holy, or unaccented, as, consent; others are short, either accented, as, refer, or unaccented, as, habit.

There are some who will think these observations on quantity might have been spared, because they maintain that quantity has no concern whatever with English versification, but that it depends entirely upon accent. Rather let it be said that quantity cannot be altogether neglected without manifest and great injury to the verse. But if the question be put, whether verse cannot be composed without any regard to the quantity of syllables, so that the accents be set in their due places, it is to be acknowledged that it may. Still the verse would have juster measure, would sound better to the ear, and be much nearer to perfect, if the accented syllables were long and others short; so that the quantity and accent should coincide. Let us make this still clearer by an example—

The busy world and what you see,
It is a silly vanity.

Of this couplet the first line has its accents regular in place and number, together with three long syllables. The second line is accented regularly as to place, but it contains only two accented syllables, and not one long. It cannot be denied that these verses are in true and exact measure; and, if accent alone be requisite, they are in nothing defective. But now let them be altered, so as to observe quantity as well as accent, in this manner

The gaudy world, whate'er you see,
Is all an empty show to me.

It does not require a nice ear to perceive the difference of these lines from the former, nor any great skill to form a right judgment between them. in respect of their structure, which is the only point, at this time, under consideration.

Regard to quantity is not indeed essential to English verse; neither is symmetry nor proportion essential to a dwelling-house: but to a good dwelling-house they are essential, and so is regard to quantity to good English verse.

This, however, was a matter to which Pope, at least in his early life, appears to have been insensible or inattentive, if the following anecdote be true. The second line of his first pastoral stood originally thus

Nor blush to sport on Windsor's peaceful plains.

He would have altered it to happy; but Walsh objected to that correction, saying the quantity would not then be the same; for the first syllable of happy was short; Pope therefore put blissful.* Here are other examples of the effect of long syllables worthy of quotation—

The waves behind impel the waves before,

Wide-rolling, foaming high, and tumbling on the shore.

* Boswell on Shakspere's Metre.

Pope.

Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong;

And the most ancient heavens through thee are fresh and strong.

Wordsworth.

3.- FEET.

The unit of measurement in verse is a foot and not a syllable. A foot is a group of two or three syllables, hence the division into Dissyllabic and Trisyllabic verse. The names given to the different kinds of feet in English poetry are usually those of the classic metres, and the method of marking the accented and unaccented syllables is from the same source. Many writers have objected to this system of nomenclature as liable to mislead, and have invented other fanciful names in their stead, but none of these have met with general acceptation. Throughout this treatise, therefore, we shall adhere to the old lines in this respect, with every confidence that no confusion can arise, since the distinction between accent and quantity has been clearly pointed out; thus the usual marks for long and short (~~) must be taken to indicate accented and unaccented syllables.

(a). DISSYLLABIC.

There are two kinds of Dissyllabic feet of which verse is constructed, viz.: Iambus-, as despair, and Trochee, -, as temple. In addition to these there are two other kinds in frequent use intermixed with the above, but of which it is impossible to construct verses entirely: viz. Spondee

Pyrrhic.

~, and

(b). TRISYLLABIC.

as

Of Trisyllabic feet there are also only two kinds of which whole poems are composed: Anapest, as serenāde, and Dactyl, tremulous. Another kind occasionally met with is called Amphibrach,

We might have omitted all mention of the Amphibrach but for the mistake of certain prosodians. who, finding such a foot at the end of a verse, have asserted that the same kind of foot properly constituted the whole verse, and was the legitimate measure by which it was to be scanned.

The following line from Swift is an example of • the measure in question :

Because hě hăs nēv | ĕr ă hand | thăt is i | dlě.

Here, it is true, the three last syllables make the foot termed Amphibrach, and the whole line may be divided into such feet as shown below—

Because he | hăs nēvěr | ǎ hand thăt ¦ is idlě |

It is nevertheless certain that the line belongs to verses of another class, and is measurable by anapests, only taking such a licence as is always allowed to anapestic verses, viz. that the first foot may be truncated or curtailed of its first syllable. The next line in the poem, to describe it accurately, is an anapestic verse of four feet, with a redundant syllable :

For the right holds the sword, | ănd the left | holds the bridle.

So likewise is the former, notwithstanding the difference in the first foot. If the Amphibrach had been a foot by which any English verse ought to be measured, there would have been entire poems in that measure, or, at least, poems wherein verses of that measure predominate; but there are none such, nor does a line, measurable by that foot, ever occur, except accidentally among a much greater number of anapestic ones.

The following table exhibits at a glance the various feet of which English verse is composed, and also those which enter occasionally of necessity and for variety into its construction.