No More Learning

A verse is a single line of poetry,
A hemistich is a half verse *.
. * In strict propriety, it means an exact half verse : but, in the
Greek and Latin prosodies, whence the term is borrowed, it is
A
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? 2 Prosody.
A distich, or couplet, is two verses; and the name
is generally applied to two verses comprising a com-
plete sentence.
A stanza (called likewise a stave) is a combination
of several verses, wholly dependent on /the poet's
will, with respect to number, metre, and rhime, and
forming a regular portion or division of a song, or
other poem. -
Metre is the measure by which verses are com-
posed, and by which they are divided in scanning;
and, in English poetry, this measure consists in the
number of the syllables, and the position of the ac-
\ cents.
To scan * a verse is to divide it into its component
parts, or feet.
Rhime is a similarity and agreement of sound in
also applied to a portion of a verse exceeding or falling short of
the half, by one half foot. --The word Hemistich, and likewise
Tetrastich and Acrostich, being sometimes erroneously written
with CK, merely in consequence of a typographic error in John-
son's Dictionary, I wish my young readers to observe, that
the former three, derived from the same Greek source with Di-
stich, ought, like it, to terminate with CH, pronounced, of course,
hard, as in Epoch, Stomach, Aniioch. -- Having incidentally
mentioned the Acrostich, let me add to Dr. Johnson's definition
of it, that the acrostich law extends to the final, as well as the
initial, letter of each verse; there being still extant some ancient
trifles of that description, in which the same words are acro-
stichally displayed at both extremities of the lines.
? Originally, to Karat, from the Latin scando (to climb) the
term used for this process by the aneient Latin grammarians.
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? Prosody. 3
final syllables, as adore, deplore,--ovet throws, inter*
pose. In regular verses, it includes only one syl-
lable, as
Ye nymphs of Solyma, begin the song!
To heav'nly themes sublimer strains belong.
(Pope.
In hypermtter or redundant verses, i. e. verses ex-
ceeding the regular measure, it extends to two, the
penultimate accented, the other not, as
For what has Virro painted, built, andplant-\-edf
Only to show how many tastes he wantA-ed. (Pope,
and, in careless burlesque versification, as that of
Swift ami Butler, we sometimes find redundant lines
with a triplicate rhime,--the accent falling on the
antepenultimate, which terminates the regular mea-
sure, and no accent on either of the two supernume-
rary syllables, as
Uniting all, to show their a-\-mity,
As in a general cala-\-mtty*. (Swift,
but such triplicate rhime is wholly inadmissible in
any verse which at all aspires to the praise of dignity
or harmony.
Blank verse is verse without rhime.
The Casura (which means a cut or division) is the
separation, or pause, which takes place in the body
of a verse in the utterance--dividing the line, as it
were, into two members: and, in different species of
* These were not intended for regular ten-syllable lines: the
piece from which they are quoted, is in eight-syllable verse.
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? 4 Prosody.
verse, or different verses of the same species, this
pause occurs in different parts of the line, as, for ex-
ample--
How empty learning,s|| and how vain is art,
But as it mends the life,6|| and guides the heart!
. Poetic Feet.
A foot is a part of a verse, and consists of two or
three syllables.
A semifoot is a half-foot.
The feet, chiefly used in English poetry, are the
following*--
* The names, here given to the feet and verses, are ncrt, in
strict propriety, applicable to English versification. In the
Creek and Latin languages, from which they are borrowed, they
have no reference to accent; the feet being there solely deter-
mined by the quantity, or length of syllables, and consisting--
the Iambus, of one short syllable, and one long;--the Trochee,
of one long and one short;--the Spondee, of two long;--the
Pyrrhic, of two short;--the Anapast, of two short and one long;
--the Dactyl, of one long and two short;--the Tribrachys, of
three short;--and the AmphibraQhys, of one long between two
short. --However, as these Greek and Roman names of feet and
verses have (with the substitution of English accent for Greek
and Latin quantity) been applied to English versification by
other writers before me, and as they are convenient terms to
save circumlocution, I have deemed it expedient to adopt them
after the example of my predecessors, and to apply to our ac-
cented and un-accented syllables the marks generally employed
to indicate long and short syllables in the Greek and Latin pros-
odies; as, for-example, the marks, thus applied to the Greek
Pegasbs, or the Latin PegHstis, signify that the first syllable
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? Prosody. 5
The Iambus *, consisting of two syllables, the first
un-accented, and the latter accented, as adore, be-
hind.
