634
As wild imaginary figures \ terrify
The child all darkling in the obscurity of night,
Fond dreams, as wild as infant terrors, dismay
Our souls with fear in the glare of day-light.
As wild imaginary figures \ terrify
The child all darkling in the obscurity of night,
Fond dreams, as wild as infant terrors, dismay
Our souls with fear in the glare of day-light.
Carey - Practice English Prosody Exercises
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? J 92
Versification.
Iambics of eight syllables, with alternate rhime. --
Epithets to be added to the words printed in Italic,
622 " .
Zephyrs fan the grove now,
And scatter perfumes around;
And feather'd songsters, warbling love,
Are found in ev'ry bush.
623
Oh ! is there not, when eve
Spreads o'er the vale her light texture,
Some fay, that loves to leave
Her pastime in the dale,
And, where sits the poet
To view the misls spread around,
Flits across his mental vision,
And wraps in peace his thoughts r
Iambics of ten syllables, with alternate rhime. -- Epi-
thets to be added to the words printed in Italic.
624. -- On the Death- of a Daughter.
So fair, so gay, where is fled my blossom?
Ah ! see ! by Death 'tis ravag'd :
See her honors spread in the dust,
All pale, and blasted by his breath.
fi25
Go, rose, and on Ella's breast bloom ;
And, while thy buds adorn the maid,
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? Verification.
blesl beneath the sunshine of her eyes:
But, ah ! fair flow'r, conceal thy thorn.
626
When, in Utopian dreams, youth
On the sea of life first launches,
He trusts to sail on pleasure's streams. --
Alas! to woe and scenes of strife he wakes.
627. -- Evening.
The shades o'crspread the west:
Before the breeze, the clouds sweep on:
Labor leaves his sons to rest;
And, among the trees, murmurs sound.
628. -- Night.
The poor enjoy now within yon hamlet
The bliss that flies the great and rich.
No factious cares annoy their breasts,
No sorrows agitate, no guilt disturbs.
629
Verdure adorns the plain here,
There the team, and the grey fallows,
The farm's mansion, and the village fane,
Whose towW reflects the solar beam.
630. -- Spring.
Spring! I taste thy gales:
Pregnant with life, they cheer my soul.
Creation smiles : the dales, the hills, the woods,
Hail the morning of the new-born year.
Expand your bloom, ye groves:
Ye streams, warble: ye buds, -unfold :
Waft all the plenty of your perfume;
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? 194 Versification.
1
And wave, wave your leaves of gold, ye flovv'teii,
631. -- To a Snow-drop.
Harbinger of spring, welcome!
Thy beauties caught my eye.
Solitary flow'r, I've pluck'd thee, to bring
Thy tender frame where no blasts are nigh.
1 see, thou canst scarce rear thy head;
For frosts pierce thy lovely form :
But to a safer bed I'll transplant thee:
My fire shall warm, and my hand shall raise thee.
652
Behold ! past is the storm :
The sun relumes the face of day:
Each flow'r, that shrunk before the blast,
Spreads to the cheering ray its bosom.
Its reviving tints glow bright and more bright;
Its petals catch the gale:
Zephyis blow o'er its breast,
And through the vale waft new fragrance.
633. --Summer.
Spring withdraws now her milder-beaming ray,
And summer, glowing o'er the corn,
To these northern climes leads the day,
Borne refulgent from Afric's plains.
No cloud steers its course across the welkin,
To pour its show'rs upon the earth :
No fount in bubbles from its source:
No dews refresh thefow'rs.
634
O Nature! may thy sway ever
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? Versification. 195
Lead me a vot'ry to thy shrine.
May no passion chase away that sense,
That feels a bliss in charms like thine;
Whether, enshrin'd in autumn's clouds,
You* touch the /eaves with yellow tints,
Or raise, before the reaper's mind,
Grain to fill his future sheaves ;
The wand'rer with the Zephyr's breeze
Whether you cheer 'mid summer's blaze,
Or paint the trees with liveliest green,
When Spring's warmth endears her milder dayi.
635. -- Evening.
When eve, fair child of day,
Throws o'er the verdant ground her mantle,
* I wish my young readers to observe, that, after Thy and
Thine prectding, uniformity requires tSou I ouchest,raisest,$lc
in the singular number; and that a sudden transition from Thou
and Thy to You and Your, or the reverse, ought, if possible, to
be avoided; though metrical necessity, and a regard to euphony
occasionally compel poets to fall into that irregularity, wliieh
however, is much less blamable than Mr. Pope's ungrimmatic
change of number in the following passage, where the nominative
is singular, and the verbs plural--
Thou first great cause, least understood,
Who all my stnse confin'd
To know hut this, that thou art good,
And that myself am blind;
Yet gum me, in this dark estate,
To see the geod from ill, ,
And, binding nature fast in fate,
Left free the human will. . . . . .
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? 196 Versification.
How sweet to stray adown the vale,
While Cynthia sheds her radiance round !
How sweet to hear the bird of woe*
Pour to the grove her murmurs,
As the warbled numbers flow through the air,
Fraught with the melody of love!
How sweet to mark the landscape near,
The tow'r, and the cottage!
How sweet to hear the village peal,
Borne on the gale at this silent soft hour !
The first line to rhime with the fourth -- the second
with the third.
636
Ah! pleasing scenes, where my childhood slray'd once,
Securely blest in innocence!
No passions inspir'd my breast then ;
No fears sway'd my bosom.
Iambics of eight syllables. -- The Italic words to be
altered to other expressions, either synonymous or in
some degree equivalent.
637
Why can no poet, with magical strain,
Steep the heart of pain in sleep?
* The Nightingale.
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? Versification. 1 97
638
Possess'd of conscious rectitude,
Can grief pierce the good man's bosom'?
639
Justice shall yet open her eyes,
Yet arise terrific in anger,
And tread on the tyrant's bosom,
And make oppression groan oppress'd.
