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

heard,
    Beating on | mine, like the | heart of a | timorous | bird;
    Bright were thine | eyes as the | stars, and their | glances were
                                                   | radiant as | gleams
    Falling from | eyes of the | angels, when | singing by | Eden's pur
                                                   |-pureal | streams.

    "Happy as | seraphs were | we, for we | wander'd a | -lone,
    Trembling with | passionate | thrills, when the | twilight had
                                                              | flown:
    Even the | echo was | silent: our | kisses and | whispers of | love
    Languish'd un | -heard and un | -known, like the | breath of the
                                     | blossoming | buds of the | grove.

    "Life hath its | pleasures, but | fading are | they as the | flowers;
    Sin hath its | sorrows, and | sadly we | turn'd from those | bowers;
    Bright were the | angels be | -hind with their | falchions of
                                                 | heavenly | flame!
    Dark was the | desolate | desert be | -fore us, and | darker the
                                                 | depth of our | shame!"
        —HENRY B. HIRST: Hart's English Grammar, p. 190.

OBS. 6.—Of Dactylic verse, our prosodists and grammarians in general have taken but very little notice; a majority of them appearing by their silence, to have been utterly ignorant of the whole species. By many, the dactyl is expressly set down as an inferior foot, which they imagine is used only for the occasional diversification of an iambic, trochaic, or anapestic line. Thus Everett: "It is never used except as a secondary foot, and then in the first place of the line."—English Versification, p. 122. On this order of verse, Lindley Murray bestowed only the following words: "The DACTYLIC measure being very uncommon, we shall give only one example of one species of it:—

    Fr=om th~e l~ow pl=eas~ures ~of th=is f~all~en n=at~ure,
    Rise we to higher, &c."—Gram., 12mo, p. 207; 8vo, p. 257.

Read this example with "we rise" for "Rise we," and all the poetry of it is gone! Humphrey says, "Dactyle verse is seldom used, as remarked heretofore; but is used occasionally, and has three metres; viz. of 2, 3, and 4 feet. Specimens follow. 2 feet. Free from anxiety. 3 feet. Singing most sweetly and merrily. 4 feet. Dactylic measures are wanting in energy."—English Prosody, p. 18. Here the prosodist has made his own examples; and the last one, which unjustly impeaches all dactylics, he has made very badly—very prosaically; for the word "Dactylic," though it has three syllables, is properly no dactyl, but rather an amphibrach.

OBS. 7.—By the Rev. David Blair, this order of poetic numbers is utterly misconceived and misrepresented. He says of it, "DACTYLIC verse consists of a short syllable, with one, two, or three feet, and a long syllable; as,

    'D~istr=act~ed w~ith w=oe,
    'I'll r=ush ~on th~e f=oe.' ADDISON."—Blair's Pract. Gram., p. 119.

    "'Y~e sh=eph~erds s~o ch=eerf~ul ~and g=ay,
    'Wh~ose fl=ocks n~ev~er c=arel~essl~y r=oam;
    'Sh~ould C=or~yd~on's h=app~en t~o str=ay,
    'Oh! c=all th~e p=oor w=and~er~ers h=ome.' SHENSTONE."—Ib., p. 120.

It is manifest, that these lines are not dactylic at all. There is not a dactyl in them. They are composed of iambs and anapests. The order of the versification is Anapestic; but it is here varied by the very common diversification of dropping the first short syllable. The longer example is from a ballad of 216 lines, of which 99 are thus varied, and 117 are full anapestics.

OBS. 8.—The makers of school-books are quite as apt to copy blunders, as to originate them; and, when an error is once started in a grammar, as it passes with the user for good learning, no one can guess where it will stop. It seems worth while, therefore, in a work of this nature, to be liberal in the citation of such faults as have linked themselves, from time to time, with the several topics of our great subject. It is not probable, that the false scansion just criticised originated with Blair; for the Comprehensive Grammar, a British work, republished in its third edition, by Dobson, of Philadelphia, in 1789, teaches the same doctrine, thus: "Dactylic measure may consist of one, two, or three Dactyls, introduced by a feeble syllable, and terminated by a strong one; as,

    M~y | d=ear Ir~ish | f=olks,
    C=ome | l=eave ~off y~our | j=okes,
    And | b=uy ~up m~y | h=alfp~ence s~o | f=ine;
    S~o | f=air ~and s~o | br=ight,
    Th~ey'll | g=ive y~ou d~e | -l=ight:
    Ob | -s=erve h~ow th~ey | gl=ist~er ~and | sh=ine. SWIFT.