The Trochee, of two syllables, the first accented,
the latter un-accented, as holy, thunder.
The Spondee, of two syllables, both accented, as
why charge in the following line--
Why charge I we heav'n in those, in these acquit ?
(Pope.
The Pyrrhic, of two un-accented, as is to in the
following verse--
A choice collection ! what | is to \ be done? (Young.
The Anapast, of two un-accented, and one ac-
cented, as each of the four feet in the following line--
at the close I of the day, \ whin the ham-\-let is still. *.
(Bcattie.
The Dactyl, of one accented, and two un-accented,
as holiness, thundering.
of that animal's name is long, and the other two short;
whereas, in English prosody, the same marks are to be under-
stood as simply meaning, that the first syllable in Peg&sUs is
accented, and the other two un-accented. This observation
applies to every other case.
* This foot is sometimes improperly called an Iambie ; which
is equally wrong, as to say a Boyish or a Girlish, for a Hoy or a
Girl. --Iambus, Trochee, Anapeest, &c. are the substantive names
of the feet themselves : but Iambic, Troeha'ic, Anapastic, &c. are
adjectives, solely applicable to the metre, verse, or poem, con-
tisting of such feet*
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? 6 Prosody.
The Tribrachys, of three un-accented, as -ritual in
the word Spiritual.
The Amphibrachys, of one accented, between two
un-accented, as removal coeval.
Elision. --Syneeresis. --Diaresis.
In our versification, we have very frequent exam-
ples of elision and synteresis--none, or very few, of
diaeresis.
Elision is of three kinds, viz.
1. Apharisis, which cuts off the initial letter or
syllable of a word, as 'squire, 'gainst, 'gan, for esquire,
against, began.
2. Syncope *, which strikes out a letter or syllable
from the body of a word, as sp'rit-f for spirit--lov'd,
thund'ring, lab'rer, for loved, thundering, laborer--
se'nnieht for sevennisht.
* The use of syncope is not confined to verse: in prose also,
numberless instances of it occur, as don't for do not--wond'rous
for wonderous--hast, hath, for the obsolete havest, haveth--
grown, sown, for the antique growen, sowen--midst, for middest,
an old superlative from mid, &c. &c.
Right in the middest of that paradise,
There stood a stately mount (Spencer.
The barren ground was full of wicked weeds,
Which she herself had sowen all about,
Now growen great, at first of little seeds. (Spencer.
. ). Converted, by the addition of E to lengthen the sound, into
Sprite, which, together with Sprightly, proves that the syncope
took place in the first syllable, and that the syncopated word
was intended to be Sp'rit, rhiming with Grit, not Spir't, rhiming
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? Prosody. 7
3, Apocope', which cuts off a final vowel or syl-
lable, or one or more letters, as Gi' for give, Fro' for
from, O' for of, Th' evening for the evening, Philomel
for Philomela.
Si/neeresis is the contraction of two syllables into
one, by rapidly pronouncing, in one syllable, two or
more vowels whicli properly belong to separate syl-
lables, as AE in Israel, IE in Alienate, EE in E'en
and E'er, 10 in Nation r for, though the 10, in such
terminations, be usually accounted a diphthong*,
with Squirt, as I have seen it printed in the following line of
Milton, Par. L. 5, 877--
O alienate from God ! O spirit accurst!
* Diphthong. --Some late writers have directed us to pro-
nounce this word as Dipthong, and some have even adopted that
mode of spelling it; because, as one of them observes, "two
aspirations in succession are disagn eable to an English ear. "
This may be partly true in some cases, on account of the ac-
companying consonants, as " worth their while," " bofA those
men," " come forfA thence :" but, in " woriA Ais while," " both
his eyes," " he led forth his army," the double aspiration will, I
believe, be found more easy to the tongue, and more grateful
to the ear, than the single one in " wor/A is esteemed," " the
merit of bofA is equal," " the Fori A is a Scottish river;" the
continued aspiration more softly blending and combining the
syllables in " worrA Ais," " both Ais," " for<A Ais," without lea-
ving that disagreeable chiism, or requiring that effort of the voice,
which necessarily attend the utterance of " worth is," " both is,"
Fort A is. " But, to return to PHTH, let us see how the doctrine
of the double aspiration applies to it. That the Greek consonant,
which we render by PH, was an aspirated P, is certain; and that,
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? 8 Prosody.
