OUR verses are of four kinds, which have their respective names from the feet of which they are composed, viz iambic, trochaic, anapestic, dactylic. Each kind is divisible into subordinate species, according to the number of feet contained in it; the line of two feet, for instance, not being properly of the same species with that of three or four. SECTION I. Of the Iambic Verse. An iambic verse may consist of one foot only, or of any greater number to six, and even to seven: of course it comprises as many species. The first is never employed alone; and is seldom, if ever, to be found at all in any modern poetry of note, except in the transactions of the Irish Society, vol i. for 1786, in these lines of an ode to the Moon: Smote by thy sacred eyes, Donne, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, who admitted great variety of measures into his poems, has used this: for example, As men do when the summer sun to have had in view, when he wrote his Lycidas. The iambic of seven feet is that which is now divided into two lines. Originally it was but one; as in this example from Golding's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses: The princely palace of the Sun stood gorgeous to behold, On stately pillars builded high of yellow burnish'd gold. A line of so great length could not well be recited without a pause; which was found to be most agreeable to the ear, if made after the eighth syllable: the line, therefore, became two, of four and three feet; and each of them had frequently a rhyme, after this manner: Trust not in worldly princes then, In whom there is no health. Though I admire their greatness, shun tion, and, in its day (the latter part Their heat. Poems, vol. v. p. 141. Chalmers's Edit. Iambic lines of two, three, four, and five feet, are too well-known and common to need showing by examples. The sixth species of iambic verse, or that of six feet, is usually called the alexandrine. Like that of one foot, it is unemployed now, except along with others of a shorter measure. Yet, in a former age, Drayton composed a long poem, his Polyolbion, entirely in lines of this length. Such also was that of Spenser, on the death of Sir Philip Sidney, entitled "The Mourning Muse of Thestylis;" which Milton appears of Queen Elizabeth's reign) exceedingly popular. It was considered as a rule of this measure, that the end of the fourth foot (the eighth syllable) should also be the end of a word; as, The restless clouds that mantling ride upon the racking sky, The scouring winds that sightless in the sounding air do fly. Albion's England. Warner carefully attended to the rule; but it was not always observed by others. His countenance deep she draws, and fixed fast she bears in breast, His words also, nor to her careful heart can come no rest. Phaer's Virgil. *Webbe, in his Discourse of Poetry, p. 56, mentions a species of iambic verse or eight feet. "The longest verse which I have seen used in English, consisteth of sixteen syllables, each two verses rhyming together; thus, SECTION II. Of the Trochaic Verse. The shortest line which this measure will admit of, is that of three syllables; such is this in Pope's ode on St. Cecilia's day, Hollow groans, Trochaic lines of four, five, and six syllables were not uncommon among our earlier poets; now they are very seldom in use. Those of seven and eight syllables are frequent: of the first sort is this of Gray; Ruin seize thee, ruthless king. Of the eight syllable, or four feet complete, this is an example: Hence away, thou Siren, leave me. This last is seldom, if ever, employed alone; sometimes, but not often, it is the concluding line of a stanza; thus, Sweet, I do not pardon crave, By deserts this fault amended; May with penance be suspended. Ο πατρας Θηβης ενοικοι, λευσσετ' Οιδια πως όδε, Ός τα κλειν' αινιγματ' ηδει, και κρατι τος ην ανηρ. + If we translate these two lines, preserving the same measure, they will form the ordinary stanza of four English trochaics. O, ye Thebans, here behold him; Of the line of seven syllables it has been said, that it is a truncated verse, and differs in nothing from the four foot iambic, but in wanting the first syllable. That it is a trun cated verse is true; but what is cut off, or wanting, is not at the beginning, but the end. Besides this, estimation and character. It has it differs surely from the iambic, in always been estimated and called a trochaic line; and it is more sprightly in character and sound: in short, there is as much difference between the verses, as between the trochee and iambic, the feet of which they are composed. In certain poems, where the leading measure is the iambic of four feet, our poets have frequently intermixed the seven syllable trochaic, as Milton in his Ållegro and Penseroso, and others, more especially, since his time; but in lyric poems, where, by the settled laws of composition, the same measures are to be repeated in every corresponding stanza, there they respect the difference between these lines, and have not used them indiscriminately. Of this, Gray, in his