    A | c=obl~er th~ere | w=as ~and h~e | l=iv'd ~in ~a | st=all,
    Wh~ich | s=erv'd h~im f~or | k=itch~en, f~or | p=arl~our ~and | hall;
    N~o | c=oin ~in h~is | p=ock~et, n~o | c=are ~in h~is | p=ate;
    N~o ~am | -b=it~ion h~e | h=ad, ~and n~o | d=uns ~at h~is | g=ate."
        —Comp. Gram., p. 150.

To this, the author adds, "Dactylic measure becomes Anapestic by setting off an Iambic foot in the beginning of the line."—Ib. These verses, all but the last one, unquestionably have an iambic foot at the beginning; and, for that reason, they are not, and by no measurement can be, dactylics. The last one is purely anapestic. All the divisional bars, in either example, are placed wrong.

ORDER V.—COMPOSITE VERSE.

Composite verse is that which consists of various metres, or different feet, combined,—not accidentally, or promiscuously, but by design, and with some regularity. In Composite verse, of any form, the stress must be laid rhythmically, as in the simple orders, else the composition will be nothing better than unnatural prose. The possible variety of combinations in this sort of numbers is unlimited; but, the pure and simple kinds being generally preferred, any stated mixture of feet is comparatively uncommon. Certain forms which may be scanned by other methods, are susceptible also of division as Composites. Hence there cannot be an exact enumeration of the measures of this order, but instances, as they occur, may be cited to exemplify it.

Example I.—From Swift's Irish Feast.

   "O'Rourk's | noble fare | will ne'er | be forgot,
    By those | who were there, | or those | who were not.
    His rev |-els to keep, | we sup | and we dine
    On sev |-en score sheep, | fat bul |-locks, and swine.
    Usquebaugh | to our feast | in pails | was brought up,
    An hun |-dred at least, | and a mad |-der our cup.
    O there | is the sport! | we rise | with the light,
    In disor |-derly sort, | from snor |-ing all night.
    O how | was I trick'd! | my pipe | it was broke,
    My pock |-et was pick'd, | I lost | my new cloak.
    I'm ri |-fled, quoth Nell, | of man |-tle and kerch |-er:
    Why then | fare them well, | the de'il | take the search |-er."
        Johnson's Works of the Poets, Vol. v, p. 310.

Here the measure is tetrameter; and it seems to have been the design of the poet, that each hemistich should consist of one iamb and one anapest. Such, with a few exceptions, is the arrangement throughout the piece; but the hemistichs which have double rhyme, may each be divided into two amphibrachs. In Everett's Versification, at p. 100, the first six lines of this example are broken into twelve, and set in three stanzas, being given to exemplify "The Line of a single Anapest preceded by an Iambus," or what he improperly calls "The first and shortest species of Anapestic lines." His other instance of the same metre is also Composite verse, rather than Anapestic, even by his own showing. "In the following example," says he, "we have this measure alternating with Amphibrachic lines:"

Example II.—From Byron's Manfred.

   "The Captive Usurper,
      Hurl'd down | from the throne.
    Lay buried in torpor,
      Forgotten and lone;
    I broke through his slumbers,
      I shiv |-er'd his chain,
    I leagued him with numbers—
      He's Ty |-rant again!
    With the blood | of a mill |-ion he'll an |-swer my care,
    With a na |-tion's destruc |-tion—his flight | and despair."
        —Act ii, Sc. 3.

Here the last two lines, which are not cited by Everett, are pure anapestic tetrameters; and it may be observed, that, if each two of the short lines were printed as one, the eight which are here scanned otherwise, would become four of the same sort, except that these would each begin with an iambus. Hence the specimen sounds essentially as anapestic verse.

Example III.—Woman on the Field of Battle.

   "Gentle and | lovely form,
      What didst | thou here,
    When the fierce | battle storm
      Bore down | the spear?

    Banner and | shiver'd crest,
      Beside | thee strown,
    Tell that a |-midst the best
      Thy work was done!

    Low lies the | stately head,
      Earth-bound | the free:
    How gave those | haughty dead
      A place | to thee?

    Slumb'rer! thine | early bier
      Friends should | have crown'd,
    Many a |flow'r and tear
      Shedding | around.

    Soft voices, | dear and young,
      Mingling | their swell,
    Should o'er thy | dust have sung
      Earth's last | farewell.

    Sisters a |-bove the grave
      Of thy | repose
    Should have bid | vi'lets wave
      With the | white rose.

    Now must the | trumpet's note.
      Savage | and shrill,
    For requi'm | o'er thee float,
      Thou fair | and still!

    And the swift | charger sweep,
      In full | career,
    Trampling thy | place of sleep—
      Why cam'st | thou here?

    Why?—Ask the | true heart why
      Woman | hath been
    Ever, where | brave men die,
      Unshrink |-ing seen.

    Unto this | harvest ground,
      Proud reap |-ers came,
    Some for that | stirring sound,
      A warr |-ior's name:

    Some for the | stormy play,
      And joy | of strife,
    And some to | fling away
      A wea |-ry life.

    But thou, pale | sleeper, thou,
      With the | slight frame,
    And the rich | locks, whose glow
      Death can |-not tame;

    Only one | thought, one pow'r,
     Thee could | have led,
    So through the | tempest's hour
     To lift | thy head!

    Only the | true, the strong,
     The love | whose trust
    Woman's deep | soul too long
     Pours on | the dust."

HEMANS: Poetical Works, Vol. ii, p. 157.

Here are fourteen stanzas of composite dimeter, each having two sorts of lines; the first sort consisting, with a few exceptions, of a dactyl and an amphimac; the second, mostly, of two iambs; but, in some instances, of a trochee and an iamb;—the latter being, in such a connexion, much the more harmonious and agreeable combination of quantities.

Example IV.—Airs from a "Serenata."

Air 1.

    "Love sounds | the alarm,
      And fear | is a-fly~ing;
    When beau |-ty's the prize,
      What mor |-tal fears dy |-~ing?
    In defence | of my treas |-~ure,
      I'd bleed | at each vein;
    Without | her no pleas |-ure;
      For life | is a pain."

Air 2.

    "Consid |-er, fond shep |-h~erd,
      How fleet |-ing's the pleas |-~ure,
    That flat |-ters our hopes
      In pursuit | of the fair:
    The joys | that attend | ~it,
      By mo |-ments we meas |-~ure;
    But life | is too lit |-tle
      To meas |-ure our care."

GAY'S POEMS: Johnson's Works of the Poets, VoL vii, p. 378.

These verses are essentially either anapestic or amphibrachic. The anapest divides two of them in the middle; the amphibrach will so divide eight. But either division will give many iambs. By the present scansion, the first foot is an iamb in all of them but the two anapestics.

Example V.—"The Last Leaf."

    1.
    "I saw | him once | before
    As he pass |-~ed by | the door,
        And again
    The pave |-ment stones | resound
    As he tot |-ters o'er | the ground
        With his cane.

    2.
    They say | that in | his prime,
    Ere the prun |-ing knife of Time
        Cut him down,
    Not a bet |-ter man | was found
    By the cri |-er on | his round
        Through the town.

    3.
    But now | he walks | the streets,
    And he looks | at all | he meets
        So forlorn;
    And he shakes | his fee |-ble head,
    That it seems | as if | he said,
        They are gone.

    4.
    The mos |-sy mar |-bles rest
    On the lips | that he | has press'd
        In their bloom;
    And the names | he lov'd | to hear
    Have been carv'd | for man |-y a year
        On the tomb.

    5.
    My grand |-mamma | has said,—
    Poor old La |-dy! she | is dead
        Long ago,—
    That he had | a Ro |-man nose,
    And his cheek | was like | a rose
        In the snow.

    6.
    But now | his nose | is thin,
    And it rests | upon | his chin
        Like a staff;
    And a crook | is in | his back
    And a mel |-anchol |-y crack
        In his laugh.

    7.
    I know | it is