"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:--
"The dew was fall -ing fast, the stars began to blink; I heard a voice; it said, 'Drink, pret -ty crea -ture, drink!'
And, look -ing o'er the hedge, before me I espied A snow -white moun -tain Lamb w=ith =a M=aid -en at its side."
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:--
"Such way -ward wayes hath Love, that most part in discord, Our willes do stand, whereby our hartes but sel -dom do accord; Decyte is hys delighte, and to begyle and mocke, The sim ple hartes which he doth strike with fro -ward di -vers stroke.
He caus -eth th' one to rage with gold -en burn -ing darte, And doth allay with lead -en cold, again the oth -er's harte; Whose gleames of burn -ing fyre and eas -y sparkes of flame, In bal -ance of ~un=e -qual weyght he pon -dereth by ame."
See _Johnson's Quarto Dict., History of the Eng. Lang._, p. 4.
MEASURE IV.--IAMBIC OF FIVE FEET, OR PENTAMETER.
_Example I.--Hector to Andromache._
"Andr=om -~ach=e! m=y s=oul's f~ar b=et -t~er p=art, _Wh=y w~ith_ untime -ly sor -rows heaves thy heart?
No hos -tile hand can an -tedate my doom, Till fate condemns me to the si -lent tomb.
Fix'd is the term to all the race of earth; And such the hard conditi -on of our birth, No force can then resist, no flight can save; All sink alike, the fear -ful and the brave."
POPE'S HOMER: _Iliad_, B. vi, l. 624-632.
_Example II.--Angels' Worship._
"No soon -er had th' Almight -y ceas'd _but_ all The mul -titude of an -gels with a shout Loud as from num -bers with' -out num -ber, sweet As from blest voi -ces ut _t~er ~ing j=oy_, heav'n rung With ju -bilee, and loud hosan -nas fill'd Th' eter -nal re -gions; low -ly rev -erent Tow'rds ei -ther throne they bow, and to the ground With sol -emn ad -ora -tion down they cast Their crowns inwove with am -arant and gold."
MILTON: _Paradise Lost_, B. iii, l. 344.
_Example III.--Deceptive Glosses_.
"The world is still deceiv'd with or -nament.
In law, what plea so taint -ed and corrupt, But, be -ing sea -son'd with a gra -cious voice, Obscures the show of e -vil? In _religi~on_, What dam --n~ed er -ror, but some so -ber brow Will bless it, and approve it with a text, _Hid~ing_ the gross -ness with fair or -nament?"
SHAKSPEARE: _Merch. of Venice_, Act iii, Sc. 2.
_Example IV.--Praise God_.
"Ye head -long tor -rents, rap -id, and profound; Ye soft -er floods, that lead the hu -mid maze Along the vale; and thou, majes -tic main, A se -cret world of won -ders in thyself, Sound His stupen -dous praise; whose great -er voice Or bids you roar, or bids your roar -ings fall."
THOMSON: _Hymn to the Seasons_.
_Example V.--The Christian Spirit_.
"Like him the soul, thus kin -dled from above, Spreads wide her arms of u -niver -sal love; And, still enlarg'd as she receives the grace, Includes cr~e=a -tion in her close embrace.
Behold a Chris -tian! and without the fires The found -_~er ~of_ that name alone inspires, Though all accom -plishment, all knowl -edge meet, To make the shin -ing prod -igy complete, Whoev -er boasts that name-- behold a cheat!"
COWPER: _Charity; Poems_, Vol. i, p. 135.
_Example VI.--To London_.
"Ten right -eous would have sav'd a cit -y once, And thou hast man -y right -eous.--Well for thee-- That salt preserves thee; more corrupt -ed else, And there -fore more obnox -ious, at this hour, Than Sod -om in her day had pow'r to be, For whom God heard his Abr' -ham plead in vain."
IDEM: _The Task_, Book iii, at the end.
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,
"Thou knowst how trans -port thrills the ten -der breast, Where love and fan -cy fix their ope -ning reign; How na -ture shines in live -lier col -ours dress'd, To bless their un -ion, and to grace their train."
