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Example III-An Ode, from the French of Malherbe.

"This An-na so fair,

So talk'd of by fame,
Why dont she appear?
Indeed, she's to blame!
Lewis sighs for the sake

Of her charms,

as they say;

What excuse can she make

For not coming away?

If he does not possess,

He dies with despair;

Let's give him redress,

And go find out the fair."

1.

"Cette Anne si belle,

Qu'on vante si fort,
Pourquoi ne vient elle?
Vraiment, elle a tort!
Son Louis soupire,
Après ses appas;
Que veut elle dire,

Qu'elle ne vient pas ?
S'il ne la posséde,

Il s'en va mourir ;
Donnons y reméde,

Allons la quérir."

WILLIAM KING, LL. D.: Johnson's British Poets, Vol. iii, p. 590.

Example IV.-'Tis the Last Rose of Summer.

""Tis the last | rose of sum | -měr,

Left bloom-ing alone;

All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone;

No flow'r of her kin | -drěd,
No rose-bud is nigh,

T

To reflect back her blush | -es,
Or give sigh for sigh.

2.

I'll not leave thee, thou lone | one!
To pine on the stem!

Since the lovely are sleep | -ing,

Go, sleep thou with them;

Thus kindly I scat | -těr

Thy leaves o'er thy bed,

Where thy mates | of the gar | -děn

Lie scent-less and dead.

3.

So, soon may I follow,

When friend-ships decay,
And, from love's | shining cir | -clě,
The gems drop away;

When true hearts lie with -ër'd,
And fond ones are flown,

Oh! who would inhab | -it

This bleak world alone?"

T. MOORE: Melodies, Songs, and Airs, p. 171.

Example V-Nemesis Calling up the Dead Astarte.

"Shadow! or spirit! Whatever thou art,

Which still doth inher | -ît

The whole or a part

Of the form of thy birth,

Of the mould

of thy clay,

Which return'd to the earth,

Example VI.-Anapestic

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Re-appear to the day!
Bear what thou bor | -ěst,

The heart and the form,

And the as-pect thou wor | -ěst
Redeem from the worm!
Appear!-Appear!--Appear!"

LORD BYRON: Manfred, Act ii, Sc. 4.

Dimeter with Trimeter.

SECOND VOICE.

"Give the word | to begin,

Let the com-batants in,

The challenger en -ters all glo | rioùs;
But Love has decreed,

Though Beauty may bleed,

Yet Beauty shall still be victo | -rious." GEORGE GRANVILLE: Johnson's British Poets, Vol. v, p. 58.

Example VII.-Anapestic Dimeter with Tetrameter.

AIR.

"Let the pipe's | merry notes | aid the skill | of the voice;
For our wish |-es are crown'd, | and our hearts | shall rejoice.

Rejoice, and be glad;

For, sure, he is mad,

Who, where mirth, and good hu | -mour, and har | -mony's found,
Never catches the smile, | nor lets pleasure go round.

Let the stupid be grave,
"Tis the vice of the slave;
But can nev -er agree
With a maid-en like me,

Who is born in a coun | -try that's happy and free."

LLOYD: Johnson's British Poets, Vol. viii, p, 178.

MEASURE IV.-ANAPESTIC OF ONE FOOT, OR MONOMETER.

This measure is rarely if ever used except in connexion with longer lines. The following example has six anapestics of two feet, and two of one; but the latter, being verses of double rhyme, have each a surplus short syllable; and four of the former commence with the iambus:

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GRANVILLE, VISCOUNT LANSDOWNE: Joh. Brit. Poets, Vol. v, p. 49.

The following extract, (which is most properly to be scanned as anapestic, though considerably diversified,) has two lines, each of which is pretty evidently composed of a single anapest:—

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OBS. 1.-That a single anapest, a single foot of any kind, or even a single long syllable, may be, and sometimes is, in certain rather uncommon instances, set as a line, is not to be denied. "Dr. Caustic," or T. G. Fessenden, in his satirical "Directions for Doing Poetry," uses in this manner the monosyllables, Whew," "Say," and "Dress," and also the iambs, "The gay," and, "All such," rhyming them with something less isolated.