Iambics of ten syllables. -- The Italic words to be
altered, as above; and the elided syllables to be disco-
vered by the pupil's own sagacity*.
640
While former desires still continue within,
Repentance is only want of power to commit sins.
641
The white-robed priest stretches forth his upraised
hands:
Every voice is hushed : attention bends, leaning.
* N. B. When two or more Italic words come together with-
out a line separating them, they are to he taken collectively, and
altered to some other word or phrase of similar import. But,
when they are divided by a perpendicular line interposed, each
division is to he separately taken, and altered independently of
the other. The following example will make this plain--
She receives with gratitude what heaven has sent,
And, rich in poverty, possesses | contentment--
She gratefully receives what heav'n has sent,
And, rich in poverty, enjoys content--
in which lines, the words, with gratitude, are together, altered to
gratefully --possesses, separately altered to enjoys -- and coulait*
went, to content.
H3
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? 198 Versification.
642
Whence flows the strain that salutes the dawn of
morning ?
The Red-breast sings in the flowering haw-thorn.
643
Now unbounded snows disfigure the withered heatk,
And the dim sun hardly wanders through the storm.
644
When her husband \ dies, the widowed Indian
Mounts the dreadful pile, and braves the funeral fires.
645
Alas! how un-availing is pity's tear with thee,
The orphan's terror, or the widow's anguish !
646
Not by the assistance that marble or brass affords,
Lives the remembrance of the noble patriot.
647
I would soon, with pleasure, | exchange existence
For the lasting sleep of one endless night.
648
Courageous and undismayed as the god of war,
When prostrate legions fall round hi3 chariot.
649
Here early rest makes early rising certain:
Disease or does not come, or finds easy cure,--
Much prevented by neat and simple diet,
Or speedily starved out again, if it enter.
650
He comes! tremendous Brama shakes the sunless sky
With murmuring anger, and thunders from above.
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? Versification. 199
Under his warrior form, heaven's fiery horse
Gallops on the tempest, and paws the light clouds.
051
He ceased; and the crowd st\\\ continued silent,
While rapt* attention acknowledged the power of
music:
Then, loud as when the whirlwinds of winter blow,
The thundering applauses flow fro 11 all voices.
652
When the Egyptians, a rude untutored people,
Learned to ornament the obelisk with wild figure*,
And fashion the idol godf in ductile clay,
The polished needle and loom took their origin.
* Let niy young readers carefully distinguish this elegant and
expressive Latin word from the common English Wrapped, with
which it is too often confounded;--a circumstance, to which it
perhaps owes its exclusion from some of our modern dictionaries,
auder the mistaken idea of its being only a corruption . of the
English word. -- Rapt (of the same origin as Rapture, Rapid,
Rapine, and Rapacious, which have no connexion with wrapping)
signifies snatched or hurried away, transported, enraptured, ec-
stusied. Thus Pope --
Rapt into future times, the bard begun :
" A virgin shall conceive, a virgin bear a son. "
f Idol god. -- This expression, which I print as two separate
words, suggtsts to me that it may not be improper in this place
to notice the hyphen, which has, of late years, bten employed in
our typography to a truly blamahle excess, and, on some occa-
sions, to the utter perversion of die syntax and the sense, as, for
example, in Each other and One another, which we sometimes
see improperly coupled with the hyphen as compounds, though
totally distinct in the grammatical construction; since, in those
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? 200 Versification.
653
How short is the life of man! Time descends rapidly:
Our friends and our fathers go away with him;
elliptic phrases, there is always a suppres'ed word understood to
intervene, and to govern the word other or another. -- Without
entering inio a general and minute investigation of the various
uses of the hyphen, I shall here offer a few cursory remarks on
some of the cases in which I conceive that it ought to he inserted
or omitted; previously observing, that tlie rules are not to be
taken separately, hut in connexion, as far as they agree; -- that
the accent will, in most cases, prove a sure guide; and the car
may more safely be trusted than the eye. -- 1. When each of
two contiguous substantives retains its original accent, omit the
hyphen, as Mister builder. Where the latter loses or alters its
accent, instil the hyphen, as ship-builder. -- 2. When two sub-
stantives are in Apposition, and each is separately applicable to
the person or thing designated, omit the hyphen, as the Lord
chancellor, who is both a lord and a chancellor. When they are
not in Apposition, and only one of the two is separately applica-
ble to the person or thing, insert the hyphen, as a hurse-dealer,
who is a dealer, but not a horse. -- 3. When the first substantive
serves the purpose of an adjective expressing the matter or sub-
stance of which the second consists, and may be placed after it
with Of {not denoting possession) omit the hyphen, as a Silk gown,
a Cork jacket, L. e. a gown of silk, a jacket of cork. When the first
does not express the matter or substance of the second, and may
be placed after it with Of (denoting (possession) or with Tor or
Belonging to, insert the hyphen, as School-master, Play-time,
Cork-screw, Laundry-maid, i. e. Master of a school, Time qforfr
play, Screw for corks,Maid belonging to the laundry. --4. Between
an adjective and its substantive (used as such in the sentence) omit
the hyphen, as High sheriff, 1'rinie minister. When the adjective
and its substantive are together used as a kind of compound
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? Versification. 201
While we, melancholy mourners* lag behind, to shed
tears,
To utter | un-availing sighs, and keep wakeful vigils.
