There's a being bright, || whose beams
Light my days || and gild my dreams, ||
Till my life || all sunshine seems ||

'Tis the Ladye of Lee.

Father Prout.

He heard it, but he heeded not; || his eyes
Were with his heart, |¦ and that was far away: ||
He recked not of the life he lost || nor prize, ||
But where his rude hut || by the Danube lay;
There || were his young barbarians all at play, ||
There was their Dacian mother ||—he, their sire,
Butchered || to make a Roman holiday. ||

All this rushed with his blood. || Shall he expire
And unavenged? || Arise, || ye Goths, and glut your ire!

Now morn || her rosy steps in the Eastern clime
Advancing || sowed the earth with orient pearl, ||
When Adam waked, || so customed, || for his sleep
Was aery light || from pure digestion bred, ||
And temperate vapours bland.

Alas! alas!

Byron.

Milton.

Why || all the souls that were, || were forfeit once ; ||
And He that might the vantage best have took ||
Found out the remedy. || How would you be,
If He, which is the top of judgment, || should
But judge you || as you are? || O think on that, ||
And mercy then || will breathe within your lips ||
Like man new made.

Shakspere.

KINDS OF FEET.

A foot consists of either two or three syllables, whether of the same word or not.

A dissyllabic foot, when accented on the second syllable, is called an iambus; when on the first a trochee.

A trisyllabic foot, when accented on the first syllable, is called a dactyl; when on the second, an amphibrach; when on the third, an anapest: e. g.

Besides these there occur, occasionally, dissyllabic feet, in which both syllables are accented, or both unaccented;

e. g.

Spondee
Pyrrhic

keén wind. at a (time).

These names of the various kinds of feet are borrowed from the classical languages, in which, it must be borne in mind, they are distinguished by quantity and not by accent (see page 2). If this is clearly kept in view we may safely employ the usual signs for marking accented and unaccented syllables (i. e. -~) without fear of their being connected with quantity.

Most of our English verse is in Iambic metre, although the majority of English dissyllables are trochees, because our language contains a large number of unaccented monosyllables, which, on being prefixed to other words, cause it to run in iambics.

LAMBIC MEASURE.

(a) Of one and two feet (Monometer and Dimeter).

Short verses of this kind are only used in combination with longer ones to diversify the melody.

(b) Of three feet (trimeter)—

The night's perpetual gloom,
The silence of the tomb,

Aloft in awful state,
The god like hero sate,

On his imperial throne.

The monarch saw | and shook,

And bade no more | rejoice;

All blood less wax'd | his look,
And tremulous | his voice.

(c) Of four feet (tetrameter)

O Lady, twine | no wreath | for me,
Or twine | it of the cypress tree.

By fairy hands | their knell | is rung,
By forms | unseen | their dirge | is sung;
There Hon our comes, | a pilgrim gray,
To bless the turf | that wraps | their clay;
And Free dom shall | a while | repair
To dwell a weeping her mit there.

Dryden.

Byron.

Scott.

Collins.

And may at last | my weary age

Find out the peaceful hermitage.

Milton

This octosyllabic iambic measure is largely employed by Butler, Gay, Scott, and others in couplets; sometimes short poems occur in it in triplets. Alternating iambics of four and three feet constitute ballad metre, and the common metre of our Psalms: e. g.

They followed from | the snowly bank

Those foot marks one by one,
Into the middle of the plank—
And further there was none !

I am the Rider of | the wind,
The Stirrer of the storm;
The hurricane | I left behind

Is yet with light|ning warm.

Wordsworth.

Byron.

While shepherds watched | their flocks | by night,

All seated on the ground,

The angel of the Lord | came down,

And glory shone | around.

(d) of five feet (Pentameter)

A vile conceit | in pompous words | expressed,
Is like a clown | in regal purple dressed.

Pope.

While words of learned length | and thundering sound,
Amazed | the gazing rustics ranged | around.

Goldsmith.

O Thou, that, with | surpassing glory crowned,
Look'st from thy sole | dominion like the God
Of this new world; | at whose | sight all the stars
Hide their | diminished heads; | to Thee | I call.

Milton.

How like a winter hath | my absence been
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have | I felt, | what dark | days seen,
What old | December's bare ness ev'rywhere!

Shakspere.

Iambic pentameter, in rhyme, is generally known as the Heroic measure of English poetry. Chaucer uses it for his Canterbury Tales; Dryden, Pope, Goldsmith, Keats, Southey, &c. also most frequently employ it. Without rhyme it is called Blank Verse. (See page 20.) Four heroics, with alternate rhymes, constitute the Elegiac Stanza: e.g.

Full manly a gem | of purest ray | serene

The dark | unfathomed caves | of ocean bear:
Full manly a flower | is born | to blush | unseen,
And waste its sweetness on | the desert air.

(e) Of six feet (Hexameter)—

A needless Alexandrine ends the song,

Gray.

That, like | a wounded snake, | drags its | slow length | along.

Pope.

When Spring | unlocks | the flowers | to paint | the laugh|ing soi
When Summer's balmly showers | refresh | the mowler's toil.

Heber.

The dew was falling fast, the stars began to blink;
I heard a voice, | it said, | 'Drink, pretty creature, drink!'
And looking o'er | the hedge, | before | me, I | espied

A snow-white mountain lamb, | with ǎ maiden at | its side.
Wordsworth.

An hundred valiant men | had this | brave Robin Hood,
Still readly at his call, ❘ that bow|men were | right good,
All clad | in Lincoln green, | with caps | of red | and blue,
His fellow's windled horn, | not one | of them | but knew.

Drayton.

This measure, called Alexandrine, because many old French poems in praise of Alexander were written in it, is but seldom used in English, except when interspersed here and there with heroic couplets, and especially as the concluding verse of the Spenserian stanza.

(f) Of seven feet (Heptameter)

And none will grieve | when I go forth, | or smile | when I | return, Or watch | beside | the old | man's bed, or weep | upon | his urn.

Macaulay.