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OBS. 2.-Many of our grammarians give anonymous examples of what they conceive to be "Anapestic Monometer," or "the line of one anapest," while others-(as Allen, Bullions, Churchill, and Hiley-) will have the length of two anapests to be the shortest measure of this order. Prof. Hart says, "The shortest anapæstic verse is a single anapæst; as,

'In ǎ sweet
Resonance,

All their feet
In the dance

All the night
Tinkled light.'

This measure," it is added, "is, however, ambiguous; for by laying an accent on the first, as well as the third syllable, we may generally make it a trochaic."-Hart's English Gram., p. 188. The same six versicles are used as an example by Prof. Fowler, who, without admitting any ambiguity in the measure, introduces them, rather solecistically, thus: "Each of the following lines consist of a single Anapest."-Fowler's E. Gram., 8vo, 1850, § 694.

OBS. 3.-Verses of three syllables, with the second short, the last long, and the first common, or variable, are, it would seem, doubly doubtful in scansion; for, while the first syllable, if made short, gives us an anapest, to make it long, gives either an amphimac or what is virtually two trochees. For reasons of choice in the latter case, see Observation 1st on Trochaic Dimeter. For the fixing of variable quantities, since the case admits no other rule, regard should be had to the analogy of the verse, and also to the common principles of accentuation. It is doubtless possible to read the six short lines above, into the measure of so many anapests; but, since the two monosyllables “In” and “All” are as easily made long as short, whoever considers the common pronunciation of the longer words, "Resonance" and "Tinkled," may well doubt whether the learned professors have, in this instance, hit upon the right mode of scansion. The example may quite as well be regarded either as Trochaic Dimeter, cataletic, or as Amphimacric Monometer, acatalectic. But the word resonance, being accented usually on the first syllable only, is naturally a dactyl; and, since the other five little verses end severally with a monosyllable, which can be varied in quantity, it is possible to read them all as being dactylics; and so the whole may be regarded as trebly doubtful with respect to the measure.

OBS. 4.-L. Murray says, "The shortest anapastic verse must be a single anapast; as,

But in vain

They complain."

And then he adds, "This measure is, however, ambiguous; for, by laying the stress of the voice on the first and third syllables, we might make a trochaic. And therefore the first and simplest form of our genuine Anapæstic verse, is made up of two anapasts."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 257; 12mo, p. 207. This conclusion is utterly absurd, as well as completely contradictory to his first assertion. The genuineness of this small metre depends not at all on what may be made of the same words by other pronunciation; nor can it be a very natural reading of this passage, that gives to "But" and "They" such emphasis as will make them long.

OBS. 5.-Yet Chandler, in his improved grammar of 1847, has not failed to repeat the substanco of all this absurdity and self-contradiction, carefully dressing it up in other language, thus: "Verses composed of single Anapasts are frequently found in stanzas of songs; and the same is true of several of the other kinds of feet; but we may consider the first [i. e., shortest] form of anapestic verse as consisting of two Anapasts."-Chandler's Common School Gram., p. 196.

OBS. 6.-Everett, speaking of anapestic lines, says, "The first and shortest of these is composed of a single Anapest following an Iambus."-English Versification, p. 99. This not only denies the existence of Anapestic Monometer, but improperly takes for the Anapestic verse what is, by the statement itself, half Iambic, and therefore of the Composite Order. But the false assertion is plainly refuted even by the author himself, and on the same page. For, at the bottom of the page, he has this contradictory note: "It has been remarked (§ 15) that though the Iambus with

an additional short syllable is the shortest line that is known to Iambic verse, there are isolated instances of a single Iambus, and even of a single long syllable. There are examples of lines made up of a single Anapest, as the following example will show :

'Jove in his chair,

Of the sky lord mayor,
With his nods

Cock of the school,
He bears despotic rule;
His word,

His bald pate
Jove would cuff,
He's so bluff,

For a straw.

TEE

Men and gods

Keeps in awe;
When he winks,

Heaven shrinks;

Though absurd,
Must be law.
Even Fate,

Though so great,
Must not prate;

Cowed deities,

Like mice in cheese,
To stir must cease
Or gnaw.'

O'HARA:-Midas, Act i, Sc. 1."—Everett's Versification, p. 99.