and HON, of course, a single syllable, yet, in strict
propriety, TI-ON are two distinct syllables; and
instead of writing, as we do, stop hm, up hill, kept him, a Greek
would have written staph him, uph hill, kephth him How he
pronounced the P thus aspirated, is of no consequence to us :
but, in our pronunciation, the Greek Pif and the English fare
sounded so exactly alike, that any objection, which lies against
the PH, will hear with equal force against F. Now [ submit to
any of my readers, young or old, whether, in the following com-
binations with TH, the F (or its equivalent G H) be not in reality
much less difficult to the tongue, and less grating to the ear,
than P--Charles the fifth, Charles the fipth--a tougA tAong,
tup fAong--a si\ff thorn, slip iAorn--a rougA rAimhle, rap f Aimble
--the gruff tAunderer, grup fAunderer--you have not enougA
tAought on it, enup Mought--put off their clothes, op rAeir--a
whi^iArough a pipe, whip through--quajf <Aick beer, quap rAick
--acougA (Areatens a consumption, cop iArentens--i/TAeodore's
wife fAinks, ip TAeodore's wipe iAinks. In all ihese examples, I
confidently anticipate the unanimous vote of my readers in favor
of F: and so far indeed is the English ear or tongue from being
shocked or embarrassed by the sound of F before TH, tl at the
vulgar (whom one of the advocates of Dip thong holds up to us
as " no contemptible guides" in pronunciation) are often heard to
aspirate the 2', in after, laughter, left her, pronouncing afther,
lufiher, lefth her; to which may be added the Yorkshire " thrujf
the world,'' for " through the world. " Hence it would appear,
that the harsh and irregular diplhong did not originate from any
repugnance of the English tongue or ear to the more smooth and
Tegular difthong, but from some other cause--very probably
from the ignorance of some of those village dames of former days
who initiated children in spelling--and who, not knowing the
power of the H added to P, taught the younglings to convert
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? Prosody. Q
the same remark applies to Dubious, Duteous, Plen-
teous, Warrior, 8cc. Besides these, and similar ex-
amples of synseresis, which take place in prose, the
licence is carried further in poetry, where we find
Virtuous, Arduous, Gradual, Patriot, used as dissyl-
lables, with many others which will occur in the
following pages.
Diaresis is the division of one syllable into two, as
when Puissant, Puissance, which are properly dis-
Seraph into Syrup, A nymph into An imp, Pheasant into Pea-
sant, Diphthong into Dipthong, &c. --From them the corrup-
tion spread among the lower class of the community, until
at length their example was held up for the imitation of their
betters, as a late writer has seriously recommended to us to
adopt their Sparrozo-grass instead of Asparagus. If the natural
order of things is to be thus inverted--if the vulgar, instead of
learning from their superiors, are to become their models and
their teachers--then let Sphinx also be altered to Spink, which
I suppose to be the prevalent pronunciation among the private
soldiers of his majesty's foot guards; for so I have heard the
word very distinctly pronounced by one of them, who was ex-
plaining to the bystanders the i rnaments on the carriage of the
Egyptian gun in St. James's Park. I hope, however, that none
of my young readers will ever adopt either Spink, Sparrow-grats,
or Dipthong, but invariably pronounce PH as F, win rtver they
can so pronounce it; which they always can do in the body of a
word, as Diphthong, Naphtha, Ophthalmia, &c. There may
indeed be some excuse for not so pronouncing it before TH at
the beginning of words, as Phthisis, Phthia, Phthiriasis, because
it is there thought to be difficult of pronunciation; though, for
my part, I see no difficulty in it, if custom would only allow us
to utter those words with the sound of FTH.
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? 10 Prosody.
syllables, are (by a licence hardly allowable even in
poetry) sounded pu-issant, pu-issance *, as in Somer-
ville's Hobbinol,3, 131-- /
Though great the force
Of this pu-issant aria, as all must own--
* In the original French, the VI of Puissant and Puissance
(as is well known to all who pronounce that language with pro-
priety) is an inseparable diphthong, though very difficult of ut-
terance to those who have not, in early youth, enjoyed good
opportunities of acquiring the genuine French pronunciation.
