The Grammar of English Grammars by Gould Brown

_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 anapaestic verse is a _single_ anapaest; 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, Sec.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 anapaestic verse must be a single anapaest_; 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 Anapaestic verse, is made up of _two anapaests_.”–_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 Anapaests _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 anapaestic verse as consisting of _two_ Anapaests.”–_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 (Sec.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

ORDER IV.–DACTYLIC VERSE.

In pure Dactylic verse, the stress is laid on the first syllable of each successive three; that is, on the first, the fourth, the seventh, and the tenth syllable of each line of four feet. Full dactylic generally forms triple rhyme. When one of the final short syllables is omitted, the rhyme is double; when both, single. These omissions are here essential to the formation of such rhymes. Dactylic with double rhyme, ends virtually with a _trochee_; dactylic with single rhyme, commonly ends with a _caesura_; that is, with a long syllable taken for a foot. Dactylic with single rhyme is the same as anapestic would be without its initial short syllables. Dactylic verse is rather uncommon; and, when employed, is seldom perfectly pure and regular.

MEASURE I.–DACTYLIC OF EIGHT FEET, OR OCTOMETER.

_Example.–Nimrod._

MEASURE II.–DACTYLIC OF SEVEN FEET, OR HEPTAMETER.

_Example.–Christ’s Kingdom._

MEASURE III.–DACTYLIC OF SIX FEET, OR HEXAMETER.

_Example I.–Time in Motion._

_Example II.–Where, is Grand-Pre?_

MEASURE IV.–DACTYLIC OF FIVE FEET, OR PENTAMETER.

_Example.–Salutation to America._

MEASURE V.–DACTYLIC OF FOUR FEET, OR TETRAMETER.

_Example 1–The Soldier’s Wife._

_Example II.–Boys.–A Dactylic Stanza_.

_Example III–“Labour.”–The First of Five Stanzas_.

_Example IV.–“Boat Song.”–First Stanza of Four._

MEASURE VI.–DACTYLIC OF THREE FEET, OR TRIMETER.

_Example.–To the Katydid._

MEASURE VII.–DACTYLIC OF TWO FEET, OR DIMETER.

_Example I.–The Bachelor.–Four Lines from Many._

“Free from sa | -tiety,
Care, and anx | -iety,
Charms in va | -riety,
Fall to his | share.”–ANON.: _Newspaper_.

_Example II.–The Pibroch.–Sixteen Lines from Forty._

_Example III.–“My Boy.”_

_’There is even a happiness that makes the heart afraid.’_–HOOD.

1.
“One more new | claimant for
Human fra | -ternity,
Swelling the | flood that sweeps
On to e | -ternity;

I who have | filled the cup,
Tremble to | think of it;
For, be it | what it may,
I must yet | drink of it.

MEASURE VIII.–DACTYLIC OF ONE FOOT, OR MONOMETER.

“Fearfully,
Tearfully.”

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.–A single dactyl, set as a line, can scarcely be used otherwise than as part of a stanza, and in connexion with longer verses. The initial accent and triple rhyme make it necessary to have something else with it. Hence this short measure is much less common than the others, which are accented differently. Besides, the line of three syllables, as was noticed in the observations on Anapestic Monometer, is often peculiarly uncertain in regard to the measure which it should make. A little difference in the laying of emphasis or accent may, in many instances, change it from one species of verse to an other. Even what seems to be dactylic of two feet, if the last syllable be sufficiently lengthened to admit of single rhyme with the full metre, becomes somewhat doubtful in its scansion; because, in such case, the last foot maybe reckoned an _amphimac_, or _amphimacer_. Of this, the following stanzas from Barton’s lines “to the Gallic Eagle,” (or to Bonaparte on St. Helena,) though different from all the rest of the piece, may serve as a specimen:–

“Far from the | _battle’s shock_,
Fate hath fast | bound thee;
Chain’d to the | _rugged rock_,
Waves warring | round thee.

[Now, for] the | _trumpet’s sound_, Sea-birds are | shrieking;
Hoarse on thy | _rampart’s bound_, Billows are | breaking.”

OBS. 2.–This may be regarded as verse of the Composite Order; and, perhaps, more properly so, than as Dactylic with mere incidental variations. Lines like those in which the questionable foot is here Italicized, may be united with longer dactylics, and thus produce a stanza of great beauty and harmony. The following is a specimen. It is a song, written by I know not whom, but set to music by Dempster. The twelfth line is varied to a different measure.

“ADDRESS TO THE SKYLARK.”

OBS. 3.–It is observed by Churchill, (_New Gram._, p. 387,) that, “Shakspeare has used the dactyl, as appropriate to mournful occasions.” The chief example which he cites, is the following:–

OBS. 4.–These six lines of Dactylic (or Composite) Dimeter are subjoined by the poet to four of Trochaic Tetrameter. There does not appear to me to be any particular adaptation of either measure to mournful subjects, more than to others; but later instances of this metre may be cited, in which such is the character of the topic treated. The following long example consists of lines of two feet, most of them dactylic only; but, of the seventy-six, there are twelve which _may_ be otherwise divided, and as many more which _must_ be, because they commence with a short syllable.

“THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS.”–BY THOMAS HOOD.