634
As wild imaginary figures \ terrify
The child all darkling in the obscurity of night,
Fond dreams, as wild as infant terrors, dismay
Our souls with fear in the glare of day-light.
adjective to another substantive, insert the hyphen between the
two former, as High-church doctrine. --5. When an adjective
or adverb, and a participle immediately following, are_ together
used as a kind of compound adjective, merely expressing an
inherent quality without reference to immediate action, and (in
the order of syntax) precede the substantive to which they are
joined, insert the hyphen, as a quick-sailing vessel. When they
rmply immediate action, and (in the order of syntax)/o//oa, the
substantive, omit the hyphen, as The ship quick sailing o'er the
deep, or Quick sailing o'er the deep, the ship pursues her
course. -- The same distinction may likewise be made in other
cases, which do not exactly fall under those descriptions, as the
above-mentioned circumstances, and the circumstances abov?
mentioned. --The preceding rules are undoubtedly liable to many
exceptions, which I cannot here undertake to enumerate. Im-
perfect, however, as they are, they may prove useful: and it is
worthy of remark, that, in every one of the cases w hich I have
noticed, the accent, as before observed, is a sure guide. In the
following, its effects will be evident. A glass house, a' tin m&n,
an 'tren mould, a negro merchant, pronounced as separate words,
each with its natural accent, will mean a house made of glass,
a man made of tin, a mould made of iron, a merchant who is a
negro : but a gl&ss-house, a tm-man, an iron-mould, a nigro-mer-
chant, taken as compounds, with achange of accent, will mean a
house for manufacturing glass, a man who works in tin, a mould
or stain caused by therust of iron, a merchant who buys and sells
negroes.
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? 203 Versification.
655
The unfortunate \ maid strays, in profound despair,
Through tangled paths, and roads | not frequented,
While cold vapors shroud the moon's pale ray,
As she roams, wild, by the murmuring stream.
656 {ship,
Wicked men, professing the hallowed name of friend-
Form a covenant of shame instead of it,
A dark confederation Hgainst tlie laws
Of virtue, and the glorious cause of religion.
637 {Iter,
Extended ] upon thut bier in death's last heavy slum-
Lies, cold and motionless, the friend for whom I
shed tears.
658. -- The Picture of Venus.
When first the RhodianV imitative art arrayed
Venus in the shade of Cyprus,
The happy master mixed in his picture
Each look that delighted him in the beautiful women
of Greece. '
Faithful to nature free from fault, he borrowed a
grace
From every more beautiful form, and sweeter coun-
tenance.
659
Luminous as the pillar rose at the command of heaven,
When the Israelites \ travelled along the wilderness,
Blazed, during the night, on solitary wilds, afar,
And told the path -- a star, that never set:
So, celestial Genius! in thy divine career,
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? Versification. 203
Hope is thy star: her light ever is thine.
660
Babylon ! to grace the feast, thy daughters
Weave the flowing robe, and paint the vest ornamented
with flowers:
They braid the glossy hair with wreaths of roses;
They color the cheek, which Nature formed so beau-
tiful,
Learn the delicate step, the glance which subdues the
soul,
Swim adown the dance, and melt in the song.
' 661
Mild Peace, come from realms of everlasting | repose!
Bid the troubled earth be happy, like thy own heaven.
Bid destructive war cease iiis mad ravage,
And Plenty gladden the earth with new increase.
Oh ! bid deploring nations cease to lament,
And convert guilty swords into smiling ploughshares.
662
Ah ! of what use is it, if the fire of the Muse
Must die, like the meteor's transitory flash ?
Alas! what does it boot ? since the hero's fate
Is Death's obscure | cave, and the oblivious grave--
Since not Fame's loud trumpet can bestow | durable
praise ;
And neither bfiys nor laurels live in the grave.
663
Retired from the noisy court and loud camp,
In rural diversion and honorable ease
He securely | spent the remainder of his days,
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? 204 Versification.
And did notfind they flew too fast, or lagged too slowly.
He made his desire comply with his estate,
Glad to live, yet not afraid of dying.
664
The adventurous boy, who asks for his little portion,
And hies from home with the prayer of many a gossip,
Turns upon the neighbouring hill, to behold once again
The beloved | residence of privacy and peace;
And, as he turns, the thatched roof among the trees,
The smoke's blue wreaths, mounting with the breeze.
All rouse reflexion's mournfully pleasing train ;
And he often looks, and sheds tears, and again looks.
665
Oh ! at the hour of moonlight, let me roam
To some silent bovver, or private grove,
When the songs of the plumy multitude cease,
And the nightingale her plaintive song commences.
Sweet bird of evening, I delight in thy liquid note,
That, from thy quivering throat, floweth mellifluous.
0 Zephyr! fleeting Zephyr ! delay longer,
And do not bear away that lovely musical sound.
666
When the western gale breathes upon the blue waves,
My panting bosom | defies the peaceful sea,
Glows with the scene, inhales those more soft \ delights
Dropped from the balmy wings of the breezes.
But, when the curled \ wave \ lifts up its form,
And silent horror broods on the tempest,
1 direct my steps to yon sheltering zeood,
The retreat of love, the refuge of misfortune.
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? Versification. 205
667-- The Carrier Pigeon.
Guided by what chart, transports the timid pigeon
The wreaths of victory, or the professions of love ?
Say, what compass <&Yec<sher flight through the clouds?
Kings have gazed, and nations have blessed the sight.
Heap up rocks on rocks: bid mountains and fo-
rests | arise:
Hide from view her native skies, her native shades:
It is to no purpose: she proceeds through aether's
wilds where there is no path,
And at last alights where all her cares m(.
668
Where should we discover (those consolations at an end,
Which Scripture affords) or hope to discover a friend ?
Grief might then muse herself into madness,
And, seeking banishment from the sight of mankind,
Bury herself in deep solitude,
Grow mad with her pangs, and bite the earth.
Thus frequently unbelief, become weary of living,
Flies to the felon knife, or inviting pool.
669
And shall I be afraid to wander at this dark hour
In the solemn stillness of the wood,
Or where rise the battlements worn by time,
Or the haughty turret lieth low in ruin ?
I disdain the idea -- being assured that sovereign power
llules the noontide or the nightly hour alike:
And I roam, as free from groundless alarm, here
In the midst of these shades, as in the blaze of sun-
shine,
s
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? QOG Versification.