SHENSTONE: _British Poets_, Vol. vii, p. 106.
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,
"_Bacchus_, that first from out the pur -ple grape _Crush'd the_ sweet poi -son of mis-=us -~ed wine, _After_ the Tus -can mar -iners transform'd, _Coasting_ the Tyr -rhene shore, ~as th~e winds list_~ed_, On Cir -ce's isl -and fell. Who knows not Cir_c~e_, The daugh -ter of the sun? whose charm -~ed cup Whoev -er tast -ed, lost his up -right shape, And down -ward fell _=int~o_ a grov -elling swine."
MILTON: _Comus; British Poets_, Vol. ii, p. 147.
(2.) By a synaeresis 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:--
"No rest: through man _-y a dark_ and drear -y vale They pass'd, and man _-y a re_ -gion dol -orous, _O'er man_ _-y a fro_ -zen, man _-y a fi_ _-ery Alp_."
--MILTON: _P. L._, B. ii, l. 618.
"Rejoice ye na -tions, vin -dicate the sway Ordain'd for com -mon hap -piness. Wide, o'er The globe terra _-queous, let_ Britan _-nia pour_ The fruits of plen -ty from her co _-pious horn_."
--DYER: _Fleece_, B. iv, l. 658.
"_Myriads_ of souls that knew one pa -rent mold, See sad -ly sev er'd by the laws of chance!
_Myriads_, in time's peren _-nial list_ enroll'd, Forbid by fate to change one tran _-sient glance!_"
SHENSTONE: _British Poets_, Vol. vii, p. 109.
(3.) In plays, and light or humorous descriptions, the last foot of an iambic line is often varied or followed by an additional short syllable; and, sometimes, in verses of triple rhyme, there is an addition of two short syllables, after the principal rhyming syllable. Some prosodists call the variant foot, in die former instance, an _amphibrach_, and would probably, in the latter, suppose either an _additional pyrrhic_, or an amphibrach with still a _surplus syllable_; but others scan, in these cases, by the iambus only, calling what remains after the last long syllable _hypermeter_; and this is, I think, the better way. The following examples show these and some other variations from pure iambic measure:--
_Example I.--Grief._
"Each sub st~ance ~of a grief hath twen -ty shad_~ows_, Which show like grief itself, but are not so: For sor -row's eye, gl=az~ed with blind -ing tears, Divides one thing entire to man --y ob_j~ects_; Like per -spectives, which, right -ly gaz'd upon, Show noth -ing but confu -sion; ey'd awry, Distin -guish form: so your sweet maj -esty, Lo=ok~ing awry upon your lord's depart_~ure_, Finds shapes of grief, more than himself, to wail; Which, look'd on as it is, is nought but shad_~ows_."
SHAKSPEARE: _Richard II_, Act ii, Sc. 2.
_Example II.--A Wish to Please_.
"O, that I had the art of eas -y _writing_ What should be eas -y read -ing could I scale Parnas -sus, where the Mus -es sit in_diting_ Those pret -ty po -ems nev -er known to fail, How quick -ly would I print (the world de_lighting_) A Gre -cian, Syr -ian, or Assy -ian tale; And sell you, mix'd with west -ern sen -ti_mentalism_, Some sam -ples of the fin -est O -ri_entalism_."
LORD BYRON: _Beppo_, Stanza XLVIII.
MEASURE V.--IAMBIC OF FOUR FEET, OR TETRAMETER.
_Example I.--Presidents of the United States of America_.
"First stands the loft -y Wash -ington, That no -ble, great, immor -tal one; The eld -er Ad -ams next we see; And Jef -ferson comes num -ber three; Then Mad -ison is fourth, you know; The fifth one on the list, Monroe; The sixth an Ad -ams comes again; And Jack -son, sev -enth in the train; Van Bu -ren, eighth upon the line; And Har -rison counts num -ber nine; The tenth is Ty -ler, in his turn; And Polk, elev -enth, as we learn; The twelfth is Tay -lor, peo -ple say; The next we learn some fu -ture day."
ANONYMOUS: _From Newspaper_, 1849.
_Example II.--The Shepherd Bard_.