Alas, for the rarity
Of Christian charity
Under the | sun!
O, it was | pitiful!
Near a whole | city full,
Home she had | none.

Where the lamps | quiver
So far in the river,
With many a light,
From window and casement,
From garret to basement,
She stood, with amazement,
Houseless, by | night.

OBS. 5.–As each of our principal feet,–the Iambus, the Trochee, the Anapest, and the Dactyl,–has always one, and only one long syllable; it should follow, that, in each of our principal orders of verse,–the Iambic, the Trochaic, the Anapestic, and the Dactylic,–any line, not diversified by a secondary foot, must be reckoned to contain just as many feet as long syllables. So, too, of the Amphibrach, and any line reckoned Amphibrachic. But it happens, that the common error by which single-rhymed Trochaics have so often been counted a foot _shorter_ than they are, is also extended by some writers to single-rhymed Dactylics–the rhyming syllable, if long, being esteemed _supernumerary!_ For example, three dactylic stanzas, in each of which a pentameter couplet is followed by a hexameter line, and this again by a heptameter, are introduced by Prof. Hart thus: “The _Dactylic Tetrameter, Pentameter_, and _Hexameter_, with the _additional_ or _hypermeter syllable_, are all found combined in the following extraordinary specimen of versification. * * * This is the only specimen of Dactylic _hexameter_ or even _pentameter_ verse that the author recollects to have seen.”

LAMENT OF ADAM.

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,

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_.

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._

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.

Air 2.

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.”_

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.–Composite verse, especially if the lines be short, is peculiarly liable to uncertainty, and diversity of scansion; and that which does not always abide by one chosen order of quantities, can scarcely be found agreeable; it must be more apt to puzzle than to please the reader. The eight stanzas of this last example, have eight lines of _iambic trimeter_; and, since seven times in eight, this metre holds the first place in the stanza, it is a double fault, that one such line seems strayed from its proper position. It would be better to prefix the word _Now_ to the fourth line, and to mend the forty-third thus:–

“And should | I live | to be”–

The trissyllabic feet of this piece, as I scan it, are numerous; being the sixteen short lines of monometer, and the twenty-four initial feet of the lines of seven syllables. Every one of the forty–(except the thirty-sixth, “_The_ last leaf”–) begins with a monosyllable which may be varied in quantity; so that, with stress laid on this monosyllable, the foot becomes an _amphimac_; without such stress, an _anapest_.

OBS. 2.–I incline to read this piece as composed of iambs and anapests; but E. A. Poe, who has commended “the effective harmony of these lines,” and called the example “an excellently well conceived and well managed specimen of versification,” counts many syllables long, which such a reading makes short, and he also divides all but the iambics in a way quite different from mine, thus: “Let us scan the first stanza.

This,” says he, “is the general scansion of the poem. We have first three iambuses. The second line shifts the _rhythm_ into the _trochaic_, giving us three trochees, with a caesura equivalent, in this case, to a trochee. The third line is a trochee and equivalent caesura.”–POE’S NOTES UPON ENGLISH VERSE: _Pioneer_, p. 109. These quantities are the same as those by which the whole piece is made to consist of iambs and amphimacs.

OBS. 3.–In its _rhythmical effect_ upon the ear, a supernumerary short syllable at the end of a line, may sometimes, perhaps, compensate for the want of such a syllable at the beginning of the next line, as may be seen in the fourth example above; but still it is unusual, and seems improper, to suppose such syllables to belong to the scansion of the subsequent line; for the division of lines, with their harmonic pauses, is greater than the division of feet, and implies that no foot can ever actually be split by it. Poe has suggested that the division into lines may be disregarded in scanning, and sometimes must be. He cites for an example the beginning of Byron’s “Bride of Abydos,”–a passage which has been admired for its easy flow, and which, he says, has greatly puzzled those who have attempted to scan it. Regarding it as essentially anapestic tetrameter, yet as having some initial iambs, and the first and fifth lines dactylic, I shall here divide it accordingly, thus:–

OBS. 4.–These lines this ingenious prosodist divides not thus, but, throwing them together like prose unpunctuated, finds in them “a regular succession of _dactylic rhythms_, varied only at three points by equivalent _spondees_, and separated into two distinct divisions by equivalent terminating _caesuras_.” He imagines that, “By all who have ears–not over long–this will be acknowledged as the true and the sole true scansion.”–_E. A. Poe: Pioneer_, p. 107. So it may, for aught I know; but, having dared to show there is an other way quite as simple and plain, and less objectionable, I submit both to the judgement of the reader:–

OBS. 5.–In the sum and proportion of their quantities, the anapest, the dactyl, and the amphibrach, are equal, each having two syllables short to one long; and, with two short quantities between two long ones, lines may be tolerably accordant in rhythm, though the order, at the commencement, be varied, and their number of syllables be not equal. Of the following sixteen lines, nine are pure anapestic tetrameters; one _may_ be reckoned dactylic, but it may quite as well be said to have a trochee, an iambus, and two anapests or two amphimacs; one is a spondee and three anapests; and the rest _may_ be scanned as amphibrachics ending with an iambus, but are more properly anapestics commencing with an iambus. Like the preceding example from Byron, they lack the uniformity of proper composites, and are rather to be regarded as anapestics irregularly diversified.

THE ALBATROSS.

