← The Grammar of English Grammars, Volume 2

Chapter 32

Section IV.—The Kinds of Verse

The principal kinds of verse, or orders of poetic numbers, as has already been stated, are four; namely, Iambic, Trochaic, Anapestic, and Dactylic. Besides these, which are sometimes called "the simple orders" being unmixed, or nearly so, some recognize several "Composite orders" or (with a better view of the matter) several kinds of mixed verse, which are said to constitute "the Composite order." In these, one of the four principal kinds of feet must still be used as the basis, some other species being inserted therewith, in each line or stanza, with more or less regularity.

Principles and Names.

The diversification of any species of metre, by the occasional change of a foot, or, in certain cases, by the addition or omission of a short syllable, is not usually regarded as sufficient to change the denomination, or stated order, of the verse; and many critics suppose some variety of feet, as well as a studied diversity in the position of the cæsural pause, essential to the highest excellence of poetic composition.

The dividing of verses into the feet which compose them, is called Scanning, or Scansion. In this, according to the technical language of the old prosodists, when a syllable is wanting, the verse is said to be catalectic; when the measure is exact, the line is acatalectic; when there is a redundant syllable, it forms hypermeter.

Since the equal recognition of so many feet as twelve, or even as eight, will often produce different modes of measuring the same lines; and since it is desirable to measure verses with uniformity, and always by the simplest process that will well answer the purpose; we usually scan by the principal feet, in preference to the secondary, where the syllables give us a choice of measures, or may be divided in different ways.

A single foot, especially a foot of only two syllables, can hardly be said to constitute a line, or to have rhythm in itself; yet we sometimes see a foot so placed, and rhyming as a line. Lines of two, three, four, five, six, or seven feet, are common; and these have received the technical denominations of dim'eter, trim'eter, tetram'eter, pentam'eter, hexam'eter, and heptam'eter. On a wide page, iambics and trochaics may possibly be written in octom'eter; but lines of this measure, being very long, are mostly abandoned for alternate tetrameters.

Order I.—Iambic Verse.

In Iambic verse, the stress is laid on the even syllables, and the odd ones are short. Any short syllable added to a line of this order, is supernumerary; iambic rhymes, which are naturally single, being made double by one, and triple by two. But the adding of one short syllable, which is much practised in dramatic poetry, may be reckoned to convert the last foot into an amphibrach, though the adding of two cannot. Iambics consist of the following measures:—

Measure I.—Iambic of Eight Feet, or Octometer.

Psalm XLVII, 1 and 2.

Each couplet of this verse is now commonly reduced to, or exchanged for, a simple stanza of four tetrameter lines, rhyming alternately, and each commencing with a capital; but sometimes, the second line and the fourth are still commenced with a small letter: as,

An other Example.

Measure II.—Iambic of Seven Feet, or Heptameter.

Example I.—Hat-Brims.

Example II.—Psalm XLII, 1.

Example III.—The Shepherd's Hymn.

Example IV.—"The Far, Far Fast."—First six Lines.

Example V.—"Lament of the Slave."—Eight Lines from thirty-four.

Example VI.—"Greek Funeral Chant."—First four of sixty-four Lines.

Everett observes, "The Iliad was translated into this measure by CHAPMAN, and the Æneid by PHAER."—Eng. Versif., p. 68. Prior, who has a ballad of one hundred and eighty such lines, intimates in a note the great antiquity of the verse. Measures of this length, though not very uncommon, are much less frequently used than shorter ones. A practice has long prevailed of dividing this kind of verse into alternate lines of four and of three feet, thus:—

This, according to the critics, is the most soft and pleasing of our lyric measures. With the slight change of setting a capital at the head of each line, it becomes the regular ballad-metre of our language. Being also adapted to hymns, as well as to lighter songs, and, more particularly, to quaint details of no great length, this stanza, or a similar one more ornamented with rhymes, is found in many choice pieces of English poetry. The following are a few popular examples:—

The rhyming of this last stanza is irregular and remarkable, yet not unpleasant. It is contrary to rule, to omit any rhyme which the current of the verse leads the reader to expect. Yet here the word "shore" ending the first line, has no correspondent sound, where twelve examples of such correspondence had just preceded; while the third line, without previous example, is so rhymed within itself that one scarcely perceives the omission. Double rhymes are said by some to unfit this metre for serious subjects, and to adapt it only to what is meant to be burlesque, humorous, or satiric. The example above does not confirm this opinion, yet the rule, as a general one, may still be just. Ballad verse may in some degree imitate the language of a simpleton, and become popular by clownishness, more than by elegance: as,

Even the line of seven feet may still be lengthened a little by a double rhyme: as,

Of this length, T. O. Churchill reckons the following couplet; but by the general usage of the day, the final ed is not made a separate syllable:—

Measure III.—Iambic of Six Feet, or Hexameter.

Example I.—A Couplet.

Example II.—From a Description of a Stag-Hunt.

Example III.—An Extract from Shakespeare.