While to thy attention, O thou almighty protector,
I commend my spirit, by night or day.
670
Friend of my bosom, companion of my early age,
As renowned for learning, as respected for truth,
Combined in whom we admire equally
The wisdom of the philosopher and the fire of the pott,
A generous disposition and an elevated mind,
Unlimited genius, and undamped warmth;
Equally skilful to raise the sublime song,
Or sport playfully among the flowery meadows;
The smiling Muse has taught thee all her skill,
To catch the imagination, and to take possession of
the heart.
671. --Tobacco.
Noxious weed ! whose odor | molests the ladies,
Unfriendly to society's greatest | pleasures!
Thy most mischievous effect is driving away for hours
The sex whose society civilises ours.
Thou art indeed the drug, of which a gardener stands
in need,
To destroy vermin that infest his plants. .
But are we so blinded to beauty and genius,
As to set no value upon the glory of our species,
And show to the fairest and softest forms
As little lenity as to worms and grubs ?
672 [new,
Nobody sends his arrow to the mark which he has in
Whose nim is false, or whose hand weak.
For, although, ( before the arrow is yet on the wing,
?
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? Versification. 207
Or when it first quits the elastic cord,
It deviate but little from the hue intended,
In the end it falls far wide of his intent. . [heaven,
In like manner^ | the person who seeks an abode in
Must with a steadfast eye watch his design.
That prize belongs to the sincere alone:
The smallest obliquity is here fatal.
673. --The Maniac.
Listen t the distracted maniac sings, to chide the wind,
That wafts her lover's disiant ship so slowly.
She, melancholy spectatress! on the bleak shore
Watch'd the rude billow, that bore his body, | desti-
tute of a shroud,
Recognis'd the pale form, and, shrieking in amaze-
ment,
Locked together her cold hands, and fixed her mad-
dening stare. [tears,
Poor widowed creature! it was there she vainly \ shed
Until memory Jiedfrom her ag wising brain.
But, to charm the sensation ot misery, Mercy bestowed
Ideal peace, that truth could never give.
The pleasures of imagination beam warm on her heart;
And liojie, without an aim | charms her darkest dream.
674-- To Hope.
Favoring power! when rankling cares disturb
The saertd home of connubial joy,
Where, condemned to poverty's remote dell,
The wedded pair of affection and virtue live,
Meeting no pity from the world, not knozvn to fame,
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? ? 08 Versification.
Their sorrows, their desires, and their hearts the same--
Oh! in that spot, | prophesyingHope, bestow thy smile,
And drive away the. pangs that worth should never
experience.
There, as the parent distributes his insufficient store
To young children \ bereft of friends, a,nd weeps to
bestow no more,
Announce, that his manly offspring shall yet alleviate
Their father's wrongs, and protect his advanced age.
675
At ere in summer, when the aerial bow of heaven
Spans with brilliant arch the glittering hills beneath,
Why does the musing eye turn to yonder mountain,
Whose top, | bright with sun-shine, mingles with the
sky ? - -
Why do those cliffs of shadowy coloring \ seem
More sweet than the entire landscape | which smiles
near ?
It is distance, lends enchantment to the prospect,
And arrays the mountain in its blue | coloring.
In the same manner, we linger witli pleasme, to xkte
The promis'd delights of life's unmeasur'd road:
Thus, from a distance, each scene dimly discovered
Appears more captivating than all the past has been;
And every form, that imagination can repair
from dark forgetfulness, glows there divinely.
Ten-syllable Iambics, in which some of the Italk
words are to have epithets added -- some are to be al-
tered--some are both to be altered and to have epithets;
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? Versification. 209
*-- each particular case to be distinguished by the pupil's
oxen sagacity.
676. --Botany Bay.
Here we arc secure: on tliispeaceful shore,
No lions roar, no tigers prowl:
N o wolf is heard : no brake
Hides the venom of the coifing serpent.
The summers smile as mildly here as in England;
As mild winters terminate the year. [this country;
Nor is the breath of the autumnal whirlwind heard in
Nor spring \ storms breathe the blast of death.
Without a single | regret to call my tears,
Or awake one desire, 1 feel myself satisfied here.
And we shall yet enjoy happiness: yonder beam,
The mild radiance of departing day light,
As gaily gilds over this humble habitation,
As the superb | edifices on England's remote shore.
677. --The Slave-Trade.
The ties of friend, husband, father,
- All bonds of nature, cease in that moment.
And each suffers, while he yet breathes,
A stroke not less fatal than , Dtath's scythe.
The black warrior, mad with regret {remembrance,
Of the woman he loves, and never can lose from his
Loses in his tears the shore retiring to a distance,
But not the idea that they must never again meet.
Robbed, at a blow, of her and liberty,
What has he remaining, that lie yet san forego ?
Yes, sullenly resigned-to melancholy,
He feels in his mind the bondage of his body,
So
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? 210 ? Versification.
Divests himself of his generous disposition, and, to suit
His manners with his destiny, puts on the brute.
678 A.
Ye spirits, who dwell in unknown worlds,
Formidable spectres ! to what place are you flown ?
I have often heard, you delight, at this awful hour,
To resort lo the moss-grown tower, or aisle lying in
To flit along the glade in shadowy figures, [ruins;
Or stalk giant-like 'midst the shade.
Yet here, un-accompanied, I walk with silent steps,
Where broken walls spread their ruins-;
Where the remains of the great and fair
Rest in awful state, vainly enshrined;
Where the dark ivy embraces the embattled tower,
And lengthens out its last hour for a time:
But every thing is quiet; no ghost appears;
No phantom uprears its huge figure;
No spirit, robed in white, glides through the darkness;
No groan | lowly mutters from the grave.
678 B.
As when a criminal, whom the lares of his country
Have with just reason | sentenced for some atrocious
cause,
Expects, in darkness and terrors,
The ignominious \ termination of all his years which
he has spent amiss;
If, chance, slowly borne on heavy wings,
- A storm | introduce the dreaded morning,
The lightnuig plays upon the walls of his dungeon,
The thunder appears to call him away ;
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? Versification.