“‘Tis said the Albatross never rests.”–_Buffon_.

OBS. 6.–It appears that the most noted measures of the Greek and Latin poets were not of any simple order, but either composites, or mixtures too various to be called composites. It is not to be denied, that we have much difficulty in reading them rhythmically, according to their stated feet and scansion; and so we should have, in reading our own language rhythmically, in any similar succession of feet. Noticing this in respect to the Latin Hexameter, or Heroic verse, Poe says, “Now the discrepancy in question is not observable in English metres; where the scansion coincides with the reading, _so far as the rhythm is concerned_–that is to say, if we pay no attention to the _sense_ of the passage. But these facts indicate _a radical difference_ in the genius of the two languages, as regards their capacity for modulation. In truth, * * * the Latin is a far more _stately_ tongue than our own. It is essentially spondaic; the English is as essentially dactylic.”–_Pioneer_, p. 110. (See the marginal note in Sec.3d. at Obs. 22d, above.) Notwithstanding this difference, discrepance, or difficulty, whatever it may be, some of our poets have, in a few instances, attempted imitations of certain Latin metres; which imitations it may be proper briefly to notice under the present head. The Greek or Latin Hexameter line has, of course, six feet, or pulsations. According to the Prosodies, the first four of these may be either dactyls or spondees; the fifth is always, or nearly always, a dactyl; and the sixth, or last, is always a spondee: as,

Of this sort of verse, in English, somebody has framed the following very fair example:–

OBS. 7.–Of this species of versification, which may be called Mixed or Composite Hexameter, the most considerable specimen that I have seen in English, is Longfellow’s Evangeline, a poem of one thousand three hundred and eighty-two of these long lines, or verses. This work has found admirers, and not a few; for, of these, nothing written by so distinguished a scholar could fail: but, surely, not many of the verses in question exhibit truly the feet of the ancient Hexameters; or, if they do, the ancients contented themselves with very imperfect rhythms, even in their noblest heroics. In short, I incline to the opinion of Poe, that, “Nothing less than the deservedly high reputation of Professor Longfellow, could have sufficed to give currency to his lines as to Greek Hexameters. In general, they are neither one thing nor another. Some few of them are dactylic verses–English dactylics. But do away with the division into lines, and the most astute critic would never have suspected them of any thing more than prose.”–_Pioneer_, p. 111. The following are the last ten lines of the volume, with such a division into feet as the poet is presumed to have contemplated:–

OBS. 8.–An other form of verse, common to the Greeks and Romans, which has sometimes been imitated–or, rather, which some writers have _attempted to imitate_–in English, is the line or stanza called Sapphic, from the inventress, Sappho, a Greek poetess. The Sapphic verse, according to Fabricius, Smetius, and all good authorities, has eleven syllables, making “five feet–the first a trochee, the second a spondee, the third a dactyl, and the fourth and fifth trochees.” The Sapphic stanza, or what is sometimes so called, consists of three Sapphic lines and an Adonian, or Adonic,–this last being a short line composed of “a dactyl and a spondee.” Example from Horace:–

To arrange eleven syllables in a line, and have half or more of them to form trochees, is no difficult matter; but, to find _rhythm_ in the succession of “a trochee, a spondee, and a dactyl,” as we read words, seems hardly practicable. Hence few are the English Sapphics, if there be any, which abide by the foregoing formule of quantities and feet. Those which I have seen, are generally, if not in every instance, susceptible of a more natural scansion as being composed of trochees, with a dactyl, or some other foot of three syllables, at the _beginning_ of each line. The caesural pause falls sometimes after the fourth syllable, but more generally, and much more agreeably, after the fifth. Let the reader inspect the following example, and see if he do not agree with me in laying the accent on only the first syllable of each foot, as the feet are here divided. The accent, too, must be carefully laid. Without considerable care in the reading, the hearer will not suppose the composition to be any thing but prose:–

“THE WIDOW.”–(IN “SAPPHICS.”)

Among the lyric poems of Dr. Watts, is one, entitled, “THE DAY OF JUDGEMENT; _an Ode attempted in English Sapphic_.” It is perhaps as good an example as we have of the species. It consists of nine stanzas, of which I shall here cite the first three, dividing them into feet as above:–

“These lines,” says Humphrey, who had cited the first four, “are good English Sapphics, and contain the essential traits of the original as nearly as the two languages, Greek and English, correspond to each other. This stanza, together with the poem, from which this was taken, may stand for a model, in our English compositions.”–_Humphrey’s E. Prosody_, p. 19. This author erroneously supposed, that the trissyllabic foot, in any line of the Sapphic stanza, must occupy the second place: and, judging of the ancient feet and quantities by what he found, or supposed he found, in the English imitations, and not by what the ancient prosodists say of them, yet knowing that the ancient and the modern Sapphics are in several respects unlike, he presented forms of scansion for both, which are not only peculiar to himself, but not well adapted to either. “We have,” says he, “no established rule for this kind of verse, in our English compositions, which has been uniformly adhered to. The rule for which, in Greek and Latin verse, _as far as I can ascertain_, was this: = ~ | = = = | ~ ~ |= ~ | = = a trochee, a _moloss_, a _pyrrhic_, a trochee, and [a] _spondee_; and _sometimes, occasionally_, a trochee, instead of a spondee, at the end. But as our language is not favourable to the use of the spondee and moloss, the moloss is seldom or never used in our English Sapphics; but, instead of which, some other _trissyllable_ foot is used. Also, instead of the spondee, a trochee is commonly used; and sometimes a trochee instead of the pyrrhic, in the third place. As some prescribed rule, or model for imitation, may be necessary, in this case, I will cite a stanza from one of our best English poets, which may serve for a model.

OBS. 12.–In “the Works of George Canning,” a small book published in 1829, there is a poetical dialogue of nine stanzas, entitled, “The Friend of Humanity and the Knife-Grinder,” said to be “a burlesque on Mr. Southey’s Sapphics.” The metre appears to be near enough like to the foregoing. But these verses I divide, as I have divided the others, into trochees with initial dactyls. At the commencement, the luckier party salutes the other thus:–

OBS. 13.–Among the humorous poems of Thomas Green Fessenden, published under the sobriquet of Dr. Caustic, or “Christopher Caustic, M. D.,” may be seen an other comical example of Sapphics, which extends to eleven stanzas. It describes a contra-dance, and is entitled, “Horace Surpassed.” The conclusion is as follows:–

“Willy Wagnimble dancing with Flirtilla, Almost as light as air-balloon inflated, Rigadoons around her, ’till the lady’s heart is Forced to surrender.

Benny Bamboozle cuts the drollest capers, Just like a camel, or a hippopot’mus;
Jolly Jack Jumble makes as big a rout as Forty Dutch horses.

See Angelina lead the mazy dance down; Never did fairy trip it so fantastic;
How my heart flutters, while my tongue pronounces, ‘Sweet little seraph!’

Such are the joys that flow from contra-dancing, Pure as the primal happiness of Eden,
Love, mirth, and music, kindle in accordance Raptures extatic.”–_Poems_, p. 208.

SECTION V.–ORAL EXERCISES.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE PROSODY, OR ERRORS OF METRE.

LESSON I.–RESTORE THE RHYTHM.

“The lion is laid down in his lair.”–_O. B. Peirce’s Gram._, p. 134.

[FORMULE.–Not proper, because the word “_lion_,” here put for Cowper’s word “_beast_” destroys the metre, and changes the line to prose. But, according to the definition given on p. 827, “Verse, in opposition to prose, is language arranged into metrical lines of some determinate length and rhythm–language so ordered as to produce harmony by a due succession of poetic feet.” This line was composed of one iamb and two anapests; and, to such form, it should be restored, thus: “The _beast_ is laid down in his lair.”–_Cowper’s Poems_, Vol. i, p. 201.]

“Where is thy true treasure? Gold says, not in me.” –_Hallock’s Gram._, 1842, p. 66.

“Canst thou grow sad, thou sayest, as earth grows bright?” –_Frazee’s Gram._, 1845, p. 140.

“It must be so, Plato, thou reasonest well.” –_Wells’s Gram._, 1846, p. 122.

“Slow rises merit, when by poverty depressed.” –_Ib._, p. 195; _Hiley_, 132; _Hart_, 179.

“Rapt in future times, the bard begun.” –_Wells’s Gram._, 1846, p. 153.

“Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens To wash it white as snow? Whereunto serves mercy, But to confront the visage of offence!” –_Hallock’s Gram._, 1842, p. 118.

“Look! in this place ran Cassius’s dagger through.” –_Kames, El. of Cr._, Vol. i, p. 74.

“—-When they list their lean and flashy songs, Harsh grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw.” –_Jamieson’s Rhet._, p. 135.

“Did not great Julius bleed for justice’s sake?” –_Dodd’s Beauties of Shak._, p. 253.

“Did not great Julius bleed for justice sake?” –_Singer’s Shakspeare_, Vol. ii, p. 266.

“May I, unblam’d, express thee? Since God is light.” –_O. B. Peirce’s Gram._, p. 290.

“Or hearest thou, rather, pure ethereal stream!” –_2d Perversion, ib._

“Republics; kingdoms; empires, may decay; Princes, heroes, sages, sink to nought.” –_O. B. Peirce’s Gram._, p. 287.

“Thou bringest, gay creature as thou art, A solemn image to my heart.”
–_E. J. Hallock’s Gram._, p. 197.

“Know thyself presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is Man.”
–_O. B. Peirce’s Gram._, p. 285.

“Raised on a hundred pilasters of gold.” –_Charlemagne_, C. i, St. 40.

“Love in Adalgise’s breast has fixed his sting.” –_Ib._, C. i, St. 30.

“Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November,
February twenty-eight alone,
All the rest thirty and one.”
_Colet’s Grammar, or Paul’s Accidence_. Lond., 1793, p. 75.

LESSON II.–RESTORE THE RHYTHM.

“‘Twas not the fame of what he once had been, Or tales in old records and annals seen.” –_Rowe’s Lucan_, B. i, l. 274.

“And Asia now and Afric are explor’d, For high-priced dainties, and citron board.” –_Eng. Poets: ib._, B. i, l. 311.

“Who knows not, how the trembling judge beheld The peaceful court with arm’d legions fill’d?” –_Eng. Poets; ib._, B. i, l. 578.

