The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown (read books for money TXT) 📖

only half the time of a long one. Some prosodists, however, choose to regard these substitutions as instances of trissyllabic feet mixed with the others; and, doubtless, it is in general easy to make them such, by an utterance that avoids, rather than favours, the coalescence. The following are examples:—

   "No rest: | through man | -y a dark | and drear | -y vale
    They pass'd, | and man | -y a re | -gion dol | -orous,
    O'er man | -y a fro | -zen, man | -y a fi | -ery Alp."
        —MILTON: P. L., B. ii, l. 618.

    "Rejoice | ye na | -tions, vin | -dicate | the sway
    Ordain'd | for com | -mon hap | -piness. | Wide, o'er
    The globe | terra | -queous, let | Britan | -nia pour
    The fruits | of plen | -ty from | her co | -pious horn."
        —DYER: Fleece, B. iv, l. 658.

    "Myriads | of souls | that knew | one pa | -rent mold,
      See sad | -ly sev | er'd by | the laws | of chance!
    Myriads, | in time's | peren | -nial list | enroll'd,
      Forbid | by fate | to change | one tran | -sient glance!"
        SHENSTONE: British Poets, Vol. vii, p. 109.

(3.) In plays, and light or humorous descriptions, the last foot of an iambic line is often varied or followed by an additional short syllable; and, sometimes, in verses of triple rhyme, there is an addition of two short syllables, after the principal rhyming syllable. Some prosodists call the variant foot, in die former instance, an amphibrach, and would probably, in the latter, suppose either an additional pyrrhic, or an amphibrach with still a surplus syllable; but others scan, in these cases, by the iambus only, calling what remains after the last long syllable hypermeter; and this is, I think, the better way. The following examples show these and some other variations from pure iambic measure:—

Example I.—Grief.

   "Each sub | st~ance ~of | a grief | hath twen | -ty shad_~ows_,
    Which show | like grief | itself, | but are | not so:
    For sor | -row's eye, | gl=az~ed | with blind | -ing tears,
    Divides one thing | entire | to man |—y ob_j~ects_;
    Like per | -spectives, | which, right | -ly gaz'd | upon,
    Show noth | -ing but | confu | -sion; ey'd | awry,
    Distin | -guish form: | so your | sweet maj | -esty,
    Lo=ok~ing | awry | upon | your lord's | depart_~ure_,
    Finds shapes | of grief, | more than | himself, | to wail;
    Which, look'd | on as | it is, | is nought | but shad_~ows_."
        SHAKSPEARE: Richard II, Act ii, Sc. 2.

Example II.—A Wish to Please.

   "O, that | I had | the art | of eas | -y writing
      What should | be eas | -y read | -ing | could | I scale
    Parnas | -sus, where | the Mus | -es sit | in_diting_
      Those pret | -ty po | -ems nev | -er known | to fail,
    How quick | -ly would | I print | (the world | de_lighting_)
      A Gre | -cian, Syr | -ian, or | Assy | -ian tale;
    And sell | you, mix'd | with west | -ern sen | -ti_mentalism_,
    Some sam | -ples of | the fin | -est O | -ri_entalism_."
        LORD BYRON: Beppo, Stanza XLVIII.

MEASURE V.—IAMBIC OF FOUR FEET, OR TETRAMETER.

Example I.—Presidents of the United States of America.

   "First stands | the loft | -y Wash | -ington,
    That no | -ble, great, | immor | -tal one;
    The eld | -er Ad | -ams next | we see;
    And Jef | -ferson | comes num | -ber three;
    Then Mad | -ison | is fourth, | you know;
    The fifth | one on | the list, | Monroe;
    The sixth | an Ad | -ams comes | again;
    And Jack | -son, sev | -enth in | the train;
    Van Bu | -ren, eighth | upon | the line;
    And Har | -rison | counts num | -ber nine;
    The tenth | is Ty | -ler, in | his turn;
    And Polk, | elev | -enth, as | we learn;
    The twelfth | is Tay | -lor, peo | -ple say;
    The next | we learn | some fu | -ture day."
        ANONYMOUS: From Newspaper, 1849.

Example II.—The Shepherd Bard.

   "The bard | on Ett | -rick's moun | tain green
    In Na | -ture's bo | -som nursed | had been,
    And oft | had marked | in for | -est lone
    Her beau | -ties on | her moun | -tain throne;
    Had seen | her deck | the wild | -wood tree,
    And star | with snow | -y gems | the lea;
    In love | -li~est c=ol | -ours paint | the plain,
    And sow | the moor | with pur | -ple grain;
    By gold | -en mead | and moun | -tain sheer,
    Had viewed | the Ett | -rick wav | -ing clear,
    Where shad | -=ow=y fl=ocks | of pur | -est snow
    Seemed graz | -ing in | a world | below."
        JAMES HOGG: The Queen's Wake, p. 76.

Example III.—Two Stanzas from Eighteen, Addressed to the Ettrick Shepherd.

   "O Shep | -herd! since | 'tis thine | to boast
      The fas | -cinat | -ing pow'rs | of song,
    Far, far | above | the count | -less host,
      Who swell | the Mus | -es' sup | -pli~ant throng,

    The GIFT | OF GOD | distrust | no more,
      His in | -spira | -tion be | thy guide;
    Be heard | thy harp | from shore | to shore,
      Thy song's | reward | thy coun | -try's pride."
        B. BARTON: Verses prefixed to the Queen's Wake.

Example IV.—"Elegiac Stanzas," in Iambics of Four feet and Three.

   "O for | a dirge! | But why | complain?
    Ask rath | -er a | trium | -phal strain
      When FER | MOR'S race | is run;
    A gar | -land of | immor | -tal boughs
    To bind | around | the Chris | -tian's brows,
      Whose glo | -rious work | is done.

    We pay | a high | and ho | -ly debt;
    No tears | of pas | -sionate | regret
      Shall stain | this vo | -tive lay;
    Ill-wor | -thy, Beau | -mont! were | the grief
    That flings | itself | on wild | relief
      When Saints | have passed | away."
        W. WORDSWORTH: Poetical Works, First complete Amer. Ed., p. 208.

This line, the iambic tetrameter, is a favourite one, with many writers of English verse, and has been much used, both in couplets and in stanzas. Butler's Hudibras, Gay's Fables, and many allegories, most of Scott's poetical works, and some of Byron's, are written in couplets of this measure. It is liable to the same diversifications as the preceding metre. The frequent admission of an additional short syllable, forming double rhyme, seems admirably to adapt it to a familiar, humorous, or burlesque style. The following may suffice for an example:—

   "First, this | large par | -cel brings | you tidings
    Of our | good Dean's | eter | -nal chidings;
    Of Nel | -ly's pert | -ness, Rob | -in's leasings,
    And Sher | -idan's | perpet | -ual teasings.
    This box | is cramm'd | on ev | -ery side
    With Stel | -la's mag | -iste | -rial pride."
         DEAN SWIFT: British Poets, Vol. v, p. 334.

The following lines have ten syllables in each, yet the measure is not iambic of five feet, but that of four with hypermeter:—

   "There was | ~an =an | -cient sage | phi_losopher_,
    Who had | read Al | -exan | -der Ross over."—Butler's Hudibras.

    "I'll make | them serve | for per | -pen_diculars_,
    As true | as e'er | were us'd | by bricklayers."
        —Ib., Part ii, C. iii, l. 1020.

MEASURE VI.—IAMBIC OF THREE FEET, OR TRIMETER.

Example.—To Evening.

   "Now teach | me, maid | compos'd
    To breathe | some soft | -en'd strain."—Collins, p. 39.

This short measure has seldom, if ever, been used alone in many successive couplets; but it is often found in stanzas, sometimes without other lengths, but most commonly with them. The following are a few examples:—

Example I.—Two ancient Stanzas, out of Many,

   "This while | we are | abroad,
      Shall we | not touch | our lyre?
    Shall we | not sing | an ode?
      Shall now | that ho | -ly fire,
    In us, | that strong | -ly glow'd,
      In this | cold air, | expire?