? J 92
Versification.
Iambics of eight syllables, with alternate rhime. --
Epithets to be added to the words printed in Italic,
622 " .
Zephyrs fan the grove now,
And scatter perfumes around;
And feather'd songsters, warbling love,
Are found in ev'ry bush.
623
Oh ! is there not, when eve
Spreads o'er the vale her light texture,
Some fay, that loves to leave
Her pastime in the dale,
And, where sits the poet
To view the misls spread around,
Flits across his mental vision,
And wraps in peace his thoughts r
Iambics of ten syllables, with alternate rhime. -- Epi-
thets to be added to the words printed in Italic.
624. -- On the Death- of a Daughter.
So fair, so gay, where is fled my blossom?
Ah ! see ! by Death 'tis ravag'd :
See her honors spread in the dust,
All pale, and blasted by his breath.
fi25
Go, rose, and on Ella's breast bloom ;
And, while thy buds adorn the maid,
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? Verification.
blesl beneath the sunshine of her eyes:
But, ah ! fair flow'r, conceal thy thorn.
626
When, in Utopian dreams, youth
On the sea of life first launches,
He trusts to sail on pleasure's streams. --
Alas! to woe and scenes of strife he wakes.
627. -- Evening.
The shades o'crspread the west:
Before the breeze, the clouds sweep on:
Labor leaves his sons to rest;
And, among the trees, murmurs sound.
628. -- Night.
The poor enjoy now within yon hamlet
The bliss that flies the great and rich.
No factious cares annoy their breasts,
No sorrows agitate, no guilt disturbs.
629
Verdure adorns the plain here,
There the team, and the grey fallows,
The farm's mansion, and the village fane,
Whose towW reflects the solar beam.
630. -- Spring.
Spring! I taste thy gales:
Pregnant with life, they cheer my soul.
Creation smiles : the dales, the hills, the woods,
Hail the morning of the new-born year.
Expand your bloom, ye groves:
Ye streams, warble: ye buds, -unfold :
Waft all the plenty of your perfume;
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? 194 Versification.
1
And wave, wave your leaves of gold, ye flovv'teii,
631. -- To a Snow-drop.
Harbinger of spring, welcome!
Thy beauties caught my eye.
Solitary flow'r, I've pluck'd thee, to bring
Thy tender frame where no blasts are nigh.
1 see, thou canst scarce rear thy head;
For frosts pierce thy lovely form :
But to a safer bed I'll transplant thee:
My fire shall warm, and my hand shall raise thee.
652
Behold ! past is the storm :
The sun relumes the face of day:
Each flow'r, that shrunk before the blast,
Spreads to the cheering ray its bosom.
Its reviving tints glow bright and more bright;
Its petals catch the gale:
Zephyis blow o'er its breast,
And through the vale waft new fragrance.
633. --Summer.
Spring withdraws now her milder-beaming ray,
And summer, glowing o'er the corn,
To these northern climes leads the day,
Borne refulgent from Afric's plains.
No cloud steers its course across the welkin,
To pour its show'rs upon the earth :
No fount in bubbles from its source:
No dews refresh thefow'rs.
634
O Nature! may thy sway ever
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? Versification. 195
Lead me a vot'ry to thy shrine.
May no passion chase away that sense,
That feels a bliss in charms like thine;
Whether, enshrin'd in autumn's clouds,
You* touch the /eaves with yellow tints,
Or raise, before the reaper's mind,
Grain to fill his future sheaves ;
The wand'rer with the Zephyr's breeze
Whether you cheer 'mid summer's blaze,
Or paint the trees with liveliest green,
When Spring's warmth endears her milder dayi.
635. -- Evening.
When eve, fair child of day,
Throws o'er the verdant ground her mantle,
* I wish my young readers to observe, that, after Thy and
Thine prectding, uniformity requires tSou I ouchest,raisest,$lc
in the singular number; and that a sudden transition from Thou
and Thy to You and Your, or the reverse, ought, if possible, to
be avoided; though metrical necessity, and a regard to euphony
occasionally compel poets to fall into that irregularity, wliieh
however, is much less blamable than Mr. Pope's ungrimmatic
change of number in the following passage, where the nominative
is singular, and the verbs plural--
Thou first great cause, least understood,
Who all my stnse confin'd
To know hut this, that thou art good,
And that myself am blind;
Yet gum me, in this dark estate,
To see the geod from ill, ,
And, binding nature fast in fate,
Left free the human will. . . . . .
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? 196 Versification.
How sweet to stray adown the vale,
While Cynthia sheds her radiance round !
How sweet to hear the bird of woe*
Pour to the grove her murmurs,
As the warbled numbers flow through the air,
Fraught with the melody of love!
How sweet to mark the landscape near,
The tow'r, and the cottage!
How sweet to hear the village peal,
Borne on the gale at this silent soft hour !
The first line to rhime with the fourth -- the second
with the third.
636
Ah! pleasing scenes, where my childhood slray'd once,
Securely blest in innocence!
No passions inspir'd my breast then ;
No fears sway'd my bosom.
Iambics of eight syllables. -- The Italic words to be
altered to other expressions, either synonymous or in
some degree equivalent.
637
Why can no poet, with magical strain,
Steep the heart of pain in sleep?
* The Nightingale.
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? Versification. 1 97
638
Possess'd of conscious rectitude,
Can grief pierce the good man's bosom'?
639
Justice shall yet open her eyes,
Yet arise terrific in anger,
And tread on the tyrant's bosom,
And make oppression groan oppress'd.
Iambics of ten syllables. -- The Italic words to be
altered, as above; and the elided syllables to be disco-
vered by the pupil's own sagacity*.
640
While former desires still continue within,
Repentance is only want of power to commit sins.