“With thee the Scythian wilds we’ll wander o’er, With thee burning Libyan sands explore.” –_Eng. Poets: ib._, B. i, l. 661.

“Hasty and headlong different paths they tread, As blind impulse and wild distraction lead.” –_Eng. Poets: ib._, B. i, l. 858.

“But Fate reserv’d to perform its doom, And be the minister of wrath to Rome.” –_Eng. Poets: ib._, B. ii, l. 136.

“Thus spoke the youth. When Cato thus exprest The sacred counsels of his most inmost breast.” –_Eng. Poets: ib._, B. ii, l. 435.

“These were the strict manners of the man, And this the stubborn course in which they ran; The golden mean unchanging to pursue,
Constant to keep the proposed end in view.” –_Eng. Poets: ib._, B. ii, l. 580.

“What greater grief can a Roman seize, Than to be forc’d to live on terms like these!” –_Eng. Poets: ib._, B. ii, l. 782.

“He views the naked town with joyful eyes, While from his rage an arm’d people flies.” –_Eng. Poets: ib._, B. ii, l. 880.

“For planks and beams he ravages the wood, And the tough bottom extends across the flood.” –_Eng. Poets: ib._, B. ii, l. 1040.

“A narrow pass the horned mole divides, Narrow as that where Euripus’ strong tides Beat on Euboean Chalcis’ rocky sides.” –_Eng. Poets: ib._, B. ii, l. 1095.

“No force, no fears their hands unarm’d bear, But looks of peace and gentleness they wear.” –_Eng. Poets: ib._, B. iii, l. 112.

“The ready warriors all aboard them ride, And wait the return of the retiring tide.” –_Eng. Poets: ib._, B. iv, l. 716.

“He saw those troops that long had faithful stood, Friends to his cause, and enemies to good, Grown weary of their chief, and satiated with blood.” –_Eng. Poets: ib._, B. v, l. 337.

CHAPTER V.–QUESTIONS.

ORDER OF REHEARSAL, AND METHOD OF EXAMINATION.

PART FOURTH, PROSODY.

[Fist][The following questions call the attention of the student to the main doctrines in the foregoing code of Prosody, and embrace or demand those facts which it is most important for him to fix in his memory; they may, therefore, serve not only to aid the teacher in the process of examining his classes, but also to direct the learner in his manner of preparation for recital.]

LESSON I.–OF PUNCTUATION.

1. Of what does Prosody treat? 2. What is _Punctuation?_ 3. What are the principal points, or marks? 4. What pauses are denoted by the first four points? 5. What pauses are required by the other four? 6. What is the general use of the Comma? 7. How many rules for the Comma are there, and what are their heads? 8. What says Rule 1st of _Simple Sentences?_ 9. What says Rule 2d of _Simple Members?_ 10. What says Rule 3d of _More than Two Words?_ 11. What says Rule 4th of _Only Two Words?_ 12. What says Rule 5th of _Words in Pairs?_ 13. What says Rule 6th of _Words put Absolute?_ 14. What says Rule 7th of _Words in Apposition?_ 15. What says Rule 8th of _Adjectives?_ 16. What says Rule 9th of _Finite Verbs?_ 17. What says Rule 10th of _Infinitives?_ 18. What says Rule 11th of _Participles?_ 19. What says Rule 12th of _Adverbs?_ 20. What says Rule 13th of _Conjunctions?_ 21. What says Rule 14th of _Prepositions?_ 22. What says Rule 15th of _Interjections?_ 23. What says Rule 16th of _Words Repeated?_ 24. What says Rule 17th of _Dependent Quotations?_

LESSON II.–OF THE COMMA.

1. How many exceptions, or forms of exception, are there to Rule 1st for the comma? 2.–to Rule 2d? 3.–to Rule 3d? 4.–to Rule 4th? 5.–to Rule 5th? 6.–to Rule 6th? 7.–to Rule 7th? 8.–to Rule 8th? 9.–to Rule 9th? 10.–to Rule 10th? 11.–to Rule 11th? 12.–to Rule 12th? 13.–to Rule 13th? 14.–to Rule 14th? 15.–to Rule 15th? 16.–to Rule 16th? 17.–to Rule 17th? 18. What says the Exception to Rule 1st of a _Long Simple Sentence?_ 19. What says Exception 1st to Rule 2d of _Restrictive Relatives?_ 20. What says Exception 2d to Rule 2d of _Short Terms closely Connected?_ 21. What says Exception 3d to Rule 2d of _Elliptical Members United?_ 22. What says Exception 1st to Rule 4th of _Two Words with Adjuncts?_ 23. What says Exception 2d to Rule 4th of _Two Terms Contrasted?_ 24. What says Exception 3d to Rule 4th of a mere _Alternative of Words?_ 25. What says Exception 4th to Rule 4th of _Conjunctions Understood?_

LESSON III.–OF THE COMMA.

1. What rule speaks of the separation of _Words in Apposition?_ 2. What says Exception 1st to Rule 7th of _Complex Names?_ 3. What says Exception 2d to Rule 7th of _Close Apposition?_ 4. What says Exception 3d to Rule 7th of _a Pronoun without a Pause?_ 5. What says Exception 4th to Rule 7th of _Names Acquired?_ 6. What says the Exception to Rule 8th of _Adjectives Restrictive?_ 7. What is the rule which speaks of a finite _Verb Understood?_ 8. What says the Exception to Rule 9th of a _Very Slight Pause?_ 9. What is the Rule for the pointing of _Participles?_ 10. What says the Exception to Rule 11th of _Participles Restrictive?_

[Now, if you please, you may correct orally, according to the formules given, some or all of the various examples of _False Punctuation_, which are arranged under the rules for the Comma in Section First.]