Pindaric odes, is an instance; so are our earlier authors, as Donne; and of the same age, W. Browne, a delightful poet, and excellent versifier. We have likewise many entire poems in the trochaic verse of seven syllables, without any mixture of iambic lines, which is another proof to show that the authors considered them to be of distinct kinds. The Boadicea of Cowper is an example. That poet, whose judgment on verposed various pieces in both the measification is unexceptionable, comout the whole he studiously kept sures just mentioned; but throughthem separate. SECTION III. Of the Anapestic Verse. This is a kind more usually employed upon subjects of a light cast; yet it is not unfit for graver, in some Where virtue wants and vice abounds, there wealth is but a baited hook, To make men swallow down their bane, before on danger deep they look." This species, therefore, did once exist, in form and show, as a single verse; but, in fact, it was two; "for," says he, "it is commonly divided each verse into two, whereof each shall contain eight syllables, and rhyme cross-wise, the first to the third, and the second to the fourth." Davison's Strephon's Palinode; Ellis's Specimens of English Poetry; vol. iii. p. 14. +Sophocl. Edip. Tyran. ad finem. In those odes there is a single exception to the rule; but it is observed above forty times. the anapestic, to which it bears the same relation as the trochaic does to the iambic; each being the reverse of the other. Its character too is different, and lighter than any of the rest. It is, therefore, generally ap propriated to pieces to be set to music, and, for the most part, to gay and airy songs. The species of dactylic verse are At the close of the day, when the hamlet is three; for rhymes of one foot, such still.-Beattie. The nature of our language is not favourable to this kind of verse; which, to be perfect, should have, in each foot, two syllables, both unaccented and short, to one syllable accented. The English does not afford short syllables in that proportion. There being then great difficulty to compose in it, agreeably to legitimate measure, it is not surprising that the attempt has often proved unsuccessful. But a more complete failure can hardly be produced than in these two lines of Pope's Ode on St. Cecilia's day: Though Fáte had fast bound her her. Here, dismissing the redundant syllables, true measure required six syllables to be short and unaccented; whereas there are but three unaccented and not one short. By altering the lines thus, The devil he bound her, five out of six faults would be removed, and the verses not much the worse in any other respect. Those among our writers in anapestic verse, who have succeeded as well as any, are Shenstone, Cunningham, and Byrom, whose well-known pastoral (his best production in that measure) first appeared in the eighth volume of the Spectator; but none have excelled Cowper. SECTION IV. Of the Dactylic Verse. This kind is not of very extensive use, it not being adapted to such a variety of subjects as either of the preceding. It has been so little regarded, that some have omitted to notice it in their accounts of our poetry, others have taken it for a variety of the anapestic. It is, however, a separate kind, distinct from as, lavishing, ravishing, are omitted, as hardly worthy of the name. Our national song of God save the King, furnishes an example of the dactylic verse of two feet: the measure is most apparent in these lines, Send him victorious, The second species, or lines of three feet, is exhibited in the following stanza: Come let us sit and be | merry, lads, The third species, which is more common than either of the former, contains four dactyles; example: Sound an alarm to the slaves of a ty ranny, Let the defender of | freedom arise. It will be observed, in each of the instances here given, that the concluding verse is terminated by an accented syllable. The last foot is curtailed; and, in this point, it resembles the trochaics mentioned above. Such a curtailing, in words accompanied with music, appears to be necessary; in every case, it makes a more agreeable conclusion. It was not, however, constantly practised by our earlier poets: Puttenham, in his Art of Poetry, p. 106, has given a stanza of dactylic lines, where the last is not contracted, but of full and equal measure with the rest. Let no nobility, riches, or heritage, This kind of verse, like the anapestic, is of difficult construction, and for the same reason. OF LICENCES IN POETIC MEASUres. SECTION I. In the Iambic. The four kinds of English verse are then esteemed to be regular when they are composed, each kind of them, of those feet only which give name to it. By the licences we are now to treat of, we mean any allowed deviation from that regularity. The iambic line of five feet, or heroic verse, being that which is of chief dignity and use in our poetry, it will be right to examine its construction more particularly. Concerning this, and all other iambic measures, we are taught that the accents are to be placed on even syllables; and that every line, considered by itself, is more harmonious, as this rule is more strictly observed.