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tyrant feels himself a man, and subject to the weakness of humanity! -Behold! and tell me, is that power contemptible which can thus find access to the sternest hearts ?-G. Brown.

APOSTROPHE.

Yet still they breathe destruction, still go on
Inhumanly ingenious to find out

New pains for life, new terrors for the grave;
Artificers of death! Still monarchs dream
Of universal empire growing up

From universal ruin. Blast the design,

Great God of Hosts! nor let thy creatures fall
Unpitied victims at Ambition's shrine.-Porteus.
PERSONIFICATION.

Hail, sacred Polity, by Freedom rear'd!

Hail, sacred Freedom, when by Law restrain'd!
Without you, what were man? A grov'ling herd,

In darkness, wretchedness, and want enchain'd.-Beattie.

Let cheerful Mem'ry, from her purest cells,

Lead forth a goodly train of Virtues fair,
Cherish'd in early youth, now paying back
With tenfold usury the pious care.—.

EROTESIS.

-Porteus.

He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know ?-Psalms xciv., 10.

Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.-Jer. xiii., 33.

ECPHONESIS.

O that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! O that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of way-faring men, that I might leave my people, and go from them!-Jeremiah ix., 1.

ANTITHESIS.

On this side modesty is engaged; on that, impudence: on this, chastity; on that, lewdness: on this, integrity; on that, fraud: on this, piety; on that, profaneness: on this, constancy; on that, fickleness; on this, honor; on that, baseness: on this, moderation; on that, unbridled passion.-Cicero.

She, from the rending earth, and bursting skies,

Saw gods descend, and fiends infernal rise:

Here fix'd the dreadful, there the blest abodes;

Fear made her devils, and weak hope her gods.-Pope.

CLIMAX.

Virtuous actions are necessarily approved by the awakened conscience; and when they are approved, they are commended to practice; and when they are practiced, they become easy; and when they become easy, they afford pleasure; and when they afford pleasure, they are done frequently; and when they are done frequently, they are con firmed by habit; and confirmed habit is a kind of second nature.

IRONY.

And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, "Cry aloud; for he is a god: either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in [on] a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked!" -1 Kings xviii., 27.

Some lead a life unblamable and just,

Their own dear virtue their unshaken trust;

They never sin-or if (as all offend)

Some trivial slips their daily walk attend,

The poor are near at hand, the charge is small,
A slight gratuity atones for all. -Couper.

IV.-VERSIFICATION.

Versification is the art of arranging words into lines of correspondent length, so as to produce harmony by the regular alternation of syllables differing in quantity.

Quantity.

The quantity of a syllable is the relative portion of time occupied in uttering it. In poetry, every syllable is considered to be either long or short. A long syllable is reckoned to be equal to two short ones.

OBS. 1.-The quantity of a syllable does not depend on the sound of the vowel or diphthong, but principally on the degree of accentual force with which the syllable is uttered, whereby a greater or less portion of time is employed. The open vowel sounds are those which are the most easily protracted, yet they often occur in the shortest and feeblest syllables.

OBS. 2.-Most monosyllables are variable, and may be made either long or short, as suits the meter, or rhythm. In words of greater length, the accented syllable is always long; and a syllable immediately before or after that which is accented, is always short.

Rhyme.

Rhyme is the similarity of sound between the last syllables of different lines or half lines. Blank verse is verse

without rhyme.

Such syllables are

OBS.—The principal rhyming syllables are almost always long. Double rhyme adds one short syllable; triple rhyme, two. redundant in iambic and anapestic verses.

Poetic Feet.

A line of poetry consists of successive combinations of syllables, called feet. A poetic foot, in English, consists either of two or of three syllables.

The principal English feet are the lambus, the Trochee, the Anapest, and the Dactyl.

The lambus, or lamb, is a poetic foot consisting of a short syllable and a long one; as, bětrāy, confèss.

The Trochee, or Choree, is a poetic foot consisting of a long syllable and a short one; as, hāteful, pēttish.

The Anapest is a poetic foot consisting of two short syllables and one long one; as, contrăvène, ăcquìēsce.

The Dactyl is a poetic foot consisting of one long syllable and two short ones; as, lābõrěr, põssiblě.

We have, accordingly, four principal kinds of verse, or poetic measure; lambic, Trochaic, Anapestic, and Dactylic.

OBS. 1.-The more pure these several kinds are preserved, the more exact and complete is the chime of the verse. But poets generally indulge some variety; not so much, however, as to confound the drift of the rythmical pulsations.