LESSON IV.–OF THE SEMICOLON.

1. What is the general use of the Semicolon? 2. How many rules are there for the Semicolon? 3. What are their heads? 4. What says Rule 1st of _Complex Members?_ 5. What says Rule 2d of _Simple Members?_ 6. What says Rule 3d of _Apposition, &c.?_

LESSON V.–OF THE COLON.

1. What is the general use of the Colon? 2. How many rules are there for the Colon? 3. What are their heads? 4. What says Rule 1st of _Additional Remarks?_ 5. What says Rule 2d of _Greater Pauses?_ 6. What says Rule 3d of _Independent Quotations?_

LESSON VI.–OF THE PERIOD.

1. What is the general use of the Period? 2. How many rules are there for the Period? 3. What are their heads? 4. What says Rule 1st of _Distinct Sentences?_ 5. What says Rule 2d of _Allied Sentences?_ 6. What says Rule 3d of _Abbreviations?_

LESSON VII.–OF THE DASH.

1. What is the general use of the Dash? 2. How many rules are there for the Dash? 3. What are their heads? 4. What says Rule 1st of _Abrupt Pauses?_ 5. What says Rule 2d of _Emphatic Pauses?_ 6. What says Rule 3d of _Faulty Dashes?_

LESSON VIII.–OF THE EROTEME.

1. What is the use of the Eroteme, or Note of Interrogation? 2. How many rules are there for this mark? 3. What are their heads? 4. What says Rule 1st of _Questions Direct?_ 5. What says Rule 2d of _Questions United?_ 6. What says Rule 3d of _Questions Indirect?_

LESSON IX–OF THE ECPHONEME.

1. What is the use of the Ecphoneme, or Note of Exclamation? 2. How many rules are there for this mark? 2. What are their heads? 4. What says Rule 1st of _Interjections?_ 5. What says Rule 2d of _Invocations?_ 6. What says Rule 3d of _Exclamatory Questions?_

LESSON X.–OF THE CURVES.

1. What is the use of the Curves, or Marks of Parenthesis? 2. How many rules are there for the Curves? 3. What are their titles, or heads? 4. What says Rule 1st of _the Parenthesis?_ 5. What says Rule 2d of _Included Points?_

LESSON XI.–OF THE OTHER MARKS.

1. What is the use of the Apostrophe? 2. What is the use of the Hyphen? 3. What is the use of the Diaeresis, or Dialysis? 4. What is the use of the Acute Accent? 5. What is the use of the Grave Accent? 6. What is the use of the Circumflex? 7. What is the use of the Breve, or Stenotone? 8. What is the use of the Macron, or Macrotone? 9. What is the use of the Ellipsis, or Suppression? 10. What is the use of the Caret? 11. What is the use of the Brace? 12. What is the use of the Section? 13. What is the use of the Paragraph? 14. What is the use of the Guillemets, or Quotation Points? 15. How do we mark a quotation within a quotation? 16. What is the use of the Crotchets, or Brackets? 17. What is the use of the Index, or Hand? 18. What are the six Marks of Reference in their usual order? 19. How can references be otherwise made? 20. What is the use of the Asterism, or the Three Stars? 21. What is the use of the Cedilla?

[Having correctly answered the foregoing questions, the pupil should be taught to apply the principles of punctuation; and, for this purpose, he may be required to read a portion of some accurately pointed book, or may be directed to turn to the _Fourteenth Praxis_, beginning on p. 821,–and to assign a reason for every mark he finds.]

LESSON XII.–OF UTTERANCE.

1. What is _Utterance?_ 2. What does it include? 3. What is articulation? 4. How does articulation differ from pronunciation? 5. How does Comstock define it? 6. What, in his view, is a good articulation? 7. How does Bolles define articulation? 8. Is a good articulation important? 9. What are the faults opposite to it? 10. What says Sheridan, of a good articulation? 11. Upon what does distinctness depend? 13. Why is just articulation better than mere loudness? 13. Do we learn to articulate in learning to speak or read?

LESSON XIII.–OF PRONUNCIATION.

1. What is pronunciation? 2. What is it that is called _Orthoepy?_ 3. What knowledge does pronunciation require? 4. What are the just powers of the letters? 5. How are these learned? 6. Are the just powers of the letters in any degree variable? 7. What is quantity? 8. Are all long syllables equally long, and all short ones equally short? 9. What has stress of voice to do with quantity? 10. What is accent? 11. Is every word accented? 12. Do we ever lay two equal accents on one word? 13. Have we more than one sort of accent? 14. Can any word have the secondary accent, and not the primary? 15. Can monosyllables have either? 16. What regulates accent? 17. What four things distinguish the elegant speaker?

LESSON XIV.–OF ELOCUTION.