Example IV.—The Ten Commandments Versified.

This verse, consisting, when entirely regular, of twelve syllables in six iambs, is the Alexandrine; said to have been so named because it was "first used in a poem called Alexander."—Worcester's Dict. Such metre has sometimes been written, with little diversity, through an entire English poem, as in Drayton's Polyolbion; but, couplets of this length being generally esteemed too clumsy for our language, the Alexandrine has been little used by English versifiers, except to complete certain stanzas beginning with shorter iambics, or, occasionally, to close a period in heroic rhyme. French heroics are similar to this; and if, as some assert, we have obtained it thence, the original poem was doubtless a French one, detailing the exploits of the hero "Alexandre." The phrase, "an Alexandrine verse," is, in French, "un vers Alexandrin." Dr. Gregory, in his Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, copies Johnson's Quarto Dictionary, which says, "ALEXANDRINE, a kind of verse borrowed from the French, first used in a poem called Alexander. They [Alexandrines] consist, among the French, of twelve and thirteen syllables, in alternate couplets; and, among us, of twelve." Dr. Webster, in his American Dictionary, improperly (as I think) gives to the name two forms, and seems also to acknowledge two sorts of the English verse: "ALEXAN'DRINE, or ALEXAN'DRIAN, n. A kind of verse, consisting of twelve syllables, or of twelve and thirteen alternately." "The Pet-Lamb," a modern pastoral, by Wordsworth, has sixty-eight lines, all probably meant for Alexandrines; most of which have twelve syllables, though some have thirteen, and others, fourteen. But it were a great pity, that versification so faulty and unsuitable should ever be imitated. About half of the said lines, as they appear in the poet's royal octave, or "the First Complete American, from the Last London Edition," are as sheer prose as can be written, it being quite impossible to read them into any proper rhythm. The poem being designed for children, the measure should have been reduced to iambic trimeter, and made exact at that. The story commences thus:—

All this is regular, with the exception of one foot; but who can make any thing but prose of the following?

"Thy limbs will shortly be twice as stout as they are now,
Then I'll yoke thee to my cart like a pony in the plough."
"Here thou needest not dread the raven in the sky;
Night and day thou art safe,—our cottage is hard by."
WORDSWORTH'S Poems, New-Haven Ed., 1836, p. 4.

In some very ancient English poetry, we find lines of twelve syllables combined in couplets with others of fourteen; that is, six iambic feet are alternated with seven, in lines that rhyme. The following is an example, taken from a piece of fifty lines, which Dr. Johnson ascribes to the Earl of Surry, one of the wits that flourished in the reign of Henry VIII:—

Measure IV.—Iambic of Five Feet, or Pentameter.

Example I.—Hector to Andromache.

Example II.—Angels' Worship.

Example III.—Deceptive Glosses.

Example IV.—Praise God.

Example V.—The Christian Spirit.

Example VI.—To London.

This verse, the iambic pentameter, is the regular English heroic—a stately species, and that in which most of our great poems are composed, whether epic, dramatic, or descriptive. It is well adapted to rhyme, to the composition of sonnets, to the formation of stanzas of several sorts; and yet is, perhaps, the only measure suitable for blank verse—which latter form always demands a subject of some dignity or sublimity.

The Elegiac Stanza, or the form of verse most commonly used by elegists, consists of four heroics rhyming alternately; as,

Iambic verse is seldom continued perfectly pure through a long succession of lines. Among its most frequent diversifications, are the following; and others may perhaps be noticed hereafter:—

(1.) The first foot is often varied by a substitutional trochee; as,

(2.) By a synæresis of the two short syllables, an anapest may sometimes be employed for an iambus; or a dactyl, for a trochee. This occurs chiefly where one unaccented vowel precedes an other in what we usually regard as separate syllables, and both are clearly heard, though uttered perhaps in so quick succession that both syllables may occupy 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:—

(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.

Example II.—A Wish to Please.

Measure V.—Iambic of Four Feet, or Tetrameter.

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

Example II.—The Shepherd Bard.

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

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

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:—

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

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,

Example II.—Acis and Galatea.

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

Example IV.—Lyric Stanzas.

Example V.—Lyric Stanzas.

Example VI.—England's Dead.

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

Example I.—"Languedocian Air."

Example II.—From "a Portuguese Air."

Example III.—Resignation.

Measure VII.—Iambic of Two Feet, or Dimeter.

Example—A Scolding Wife.

Iambic dimeter, like the metre of three iambs, is much less frequently used alone than in stanzas with longer lines; but the preceding example is a refutation of the idea, that no piece is ever composed wholly of this measure, or that the two feet cannot constitute a line. In Humphrey's English Prosody, on page 16th, is the following paragraph; which is not only defective in style, but erroneous in all its averments:—

"Poems are never composed of lines of two [-] feet metre, in succession: they [combinations of two feet] are only used occasionally in poems, hymns, odes, &c. to diversify the metre; and are, in no case, lines of poetry, or verses; but hemistics, [hemistichs,] or half lines. The shortest metre of which iambic verse is composed, in lines successively, is that of three feet; and this is the shortest metre which can be denominated lines, or verses; and this is not frequently used."

In ballads, ditties, hymns, and versified psalms, scarcely any line is more common than the iambic trimeter, here denied to be "frequently used;" of which species, there are about seventy lines among the examples above. Dr. Young's poem entitled "Resignation," has eight hundred and twenty such lines, and as many more of iambic tetrameter. His "Ocean" has one hundred and forty-five of the latter, and two hundred and ninety-two of the species now under consideration; i.e., iambic dimeter. But how can the metre which predominates by two to one, be called, in such a case, an occasional diversification of that which is less frequent?

Lines of two iambs are not very uncommon, even in psalmody; and, since we have some lines yet shorter, and the lengths of all are determined only by the act of measuring, there is, surely, no propriety in calling dimeters "hemistichs," merely because they are short. The following are some examples of this measure combined with longer ones:—

Example I.—From Psalm CXLVIII.

Example II.—From Psalm CXXXVI.

Example III.—Gloria Patri.

Example IV.—Part of Psalm III.

Example V.—Six Lines of an "Air."

"As when | the dove
Laments | her love
All on | the na | -ked spray;

When he | returns,
No more | she mourns,
But loves | the live | -long day."
JOHN GAY: British Poets, Vol. vii, p. 377.

Example VI.—Four Stanzas of an Ode.

There is a line of five syllables and double rhyme, which is commonly regarded as iambic dimeter with a supernumerary short syllable; and which, though it is susceptible of two other divisions into two feet, we prefer to scan in this manner, because it usually alternates with pure iambics. Twelve such lines occur in the following extract:—

Love Transitory

Measure VIII.—Iambic of One Foot, or Monometer.

"The shortest form of the English Iambic," says Lindley Murray, "consists of an Iambus with an additional short syllable: as,

Disdaining,
Complaining,
Consenting,
Repenting.

We have no poem of this measure, but it may be met with in stanzas. The Iambus, with this addition, coincides with the Amphibrach."—Murray's Gram., 12mo, p. 204; 8vo, p. 254. This, or the substance of it, has been repeated by many other authors. Everett varies the language and illustration, but teaches the same doctrine. See E. Versif., p. 15.

Now there are sundry examples which may be cited to show, that the iambus, without any additional syllable, and without the liability of being confounded with an other foot, may, and sometimes does, stand as a line, and sustain a regular rhyme. The following pieces contain instances of this sort:—

Example I.—"How to Keep Lent."

Example II.—"To Mary Ann."

[This singular arrangement of seventy-two separate iambic feet, I find without intermediate points, and leave it so. It seems intended to be read in three or more different ways, and the punctuation required by one mode of reading would not wholly suit an other.]

"Your face Your tongue Your wit
So fair So sweet So sharp
First bent Then drew Then hit
Mine eye Mine ear Mine heart

Mine eye Mine ear Mine heart
To like To learn To love
Your face Your tongue Your wit
Doth lead Doth teach Doth move

Your face Your tongue Your wit
With beams With sound With art
Doth blind Doth charm Doth rule
Mine eye Mine ear Mine heart

Mine eye Mine ear Mine heart
With life With hope With skill
Your face Your tongue Your wit
Doth feed Doth feast Doth fill

O face O tongue O wit
With frowns With cheek With smart
Wrong not Vex not Wound not
Mine eye Mine ear Mine heart

This eye This ear This heart
Shall joy Shall bend Shall swear
Your face Your tongue Your wit
To serve To trust To fear."

ANONYMOUS: Sundry American Newspapers, in 1849.

Example III.—Umbrellas.

"The late George Canning, of whom Byron said that 'it was his happiness to be at once a wit, poet, orator, and statesman, and excellent in all,' is the author of the following clever jeu d' esprit:" [except three lines here added in brackets:]

Example IV.—Shreds of a Song.

I. Spring.

II. Winter.

Example V.—Puck's Charm.

[When he has uttered the fifth line, he squeezes a juice on Lysander's eyes.]

"On the ground,
Sleep sound;
I'll apply
To your eye,
Gentle | lover, | remedy.
When thou wak'st,
Thou tak'st
True delight
In the sight
Of thy | former | lady's eye."
IDEM: Midsummer-Night's Dream, Act iii, Sc. 2.

Order II.—Trochaic Verse.

In Trochaic verse, the stress is laid on the odd syllables, and the even ones are short. Single-rhymed trochaic omits the final short syllable, that it may end with a long one; for the common doctrine of Murray, Chandler, Churchill, Bullions, Butler, Everett, Fowler, Weld, Wells, Mulligan, and others, that this chief rhyming syllable is "additional" to the real number of feet in the line, is manifestly incorrect. One long syllable is, in some instances, used as a foot; but it is one or more short syllables only, that we can properly admit as hypermeter. Iambics and trochaics often occur in the same poem; but, in either order, written with exactness, the number of feet is always the number of the long syllables.

Examples from Gray's Bard.

(1.)

(2.)

Observations.

OBS. 1.—Trochaic verse without the final short syllable, is the same as iambic would be without the initial short syllable;—it being quite plain, that iambic, so changed, becomes trochaic, and is iambic no longer. But trochaic, retrenched of its last short syllable, is trochaic still; and can no otherwise be made iambic, than by the prefixing of a short syllable to the line. Feet, and the orders of verse, are distinguished one from an other by two things, and in general by two only; the number of syllables taken as a foot, and the order of their quantities. Trochaic verse is always as distinguishable from iambic, as iambic is from any other. Yet have we several grammarians and prosodies who contrive to confound them—or who, at least, mistake catalectic trochaic for catalectic iambic; and that too, where the syllable wanting affects only the last foot, and makes it perhaps but a common and needful cæsura.

OBS. 2.—To suppose that iambic verse may drop its initial short syllable, and still be iambic, still be measured as before, is not only to take a single long syllable for a foot, not only to recognize a pedal cæsura at the beginning of each line, but utterly to destroy the only principles on which iambics and trochaics can be discriminated. Yet Hiley, of Leeds, and Wells, of Andover, while they are careful to treat separately of these two orders of verse, not only teach that any order may take at the end "an additional syllable," but also suggest that the iambic may drop a syllable "from the first foot," without diminishing the number of feet,—without changing the succession of quantities,—without disturbing the mode of scansion! "Sometimes," say they, (in treating of iambics,) "a syllable is cut off from the first foot; as,

OBS. 3.—Now this couplet is the precise exemplar, not only of the thirty-six lines of which it is a part, but also of the most common of our trochaic metres; and if this may be thus scanned into iambic verse, so may all other trochaic lines in existence: distinction between the two orders must then be worse than useless. But I reject this doctrine, and trust that most readers will easily see its absurdity. A prosodist might just as well scan all iambics into trochaics, by pronouncing each initial short syllable to be hypermeter. For, surely, if deficiency may be discovered at the beginning of measurement, so may redundance. But if neither is to be looked for before the measurement ends, (which supposition is certainly more reasonable,) then is the distinction already vindicated, and the scansion above-cited is shown to be erroneous.

OBS. 4.—But there are yet other objections to this doctrine, other errors and inconsistencies in the teaching of it. Exactly the same kind of verse as this, which is said to consist of "four iambuses" from one of which "a syllable is cut off," is subsequently scanned by the same authors as being composed of "three trochees and an additional syllable; as,

There is, in the works here cited, not only the inconsistency of teaching two very different modes of scanning the same species of verse, but in each instance the scansion is wrong; for all the lines in question are trochaic of four feet,—single-rhymed, and, of course, catalectic, and ending with a cæsura, or elision. In no metre that lacks but one syllable, can this sort of foot occur at the beginning of a line; yet, as we see, it is sometimes imagined to be there, by those who have never been able to find it at the end, where it oftenest exists!

OBS. 5.—I have hinted, in the main paragraph above, that it is a common error of our prosodists, to underrate, by one foot, the measure of all trochaic lines, when they terminate with single rhyme; an error into which they are led by an other as gross, that of taking for hypermeter, or mere surplus, the whole rhyme itself, the sound or syllable most indispensable to the verse.

"(For rhyme the rudder is of verses,
With which, like ships, they steer their courses.)"—Hudibras.

Iambics and trochaics, of corresponding metres, and exact in them, agree of course in both the number of feet and the number of syllables; but as the former are slightly redundant with double rhyme, so the latter are deficient as much, with single rhyme; yet, the number of feet may, and should, in these cases, be reckoned the same. An estimable author now living says, "Trochaic verse, with an additional long syllable, is the same as iambic verse, without the initial short syllable."—N. Butler's Practical Gram., p. 193. This instruction is not quite accurate. Nor would it be right, even if there could be "iambic verse without the initial short syllable," and if it were universally true, that, "Trochaic verse may take an additional long syllable."—Ibid. For the addition and subtraction here suggested, will inevitably make the difference of a foot, between the measures or verses said to be the same!

OBS. 6.—"I doubt," says T. O. Churchill, "whether the trochaic can be considered as a legitimate English measure. All the examples of it given by Johnson have an additional long syllable at the end: but these are iambics, if we look upon the additional syllable to be at the beginning, which is much more agreeable to the analogy of music."—Churchill's New Gram., p. 390. This doubt, ridiculous as must be all reasoning in support of it, the author seriously endeavours to raise into a general conviction that we have no trochaic order of verse! It can hardly be worth while to notice here all his remarks. "An additional long syllable" Johnson never dreamed of—"at the end"—"at the beginning"—or anywhere else. For he discriminated metres, not by the number of feet, as he ought to have done, but by the number of syllables he found in each line. His doctrine is this: "Our iambick measure comprises verses—Of four syllables,—Of six,—Of eight,—Of ten. Our trochaick measures are—Of three syllables,—Of five,—Of seven. These are the measures which are now in use, and above the rest those of seven, eight and ten syllables. Our ancient poets wrote verses sometimes of twelve syllables, as Drayton's Polyolbion; and of fourteen, as Chapman's Homer." "We have another measure very quick and lively, and therefore much used in songs, which may be called the anapestick.

'May I góvern my pássion with ábsolute swáy,
And grow wiser and bétter as life wears awáy.' Dr. Pope.

"In this measure a syllable is often retrenched from the first foot, [;] as [,]

'When présent we lóve, and when ábsent agrée,
I th'nk not of I'ris [.] nor I'ris of mé.' Dryden.

"These measures are varied by many combinations, and sometimes by double endings, either with or without rhyme, as in the heroick measure.

''Tis the divinity that stirs within us,
'Tis heaven itself that points out an hereafter..' Addison.

"So in that of eight syllables,

'They neither added nor confounded,
They neither wanted nor abounded.' Prior.

"In that of seven,

'For resistance I could fear none,
But with twenty ships had done,
What thou, brave and happy Vernon,
Hast achieved with six alone.' Glover.

"To these measures and their laws, may be reduced every species of English verse."—Dr. Johnson's Grammar of the English Tongue, p. 14. See his Quarto Dict. Here, except a few less important remarks, and sundry examples of the metres named, is Johnson's whole scheme of versification.

OBS. 7.—How, when a prosodist judges certain examples to "have an additional long syllable at the end," he can "look upon the additional syllable to be at the beginning," is a matter of marvel; yet, to abolish trochaics, Churchill not only does and advises this, but imagines short syllables removed sometimes from the beginning of lines; while sometimes he couples final short syllables with initial long ones, to make iambs, and yet does not always count these as feet in the verse, when he has done so! Johnson's instructions are both misunderstood and misrepresented by this grammarian. I have therefore cited them the more fully. The first syllable being retrenched from an anapest, there remains an iambus. But what countenance has Johnson lent to the gross error of reckoning such a foot an anapest still?—or to that of commencing the measurement of a line by including a syllable not used by the poet? The preceding stanza from Glover, is trochaic of four feet; the odd lines full, and of course making double rhyme; the even lines catalectic, and of course ending with a long syllable counted as a foot. Johnson cited it merely as an example of "double endings" imagining in it no "additional syllable," except perhaps the two which terminate the two trochees, "fear none" and "Vernon." These, it may be inferred, he improperly conceived to be additional to the regular measure; because he reckoned measures by the number of syllables, and probably supposed single rhyme to be the normal form of all rhyming verse.

OBS. 8.—There is false scansion in many a school grammar, but perhaps none more uncouthly false, than Churchill's pretended amendments of Johnson's. The second of these—wherein "the old seven[-]foot iambic" is professedly found in two lines of Glover's trochaic tetrameter—I shall quote:—

"In the anapæstic measure, Johnson himself allows, that a syllable is often retrenched from the first foot; yet he gives as an example of trochaics with an additional syllable at the end of the even lines a stanza, which, by adopting the same principle, would be in the iambic measure:

In fact, the second and fourth lines here stamp the character of the measure; [Fist] which is the old seven[-]foot iambic broken into four and three, WITH AN ADDITIONAL SYLLABLE AT THE BEGINNING."—Churchill's New Gram., p. 391.

After these observations and criticisms concerning the trochaic order of verse, I proceed to say, trochaics consist of the following measures, or metres:—

Measure I.—Trochaic of Eight Feet, or Octometer.

Example I.—"The Raven"—First Two out of Eighteen Stanzas.

Double rhymes being less common than single ones, in the same proportion, is this long verse less frequently terminated with a full trochee, than with a single long syllable counted as a foot. The species of measure is, however, to be reckoned the same, though catalectic. By Lindley Murray, and a number who implicitly re-utter what he teaches, the verse of six trochees, in which are twelve syllables only, is said "to be the longest Trochaic line that our language admits."—Murray's Octavo Gram., p. 257; Weld's E. Gram., p. 211. The examples produced here will sufficiently show the inaccuracy of their assertion.

Example II.—"The Shadow of the Obelisk."—Last two Stanzas.

Example III.—"The Slaves of Martinique."—Nine Couplets out of Thirty-six.

Example IV.—"The Present Crisis"—Two Stanzas out of sixteen.

Example V.—The Season of Love.—A short Extract.

Trochaic of eight feet, as these sundry examples will suggest, is much oftener met with than iambic of the same number; and yet it is not a form very frequently adopted. The reader will observe that it requires a considerable pause after the fourth foot; at which place one might divide it, and so reduce each couplet to a stanza of four lines, similar to the following examples:—

Part of a Song, in Dialogue.

Sylvia.

Corin.

Sylvia.

Corin.

Poems by ANNA LÆTITIA BARBAULD, p. 56.

Part of a Charity Hymn.

A still more common form is that which reduces all these tetrameters to single rhymes, preserving their alternate succession. In such metre and stanza, is Montgomery's "Wanderer of Switzerland, a Poem, in Six Parts," and with an aggregate of eight hundred and forty-four lines. Example:—

First six stanzas of Part VI, pp. 71 and 72.

Measure II.—Trochaic of Seven Feet, or Heptameter.

Example.—Psalm LXX, Versified.

This verse, like all other that is written in very long lines, requires a cæsural pause of proportionate length; and it would scarcely differ at all to the ear, if it were cut in two at the place of this pause—provided the place were never varied. Such metre does not appear to have been at any time much used, though there seems to be no positive reason why it might not have a share of popularity. To commend our versification for its "boundless variety," and at the same time exclude from it forms either unobjectionable or well authorized, as some have done, is plainly inconsistent. Full trochaics have some inconvenience, because all their rhymes must be double; and, as this inconvenience becomes twice as much when any long line of this sort is reduced to two short ones, there may be a reason why a stanza precisely corresponding to the foregoing couplets is seldom seen. If such lines be divided and rhymed at the middle of the fourth foot, where the cæsural pause is apt to fall, the first part of each will be a trochaic line of four feet, single-rhymed and catalectic, while the rest of it will become an iambic line of three feet, with double rhyme and hypermeter. Such are the prosodial characteristics of the following lines; which, if two were written as one, would make exactly our full trochaic of seven feet, the metre exhibited above:—

But trochaic of seven feet may also terminate with single rhyme, as in the following couplet, which is given anonymously, and, after a false custom, erroneously, in N. Butler's recent Grammar, as "trochaic of six feet, with an additional long syllable:—

In Frazee's Grammar, a separate line or two, similar in metre to these, and rightly reckoned to have seven feet, and many lines, (including those above from Tennyson, which W. C. Fowler erroneously gives for Heptameter,) being a foot longer, are presented as trochaics of eight feet; but Everett, the surest of our prosodists, remaining, like most others, a total stranger to our octometers, and too little acquainted with trochaic heptameters to believe the species genuine, on finding a couple of stanzas in which two such lines are set with shorter ones of different sorts, and with some which are defective in metre, sagely concludes that all lines of more than "six trochees" must necessarily be condemned as prosodial anomalies. It may be worth while to repeat the said stanzas here, adding such corrections and marks as may suggest their proper form and scansion. But since they commence with the shorter metre of six trochees only, and are already placed under that head, I too may take them in the like connexion, by now introducing my third species of trochaics, which is Everett's tenth.

Measure III.—Trochaic of Six Feet, or Hexameter.

Example.—Health.

This metre appears to be no less rare than the preceding; though, as in that case, I know no good reason why it may not be brought into vogue. Professor John S. Hart says of it: "This is the longest Trochaic verse that seems to have been cultivated."—Hart's Eng. Gram., p. 187. The seeming of its cultivation he doubtless found only in sundry modern grammars. Johnson, Bicknell, Burn, Coar, Ward, Adam,—old grammarians, who vainly profess to have illustrated "every species of English verse,"—make no mention of it; and, with all the grammarians who notice it, one anonymous couplet, passing from hand to hand, has everywhere served to exemplify it.

Of this, "the line of six Trochees," Everett says: "This measure is languishing, and rarely used. The following example is often cited:

Again: "We have the following from BISHOP HEBER:—

Only the first and the third lines of these stanzas are to our purpose," remarks the prosodist. That is, only these he conceived to be "lines of six Trochees." But it is plain, that the third line of the first stanza, having seven long syllables, must have seven feet, and cannot be a trochaic hexameter; and, since the third below should be like it in metre, one can hardly forbear to think the words which I have inserted in brackets, were accidentally omitted.

Further: "It is worthy of remark," says he, "that the second line of each of these stanzas is composed of six Trochees and an additional long syllable. As its corresponding line is an Iambic, and as the piece has some licenses in its construction, it is far safer to conclude that this line is an anomaly than that it forms a distinct species of verse. We must therefore conclude that the tenth [the metre of six trochees] is the longest species of Trochaic line known to English verse."—Everett's Versification, pp. 95 and 96.

This, in view of the examples above, of our longer trochaics, may serve as a comment on the author's boast, that, "having deduced his rules from the usage of the great poets, he has the best reason for being confident of their correctness."—Ibid., Pref., p. 5.

Trochaic hexameter, too, may easily be written with single rhyme; perhaps more easily than a specimen suited to the purpose can be cited from any thing already written. Let me try:—

Example I.—The Sorcerer.

Example II.—An Example of Hart's, Corrected

A couplet of this sort might easily be reduced to a pleasant little stanza, by severing each line after the third foot, thus:—

But a similar succession of eleven syllables, six long and five short, divided after the seventh, leaving two iambs to form the second or shorter line,—(since such a division produces different orders and metres both,—) will, I think, retain but little resemblance in rhythm to the foregoing, though the actual sequence of quantities long and short is the same. If this be so, the particular measure or correspondent length of lines is more essential to the character of a poetic strain than some have supposed. The first four lines of the following extract are an example relevant to this point:—

Ariel's Song.

