre cedes this objective and the nominative and the verb. And first, the opening of Paradise Lost furnishes a beautiful example : Of man s first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into the world, and all our wo, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man Restore us, and regain the blissful seat, Sing, heavenly Muse. Again : To prayer, repentance, and obedience due, Though but endeavoured with sincere intent, Mine ear shall not be slow, mine eye not shut. Paradise Lost, Book III. Again : Well thou know st how dear To me are all thy works, nor man the least, Though last created ; that for him I spare Thee from my bosom and right hand, to save, By losing thee awhile, the whole race lost. Id. Again : Oft with th enchantress of his soul he talks ; Sometimes in crowds distressed ; or if retired To secret, winding, flower-enwoven bowers, Far from the dull impertinence of Man. THOMSON. Seasons Spring. Again : These are the charming agonies of love, Whose misery delights. But through the heart Should jealousy its venom once diffuse, Tis then delightful misery no more. Id. CHAP. XVII.] INVERSION, 187 In the following example, the preposition is separated from one of the related nouns by several intervening cir cumstances : Meanwhile, upon the firm opacous globe Of this round world, whose first convex divides The luminous inferior orbs enclosed From Chaos and th inroad of Darkness old, Satan alighted walks. Paradise Lost, Book III. In the following example we have a repetition of the inversion : By the life you gave me, By all that makes that life of value to me, My wife, my babes, my honour, 1 swear to you, Name it, and I will toil to do the thing, If it be innocent ! COLERIDGE. Remorse, Act IV. Sc. 2. This variety of the inversion is of frequent occur rence, and always has an agreeable effect. III. Our next example is an instance of the objective coming before the nominative and verb intransitive, the governing preposition following all these. This variety of the first species of inversion is extremely rare. It is rather harsh, and we cannot wish it were employed more frequently. His spear, to equal which, the tallest pine Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast Of some great admiral, were but a wand, He walked with to support uneasy steps Over the burning marie, not like those steps On heaven s azure. Paradise Lost, Book I. IV. Our next example is an instance of the objective 188 CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. II. occupying the first place, the auxiliary the second, the nominative the third, and the principal verb the fourth place. This inversion is not often resorted to. The fol lowing is a happy example of it : Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous, By drunken prophecies, libels, and dreams, To set my brother Clarence and the king In deadly hate, the one against the other. Richard III., Act I. Sc. 1. Again : A heavy sentence, my most sovereign liege, And all unlooked-for from your highness mouth ; A dearer merit, not so deep a maim As to be cast forth in the common air, Have I deserved at your highness hand. Richard II., Act I. Sc. 3. V. Our next example is an instance of the most un common of all the inversions, viz., the objective occupy ing the first place, the governing verb the second place, and the nominative the third place. But far the father from his isle shall drive Trambelus brother, whom to light and life Brought forth that sister of my sire, whom erst His prize of battle the destroyer bore. LORD ROYSTON. Lycophron s Cassandra. VI. Examples of the fifth variety are numerous, and as this is rarely employed in prose, it is peculiarly adapted to poetical composition. Witness the following examples : And now went forth the morn Such as in highest heaven, arrayed in gold Empyreal ; from before her vanished night, Shot through with orient beams. Paradise Lost, Book VI. CHAP. XVII.] INVERSION. 189 Again : Now came still evening on, and twilight gray Had in her sober livery all things clad. Paradise Lost, Book IV. Again : dire was the noise Of conflict. Id. Again : The sea, that emblem of uncertainty, Changed not so fast for many and many an age, As this small spot. To-day twas full of maskers ; And lo, the madness of the carnival, The monk, the nun, the holy legate masked ! To-morrow came the scaffold and the headsman ; And he died there by torch-light bound and gagged, Whose name and crime they knew not. ROGERS. Italy. Again : First came the Brides in all their loveliness ; Each in her veil, and by two bride-maids followed, Only less lovely, who, behind her, bore The precious caskets that within contained The dowry and the presents. Id. 62. The second species of Inversion. The second species of inversion is that in which the objective precedes the governing verb, when this verb is in the infinitive mood. Such destruction to withstand He hasted, and opposed the rocky orb. This inversion is artificial and harsh ; it is rarely re sorted to. 63. The third species of Inversion. The third species of inversion is that in which, though 9* 190 CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. II. the nominative begins the sentence, the objective precedes its governing verb, or is placed between the auxiliary and the principal. This is an inversion that often occurs. I. Now morn, her rosy steps in th eastern clime Advancing, sowed the earth with orient pearl, When