1. What is elocution? 2. What does elocution require? 3. What is emphasis? 4. What comparative view is taken of accent and emphasis? 5. How does L. Murray connect emphasis with quantity? 6. Does emphasis ever affect accent? 7. What is the guide to a right emphasis? 8. Can one read with too many emphases? 9. What are pauses? 10. How many and what kinds of pauses are there? 11. What is said of the duration of pauses, and the taking of breath? 12. After what manner should pauses be made? 13. What pauses are particularly ungraceful? 14. What is said of rhetorical pauses? 15. How are the harmonic pauses divided? 16. Are such pauses essential to verse?

LESSON XV.–OF ELOCUTION.

17. What are inflections? 18. What is called the rising or upward inflection? 19. What is called the falling or downward inflection? 20. How are these inflections exemplified? 21. How are they used in asking questions? 22. What is said of the notation of them? 23. What constitutes a circumflex? 24. What constitutes the rising, and what the falling, circumflex? 25. Can you give examples? 26. What constitutes a monotone, in elocution? 27. Which kind of inflection is said to be most common? 28. Which is the best adapted to strong emphasis? 29. What says Comstock of rules for inflections? 30. Is the voice to be varied for variety’s sake? 31. What should regulate the inflections? 32. What is cadence? 33. What says Rippingham about it? 34. What says Murray? 35. What are tones? 36. Why do they deserve particular attention? 37. What says Blair about tones? 38. What says Hiley?

LESSON XVI.–OF FIGURES.

1. What is a _Figure_ in grammar? 2. How many kinds of figures are there? 3. What is a figure of orthography? 4. What are the principal figures of orthography? 5. What is Mimesis? 6. What is an Archaism? 7. What is a figure of etymology? 8. How many and what are the figures of etymology? 9. What is Aphaeresis? 10. What is Prosthesis? 11. What is Syncope? 12. What is Apocope? 13. What is Paragoge? 14. What is Diaeresis? 15. What is Synaeresis? 16. What is Tmesis? 17. What is a figure of syntax? 18. How many and what are the figures of syntax? 19. What is Ellipsis, in grammar? 20. Are sentences often elliptical? 21. What parts of speech can be omitted, by ellipsis? 22. What is Pleonasm? 23. When is this figure allowable? 24. What is Syllepsis? 25. What is Enallage? 26. What is Hyperbaton? 27. What is said of this figure?

LESSON XVII.–OF FIGURES.

28. What is a figure of rhetoric? 29. What peculiar name have some of these? 30. Do figures of rhetoric often occur? 31. On what are they founded? 32. How many and what are the principal figures of rhetoric? 33. What is a Simile? 34. What is a Metaphor? 35. What is an Allegory? 36. What is a Metonymy? 37. What is Synecdoche? 38. What is Hyperbole? 39. What is Vision? 40. What is Apostrophe? 41. What is Personification? 42. What is Erotesis? 43. What is Ecphonesis? 44. What is Antithesis? 45. What is Climax? 46. What is Irony? 47. What is Apophasis, or Paralipsis? 48. What is Onomatopoeia?

[Now, if you please, you may examine the quotations adopted for the _Fourteenth Praxis_, and may name and define the various figures of grammar which are contained therein.]

LESSON XVIII.–OF VERSIFICATION.

1. What is _Versification_? 2. What is verse, as distinguished from prose? 3. What is the rhythm of verse? 4. What is the quantity of a syllable? 5. How are poetic quantities denominated? 6. How are they proportioned? 7. What quantity coincides with accent or emphasis? 8. On what but the vowel sound does quantity depend? 9. Does syllabic quantity always follow the quality of the vowels? 10. Where is quantity variable, and where fixed, in English? 11. What is rhyme? 12. What is blank verse? 13. What is remarked concerning the rhyming syllables? 14. What is a stanza? 15. What uniformity have stanzas? 16. What variety have they?

LESSON XIX.–OF VERSIFICATION.

17. Of what does a verse consist? 18. Of what does a poetic foot consist? 19. How many feet do prosodists recognize? 20. What are the principal feet in English? 21. What is an Iambus? 22. What is a Trochee? 23. What is an Anapest? 24. What is a Dactyl? 25. Why are these feet principal? 26. What orders of verse arise from these? 27. Are these kinds to be kept separate? 28. What is said of the secondary feet? 29. How many and what secondary feet are explained in this code? 30. What is a Spondee? 31. What is a Pyrrhic? 32. What is a Moloss? 33. What is a Tribrach? 34. What is an Amphibrach? 35. What is an Amphimac? 36. What is a Bacchy? 37. What is an Antibachy? 38. What is a Caesura?

LESSON XX.–OF VERSIFICATION.

39. What are the principal kinds, or orders, of verse? 40. What other orders are there? 41. Does the composite order demand any uniformity? 42. Do the simple orders admit any diversity? 43. What is meant by _scanning_ or _scansion_? 44. What mean the technical words, _catalectic, acatalectic_, and _hypermeter_? 45. In scansion, why are the principal feet to be preferred to the secondary? 46. Can a single foot be a line? 47. What are the several combinations that form dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter, heptameter, and octometer? 48. What syllables have stress in a pure iambic line? 49. What are the several measures of iambic verse? 50. What syllables have stress in a pure trochaic line? 51. Can it be right, to regard as hypermeter the long rhyming syllables of a line? 52. Is the number of feet in a line to be generally counted by that of the long syllables? 53. What are the several measures of trochaic verse?