Witness the broad W in our Etwee, instead of the thin delicate
French Vin the original Etui--and the words Suite, Cuisse, and
Cuirass, which even our pronouncing dictionaries pervert into
Sxeet, Quits, and Queer-ais; by which pronunciation, the true
sound of the French diphthong is destroyed. --But, notwith-
standing the difficulty of utterance, Milton has used the word as
a dissyllable--
Qurpuissance is out own: our own right band. . . (P. L. 5,864.
--His puissance, trusting ip th' Almighty's aid. . . . (<3,119.
Sbakespear also has employed it as a dissyllable, in his
Henry V. --
Guarded by grandsires, babies, and old womfcn,
Or past or not arrived at pith and piissUnce--
the latter being, not an Alexandrine of six feet, but a common
five-foot Iambic with a redundant un-acceuted syllable at the
end, like the verse immediately preceding it, and ten thousand
others every-where occurring, more particularly in dramatic
poetry. Spencer, too, (F. Q. I. ) has the puis- in this word a
single syllable--
To prove his puissance in battle brave--
the final E, with its consonant, being sounded as a separate
syllable; a practice very frequent with Spencer and our other
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? Prosody. 11
But it were utterly wrong to shelter under this title
the very improper division of the diphthong EU, in
Orpheus, and many other Greek names of similar ter-
mination--a division, unsanctioned by our poets,and
justly reprobated by classical scholars, for reasons
which will be found in a note to No. 248 of the fol-
lowing Exercises.
early bards, who, in that particular, imitated the example of the
French poets, but with this difference, that, in French, even to
the present day, the final un-accented E, though mute in prose,
must necessarily be accounted a syllable in verse, unless elided
by a vowel immediately following: e. gr.
Je chan<2 le he>os qui regna sur la France,
Et par droit de conquef* et par droit de naissance--
whereas, in English poetry, it was optional with the writer either
to leave it mute, or to make it sound in a separate syllable, as
Spencer has here done--pronouncing it, I presume, nearly like
puis-san-cy; for we can still cp. tch a last dying echo of the
antique pronunciation in the words Bravery, Slavery, Finery,
Nicety, Roguery--to say nothing of Handiwork, Handicraft,
and the vulgar Workyday, which Were originally Hande-work,
Hande-craft, Worke-day, i. e. in modern orthography, Hand-
work, Hand-craft, Work-day.
From the licence of thus arbi-
trarily sounding or not sounding the final E, seems to have arisen
that very convenient duplicity of termination (ANCE, ANCY
--ENCE, ENCY) which our language has allowed to a pretty
uumerous class of words adopted from the French, as Repug-
nance, Repugnancy, Indulgence, Indulgence/; though, as most
of those words were originally borrowed from the Latin, which
terminates them in ANTIA and ENT1A, if any person choose
to maintain that we took ANCY and ENCY from the Latin,
ANCE and ENCE from the French, I am not disposed to
quarrel with him on that account.
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? 12 Prosody.
Verses.
Every species of English verse, of whatever deno-
mination, regularly terminates with an accented syl-
lable : but every species, without exception, admits,
at the end, an additional un-accented syllable, pro-
ducing (if it be rhimed verse) a double rhime, that is
to say, a rhime extending to two syllables, as
Beauty I Pursumg I Resounded
Duty I Renewmg | Confounded--
and this additional syllable does not at all affect the
measure or rhythm of the preceding part of the verse,
which remains precisely the same as if the supernu-
merary syllable were not added. But, in all such
cases, it is indispensably necessary that the rhime
should thus begin on the penultimate accented syl-
lable, which receives so great a stress of pronuncia-
tion : otherwise, there would, in fact, be no rhime at
all, as Parly, for example, could not be said to rhime
with Beauty, nor Retreating with Pursuing, though
the final syllables are, in both cases, the same. .
A verse, of whatever kind, thus lengthened with a
redundant syllable, is called hypermeter (which li-
terally signifies over-measure, or exceeding the due
measure).
In our blank heroic verse, this addition to the
metre frequently renders a very important and ad-
vantageous service, in producing a soft easy cadence
at the close of a long period, where the hypermeter
verse stands single: but, in our rhimed Iambic di-
stichs, of whatever measure, the hypermeter (neces-
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? Prosody. 13
sarily coupled in pairs) is. liltlq, adapted to solemn,
grand, or lofty themes: it generally gives to the cou-
plet a cast of levity and flippancy, better suited to
light compositions on more familiar subjects *. |In the
Trochaic verse, on the other hand, it produces a
very happy and pleasing effect: in that light,
sprightly, dancing metre, it is perfectly in character;
the duplicate r|jime--or, to speak more correctly,
the supernumerary un-accejnted syllable, indepen-
dent of the rhime--improving its natural lightness
and sprightlihess.