641
The white-robed priest stretches forth his upraised
hands:
Every voice is hushed : attention bends, leaning.
* N. B. When two or more Italic words come together with-
out a line separating them, they are to he taken collectively, and
altered to some other word or phrase of similar import. But,
when they are divided by a perpendicular line interposed, each
division is to he separately taken, and altered independently of
the other. The following example will make this plain--
She receives with gratitude what heaven has sent,
And, rich in poverty, possesses | contentment--
She gratefully receives what heav'n has sent,
And, rich in poverty, enjoys content--
in which lines, the words, with gratitude, are together, altered to
gratefully --possesses, separately altered to enjoys -- and coulait*
went, to content.
H3
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? 198 Versification.
642
Whence flows the strain that salutes the dawn of
morning ?
The Red-breast sings in the flowering haw-thorn.
643
Now unbounded snows disfigure the withered heatk,
And the dim sun hardly wanders through the storm.
644
When her husband \ dies, the widowed Indian
Mounts the dreadful pile, and braves the funeral fires.
645
Alas! how un-availing is pity's tear with thee,
The orphan's terror, or the widow's anguish !
646
Not by the assistance that marble or brass affords,
Lives the remembrance of the noble patriot.
647
I would soon, with pleasure, | exchange existence
For the lasting sleep of one endless night.
648
Courageous and undismayed as the god of war,
When prostrate legions fall round hi3 chariot.
649
Here early rest makes early rising certain:
Disease or does not come, or finds easy cure,--
Much prevented by neat and simple diet,
Or speedily starved out again, if it enter.
650
He comes! tremendous Brama shakes the sunless sky
With murmuring anger, and thunders from above.
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? Versification. 199
Under his warrior form, heaven's fiery horse
Gallops on the tempest, and paws the light clouds.
051
He ceased; and the crowd st\\\ continued silent,
While rapt* attention acknowledged the power of
music:
Then, loud as when the whirlwinds of winter blow,
The thundering applauses flow fro 11 all voices.
652
When the Egyptians, a rude untutored people,
Learned to ornament the obelisk with wild figure*,
And fashion the idol godf in ductile clay,
The polished needle and loom took their origin.
* Let niy young readers carefully distinguish this elegant and
expressive Latin word from the common English Wrapped, with
which it is too often confounded;--a circumstance, to which it
perhaps owes its exclusion from some of our modern dictionaries,
auder the mistaken idea of its being only a corruption . of the
English word. -- Rapt (of the same origin as Rapture, Rapid,
Rapine, and Rapacious, which have no connexion with wrapping)
signifies snatched or hurried away, transported, enraptured, ec-
stusied. Thus Pope --
Rapt into future times, the bard begun :
" A virgin shall conceive, a virgin bear a son. "
f Idol god. -- This expression, which I print as two separate
words, suggtsts to me that it may not be improper in this place
to notice the hyphen, which has, of late years, bten employed in
our typography to a truly blamahle excess, and, on some occa-
sions, to the utter perversion of die syntax and the sense, as, for
example, in Each other and One another, which we sometimes
see improperly coupled with the hyphen as compounds, though
totally distinct in the grammatical construction; since, in those
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? 200 Versification.
653
How short is the life of man! Time descends rapidly:
Our friends and our fathers go away with him;
elliptic phrases, there is always a suppres'ed word understood to
intervene, and to govern the word other or another. -- Without
entering inio a general and minute investigation of the various
uses of the hyphen, I shall here offer a few cursory remarks on
some of the cases in which I conceive that it ought to he inserted
or omitted; previously observing, that tlie rules are not to be
taken separately, hut in connexion, as far as they agree; -- that
the accent will, in most cases, prove a sure guide; and the car
may more safely be trusted than the eye. -- 1. When each of
two contiguous substantives retains its original accent, omit the
hyphen, as Mister builder. Where the latter loses or alters its
accent, instil the hyphen, as ship-builder. -- 2. When two sub-
stantives are in Apposition, and each is separately applicable to
the person or thing designated, omit the hyphen, as the Lord
chancellor, who is both a lord and a chancellor. When they are
not in Apposition, and only one of the two is separately applica-
ble to the person or thing, insert the hyphen, as a hurse-dealer,
who is a dealer, but not a horse. -- 3. When the first substantive
serves the purpose of an adjective expressing the matter or sub-
stance of which the second consists, and may be placed after it
with Of {not denoting possession) omit the hyphen, as a Silk gown,
a Cork jacket, L. e. a gown of silk, a jacket of cork. When the first
does not express the matter or substance of the second, and may
be placed after it with Of (denoting (possession) or with Tor or
Belonging to, insert the hyphen, as School-master, Play-time,
Cork-screw, Laundry-maid, i. e. Master of a school, Time qforfr
play, Screw for corks,Maid belonging to the laundry. --4. Between
an adjective and its substantive (used as such in the sentence) omit
the hyphen, as High sheriff, 1'rinie minister. When the adjective
and its substantive are together used as a kind of compound
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? Versification. 201
While we, melancholy mourners* lag behind, to shed
tears,
To utter | un-availing sighs, and keep wakeful vigils.
634
As wild imaginary figures \ terrify
The child all darkling in the obscurity of night,
Fond dreams, as wild as infant terrors, dismay
Our souls with fear in the glare of day-light.
adjective to another substantive, insert the hyphen between the
two former, as High-church doctrine. --5. When an adjective
or adverb, and a participle immediately following, are_ together
used as a kind of compound adjective, merely expressing an
inherent quality without reference to immediate action, and (in
the order of syntax) precede the substantive to which they are
joined, insert the hyphen, as a quick-sailing vessel. When they
rmply immediate action, and (in the order of syntax)/o//oa, the
substantive, omit the hyphen, as The ship quick sailing o'er the
deep, or Quick sailing o'er the deep, the ship pursues her
course. -- The same distinction may likewise be made in other
cases, which do not exactly fall under those descriptions, as the
above-mentioned circumstances, and the circumstances abov?
mentioned. --The preceding rules are undoubtedly liable to many
exceptions, which I cannot here undertake to enumerate. Im-
perfect, however, as they are, they may prove useful: and it is
worthy of remark, that, in every one of the cases w hich I have
noticed, the accent, as before observed, is a sure guide. In the
following, its effects will be evident. A glass house, a' tin m&n,
an 'tren mould, a negro merchant, pronounced as separate words,
each with its natural accent, will mean a house made of glass,
a man made of tin, a mould made of iron, a merchant who is a
negro : but a gl&ss-house, a tm-man, an iron-mould, a nigro-mer-
chant, taken as compounds, with achange of accent, will mean a
house for manufacturing glass, a man who works in tin, a mould
or stain caused by therust of iron, a merchant who buys and sells
negroes.
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? 203 Versification.
655
The unfortunate \ maid strays, in profound despair,
Through tangled paths, and roads | not frequented,
While cold vapors shroud the moon's pale ray,
As she roams, wild, by the murmuring stream.
656 {ship,
Wicked men, professing the hallowed name of friend-
Form a covenant of shame instead of it,
A dark confederation Hgainst tlie laws
Of virtue, and the glorious cause of religion.
637 {Iter,
Extended ] upon thut bier in death's last heavy slum-
Lies, cold and motionless, the friend for whom I
shed tears.
658. -- The Picture of Venus.
When first the RhodianV imitative art arrayed
Venus in the shade of Cyprus,
The happy master mixed in his picture
Each look that delighted him in the beautiful women
of Greece. '
Faithful to nature free from fault, he borrowed a
grace
From every more beautiful form, and sweeter coun-
tenance.
659
Luminous as the pillar rose at the command of heaven,
When the Israelites \ travelled along the wilderness,
Blazed, during the night, on solitary wilds, afar,
And told the path -- a star, that never set:
So, celestial Genius! in thy divine career,
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? Versification. 203
Hope is thy star: her light ever is thine.
660
Babylon ! to grace the feast, thy daughters
Weave the flowing robe, and paint the vest ornamented
with flowers:
They braid the glossy hair with wreaths of roses;
They color the cheek, which Nature formed so beau-
tiful,
Learn the delicate step, the glance which subdues the
soul,
Swim adown the dance, and melt in the song.
' 661
Mild Peace, come from realms of everlasting | repose!
Bid the troubled earth be happy, like thy own heaven.
Bid destructive war cease iiis mad ravage,
And Plenty gladden the earth with new increase.
Oh ! bid deploring nations cease to lament,
And convert guilty swords into smiling ploughshares.
662
Ah ! of what use is it, if the fire of the Muse
Must die, like the meteor's transitory flash ?
Alas! what does it boot ? since the hero's fate
Is Death's obscure | cave, and the oblivious grave--
Since not Fame's loud trumpet can bestow | durable
praise ;
And neither bfiys nor laurels live in the grave.
663
Retired from the noisy court and loud camp,
In rural diversion and honorable ease
He securely | spent the remainder of his days,
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? 204 Versification.
And did notfind they flew too fast, or lagged too slowly.
He made his desire comply with his estate,
Glad to live, yet not afraid of dying.
664
The adventurous boy, who asks for his little portion,
And hies from home with the prayer of many a gossip,
Turns upon the neighbouring hill, to behold once again
The beloved | residence of privacy and peace;
And, as he turns, the thatched roof among the trees,
The smoke's blue wreaths, mounting with the breeze.
All rouse reflexion's mournfully pleasing train ;
And he often looks, and sheds tears, and again looks.
665
Oh ! at the hour of moonlight, let me roam
To some silent bovver, or private grove,
When the songs of the plumy multitude cease,
And the nightingale her plaintive song commences.
Sweet bird of evening, I delight in thy liquid note,
That, from thy quivering throat, floweth mellifluous.
0 Zephyr! fleeting Zephyr ! delay longer,
And do not bear away that lovely musical sound.
666
When the western gale breathes upon the blue waves,
My panting bosom | defies the peaceful sea,
Glows with the scene, inhales those more soft \ delights
Dropped from the balmy wings of the breezes.
But, when the curled \ wave \ lifts up its form,
And silent horror broods on the tempest,
1 direct my steps to yon sheltering zeood,
The retreat of love, the refuge of misfortune.
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? Versification. 205
667-- The Carrier Pigeon.
Guided by what chart, transports the timid pigeon
The wreaths of victory, or the professions of love ?
Say, what compass <&Yec<sher flight through the clouds?
Kings have gazed, and nations have blessed the sight.
Heap up rocks on rocks: bid mountains and fo-
rests | arise:
Hide from view her native skies, her native shades:
It is to no purpose: she proceeds through aether's
wilds where there is no path,
And at last alights where all her cares m(.
668
Where should we discover (those consolations at an end,
Which Scripture affords) or hope to discover a friend ?
Grief might then muse herself into madness,
And, seeking banishment from the sight of mankind,
Bury herself in deep solitude,
Grow mad with her pangs, and bite the earth.
Thus frequently unbelief, become weary of living,
Flies to the felon knife, or inviting pool.
669
And shall I be afraid to wander at this dark hour
In the solemn stillness of the wood,
Or where rise the battlements worn by time,
Or the haughty turret lieth low in ruin ?
I disdain the idea -- being assured that sovereign power
llules the noontide or the nightly hour alike:
And I roam, as free from groundless alarm, here
In the midst of these shades, as in the blaze of sun-
shine,
s
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? QOG Versification.
While to thy attention, O thou almighty protector,
I commend my spirit, by night or day.