LESSON XXI.–OF VERSIFICATION.

54. What syllables have stress in a pure anapestic line? 55. What variation may occur in the first foot? 56. Is this frequent? 57. Is it ever uniform? 58. What is the result of a uniform mixture? 59. Is the anapest adapted to single rhyme? 60. May a surplus ever make up for a deficiency? 61. Why are the anapestic measures few? 62. How many syllables are found in the longest? 63. What are the several measures of anapestic verse? 64. What syllables have stress in a pure dactylic line? 65. With what does single-rhymed dactylic end? 66. Is dactylic verse very common? 67. What are the several measures of dactylic verse? 68. What is composite verse? 69. Must composites have rhythm? 70. Are the kinds of composite verse numerous? 71. Why have we no exact enumeration of the measures of this order? 72. Does this work contain specimens of different kinds of composite verse?

[It may now be required of the pupil to determine, by reading and scansion, the metrical elements of any good English poetry which may be selected for the purpose–the feet being marked by pauses, and the long syllables by stress of voice. He may also correct orally the few _Errors of Metre_ which are given in the Fifth Section of Chapter IV.]

CHAPTER VI.–FOR WRITING.

EXERCISES IN PROSODY.

[Fist] [When the pupil can readily answer all the questions on Prosody, and apply the rules of punctuation to any composition in which the points are rightly inserted, he should _write out_ the following exercises, supplying what is required, and correcting what is amiss. Or, if any teacher choose to exercise his classes _orally_, by means of these examples, he can very well do it; because, to read words, is always easier than to write them, and even points or poetic feet may be quite as readily named as written.]

EXERCISE I.–PUNCTUATION.

_Copy the following sentences, and insert the_ COMMA _where it is requisite_.

EXAMPLES UNDER RULE I.–OF SIMPLE SENTENCES.

“The dogmatist’s assurance is paramount to argument.” “The whole course of his argumentation comes to nothing.” “The fieldmouse builds her garner under ground.”

EXC.–“The first principles of almost all sciences are few.” “What he gave me to publish was but a small part.” “To remain insensible to such provocation is apathy.” “Minds ashamed of poverty would be proud of affluence.” “To be totally indifferent to praise or censure is a real defect in character.”–_Wilson’s Punctuation_, p. 38.

UNDER RULE II.–OF SIMPLE MEMBERS.

“I was eyes to the blind and feet was I to the lame.” “They are gone but the remembrance of them is sweet.” “He has passed it is likely through varieties of fortune.” “The mind though free has a governor within itself.” “They I doubt not oppose the bill on public principles.” “Be silent be grateful and adore.” “He is an adept in language who always speaks the truth.” “The race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong.”

EXC. I.–“He that has far to go should not hurry.” “Hobbes believed the eternal truths which he opposed.” “Feeble are all pleasures in which the heart has no share.” “The love which survives the tomb is one of the noblest attributes of the soul.”–_Wilson’s Punctuation_, p. 38.

EXC. II.–“A good name is better than precious ointment.” “Thinkst thou that duty shall have dread to speak?” “The spleen is seldom felt where Flora reigns.”

UNDER RULE III.–OF MORE THAN TWO WORDS.

“The city army court espouse my cause.” “Wars pestilences and diseases are terrible instructors.” “Walk daily in a pleasant airy and umbrageous garden.” “Wit spirits faculties but make it worse.” “Men wives and children stare cry out and run.” “Industry, honesty, and temperance are essential to happiness.”–_Wilson’s Punctuation_, p. 29. “Honor, affluence, and pleasure seduce the heart.”–_Ib._, p. 31.

UNDER RULE IV.–OF TWO TERMS CONNECTED.

“Hope and fear are essentials in religion.” “Praise and adoration are perfective of our souls.” “We know bodies and their properties most perfectly.” “Satisfy yourselves with what is rational and attainable.” “Slowly and sadly we laid him down.”

EXC. I.–“God will rather look to the inward motions of the mind than to the outward form of the body.” “Gentleness is unassuming in opinion and temperate in zeal.”

EXC. II.–“He has experienced prosperity and adversity.” “All sin essentially is and must be mortal.” “Reprove vice but pity the offender.”

EXC. III.–“One person is chosen chairman or moderator.” “Duration or time is measured by motion.” “The governor or viceroy is chosen annually.”

EXC. IV.–“Reflection reason still the ties improve.” “His neat plain parlour wants our modern style.” “We are fearfully wonderfully made.”

UNDER RULE V.–OF WORDS IN PAIRS.

“I inquired and rejected consulted and deliberated.” “Seed-time and harvest cold and heat summer and winter day and night shall not cease.”

EXERCISE II.–PUNCTUATION.

_Copy the following sentences, and insert the_ COMMA _where it is requisite_.

EXAMPLES UNDER RULE VI.–OF WORDS PUT ABSOLUTE.

“The night being dark they did not proceed.” “There being no other coach we had no alternative.” “Remember my son that human life is the journey of a day.” “All circumstances considered it seems right.” “He that overcometh to him will I give power.” “Your land strangers devour it in your presence.” “Ah sinful nation a people laden with iniquity!”

The Grammar of English Grammars by Gould Brown (page 39)