English verses may be divided into three classes,
and, from the feet of which they principally consist,
may be denominated Iambic, Trochaic^ and Ana-
pastic f.
* Mrs Barbauld, however, has not unhappily employed
double-rhimed Iambics in some of her Hymns.
t It might he thought improper to pass, wholly unnoticed, a
fourth species--the Dactylic--of which Mr. Murray observes,
that it is" very uncommon :"? and indeed he has not quoted any
admissible example of such metre; for, as to that which he ad-
duces, thus marked with the appearance of three dactyls--
From the low pleasures of this fa lien nature-- j
I cannot discover in it even one" real dactyl. --If the fault b<<
mine, I am sorry for it; but I have been taught (whether right or
wrong, I leave to better scholars than myself to determine)
that, in scanning verse, whether Greek, Latin, or English, we are
? ot allowed arbitrarily to eonnect or disjoin syllables, with the
view of producing whatever kind and number of feet we choose;
much less to alter, at our pleasure, the accent or quantity of syl-
lables for that purpose, as in From, Low, and Fall, in the exam-
8
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? 1? Prosody.
m Iambic Verses.
Pure Iambic verses contain no other foot than
the Iambus, and are uniformly accented on the se-
ple above quoted j but tbat each foot must independently stand
on its own ground, without any violation of accent or quantity;
and that we must produce the due number of feet, whatever
those feet may be: otherwise there would be an end ef all metre;
and no reader could tell the difference between verse and prose.
The observance of those rules, of which I never have heard the
propriety disputed, compels me, however reluctant, to differ
from Mr. Murray, and to scan the verse as follows--
Fr6m the | low plea-|-sfires 6f | this fall-|-en na-[(-tiire--
making it a five-foot Iambic, with a redundant syllable at the
end, as is common in every kind of English metre, without ex-
ception. And, with respect to the measure of the five feet (ex-
clusive of the odd syllable), it is only such as may often be found
in our five-foot Iambics, as in the following examples, which
have the words From the rich, and Treasures of, in exactly the
same positions, and to be of course accented and scanned in the
same manner, as From the low and Pleasures of in the verse
above--
Frifm the1 \ i zch store | one fruitful urn supplies,
Whole kingdoms smile, a thousand harvests rise. (Goldsmith.
. . . Extols | the trea-\-surcs of\ his stormy seas,
And his long nights of revelry and ease. (Goldsmith.
On the sub ject of dactylics, let me observe, that, of fourteen dif-
ferent forms of dactylic metre, which I have described jn my
" Latin Prosody" twelve ate utterly repugnant to the genius of
our language, except indeed that some few of the twelve might
. perhaps, by means of that troublesome expedient, the double
rhime, be rendered tolerable to an English ear. --Some attempts
were made in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to intro-
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? Prosody. 15
conck,fourth, and other even syllables ; the odd syl-
lables being un-accented. But the number of pure
dace the] dactylic metre, as witness the following curious
? ample. --
6 Pharaoh, may we go ? Pharaoh said," Gang, an ye can gang"--
bnt it did not succeed. Nor was it more successful in France,
where it -was also attempted about the same period; though it
appears to somewhat less disadvantage in the following speci-
men--a translation from Martial, 8,21--
AubS, rebaillf le jour: pourquoi ndtre aise retiens-tu?
Cesar doit r? v6mr: aubS, rebaille If jour.
An elegant and ingenious poet of the present day has, in one of
his sportive moments, made a new attempt at English dactylics,
without rbime: but he unfortunately chose one of those " un-
Englith" forms of the dactylic, in which he could not reasonably
hope for success; and, though his other poems will undoubtedly
pass to posterity with applause, I venture to predict that his dac-
tylics will not find many admirers or imitators. Captain Morris,
however, has, with ludicrous felicity, employed rhimed dactylic*
in some of his pieces: but neither will he, I presume, have many
imitators: for, as the metre in question consists entirely of dac-
tyls, if we wish to render it in any degree tolerable to an English
ear, we must close the verse with a trisyllabic rhiine, as
thundering, wondering--socieiy, notori? *y; it being necessary,
as I have before observed, that the rhiiue should always begin om
an accented syllable: and what one of a thousand poets will have
the patience to seek, or the ingenuity to find, a sufficient number
of cuch rhimes? Besides, this triplicate rhime, however well it . >>.
may occasionally be suited to light, careless, jocular composi-
tions, would leave our dactylics wholly destitute of poetic dignity
and grace. --There are, however, two forms of the dactylic metre,
which our language might very well admit, the one consisting of
two, and the other of three dactyls, followed, in each case, by an
B2
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? 16 , ' Prosody.