Adam waked. Paradise Lost, Book V. Again : He, with his consorted Eve, The story heard attentive, and was filled With admiration and deep muse, to hear Of things so high and strange. Paradise Lost, Book VII. Again : Joyous, th impatient husbandman perceives Relenting Nature, and his lusty steers Drives from their stalls, to where the well-used plough Lies in the furrow, loosened from the frost. THOMSON. Seasons Spring. Again : The busy crew their moorings had unloosed, And heaved their heavy anchors from the sand. LORD ROYSTON. Lycophron s Cassandra. Again : for then nor foss, nor earthy mound, Nor bars, nor bolts, nor massy walls, though flanked With beetling towers, and rough with palisades, Aught shall avail. Id. These examples are sufficient to illustrate the use of the objective after the nominative, but before the govern ing verb. II. In the following examples we have the objective be tween the auxiliary and the verb. Both of these varieties of the inversion are exceedingly beautiful. The occur- CHAP. XVII.] INVERSION. 191 rence of the objective between the auxiliary and the verb is by no means so frequent as that of the objective before the verb. The following examples will show the beauty of this variety. And, first, we will give an example from MILTON, in which he has made use of both these varieties, together with the fourth variety of the first species. Now came still evening on, and twilight gray Had in her sober livery all things clad ; Silence accompanied : for beast and bird, They to their grassy couch, these to their nests, Were slunk, all but the wakeful nightingale ; She all night long her amorous descant sung, Silence was pleased ; now glowed the firmament With living sapphires. Paradise Lost, Book IV. Should I rny steps turn to the rural seat, Whose lofty elms and venerable oaks Invite the rook, who, high amid the boughs, In early spring, his airy city builds, And ceaseless caws amusive ; there, well pleased, I might the various polity survey Of the mixt household kind. THOMSON. Seasons Spring. In this example, as in the preceding, we have these two varieties of the third species of inversion. The fol lowing is an example of the second variety alone : Oh ! ne er had Cadmus on the beachy verge Of Issa thee engendered ; thee, the fourth From giant Atlas ; thee, who to the Greeks Shalt prophecy of wars and victories, Prylis, and teach thy kindred blood to flow ! LORD RoYSTON.Lycophron s Cassandra . 192 CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. II. 64. The fourth species of Inversion. The fourth species of inversion is where the verb be gins the sentence and the nnm jpa.fi va follows it thp nh. jective coming after both ; or where, the verb beginning the sentence, the nominative follows as above, and the attribute, which consists of several words, occupies the third place. These inversions are not often employed, though they have a very poetical effect. I. SHAKSPEARE furnishes a very beautiful example of the first of these inversions : Needs must I like it well ; I weep for joy, To stand upon my kingdom once again. Dear earth, I do salute thee with my hand, Though rebels wound thee with their horses hoofs : As a long parted mother with her child Plays fondly with her tears, and smiles in meeting ; So, weeping, smiling, greet I thee, my earth, And do thee favour with my royal hands. Richard II. ,Act III. Sc. 1. II. Of the second variety, also, the same poet fur nishes a beautiful example : And in this state she gallops night by night Through lovers brains, and then they dream of love : On courtiers knees, that dream on court sies straight : O er lawyers fingers, who straight dream on fees : O er ladies lips, who straight on kisses dream ; Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues, Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are. Sometime she gallops o er a courtier s nose, And then dreams he of smelling out a suit: And sometimes comes she with a tithe-pig s tail, Tickling a parson s nose as a lies asleep, Then dreams he of another benefice : Sometime she driveth o er a soldier s neck, CHAP. XVII.] INVEKSION. And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats, Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades, Of healths five fathom deep. Romeo and Juliet, Act I. Sc. 4. 65. The fifth species of Inversion. We now proceed to the fifth species of inversion, which is the use of the past participle before the substan tive verb in the passive voice. This inversion is very rare, and as it is harsh, we cannot wish that it were more frequent. One example will suffice : Mow storming fury rose, And clamour such as heard in heaven till now Was never. Paradise Lost, Book VI. 66. The sixth species of Inversion. The sixth species of inversion which we shall notice consists of two nominatives, one of which is put in this case by apposition, both placed before a neuter verb, in- stead of one s being placed after it. This species of inver sion, like the preceding, is extremely rare : about them round, A lion now, he stalks with fiery glare. Id., Book IV. 67. The seventh species of Inversion. The seventh species of inversion is also rarely found. It is the use of the infinitive before the governing verb, It is very harsh, as the following examples will show : 194 CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. II. The stealing shower is scarce to patter heard, By such as wander through the forest