Measure IV.—Trochaic of Five Feet, or Pentameter

Example I.—Double Rhymes and Single, Alternated.

Example II—Rhymes Otherwise Arranged.

This measure, whether with the final short syllable or without it, is said, by Murray, Everett, and others, to be "very uncommon." Dr. Johnson, and the other old prosodists named with him above, knew nothing of it. Two couplets, exemplifying it, now to be found in sundry grammars, and erroneously reckoned to differ as to the number of their feet, were either selected or composed by Murray, for his Grammar, at its origin—or, if not then, at its first reprint, in 1796. They are these:—

(1.)

L. Murray's Gram., 12mo, 175; 8vo, 257; Chandler's, 196; Churchill's, 187; Hiley's, 126; et al.

(2.)

Murray, same places; N. Butler's Gr., p. 193; Hallock's, 244; Hart's, 187; Weld's, 211; et al.

Richard Hiley most absurdly scans this last couplet, and all verse like it, into "the Heroic measure," or a form of our iambic pentameter; saying, "Sometimes a syllable is cut off from the first foot; as,

J. S. Hart, who, like many others, has mistaken the metre of this last example for "Trochaic Tetrameter," with a surplus "syllable," after repeating the current though rather questionable assertion, that, "this measure is very uncommon," proceeds with our "Trochaic Pentameter," thus: "This species is likewise uncommon. It is composed of five trochees; as,

And again: [[Fist]] "The SAME with an ADDITIONAL accented syllable; as,

These examples appear to have been made for the occasion; and the latter, together with its introduction, made unskillfully. The lines are of five feet, and so are those about the ruddy farmer; but there is nothing "additional" in either case; for, as pentameter, they are all catalectic, the final short syllable being dispensed with, and a cæsura preferred, for the sake of single rhyme, otherwise not attainable. "Five trochees" and a rhyming "syllable" will make trochaic hexameter, a measure perhaps more pleasant than this. See examples above.

Measure V.—Trochaic of Four Feet, or Tetrameter.

Example I.—A Mournful Song.

Example II.—A Song Petitionary.

Example III.—Song of Juno and Ceres.

Example IV.—On the Vowels.

Example V.—Use Time for Good.

Example IV.[sic for VI—KTH]—"The Turkish Lady"—First Four Stanzas.

Example VII.—The Palmer's Morning Hymn.

Example VIII—A Short Song, of Two Stanzas.

Example IX.—Lingering Courtship.

Example X.—"Boadicea"—Four Stanzas from Eleven.

Example XI—"The Thunder Storm"—Two Stanzas from Ten.

Example XII.—"The Triumphs of Owen," King of North Wales.

Example XIII.—"Grongar Hill."—First Twenty-six Lines.

Observations.

OBS. 1.—This is the most common of our trochaic measures; and it seems to be equally popular, whether written with single rhyme, or with double; in stanzas, or in couplets; alone, or with some intentional intermixture. By a careful choice of words and style, it may be adapted to all sorts of subjects, grave, or gay; quaint, or pathetic; as may the corresponding iambic metre, with which it is often more or less mingled, as we see in some of the examples above. Milton's L'Allegro, or Gay Mood, has one hundred and fifty-two lines; ninety-eight of which are iambics; fifty-four trochaic tetrameters; a very few of each order having double rhymes. These orders the poet has not—"very ingeniously alternated" as Everett avers; but has simply interspersed, or commingled, with little or no regard to alternation. His Il Penseroso, or Grave Mood, has twenty-seven trochaic tetrameters, mixed irregularly with one hundred and forty-nine iambics.

OBS. 2.—Everett, who divides our trochaic tetrameters into two species of metre, imagines that the catalectic form, or that which is single-rhymed, "has a solemn effect,"—"imparts to all pieces more dignity than any of the other short measures,"—"that no trivial or humorous subject should be treated in this measure,"—and that, "besides dignity, it imparts an air of sadness to the subject."—English Verses., p. 87. Our "line of four trochees" he supposes to be "difficult of construction,"—"not of very frequent occurrence,"—"the most agreeable of all the trochaic measures,"—"remarkably well adapted to lively subjects,"—and "peculiarly expressive of the eagerness and fickleness of the passion of love."—Ib., p. 90. These pretended metrical characteristics seem scarcely more worthy of reliance, than astrological predictions, or the oracular guessings of our modern craniologists.