Iambics, found in the writings of our poets, bears a
small proportion to that of the mixed Iambics, in
whose composition are admitted other feet besides the
' Iambus, as I shall hereafter^ show ; contenting myself
accented syllable. Thus constituted, they would be exactly
equivalent, to anaptestics deprived of the first semi-foot, as will
appear by the following exemplification--
Anapastic--
We speak | 8f the' po-|-Sts, wh8 clioose, } for thgir lay,
The me-|-tre dacty-|-llc, s8 llve-|-ly and gay--
The po-l-Sts, who chOose, | for thfe'ir | lay,
A re? -|-trS s5 llve-|-ly and gay--
Dactylic--
Speak 8f the" | poSts, wh8 | choose, for thSir | lay,
Metre' d8c-|-tyllc, s5 | lively and | gay--
PoSts, wh8 | chdbse, for thSir | lay,
Metre s8 1 llve-|-ly and-| gay-- >>
a. rH indeed I have, in different poems, seen some odd verses of
the kind accidentally interspersed among anapasstics; though!
did not think them worthy of notice, accounting them only as
impcrfect anapsestics; which, in facts they were, since it was for
anaplastics that the writers had intended them. But, if adopted
<<s a distinct atid independent metre, and professedly used as
such, I conceive that the longer of the two measures could,
hardly fail to command the approbation of the public. At the
same time, however, I foresee that the poet who adopts either of
^them, will find sufficient exercise for his patience and ingenuity,
. from the diftkulty'of always finding an accented "emphatic
laWe for the beginninsTof his line, where Or, For, To, In, And, or
some equally undignified monosyllable, will often importunately
obtrude itself for admission: and, from this circumstance, he
will frequently find au^ipaistic lines Steal in un-observed among
his dactylics, as Iambic lines steal in upon writers who are com-
posing in Trochaics. --See " Trochaic. "
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? Prosody. 17
meanwhile with describing the different kinds as
pure Iambics.
The following rude line of fourteen monosyllables --
H6w blithe whfin first from far I came, to woo and win the maid--
contains an exemplification of all the regular forms
of English Iambics, amounting to seven, viz.
How blithe, when first from far I came, to woo aud win the maid.
When first from far I came, to woo and win the maid.
From far I came, to woo and win the maid.
I came to woo and win the maid.
To woo and win else maid.
And win the maid.
The maidi
and, with the addition of the un-aecented syllable
EN at the end of each, to convert Maid into Maiden,
it will moreover furnish seven hypermeters--in all?
fourteen forms of the Iambic*.
The seven regular forms are likewise found in *
the following lines f<<--
Behold,
How short a span
Was long enough, of o\Ar
To measure out the life of man.
In those well-temper'd days, his time was then-
Survey'd,cast up, and found but three-score years and tenr
And yet, though brief, how few would wish to live their term again! :
* To which if we add the six regular forms of Trochaic, and
six more with the additional syllable,, this same line will serve
tq exemplify twenty-six different forms of English metre, consist-
ing of alternate long aud short syllables. --See " Trochaic. "
t The first six of these lines are a stanza of a curious oldp6eRi,
published in, the Lady's Magaiine for 1800, page 556--the ae-
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? ]8 Prosody.
Iambic of seven feet, or fourteen syllables.
and thrice [ he rout-|-ed all | Ins foes, | and thrice |
He slew | the slain. (Dryden.
This is the old English ballad-measure, and was
originally intended for a single verse, as appears by
the following line of Cowley, which has not the
casura after the eighth syllable, but which, on that
account, is certainly less pleasing to the ear--
The vessel breaks, and out. the wretched reliquesrun
at last.
It was indeed usual to make the caesura take place
between the eighth and nintli syllables, as we see in
our bid ballads, and likewise in our metrical version
of the Psalms--
The gallant' greyhounds swiftly ran, || to chase the
fallow deer-- (Chevy Chase.
Behold, the wicked borrows much, || aitd payeth
not again-- (Psalms.
from which circumstance, it became easy to divide
the line into two verses, and thus convert each di-
stich into a tetrastich stanza, as modern writers have
done, sometimes without and sometimes with rhime
to the first and third lines, as '
Before the pond'rous earthly globe
In fluid air was stay'd,
venth, an extempore supplement of my own, added merely ? or
the purpose of exemplification.
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? Prosody. - . 19
Before the ocean's mighty springs ^
Their liquid stores display'd (Mrs. Rowe.
But oars alone can ne'er prevail
To reach the distant coast.
The breath of heav'n mu3t swell the sail;
Or all the toil is lost. (Covvper. >
When written with only a single pair of rhimes,
as in the former of these examples, it is by far the
most easy and convenient metre in the English lan-
guage, not only because it has the fewest rhimes, but
because, in that simple and homely form, it admits a
certain degree of quaintness, a familiar simplicity of
thought and diction, which would hardly be allow-
able in any other species of verse. But, when It is
furnished with two pair of rhimes, as in the latter
example, it commonly assumes a higher character,
refuses to stoop so low in quaintness of idea and
language, and may, from the great frequency of its
rhimes, be considered as one of the most difficult of
our metres.
There sometimes occurs, in old ballads, a variety
of this metre, which I should not have deemed
worthy of notice, if it had not been studiously
adopted by some polished writers, who have thus
given to it a degree of consequence, which otherwise
it never would have enjoyed *. The variation con-
,* I purposely omit, in the following pages, several wild irre-
gular violations of metre, occurring particularly in songs written
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? 20 Prosody.
sists in the omissipn of the eighth semifoot, leaving
a single syllable instead of the fourth foot, as
Then clown | she sunk, | despair-\-ing,A || upon the
drifted snow,
And, wrung [ with kill-l-ing an-\-guish, || lamented
loud her woe--
so that, if the line be divided into two verses,
the first contains only three feet and a half, or seven
syllables, while the latter has its due measure of three
feet: e. gr.
Twas when | the seas | were roar-]-2<<g
With hollow blasts of wind,
A dam-|-sel lay | deplo-l-nwg,
All on a rock reclin'd. (Gay.
Hypermeter, with double rhime--
When he was dead, and laid in grave, her heart was
struck with sor-\-row.
" O mother! mother! make my bed ; for I shall
die to mor-\-row. " (Ballad of " Barbara Allen. "
2. Iambic of sixfeet, or twelve syllables.
Thy realm | for e-|-ver lasts: || thy own | Messl-I
-ah reigns. (Pope.
by persons either regard less or ignorant of the laws of versifica-
tion. To constitute verse, it is not sufficient that a number of
jarring syllables be ranged in uncouth lines with rhime at the
end: order, regularity, symmetry, harmony, are requisite j
otherwise we might apply the name of verse to Swift's " Petitiott
of Mrs. Harris," because the terminations of the sentences are
made to rhime!
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? Prosody. . 21
This metre is called the, Alexandrine; and the
verse, when properly constructed, ought always to
have the caesura between the sixtli and seventh sylla- u^
bles. ' It is, comparatively, little used in English
composition, though adopted, as their common he-
roic measure, by our French neighbours, who have
in it entire poems, tragedies, comedies, &c. 8cc.
which, from the dull unvaried uniformity of the
caesura perpetually recurring after the third foot,
cannot, to an English ear, be otherwise than disgust-^ -
ingly monotonous*. To my ear, at least, they are so,
though accustomed to them from early youth. --In
our English poetry, the Ajsxandrine appears to much
greatei advantage ; not, being, uniformly continued
in succession f, but employed as the closing line in the
* Why is not oar English ballad-measure equally tiresome
and disgusting, since it is'as regularly divided at a particular
stage of the verse, as the French Alexandrine ? --The difference
is obvious and striking. Our line of fourteen syllables is not di-
vided into exact halves, but into members of unequal lengths,
viz. eight syllables and six; the eight-syllable portion admitting,
moreover, within its own compass, an additional and varied
caesura: and these two circumstances sufficiently guard against
that monotonous sing-song uniformity which is so irksome in the
French heroics, where we find nought but six and six and six aud
six--the same numbers, the same cadences, from the beginning
of a volume t<< the end, without the smallest variety, to relieve
the ennui of a wearied and impatient ear.
11 here speak of our general practice only; for there are>
some particular exceptions of English poems entirely written in
the Alexan diine metre.