walks, Beneath the umbrageous multitude of leaves. THOMSON. Seasons. Again : O argument blasphemous, false, and proud ! Words which no ear ever to hear in Heaven Expected, least of all from thee,ingrate, In place thyself so high above thy peers. Paradise Lost, Book V. The following example, already quoted to illustrate the second species of inversion ( 62), furnishes another in- stance, a little less harsh than the preceding : - with huge two-handed sway Brandished aloft the horrid edge came down Wide wasting ; such destruction to withstand He hasted. Paradise Lost, Book VI. 68. The eighth species of Inversion. The eighth species of inversion is the placing of an adjective after the noun which it modifies, when these are not separated by the substantive verb ; or the placing of the adjective before the noun, when they are so separated. Of the first of these witness the following : - out of the ground up rose, As from his lair, the wild beast where he wons In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den ; Among the trees in pairs they rose, they walked ; The cattle in the fields and meadows green. Paradise Lost, Book VII. This is a very common inversion, and is almost always agreeable. Witness again the following : CHAP. XVII.] INVERSION. 105 Tis by thy secret, strong, attractive force, As with a chain indissoluble bound, Thy system rolls entire. THOMSON. Seasons Summer. Again : In himself was all his state, More solemn than the tedious pomp that waits On princes, when the rich retinue long Of horses led, and grooms besmeared with gold, Dazzles the crowd, and sets them all agape. Paradise Lost, Book V. It will be seen that there are, at the end of the third line of this passage, two adjectives, one before and one after the noun. The next shall be an exemplification of the adjective placed before the noun, when the noun and adjective are separated by the substantive verb : arms on armour clashing brayed Horrible discord, and the madding wheels Of brazen chariots raged ; dire was the noise Of conflict ; over head the dismal hiss Of fiery darts in flaming vollies flew, And flying vaulted either host with fire. Paradise Lost, Book VI. Airain Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet, With charm of earliest birds ; pleasant the sun, When first on this delightful land he spreads His orient beams on herb, tree, fruit and flower, Glistering with dew ; fragrant the fertile earth Afterroft showers ; and sweet the coming on Of grateful evening mild. Paradise Lost, Book IV. 196 CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. II. Again : clad they were In bridal white with bridal ornaments, Each in her glittering veil. ROGERS. Italy. Again : Great was the joy ; but at the Nuptial Feast, When all sate down, the Bride herself was wanting. Id. This inversion contributes greatly to the strength, be sides adding much to the poetical effect. 69. Various Inversions of the Adverb. There are numerous inversions of the adverb. This, according to the grammatical order, should be placed near the word or clause which it modifies, so that this modification may be unequivocal. When the adverb is placed at some distance from the word that it modifies, it is an inversion. Since the adverb has no uniform place assigned to it by the grammatical order, as the nominative has, it is impossible to reduce the inversions of adverbs to any classification like that which we have made of the other inversions, but we will give a few examples, to show the nature of this inversion : Not in the legions Of horrid hell, can come a devil more damned, In ills to top Macbeth. SHAKSPEARE. Again : and when oft with swelling tears, Flashed through by indignation, he b^ailed The wrongs of Belgium s martyred patriots, Oh, what a grief was there for joy to envy, Or gaze upon enamoured ! COLERIDGE. Remorse. CHAP. XVII.] INVERSION. 197 Again : Twas Jove s tis Mahomet s and other creeds Will rise with other years, till man shall learn Vainly his incense soars, his victim bleeds. BYRON. Childe Harold. In all of these instances, the adverb is placed other wise than would be required by the grammatical order. In the following example we have the adverb placed between the infinitive verb and the particle which is the sign of the infinitive. This is condemned alike in prose and verse : To sit on rocks, to muse o er flood and fell, To slowly trace the forest s shady scene, Where things that own not man s dominion dwell, And mortal foot hath ne er or rarely been. Childe Harold, Canto II. Again : The waters thus With fish replenished, and ihe air with fowl, Evening and morn solemnized the fifth day. Paradise Lost, Book VII. Again : To ask or search I blame thee not ; for Heaven Is, as the book of God, before thee set Wherein to read his wondrous works, and learn His seasons, hours, or days, or months, or years. Paradise Lost, Book VIII. Again: Fain would I pay thee with eternity, But ill my genius answers my desire : My sickly song is mortal, past thy cure. DR. YOUNG. Again : The passions oft, to hear her shell, Throng d around her magic cell. COLLINS. Ode on the Passions. 108 CONSTRUCTION. [TIT. II. Again : And oft as ease and health retire To breezy lawn, or forest deep, The friend shall view yon whitening spire, And mid the varied landscape weep. COLLINS. Ode on the Death of Mr. Thomson. THE END. m 3D m m i LiS^EV LIBRARIES UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY