Imatges de pàgina
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But enough has now been said to enable the student to recognise and describe for himself any iambic measure that he may meet with.

23. II. Trochaic staves, though much used by our poets, do not present the same well-marked forms as the iambic staves. The predominant line is of seven syllables, that is, contains three trochees and a long syllable. However, octosyllabic lines of four trochees are of constant occurrence in heptasyllabic staves. The six-line stave in sevens, exemplified by the lines at p. 468, by Jonson's Hymn to Diana (1), and many other pieces, and the eight-line stave in eights and sevens, exemplified by Glover's Hosier's Ghost (2), are perhaps the most important among pure trochaic staves:

(1.) Queen and huntress, | chaste and | fair, &c.

(2.) As near | Portobello | lying

On the gently swelling | flood. |

24. A very beautiful metre sometimes results from the combination of a trochaic with an iambic measure. Thus in Shelley's Skylark (see p. 474), a trochaic quatrain in sixes and fives is followed by an Alexandrine, the length and weight of which serves beautifully to balance and tone down the light joyousness of the trochaics. Shelley has given us another beautiful combination, that of trochees with dactyls. Example:

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25. III. In triple measures, three important staves may be distinguished, the quatrain, the six-line stave, and the eight-line stave. Each of these three again may be either dactylic, anapæstic, or amphiambic, but the last is the most common variety of the three.

(1.) Quatrains.-The dactylic quatrain, each line of which contains three dactyls, followed either by a long syllable or a trochee, is not very common. There is an example in one of Byron's Hebrew Melodies; the 'Song of Saul before his Last Battle':

and again,—

Farewell to

Heir to my

others but never we | part |
royalty, | son of my heart;

Brightest and best of the sons of the morning.-HEBER.

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The anapastic quatrain is distinguishable from the dactylic by the fact of its commencing with an anapast. In triple measures, the foot with which a poem opens is nearly always a key to its metre. In the following example spondees are mixed with the anapæsts:-

Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note.-Wolfe.

A purer specimen may be found in one of Byron's Hebrew melodies, in which the line contains three anapasts:

And the voice of my mourning is o'er, |

And the mountains behold | me no more.

The amphiambic quatrain, in which each line has either four amphiambuses, or three with an iambus, is the metre of a great number of ballads and songs. The rimes are sometimes coupled, sometimes alternate. Examples:

I saw from the beach, when the morning was shining,

A bark o'er | the waters | move gloriously on. |--Moore.

Count Albert has armed him | the Paynim | among, |
Though his heart it was false, yet | his arm it was strong.

SCOTT.

(2.) The six-line stave, triple measure, is only used, so far as I know, in amphiambic endecasyllabics. Scott's Lochinvar is an instance.

(3.) The eight-line stave in the amphiambic tetrameter, or tetrameter catalectic,1 is a noble measure. Examples :

Then blame not the bard if | in pleasure's | soft dream, | &c.-MOORE.

I climbed the | dark brow of | the mighty | Helvellyň. |—Scott. There are also eight-line staves in fives, and in fives and sixes. These are dactylic. Examples:

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A dactylic stave in sixes, fives, and fours, varying in the number of lines, was used by Hood with great effect in his Bridge of Sighs:One more Unfortunate

Weary of breath |

Rashly importunate |

Gone to her death. |

There are many other varieties, but the rules already given will probably enable the student to name and classify them as he falls in with them.

PINDARIC MEASURES.

26. These hold an intermediate position between stanzas and continuous verse. The Pindaric ode is in three parts-strophe, antistrophe,

1 A line which falls short by one syllable of the full measure of four amphiambuses, is so designated.

and epode; which may be repeated as often as the theme requires. The strophe varies in length, seldom containing more than twentyeight or fewer than fourteen lines. The antistrophe corresponds to the strophe line for line. The epode may be either longer or shorter than the strophe; each repetition of it must agree, line for line, with the original. Gray's ode, The Bard, conforms to these rules; the strophe and antistrophe (each of fourteen lines), and the epode (of twenty lines), are repeated thrice. Congreve also observes the rules (see above, p. 317). The pindariques of Cowley and Dryden are reducible to no rule; they are divided into an arbitrary number of strophes, varying in length from twenty-eight to fourteen lines; the lines are of arbitrary length, and the arrangement of the rimes is arbitrary.

INDEX.

Abbreviations:-Bp. for bishop; Abp. for Archbishop; flor. for floruit (flourished);
n. for note. When only one date is given it is that of death.

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