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(b). TRISYLLABIC.

Of Trisyllabic feet there are also only two kinds of which whole poems are composed: Anapest, as serenāde, and Dactyl,

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trēmŭlous. Another kind occasionally met with is called Amphibrach,

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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 név | ĕr ă hãnd | 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 hǎs nēvěr | ă 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 thě lēft | holds thě 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.

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MEASURES OF VERSE.

EACH of the four kinds of feet enumerated above may be combined in varying numbers according to the taste and fancy of the 'maker,' and the requirements of the metrical effects sought to be produced. The number of feet in each verse may vary from one to eight, and they are generally known as Monometer, Dimeter, &c., as enumerated in the following table :

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All

Most English poetry, probably as much as fivesixths of the whole, is in Iambic measure. our Heroic, Blank and Dramatic verse, in fact all the

lengthy poems of our tongue are of this order. This is no doubt due to the structural peculiarities of our language. English, as compared with other tongues, is non-inflectional; there are no case endings to its nouns, nor elaborate terminations to the moods and tenses of its verbs. And although the great majority of words of more than two syllables have their accent to the fore, the very frequent recurrence of unaccented articles, prepositions, and auxiliaries preceding the emphatic nouns and verbs tends to impart an Iambic measure to English speech.

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This measure is seldom used except as furnishing refrains in lyric poems. The example quoted below from Herrick can only be regarded as a literary curiosity.

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I'm made

A shade,
And laid

I' th' grave;

There have

My cave,

Where tell

I dwell.
Farewell.

Herrick.

All regular measures of verse, as will be more fully explained in dealing with poetical licence, have occasionally an additional unaccented syllable added. This is usually called a feminine ending, and the verse is said to be hypermetrical, e.g. :

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This verse is also too short for whole poems, but is freely introduced in odes, songs, &c., e.g. :

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