OBS. 2.-Among the occasional diversifications of meter, are sometimes found, or supposed, sundry other feet, which are called secondary: as, the Spondee, a foot of two long syllables; the Pyrrhic, of two short; the Moloss, of three long syllables; the Tribrach, of three short; the Amphibrach, a long syllable with a short one on each side; the Amphimac, Amphimacer, or Cretic, a short syllable with a long one on each side; the Bacchy, a short syllable and two long ones; the Antibacchy, or Hypobacchy, two long syllables and a short one. Yet few, if any, of these

feet, are really necessary to a sufficient explanation of English verse; and the adopting of so many is liable to the great objection, that we thereby produce different modes of measuring the same lines.

OBS. 3.—Sometimes, also, verses are variegated by what is called the pedal cœsura, or cesure (i. e., cutting), which is a single long syllable counted by itself as a foot. For, despite the absurd suggestions of many grammarians and prosodists to the contrary, all metrical deficiencies and redundancies embrace nothing but short syllables, and the number of long ones in a line is almost always the number of feet which compose it; as,

"Keeping | time, | time, | time,

In a sort of Runic rhyme."—E. A. Po€.

Scanning.

Scanning, or Scansion, is the dividing of verses into the feet which compose them, according to the several orders of poetic numbers, or the different kinds of meter.

OBS.-When a syllable is wanting, the verse is said to be catalectic; when the measure is exact, the line is acatalectic; when there is a redundant syllable, it forms hypermeter, or a line hypercatalectic.

Order I.-lambic Verse.

In iambic verse, the stress is laid on the even syllables, and the odd ones are short. It consists of the following

measures:

Measure 1st.-Iambic of Eight Feet, or Octometer:

“O āll | yě pēo|-plě, clāp | your hānds, | ănd with | trĭūm|-phănt võic|ĕs sing;

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No force the might|-y pow'r | withstands | of God | the u-nivers¦-al King."

OBS.-Each couplet of this verse is now commonly reduced to, or ex changed for, a simple stanza of four tetrameter lines; thus,—

"The hour is come the cher -ish'd hour,

When from the bus-y world | set free,

I seek at length | my lonel-ly bower,

And muse | in si -lent thought on thee."-Hook.

Measure 2d.-Iambic of Seven Feet, or Heptameter:

"The Lord | descend -ěd from | ǎbōve, | ănd bōw'd | the heav -ěns high."

OBS.-Modern poets have divided this kind of verse, into alternate lines of four and of three feet; thus,—

"O blind to each | Indul |-gent äim

Of pow'r | supreme -ly wise,
Who fan-cy hap|-piness | in aught
The hand of heav'n | denies ! "

Measure 3d.-Iambic of Six Feet, or Hexameter :

“Thỹ rēalm | fōrēv|-ĕr lāsts, | thỹ ōwn | Měssī|-ǎh rēigns.”

OBS. This is the Alexandrine; it is seldom used except to complete a stanza in an ode, or occasionally to close a period in heroic rhyme. French heroics are similar to this.

Measure 4th.-Iambic of Five Feet, or Pentameter:

"For praise too dear -lỹ lōv'd | or warm-lỹ sõught,
Enfee-bles all inter|-nal strength | of thought."

“With sōl|-ĕmn ād|-ŏrā|-tiòn dōwn | they căst

Their crowns, | inwove | with am-arant | and gold."

OBS. 1.-This is the regular English heroic. It is, perhaps, the only measure suitable for blank verse.

OBS. 2.--The elegiac stanza consists of four heroics rhyming alternately; as,

"Enough has Heav'n | indulg'd of joy | below,

To tempt our tar-riance in this lov'd | retreat;
Enough has Heav'n | ordain'd | of use-ful wo,
To make us lang -uish for | a hap|-pier seat."

Measure 5th.-Iambic of Four Feet, or Tetrameter:
"Thě jōys | ǎbōve | ǎre un|-derstood
And rel-ish'd on-ly by | the good."

Measure 6th.-Iambic of Three Feet, or Trimeter :
"Blue light-nings singe | the waves,
And thun -der rends | the rock."

Measure 7th.-Iambic of Two Feet, or Dimeter :
"Their love | ǎnd awe
Supply the law."

Measure 8th.-Iambic of One Foot, or Monometer :

"How bright,

The light!"

OBS. 1.-Lines of fewer than seven syllables are seldom found, except in connection with longer verses.

OBS. 2.-In iambic verse, the first foot is often varied, by introducing a trochee; as,

“Plāněts | ănd sūns | rùn lāw|-less thrōugh | the sky.”

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