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Chapter 33

Order III.—Anapestic Verse

In full Anapestic verse, the stress is laid on every third syllable, the first two syllables of each foot being short. The first foot of an anapestic line, may be an iambus. This is the most frequent diversification of the order. But, as a diversification, it is, of course, not regular or uniform. The stated or uniform adoption of the iambus for a part of each line, and of the anapest for the residue of it, produces verse of the Composite Order. As the anapest ends with a long syllable, its rhymes are naturally single; and a short syllable after this, producing double rhyme, is, of course, supernumerary: so are the two, when the rhyme is triple. Some prosodists suppose, a surplus at the end of a line may compensate for a deficiency at the beginning of the next line; but this I judge to be an error, or at least the indulgence of a questionable license. The following passage has two examples of what may have been meant for such compensation, the author having used a dash where I have inserted what seems to be a necessary word:—

The anapestic measures are few; because their feet are long, and no poet has chosen to set a great many in a line. Possibly lines of five anapests, or of four and an initial iambus, might be written; for these would scarcely equal in length some of the iambics and trochaics already exhibited. But I do not find any examples of such metre. The longest anapestics that have gained my notice, are of fourteen syllables, being tetrameters with triple rhyme, or lines of four anapests and two short surplus syllables. This order consists therefore of measures reducible to the following heads:—

Measure I.—Anapestic of Four Feet, or Tetrameter.

Example I.—A "Postscript."—An Example with Hypermeter.

Example II.—"The Feast of the Poets."—First Twelve Lines.

Example III.—The Crowning of Four Favourites.

Example IV.—"Glenara."—First Two of Eight Stanzas.

Example V.—"Lochiel's Warning."—Ten Lines from Eighty-six.

Example VI.—"The Exile of Erin."—The First of Five Stanzas.

Example VII.—"The Poplar Field."

Observations.

OBS. 1.—Everett avers, that, "The purely Anapestic measure is more easily constructed than the Trochee, [Trochaic,] and of much more frequent occurrence."—English Versification, p. 97. Both parts of this assertion are at least very questionable; and so are this author's other suggestions, that, "The Anapest is [necessarily] the vehicle of gayety and joy;" that, "Whenever this measure is employed in the treating of sad subjects, the effect is destroyed;" that, "Whoever should attempt to write an elegy in this measure, would be sure to fail;" that, "The words might express grief, but the measure would express joy;" that, "The Anapest should never be employed throughout a long piece;" because "buoyancy of spirits can never be supposed to last,"—"sadness never leaves us, BUT joy remains but for a moment;" and, again, because, "the measure is exceedingly monotonous."—Ibid., pp. 97 and 98.

OBS. 2.—Most anapestic poetry, so far as I know, is in pieces of no great length; but Leigh Hunt's "Feast of the Poets," which is thrice cited above, though not a long poem, may certainly be regarded as "a long piece," since it extends through fifteen pages, and contains four hundred and thirty-one lines, all, or nearly all, of anapestic tetrameter. And, surely, no poet had ever more need of a metre well suited to his purpose, than he, who, intending a critical as well as a descriptive poem, has found so much fault with the versification of others. Pope, as a versifier, was regarded by this author, "not only as no master of his art, but as a very indifferent practiser."—Notes on the Feast of the Poets, p. 35. His "monotonous and cloying" use of numbers, with that of Darwin, Goldsmith, Johnson, Haley, and others of the same "school," is alleged to have wrought a general corruption of taste in respect to versification—a fashion that has prevailed, not temporarily,

"But ever since Pope spoil'd the ears of the town With his cuckoo-song verses, half up and half down"—Ib.

OBS. 3.—Excessive monotony is thus charged by one critic upon all verse of "the purely Anapestic measure;" and, by an other, the same fault is alleged in general terms against all the poetry "of the school of Pope," well-nigh the whole of which is iambic. The defect is probably in either case, at least half imaginary; and, as for the inherent joyousness of anapestics, that is perhaps not less ideal. Father Humphrey says, "Anapæstic and amphibrachic verse, being similar in measure and movement, are pleasing to the ear, and well adapted to cheerful and humourous compositions; and sometimes to elegiac compositions, and subjects important and solemn."—Humphrey's English Prosody, p. 17.