* This is true of a line taken singly; but as no poem is composed of a single line, it is more important to know what is most harmonious, or at least what deviation from the rule is allowed, when many lines stand together; for variety then becomes pleasing, and also unavoidable. The regular heroic line is common enough, if to have accented syllables in the even places be all that is required to form it. Achilles' wrath, to Greece the direful spring Of woes unnumber'd, heavenly Goddess, sing; but if quantity be regarded, together with accent; if the syllables in a regular verse ought to be not only accented and unaccented, but also long and short, very few such will be found in our poetry. This line is of the sort, Or hungry wolves that howl around the fold; so are the following, from a celebrated poem, whose numbers are most highly polished: Johnson's Grammar. Of unprevented harms; so gloomy storms Appear the sterner if the day be clear. Observations on the Art of English Poesy. These he calls pure iambics; which, tity, they are: the accents too are considering them according to quanplaced on the even syllables throughout, except on if, the sixth in the last fection, he distinguishes by the name verse. Such lines as want this perof licentiate iambics; i. e. lines in for an iambic: to what extent this is which some other foot is substituted allowable, we now proceed to state. But first, be it remembered that in these feet the syllables are considered as accented or unaccented, not as long or short: and that where quantity is to be noticed, it will be expressly pointed out. Nor under every bank and every tree.-Hall. The more opprest, the more she strives to peep.-Peacham. For every gift and every goodly meed, With humble hearts to heaven uplifted high, Amongst the seats of angels heavenly wrought.-Spenser. Delight to ride, to hawk, to hunt, to run.-Lodge. With weeping eyes, her eyes she taught to weep.-Sidney. These verses are all from poets of Queen Elizabeth's time. 277 The pyrrhic (two unaccented syllables) may supply the place of an iambic, and is substituted for it oftener than any other foot. It may stand in any part of the verse. (1. Is he a church man ? then he's fond of power. | 2. A rébel to the véry king | he loves. Foot 3. Has made | the father of a nameless ráce. I 4. But quite mistakes | the scaffold for | the pile. 5. The dúll flát falsehood sérves | for policy.-Pope. This foot may have place twice, or even three times in the same line; You lose it in the moment you | detect.-Ibid. It is a crocket of a pinnacle. But as an unaccented foot weakens a line, this last has the utmost degree of weakness that is consistent with a verse; there being in it only two syllables accented, and for quantity, not one long. The spondee (two accented syllables) may be substituted for the iambic and in as many places as the pyrrhic. 1. Tóm strúts | a sóldier, ólpen, bold and bráve. Foot3. When fláttery gláres | áll háte it in a quéen. 4. That gáy | freethinker, a | fine talker ónce. 5. Yet támes not this, it sticks | to our | lást sánd.-Pope. This foot may be repeated, and the following line will show to what ex tent. Móre wise, móre leárn'd, | móre júst, | móre évery thing.—Ibid. The iambic verse admits likewise the trochee, but not in such abundance. Pope, who furnishes all the examples here given, from a poem of 260 lines, has not, in that compass, any trochaic foot, except in the beginning of a verse. We must turn to a poem of a different structure, and to a greater master of poetical numbers. Any foot of the heroic verse may be a trochee, except the last. the heart of hell to work | in fire. out of the earth | a fabric huge. 1. Here in 2. Anon, 3. For one 4. Abject and lost | lay these, | covering | the flood.-Milton. restraint, | Lórds of the world | besides. The same verse will admit two trochaic feet, as Hóv'ring on wing | únder | the cope of hell. Smóte on him sore | besides, | vaulted with fire. *—Ibid. but not a greater number; for the last foot cannot be a trochee; neither can two trochees stand close together in one line: but different feet, as the spondee and pyrrhic, may so stand and all the three may be introduced into the same line, instead of iambics. The beginning of the third book will afford examples. Háil, hóly Light; | óffspring | of Heaven | first-bórn, Dwélt from etérnity | dwélt thén | in thée, Bright éffluence of bright essence ún|creáte.—Ibid. The licenses here taken are so many that they exceed the number of iambic feet in these lines. It is to be noted that in every one of these instances there is a pause immediately preceding the trochaic foot: the introduction of it without such a pause is always harsh; as Of Eve whose eye | darted | contagious fire.-Puradise Lost. in some places so much so as to destroy the metre; and is therefore not to be allowed, as Burnt after them to the bottomless pit.-Ibid. Shoots in visible virtue ev'n to the deep.-Ibid. MARCH, 1823. |