670
Friend of my bosom, companion of my early age,
As renowned for learning, as respected for truth,
Combined in whom we admire equally
The wisdom of the philosopher and the fire of the pott,
A generous disposition and an elevated mind,
Unlimited genius, and undamped warmth;
Equally skilful to raise the sublime song,
Or sport playfully among the flowery meadows;
The smiling Muse has taught thee all her skill,
To catch the imagination, and to take possession of
the heart.
671. --Tobacco.
Noxious weed ! whose odor | molests the ladies,
Unfriendly to society's greatest | pleasures!
Thy most mischievous effect is driving away for hours
The sex whose society civilises ours.
Thou art indeed the drug, of which a gardener stands
in need,
To destroy vermin that infest his plants. .
But are we so blinded to beauty and genius,
As to set no value upon the glory of our species,
And show to the fairest and softest forms
As little lenity as to worms and grubs ?
672 [new,
Nobody sends his arrow to the mark which he has in
Whose nim is false, or whose hand weak.
For, although, ( before the arrow is yet on the wing,
?
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? Versification. 207
Or when it first quits the elastic cord,
It deviate but little from the hue intended,
In the end it falls far wide of his intent. . [heaven,
In like manner^ | the person who seeks an abode in
Must with a steadfast eye watch his design.
That prize belongs to the sincere alone:
The smallest obliquity is here fatal.
673. --The Maniac.
Listen t the distracted maniac sings, to chide the wind,
That wafts her lover's disiant ship so slowly.
She, melancholy spectatress! on the bleak shore
Watch'd the rude billow, that bore his body, | desti-
tute of a shroud,
Recognis'd the pale form, and, shrieking in amaze-
ment,
Locked together her cold hands, and fixed her mad-
dening stare. [tears,
Poor widowed creature! it was there she vainly \ shed
Until memory Jiedfrom her ag wising brain.
But, to charm the sensation ot misery, Mercy bestowed
Ideal peace, that truth could never give.
The pleasures of imagination beam warm on her heart;
And liojie, without an aim | charms her darkest dream.
674-- To Hope.
Favoring power! when rankling cares disturb
The saertd home of connubial joy,
Where, condemned to poverty's remote dell,
The wedded pair of affection and virtue live,
Meeting no pity from the world, not knozvn to fame,
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? ? 08 Versification.
Their sorrows, their desires, and their hearts the same--
Oh! in that spot, | prophesyingHope, bestow thy smile,
And drive away the. pangs that worth should never
experience.
There, as the parent distributes his insufficient store
To young children \ bereft of friends, a,nd weeps to
bestow no more,
Announce, that his manly offspring shall yet alleviate
Their father's wrongs, and protect his advanced age.
675
At ere in summer, when the aerial bow of heaven
Spans with brilliant arch the glittering hills beneath,
Why does the musing eye turn to yonder mountain,
Whose top, | bright with sun-shine, mingles with the
sky ? - -
Why do those cliffs of shadowy coloring \ seem
More sweet than the entire landscape | which smiles
near ?
It is distance, lends enchantment to the prospect,
And arrays the mountain in its blue | coloring.
In the same manner, we linger witli pleasme, to xkte
The promis'd delights of life's unmeasur'd road:
Thus, from a distance, each scene dimly discovered
Appears more captivating than all the past has been;
And every form, that imagination can repair
from dark forgetfulness, glows there divinely.
Ten-syllable Iambics, in which some of the Italk
words are to have epithets added -- some are to be al-
tered--some are both to be altered and to have epithets;
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? Versification. 209
*-- each particular case to be distinguished by the pupil's
oxen sagacity.
676. --Botany Bay.
Here we arc secure: on tliispeaceful shore,
No lions roar, no tigers prowl:
N o wolf is heard : no brake
Hides the venom of the coifing serpent.
The summers smile as mildly here as in England;
As mild winters terminate the year. [this country;
Nor is the breath of the autumnal whirlwind heard in
Nor spring \ storms breathe the blast of death.
Without a single | regret to call my tears,
Or awake one desire, 1 feel myself satisfied here.
And we shall yet enjoy happiness: yonder beam,
The mild radiance of departing day light,
As gaily gilds over this humble habitation,
As the superb | edifices on England's remote shore.
677. --The Slave-Trade.
The ties of friend, husband, father,
- All bonds of nature, cease in that moment.
And each suffers, while he yet breathes,
A stroke not less fatal than , Dtath's scythe.
The black warrior, mad with regret {remembrance,
Of the woman he loves, and never can lose from his
Loses in his tears the shore retiring to a distance,
But not the idea that they must never again meet.
Robbed, at a blow, of her and liberty,
What has he remaining, that lie yet san forego ?
Yes, sullenly resigned-to melancholy,
He feels in his mind the bondage of his body,
So
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 12:11 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hxg8hz Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 210 ? Versification.
Divests himself of his generous disposition, and, to suit
His manners with his destiny, puts on the brute.
678 A.
Ye spirits, who dwell in unknown worlds,
Formidable spectres ! to what place are you flown ?
I have often heard, you delight, at this awful hour,
To resort lo the moss-grown tower, or aisle lying in
To flit along the glade in shadowy figures, [ruins;
Or stalk giant-like 'midst the shade.
Yet here, un-accompanied, I walk with silent steps,
Where broken walls spread their ruins-;
Where the remains of the great and fair
Rest in awful state, vainly enshrined;
Where the dark ivy embraces the embattled tower,
And lengthens out its last hour for a time:
But every thing is quiet; no ghost appears;
No phantom uprears its huge figure;
No spirit, robed in white, glides through the darkness;
No groan | lowly mutters from the grave.
678 B.
As when a criminal, whom the lares of his country
Have with just reason | sentenced for some atrocious
cause,
Expects, in darkness and terrors,
The ignominious \ termination of all his years which
he has spent amiss;
If, chance, slowly borne on heavy wings,
- A storm | introduce the dreaded morning,
The lightnuig plays upon the walls of his dungeon,
The thunder appears to call him away ;
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 12:11 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hxg8hz Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? Versification.
