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"Ah! who can tell how hard it is to climb

The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar!
Ah! who can tell how many a soul sublime
Hath felt the influence of malignant star,
And waged with Fortune an eternal war;
Check'd by the scoff of Pride, by Envy's frown,
And Poverty's unconquerable bar,

In life's low vale remote hath pined alone,

Then dropp'd into the grave, unpitied and unknown!'

Q. What is the shortest stanza in our language?

A. That which consists of four lines or verses, sometimes with only the second and fourth lines forming a rhyme, and sometimes with the first and third also; as,

"O thou Great Being! what thou art

Surpasses me to know;

Yet sure I am, that known to thee
Are all thy works below."

"How smiling wakes the verdant year,
Array'd in velvet green;

How glad the circling fields appear,

That bound the blooming scene!"

Q. What may be conceived as the origin of rhyme?

A. The pleasure which the ear feels in the recurrence of similar sounds; so that rhyme and alliteration, as well as poetry itself, have all a common origin. Q. Are rhyme and blank verse alike adapted to all sorts of subjects?

A. Rhyme is best fitted for light and familiar subjects; blank verse for those which are of a graver and more dignified character.

Q. Do blank verse and rhyme equally prevail in all languages? A. No; in Greek and Latin, rhyme is st unknown; in French and Italian, there is hardly such a thing as blank verse; while in English, they are nearly alike prevalent. [See Montgomery on Poetry, p 109-113.

CHAPTER VIII.

OF THE STRUCTURE OF VERSE.

Q. On what does the Structure of Verse chiefly depend? A. On a certain arrangement of words, or syllables, led poetic feet.

Q. How do a certain number and variety of syllables get the name of feet?

A. Because it is chiefly by their means that the voice steps, as it were, along the verse, dividing it into distinct portions, which constitute what is called

measure.

Q. Can you illustrate this by example?

A.

"But Hope can here her moonlight viglils keep,

And sing to charm | the spirit of the deep."

Q. On what do these poetic feet depend?

A. With us they depend principally upon accent, among the Greeks and Romans, they depended altogether upon quantity, one long syllable being equal to two short ones.

Q. In what respect, therefore, may all syllables be viewed with regard to poetry?

A. Either as long and short, or as accented and un accented.

Q. Do accent and quantity ever coincide?

A. They always do so when the accent falls upon a vowel, which causes the syllable to be long as well as accented; as grateful, polite.

Q. How many kinds of poetic feet are there?

A. Two those having but two syllables, and those having three.

Q. What are the feet that have each only two syllables? A. The Trochee, the Iambus, the Spondee, and the Pyrrhic.

Q. What are those which have three each?

A. The Dactyl, the Amphibrach, the Anapæst, and the Tribrach.

Q. Can you explain the feet consisting of two syllables each? A. The trochee has the first syllable accented, and the second unaccented; the iambus the first unaccented, and the second accented; the spondee, both accented; and the pyrrhic, both unaccented; as, boldness; dělight; pale sūns; on it.

Q. Can you explain the trisyllabic feet, or those which have three syllables each?

4. The dactyl has the first syllable accented, and the second and third unaccented; the amphibrach the first and third unaccented, and the second accented; the anapæst the first and second unaccented, and the

third accented; and the tribrach the whole three unaccented; as, rēgŭlăr; dētērmine; countervail: measŭrăblĕ

Q. Do these feet admit of any other division?

A. Yes; they are divided into those called principal, and those called secondary feet.

Q. What are the principal feet?

A. The Iambus, the Trochee, the Dactyl, and tne Anapæst while the Spondee, the Pyrrhic, the Amphibrach, and the Tribrach, are the secondary. Q. Why are the former called principal feet?

A. Because that of them alone, or, at least chiefly, whole poems may be formed.

Q. Why are the others called secondary feet?

A. Because they never either wholly or chiefly form whole poems, but are merely mixed with the other feet, for the sake of varying the measure or movement of the verse.

CHAPTER IX.

OF VARIETIES OF VERSE.

Q. How are different kinds of verse denominated? A. According to the particular kind of feet of which it is either wholly or principally formed; as, Iambic, Trochaic, Dactylic, and Anapæstic verse.

Q. How many sorts of iambic verse are there?

A. Chiefly four, according as it consists of two, three, four, or five feet.

Q. Can you illustrate these different kinds of Iambic verse by examples?

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"Ye friends to truth, yẻ stātesměn, who survey
The rich man's joys increase, the poor's decay,
"Tis yours to judge how wide the limits stand
Between a splendid and ǎ hāppy lānd."

Q. What is this last species called?

A. Heroic measure, and is the most common species of verse in the English language.

Q. Does iambic verse never consist of more than five feet? A. Occasionally it takes six, and is then called Alexandrine measure, the chief use of which is to give variety to the other species of iambic verse.

Q. When is the Alexandrine measure commonly introduced? A. Chiefly at the close of a poem, a paragraph, or a stanza, of heroic measure; as,

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The seas shall waste, the skies in smoke decay,
Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away!
But fix'd his word, his saving power remains;
Thy realm forever lāsts, thỹ own Messiah reigns!"

Q. What is done with iambic verse consisting of seven feet? A. It is divided into two lines or verses, the one containing three, the other four feet; as,

"Alas! by some degree of wō,

We ev'ry bliss must gain;

The heart căn ne’er a transport know,

That never knew ǎ pāin.'

Q. What is the next most common species of verse? A. The Anapæstic, which may consist of two, three, or four feet; as,

"In my rage shall be seen

The revenge of ǎ queen.”

"Not ǎ pine in my grōve is there seen,
But with tendrils of woodbine is bound⚫

Not ǎ beech is more beautiful green,

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But ǎ sweet-brièr entwines it ǎround."

May I gōvěrn mỹ pāssions with absolute sway,

And grow wiser or better ǎs life wears ǎway."

Q. Is anapæstic verse a common species of poetry?

A. Pretty common for short poems, but seldom used in poems of any length.

Q. Is there much fine trochaic and dactylic verse?

A. Very little; for, though often found mixed up with iambic or anapæstic verse, neither is much used by itself.

Q. Can you give any examples of this admixture of feet of which you speak?

A.

"Soon would the vine his wounds deplōre,

And yield its purple gifts no more." "She tells with what delight he stood

To trace his features in the flood."

Q. Can you explain the mixture of feet to be found in thes. couplets?

A. The first foot of the first verse is a trochee; while the third in the last verse is a pyrrhic.

Q. What do you call the reducing of verses into their different feet?

A. Scansion, or scanning, an exercise which tends much to improve one's skill and taste in poetry

CHAPTER X.

OF POETIC PAUSES.

Q. What do you mean by pauses as applied to poetry? A. Those rests of the voice which are necessary for preserving the harmony.

Q. Does poetry, in reading, admit of any pauses which prose would not?

A. Some say it does; but it may be safely asserted, that no pause should be made in poetry that in the slightest degree interferes with the sense, or would be altogether improper in prose.

Q. What poetry is most harmonious

A. That which is so constructed as to admit of pauses at something like stated and regular distances from each other, and in proper places of the verse.

Q. Is it the poet, then, or the reader, that regulates the pauses? A. The poet principally; for, if he so constructs his verse as not to admit of pauses in their proper places without injuring the sense, no skill in reading will be able to render it harmonious.

Q. How many sorts of poetic pauses are there?

A. Two: Final and Casural.

Q. What do you mean by the Final pause?

A. That which takes place at the close of the verse, or when the sense is complete

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