OBS. 4.—The anapest, the dactyl, and the amphibrach, have this in common,—that each, with one long syllable, takes two short ones. Hence there is a degree of similarity in their rhythms, or in their several effects upon the ear; and consequently lines of each order, (or of any two, if the amphibrachic be accounted a separate order,) are sometimes commingled. But the propriety of acknowledging an order of "Amphibrachic verse," as does Humphrey, is more than doubtful; because, by so doing, we not only recognize the amphibrach as one of the principal feet, but make a vast number of lines ambiguous in their scansion. For our Amphibrachic order will be made up of lines that are commonly scanned as anapestics—such anapestics as are diversified by an iambus at the beginning, and sometimes also by a surplus short syllable at the end; as in the following verses, better divided as in the sixth example above:—

Measure II.—Anapestic of Three Feet, or Trimeter.

Example I.—"Alexander Selkirk."—First Two Stanzas.

I.

II.

Example II.—"Catharina."—Two Stanzas from Seven.

IV.

V.

Example III.—"A Pastoral Ballad."—Two Stanzas from Twenty-seven.

(8.)

(9)

Anapestic lines of four feet and of three are sometimes alternated in a stanza, as in the following instance:—

Example IV.—"The Rose."

Measure III.—Anapestic of Two Feet, or Dimeter.

Example I.—Lines with Hypermeter and Double Rhyme.

"Coronach," or Funeral Song.

Example II.—Exact Lines of Two Anapests.

Example III—An Ode, from the French of Malherbe.

"Cette Anne si belle,
Qu'on vante si fort,
Pourquoi ne vient elle?
Vraiment, elle a tort!
Son Louis soupire,
Après ses appas;
Que veut elle dire,
Qu'elle ne vient pas?
S'il ne la posséde,
Il s'en va mourir;
Donnons y reméde,
Allons la quérir."
WILLIAM KING, LL. D.: Johnson's British Poets, Vol. iii, p. 590.

Example IV.—'Tis the Last Rose of Summer.

Example V.—Nemesis Calling up the Dead Astarte.

Example VI.—Anapestic Dimeter with Trimeter.

First Voice.

Second Voice.

Example VII.—Anapestic Dimeter with Tetrameter.

AIR.

Measure IV.—Anapestic of One Foot, or Monometer.

This measure is rarely if ever used except in connexion with longer lines. The following example has six anapestics of two feet, and two of one; but the latter, being verses of double rhyme, have each a surplus short syllable; and four of the former commence with the iambus:—

Example I.—A Song in a Drama.

"Now, mor |-tal, prepare,
For thy fate | is at hand;
Now, mor |-tal, prepare,
~And s~urr=en |-d~er.

For Love | shall arise,
Whom no pow'r | can withstand,
Who rules | from the skies
T~o th~e c=en |-tr~e."
GRANVILLE, VISCOUNT LANSDOWNE: Joh. Brit. Poets, Vol. v, p. 49.

The following extract, (which is most properly to be scanned as anapestic, though considerably diversified,) has two lines, each of which is pretty evidently composed of a single anapest:—

Example II.—A Chorus in the Same.

Observations.

OBS. 1.—That a single anapest, a single foot of any kind, or even a single long syllable, may be, and sometimes is, in certain rather uncommon instances, set as a line, is not to be denied. "Dr. Caustic," or T. G. Fessenden, in his satirical "Directions for Doing Poetry," uses in this manner the monosyllables, "Whew," "Say," and "Dress" and also the iambs, "The gay" and, "All such," rhyming them with something less isolated.

OBS. 2.—Many of our grammarians give anonymous examples of what they conceive to be "Anapestic Monometer," or "the line of one anapest," while others—(as Allen, Bullions, Churchill, and Hiley—) will have the length of two anapests to be the shortest measure of this order. Prof. Hart says, "The shortest anapæstic verse is a single anapæst; as,

'~In =a sw=eet
R~es~on=ance,

~All th~eir f=eet
~In th=e d=ance

~All th=e n=ight
T~inkl~ed l=ight.'

This measure," it is added, "is, however, ambiguous; for by laying an accent on the first, as well as the third syllable, we may generally make it a trochaic."—Hart's English Gram., p. 188. The same six versicles are used as an example by Prof. Fowler, who, without admitting any ambiguity in the measure, introduces them, rather solecistically, thus: "Each of the following lines consist of a single Anapest."—Fowler's E. Gram., 8vo, 1850, §694.

OBS. 3.—Verses of three syllables, with the second short, the last long, and the first common, or variable, are, it would seem, doubly doubtful in scansion; for, while the first syllable, if made short, gives us an anapest, to make it long, gives either an amphimac or what is virtually two trochees. For reasons of choice in the latter case, see Observation 1st on Trochaic Dimeter. For the fixing of variable quantities, since the case admits no other rule, regard should be had to the analogy of the verse, and also to the common principles of accentuation. It is doubtless possible to read the six short lines above, into the measure of so many anapests; but, since the two monosyllables "In" and "All" are as easily made long as short, whoever considers the common pronunciation of the longer words, "Resonance" and "Tinkled," may well doubt whether the learned professors have, in this instance, hit upon the right mode of scansion. The example may quite as well be regarded either as Trochaic Dimeter, cataletic, or as Amphimacric Monometer, acatalectic. But the word resonance, being accented usually on the first syllable only, is naturally a dactyl; and, since the other five little verses end severally with a monosyllable, which can be varied in quantity, it is possible to read them all as being dactylics; and so the whole may be regarded as trebly doubtful with respect to the measure.

OBS. 4.—L. Murray says, "The shortest anapæstic verse must be a single anapæst; as,

B~ut ~in v=ain
They complain."

And then he adds, "This measure is, however, ambiguous; for, by laying the stress of the voice on the first and third syllables, we might make a trochaic. And therefore the first and simplest form of our genuine Anapæstic verse, is made up of two anapæsts."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 257; 12mo, p. 207. This conclusion is utterly absurd, as well as completely contradictory to his first assertion. The genuineness of this small metre depends not at all on what may be made of the same words by other pronunciation; nor can it be a very natural reading of this passage, that gives to "But" and "They" such emphasis as will make them long.

OBS. 5.—Yet Chandler, in his improved grammar of 1847, has not failed to repeat the substance of all this absurdity and self-contradiction, carefully dressing it up in other language, thus: "Verses composed of single Anapæsts are frequently found in stanzas of songs; and the same is true of several of the other kinds of feet; but we may consider the first [i.e., shortest] form of anapæstic verse as consisting of two Anapæsts."—Chandler's Common School Gram., p. 196.

OBS. 6.—Everett, speaking of anapestic lines, says, "The first and shortest of these is composed of a single Anapest following an Iambus."—English Versification, p. 99. This not only denies the existence of Anapestic Monometer, but improperly takes for the Anapestic verse what is, by the statement itself, half Iambic, and therefore of the Composite Order. But the false assertion is plainly refuted even by the author himself and on the same page. For, at the bottom of the page, he has this contradictory note: "It has been remarked (§15) that though the Iambus with an additional short syllable is the shortest line that is known to Iambic verse, there are isolated instances of a single Iambus, and even of a single long syllable. There are examples of lines made up of a single Anapest, as the following example will show:—

'Jove in his chair,
Of the sky lord mayor,
With his nods
Men and gods
Keeps in awe;
When he winks,
Heaven shrinks;
* * * *

Cock of the school,
He bears despotic rule;
His word,
Though absurd,
Must be law.
Even Fate,
Though so great,
Must not prate;

His bald pate
Jove would cuff,
He's so bluff,
For a straw.
Cowed deities,
Like mice in cheese,
To stir must cease
Or gnaw.'

O'HARA:—Midas, Act i, Sc. 1."—Everett's Versification, p. 99