6.
Thither, thither would I roam; There my children may be free; I for them will find a home; They shall find a grave for me.'"
_First six stanzas of Part VI_, pp. 71 and 72.
MEASURE II.--TROCHAIC OF SEVEN FEET, OR HEPTAMETER.
_Example.--Psalm LXX,[510] Versified._
Hasten, Lord, to rescue me, and set me safe from trouble; Shame thou those who seek my soul, re -ward their mischief double.
Turn the taunting scorners back, who cry, 'A -ha!' so loudly; Backward in con -fusion hurl the foe that mocks me proudly.
Then in thee let those re -joice, who seek thee, self-de -nying; All who thy sal -vation love, thy name be glory -fying.
So let God be magni -fied. But I am poor and needy: Hasten, Lord, who art my Helper; let thine aid be speedy.
This verse, like all other that is written in very long lines, requires a caesural 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 caesural 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:--
"Whisp'ring, heard by wakeful maids, To whom the night stars _guide_ _us_, Stolen walk, through moonlight shades, With those we love _beside_ _us_"--_Moore's Melodies_, p. 276.
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_:--
"Night and morning were at meeting over Water -loo; Cocks had sung their _earliest_ greeting; faint and low they crew." [511]
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_.
"Up the dewy mountain, Health is bounding lightly; On her brows a garland, twin'd with richest posies: Gay is she, e -late with hope, and smiling sprighthly; Redder is her cheek, and sweeter than the rose is."
G. BROWN: _The Institutes of English Grammar_, p. 258.
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:
'On a mountain, stretched be -neath a hoary willow, Lay a shepherd swain, and view'd the rolling billow.'"[512]
Again: "We have the following from BISHOP HEBER:--
'H=ol~y, h=ol~y h=ol~y! =all th~e s=aints ~a -d=ore th~ee, C=ast~ing d=own th~eir g=old~en cr=owns ~a -r=ound th~e gl=ass~y s=ea; Ch=er~u -b=im ~and s=er~a -ph=im [~_are_,] f=all~ing d=own b~e -f=ore th~ee, _Wh~ich_ w=ert, ~and =art, ~and =ev -~erm=ore sh~alt b=e!
Holy, holy, holy! though the darkness hide thee, Though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see, Only thou, [_O God_,] art holy; there is none be -side thee, P=erf~ect ~in p=ow'r, ~in l=ove, ~and p=u -r~it=y.'
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_.
Lonely in the forest, subtle from his birth, Lived a necro -mancer, wondrous son of earth.
More of him in -quire not, than I choose to say; Nymph or dryad bore him-- else 'twas witch or fay; Ask you who his father?-- haply he might be Wood-god, satyr, sylvan; --such his pedi -gree.
Reared mid fauns and fairies, knew he no com -peers; Neither cared he for them, saving ghostly seers.
Mistress of the black-art, "wizard gaunt and grim,"
Nightly on the hill-top, "read the stars to him."
These were welcome teachers; drank he in their lore; Witchcraft so en -ticed him, still to thirst for more.
Spectres he would play with, phantoms raise or quell; Gnomes from earth's deep centre knew his potent spell.
Augur or a -ruspex had not half his art; Master deep of magic, spirits played his part; Demons, imps in -fernal, conjured from be -low, Shaped his grand en -chantments with im -posing show.
_Example II.--An Example of Hart's, Corrected_
"Where the wood is waving, _shady_, green, and high, Fauns and dryads, _nightly_, watch the starry sky."
See _Hart's E. Gram._, p. 187; or _the citation thence below_.
A couplet of this sort might easily be reduced to a pleasant little stanza, by severing each line after the third foot, thus:--
Hearken! hearken! hear ye; Voices meet my ear.
Listen, never fear ye; Friends--or foes--are near.
Friends! "So -ho!" they're shouting.-- "Ho! so -ho, a -hoy!"-- 'Tis no Indian, scouting.
Cry, _so -ho_! with joy.
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._
"C=ome ~un -t=o' th~ese y=ell~ow s=ands, And th=en t~ake h=ands: Court'sied when you have and kiss'd, (The wild waves whist,) Foot it featly here and there; And, sweet sprites, the burden bear."
SINGER'S SHAKSPEARE: _Tempest_, Act i, Sc. 2.
MEASURE IV.--TROCHAIC OF FIVE FEET, OR PENTAMETER
_Example I.--Double Rhymes and Single, Alternated_.
"Mountain winds! oh! whither do ye call me?
Vainly, vainly, would my steps pur -sue: Chains of care to lower earth en -thrall me, Wherefore thus my weary spirit woo?
Oh! the strife of this di -vided being!
Is there peace where ye are borne, on high?
Could we soar to your proud eyries fleeing, In our hearts, would haunting _m=em~or~ies_ die?"
FELICIA HEMANS: "_To the Mountain Winds:" Everet's Versif._, p. 95.