OBS. 3.—Dr. Campbell repeats a suggestion of the older critics, that gayety belongs naturally to all trochaics, as such, and gravity or grandeur, as naturally, to iambics; and he attempts to find a reason for the fact; while, perhaps, even here—more plausible though the supposition is—the fact may be at least half imaginary. "The iambus," says he, "is expressive of dignity and grandeur; the trochee, on the contrary, according to Aristotle, (Rhet. Lib. Ill,) is frolicsome and gay. It were difficult to assign a reason of this difference that would be satisfactory; but of the thing itself, I imagine, most people will be sensible on comparing the two kinds together. I know not whether it will be admitted as a sufficient reason, that the distinction into metrical feet hath a much greater influence in poetry on the rise and fall of the voice, than the distinction into words; and if so, when the cadences happen mostly after the long syllables, the verse will naturally have an air of greater gravity than when they happen mostly after the short."—Campbell's Philosophy of Rhetoric, p. 354.

Measure Vi.—Trochaic of Three Feet, or Trimeter.

Example I.—Youth and Age Contrasted.

Example II—Common Sense and Genius.

This short measure is much oftener used in stanzas, than in couplets. It is, in many instances, combined with some different order or metre of verse, as in the following:—

Example III.—Part of a Song.

Example IV.—From an Ode to the Thames.

Example V.—"The True Poet"—First Two of Nine Stanzas.

Example VI.—"Summer Longings"—First Two of Five Stanzas.

Measure VII.—Trochaic of Two Feet, or Dimeter.

Example I.—Three Short Excerpts.

_Example II.—Specimen with Single Rhyme.

"To Quinbus Flestrin, the Man-Mountain"_

A Lilliputian Ode

I.

II.

III.

Example III.—Two Feet with Four.

Example IV.—Lines of Three Syllables with Longer Metres.

1. With Trochaics.

2. With Iambics.

Example V.—"The Shower."—In Four Regular Stanzas.

Example VI.—"A Good Name?"—Two Beautiful Little Stanzas.

Observations.

OBS. 1.—Trochaics of two feet, like those of three, are, more frequently than otherwise, found in connexion with longer lines, as in some of the examples above cited. The trochaic line of three syllables, which our prosodists in general describe as consisting, not of two feet; but "of one Trochee and a long syllable," may, when it stands alone, be supposed to consist of one amphimac; but, since this species of foot is not admitted by all, and is reckoned a secondary one by those who do admit it, the better practice is, to divide even the three syllables into two feet, as above.

OBS. 2.—Murray, Hart, Weld, and many others, erroneously affirm, that, "The shortest Trochaic verse in our language, consists of one Trochee and a long syllable."—Murray's Gram., p. 256; Hart's, First Edition, p. 186; Weld's, Second Edition, p. 210. The error of this will be shown by examples below—examples of true "Trochaic Monometer," and not of Dimeter mistaken for it, like Weld's, Hart's, or Murray's.

OBS. 3.—These authors also aver, that, "This measure is defective in dignity, and can seldom be used on serious occasions."—Same places. "Trochaic of two feet—is likewise so brief, that," in their opinion, "it is rarely used for any very serious purpose."—Same places. Whether the expression of love, or of its disappointment, is "any very serious purpose" or not, I leave to the decision of the reader. What lack of dignity or seriousness there is, in several of the foregoing examples, especially the last two, I think it not easy to discover.

Measure VIII.—Trochaic of One Foot, or Monometer.

Examples with Longer Metres.

1. With Iambics.

2. WITH ANAPESTICS, &c.

"T~o l=ove ~and t~o l=angu~ish,
T~o s=igh | ~and c~ompl=ain,
H~ow cr=u~el's th~e =angu~ish!
H~ow t~orm=ent | -~ing th~e p=ain!
Suing,
Pursuing,
Flying,
Denying,
O the curse | of disdain!
How torment | -ing's the pain!"
GEO. GRANVILLE: Br. Poets, Vol. v, p. 31.

Observations.

OBS. 1.—The metres acknowledged in our ordinary schemes of prosody, scarcely amount, with all their "boundless variety," to more than one half, or three quarters, of what may be found in actual use somewhere. Among the foregoing examples, are some which are longer, and some which are shorter, than what are commonly known to our grammarians; and some, also, which seem easily practicable, though perhaps not so easily quotable. This last trochaic metre, so far as I know, has not been used alone,—that is, without longer lines,—except where grammarians so set examples of it in their prosodies.

OBS. 2.—"Trochaic of One foot," as well as "Iambic of One foot," was, I believe, first recognized, prosodically, in Brown's Institutes of English Grammar, a work first published in 1823. Since that time, both have obtained acknowledgement in sundry schemes of versification, contained in the new grammars; as in Farnum's, and Hallock's, of 1842; in Pardon Davis's, of 1845; in S. W. Clark's, and S. S. Greene's, of 1848; in Professor Fowler's, of 1850. Wells, in his School Grammar, of 1846, and D. C. Allen, in an other, of 1847, give to the length of lines a laxity positively absurd: "Rhymed verses," say they, "may consist of any number of syllables."—Wells, 1st Ed., p. 187; late Ed., 204; Allen, p. 88. Everett has recognized "The line of a single Trochee," though he repudiates some long measures that are much more extensively authorized.