ORDER IV.-DACTYLIC VERSE.

In pure Dactylic verse, the stress is laid on the first syllable of each successive three; that is, on the first, the fourth, the seventh, and the tenth syllable of each line of four feet. Full dactylic generally forms triple rhyme. When one of the final short syllables is omitted, the rhyme is double; when both, single. These omissions are here essential to the formation of such rhymes. Dactylic with double rhyme, ends virtually with a trochee; dactylic with single rhyme, commonly ends with a caesura; that is, with a long syllable taken for a foot. Dactylic with single rhyme is the same as anapestic would be without its initial short syllables. Dactylic verse is rather uncommon; and, when employed, is seldom perfectly pure and regular.

MEASURE I.-DACTYLIC OF EIGHT FEET, OR OCTOMETER.
Example.-Nimrod.

Nimrod the hunter was | mighty in | hunting, and | famed as the ruler of cities of yore; Babel, and Erech, and | Accad, and | Calneh, from | Shinar's fair | region his name afar | bore.

MEASURE II.-DACTYLIC OF SEVEN FEET, OR HEPTAMETER.

Example.-Christ's Kingdom.

Out of the kingdom of | Christ shall be gathered, by angels o'er | Satan vic | -torious,
All that offendeth, that | lieth, that | faileth to honour his | name ever | glorious.

MEASURE III.-DACTYLIC OF SIX FEET, OR HEXAMETER.
Example I-Time in Motion.

Time, thou art ever in | motion, on wheels of the | days, years, and | ages;
Restless as waves of the ocean, when | Eurus or | Boreas | rages.

Example II.- Where is Grand-Pré?

"This is the forest pri | -meval; but where are the hearts that be | -neath it Leap'd like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of the | huntsman? Where is the thatch-roofed | village, the | home of A | -cadian | farmers?"

H. W. LONGFELLOW: Evangeline, Part i, 1. 7-9.

MEASURE IV.-DACTYLIC OF FIVE FEET, OR PENTAMETER.
Example.-Salutation to America.

"Land of the

Land of the

beautiful, | beautiful, | land of the free,
negro-slave, | negro-slave, | land of the chivalry,
Often my heart had turned, | heart had turned, | longing to thee;
Often had mountain-side, mountain-side, | broad lake, and stream,

Gleamed on my waking thought, | waking thought, crowded my dream.
Now thou dost | welcome me, I welcome me, | from the dark | sea,

Land of the beautiful, | beautiful, | land of the | free,

Land of the negro-slave, | negro-slave, | land of the chivalry."

MEASURE V.-DACTYLIC OF FOUR FEET, OR TETRAMETER.
Example I.-The Soldier's Wife.

"Weary way-wanderer, | languid and sick at heart,
Travelling painfully over the rugged road,

Wild-visaged Wanderer! | God help thee, | wretched one!

Sorely thy little one | drags by thee | barefooted;

Cold is the

Meagre, and

baby that hangs at thy bending back,
livid, and screaming for misery.

Woe-begone | mother, half anger, half agony,
Over thy shoulder thou | lookest to | hush the babe,
Bleakly the blinding snow | beats in thy | haggard face.
Ne'er will thy husband re | -turn from the war again,
Cold is thyheart, and as | frozen as | Charity!
Cold are thy children.-Now | God be thy | comforter!"

ROBERT SOUTHEY: Poems, Philad., 1843, p. 250.

Example II.--Boys.-A Dactylic Stanza.

"Boys will an -ticipate, | lavish, and dissipate
All that your busy pate | hoarded with | care;
And, in their foolishness, | passion, and | mulishness,
Charge you with | churlishness, | spurning your pray'r."
Example III-“ Labour.”—The First of Five Stanzas.
"Pause not to dream of the | future before us;
Pause not to weep the wild cares that come | o'er us:
Hark, how Cre-ation's deep, musical | chorus,
Uninter-mitting, goes up into Heaven!
Never the ocean-wave | falters in | flowing;
Never the little seed | stops in its growing;
More and more richly the rose-heart keeps | glowing,
Till from its nourishing | stem it is | riven.

FRANCES S. OSGOOD: Clapp's Pioneer, p. 94.

Example IV.-" Boat Song."-First Stanza of Four.
"Hail to the chief who in | triumph ad | -vances!

Honour'd and bless'd be the ever-green | pine!
Long may the tree in his | banner that glances,
Flourish, the shelter and grace of our line!
Heaven send it happy dew,

Earth lend it sap anew,

Gayly to bourgeon, and | broadly to grow,
While ev'ry Highland glen

Sends our shout back agen,

'Roderigh Vich Alpine Dhu, ho! ieroe!'"

WALTER SCOTT: Lady of the Lake, C. ii, St. 19.

MEASURE VI.-DACTYLIC OF THREE FEET, OR TRIMETER.
Example.-To the Katydid.

"Ka-ty-did, Ka-ty-did, sweetly sing,-
Sing to thy loving mates | near to thee;
Summer is come, and the trees are green,-
Summer's glad season so | dear to thee.

Cheerily, cheerily, insect, sing;

Blithe be thy notes in the | hickory:
Everybough shall an answer ring,
Sweeter than trumpet of victory."

MEASURE VII.—DACTYLIC OF TWO FEET, OR DIMETER.
Example I.-The Bachelor.-Four Lines from Many.

"Free from sa | -tiety,

Care, and anxiety,

Charms in variety,

Fall to his share."ANON.: Newspaper.

Example II.-The Pibroch.-Sixteen Lines from Forty.

"Pibroch of Donuil Dhu,

Pibroch of Donuil,

Wake thy wild | voice anew,

Summon Clan | -Conuil.

"Come as the winds come, when

Navies are

waves come, when

Forests are

rended;

Come as the

stranded:

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"One more new claimant for

Human fraternity,

Swelling the flood that sweeps
On to eternity!

I who have filled the cup,
Tremble to think of it;
For, be it what it may,
I must yet drink of it.

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Incomprehensible,
Budding immortal,
Thrust all amazedly
Under life's portal;
Born to a destiny

Clouded in mystery,

Wisdom itself cannot

Guess at its history.

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One aunty says he will
Soon lisp in numbers,'
Turning his thoughts to rhyme,
E'en in his slumbers;
Watts rhymed in | babyhood,

No blemish | spots his fame-
Christen him even so:

Young Mr. Watts his name."
ANONYMOUS: Knickerbocker, and Newspapers, 1849.

MEASURE VIII.-DACTYLIC OF ONE FOOT, OR MONOMETER.

"Fearfully,
Tearfully."

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.-A single dactyl, set as a line, can scarcely be used otherwise than as part of a stanza, and in connexion with longer verses. The initial accent and triple rhyme make it necessary to have something else with it. Hence this short measure is much less common than the others, which are accented differently. Besides, the line of three syllables, as was noticed in the observations on Anapestic Monometer, is often peculiarly uncertain in regard to the measure which it should make. A little difference in the laying of emphasis or accent may, in many instances, change it from one species of verse to an other. Even what seems to be dactylic of two feet, if the last syllable be sufficiently lengthened to admit of single rhyme with the full metre, becomes somewhat doubtful in its scansion; because, in such case, the last foot may be reckoned an amphimac, or amphimacer. Of this, the following stanzas from Barton's lines "to the Gallic Eagle," (or to Bonaparte on St. Helena,) though different from all the rest of the piece, may serve as a specimen :

"Far from the battle's shock,
Fate hath fast | bound thee;
Chain'd to the | rugged rock,

Waves warring | round thee.

[Now, for] the

Irumpet's sound,

Sea-birds are shrieking;
Hoarse on thy | rampart's bound,
Billows are breaking."

OBS. 2.-This may be regarded as verse of the Composite Order; and, perhaps, more properly so, than as Dactylic with mere incidental variations. Lines like those in which the questionable foot is here Italicized, may be united with longer dactylics, and thus produce a stanza of great beauty and harmony. The following is a specimen. It is a song, written by I know not whom, but set to music by Dempster. The twelfth line is varied to a different measure.

"ADDRESS TO THE SKYLARK."

"Bird of the wilderness,
Blithesome and | cumberless,

Emblem of
Blest is thy

Light be thy matin o'er | moorland and | lea; O! to abide in the

happiness,
dwelling-place;
desert with | thee!

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