    Though in | the ut | -most peak,
      A while | we do | remain,
    Amongst | the moun | -tains bleak,
      Expos'd | to sleet | and rain,
    No sport | our hours | shall break,
      To ex | -ercise | our vein."
        DRAYTON: Dr. Johnson's Gram., p. 13; John Burn's, p. 244.

Example II.—Acis and Galatea.

   "For us | the zeph | -yr blows,
      For us | distils | the dew,
    For us | unfolds | the rose,
      And flow'rs | display | their hue;

    For us | the win | -ters rain,
      For us | the sum | -mers shine,
    Spring swells | for us | the grain,
      And au | -tumn bleeds | the vine."
        JOHN GAY: British Poets, Vol. vii, p. 376.

Example III.—"Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin."

   "The king | was on | his throne,
      The sa | -traps thronged | the hall;
    A thou | -sand bright | lamps shone
      O'er that | high fes | -tival.
    A thou | -sand cups | of gold,
      In Ju | -dah deemed | divine—
    Jeho | -vah's ves | -sels, hold
      The god | -less Hea | -then's wine!

    In that | same hour | and hall,
      The fin | -gers of | a hand
    Came forth | against | the wall,
      And wrote | as if | on sand:
    The fin | -gers of | a man,—
      A sol | -ita | -ry hand
    Along | the let | -ters ran,
      And traced | them like | a wand."
        LORD BYRON: Vision of Belshazzar.

Example IV.—Lyric Stanzas.

   "Descend, | celes | -tial fire,
      And seize | me from | above,
    Melt me | in flames | of pure | desire,
      A sac | -rifice | to love.

    Let joy | and wor | -ship spend
      The rem | -nant of | my days,
    And to | my God, | my soul | ascend,
      In sweet | perfumes | of praise."
        WATTS: Poems sacred to Devotion, p. 50.

Example V.—Lyric Stanzas.

   "I would | begin | the mu | -sic here,
      And so | my soul | should rise:
    O for | some heav'n | -ly notes | to bear
      My spir | -it to | the skies!

    There, ye | that love | my say | -iour, sit,
      There I | would fain | have place
    Amongst | your thrones | or at | your feet,
      So I | might see | his face."
        WATTS: Same work, "Horæ Lyricæ," p. 71.

Example VI.—England's Dead.

   "The hur | -ricane | hath might
      Along | the In | -dian shore,
    And far, | by Gan | -ges' banks | at night,
      Is heard | the ti | -ger's roar.

    But let | the sound | roll on!
      It hath | no tone | of dread
    For those | that from | their toils | are gone;—
      There slum | -ber Eng | -land's dead."
        HEMANS: Poetical Works, Vol. ii, p. 61.

The following examples have some of the common diversifications already noticed under the longer measures:—

Example I.—"Languedocian Air."

   "L=ove ~is | a hunt | -er boy,
      Who makes | young hearts | his prey;
    And in | his nets | of joy
      Ensnares | them night | and day.

    In vain | conceal'd | they lie,
      Love tracks | them ev' | -ry where;
    In vain | aloft | they fly,
      Love shoots | them fly | -ing there.

    But 'tis | his joy | most sweet,
      At earl | -y dawn | to trace
    The print | of Beau | -ty's feet,
      And give | the trem | -bler chase.

    And most | he loves | through snow
      To track | those foot | -steps fair,
    For then | the boy | doth know,
      None track'd | before | him there."
        MOORE'S Melodies and National Airs, p. 274.

Example II.—From "a Portuguese Air."

   "Flow on, | thou shin | -ing river,
      But ere | thou reach | the sea,
    Seek El | -la's bower, | and give her
      The wreaths | I fling | o'er thee.

    But, if | in wand' | -ring thither,
      Thou find | she mocks | my pray'r,
    Then leave | those wreaths | to wither
      Upon | the cold | bank there."
        MOORE: