"Lauded be thy name for ever, Thou, of life the guard and giver!
Thou canst guard thy creatures sleeping, Heal the heart long broke with weeping, Rule the =ouphes ~and =elves ~at w=ill _Th~at v=ex_ _th~e =air_ _~or h=aunt_ _th~e h=ill_, _~And =all_ _th~e f=u_ _-r~y s=ub_ _-j~ect k=eep_ _~Of b=oil_ _-~ing cl=oud_ _~and ch=af_ _-~ed d=eep!_
I h~ave s=een, ~and w=ell I kn=ow ~it!
Thou hast done, and Thou wilt do it!
God of stillness and of motion!
Of the rainbow and the ocean!
Of the mountain, rock, and river!
Blessed be Thy name for ever!
I have seen thy wondrous might Through the shadows of this night!
Thou, who slumber'st not, nor sleepest!
Blest are they thou kindly keepest!
Spirits, from the ocean under, Liquid flame, and levell'd thunder, Need not waken nor a -larm them-- All com -bined, they cannot harm them.
God of evening's yellow ray, God of yonder dawning day, Thine the flaming sphere of light!
Thine the darkness of the night!
Thine are all the gems of even, God of angels! God of heaven!"
JAMES HOGG: _Mador of the Moor, Poems_, p. 206.
_Example VIII--A Short Song, of Two Stanzas_.
"Stay, my charmer, can you leave me?
Cruel, cruel, to de -ceive me!
Well you know how much you grieve me: Cruel charmer, can you go?
Cruel charmer, can you go?
By my love, so ill re -quited; By the faith you fondly plighted; By the pangs of lovers slighted; Do not, do not leave me so!
Do not, do not leave me so!"
ROBERT BURNS: _Select Works_, Vol. ii, p. 129.
_Example IX.--Lingering Courtship_.
1.
"Never wedding, ever wooing, Still lovelorn heart pur -suing, Read you not the wrong you're doing, In my cheek's pale hue?
All my life with sorrow strewing, Wed, or cease to woo.
2.
Rivals banish'd, bosoms plighted, Still our days are disu -nited; Now the lamp of hope is lighted, Now half quench'd ap -pears, Damp'd, and _wavering_, and be -nighted, Midst my sighs and tears.
3.
Charms you call your dearest blessing, Lips that thrill at your ca -ressing, Eyes a _mutual_ soul con -fessing, Soon you'll make them grow Dim, and worthless your pos -sessing, Not with age, but woe!"
CAMPBELL: _Everett's System of Versification_, p. 91.
_Example X.--"Boadicea"--Four Stanzas from Eleven_.
1.
"When the British warrior queen, Bleeding from the Roman rods, Sought, with an in -dignant mien, Counsel of her country's gods,
2.
Sage be -neath the spreading oak, Sat the Druid, hoary chief; _Every_ burning word he spoke Full of rage, and full of grief.
3.
Princess! if our aged eyes Weep up -on thy matchless wrongs, 'Tis be -cause re -sentment ties All the terrors of our tongues.
4.
ROME SHALL PERISH-- write that word In the blood that she hath spilt; Perish, hopeless and ab -horr'd, Deep in ruin as in guilt."
WILLIAM COWPER: _Poems_, Vol. ii, p. 244.
_Example XI--"The Thunder Storm"--Two Stanzas from Ten_.
"Now in deep and dreadful gloom, Clouds on clouds por -tentous spread, Black as if the day of doom Hung o'er Nature's shrinking head: Lo! the lightning breaks from high, God is coming! --God is nigh!
Hear ye not his _chariot_ wheels, As the mighty thunder rolls?
Nature, startled Nature reels, From the centre to the poles: Tremble! --Ocean, Earth, and Sky!
Tremble! --God is passing by!"
J. MONTGOMERY: _Wanderer of Switzerland, and other Poems_, p. 130.
_Example XII.--"The Triumphs of Owen," King of North Wales._[513]
"Owen's praise de -mands my song, Owen swift and Owen strong; Fairest flow'r of _Roderick's_ stem, Gwyneth's shield, and Britain's gem.
He nor heaps his brooded stores, Nor the whole pro -fusely pours; Lord of _every_ regal art, _Liberal_ hand and open heart.
Big with hosts of mighty name, Squadrons three a -gainst him came; This the force of Eirin hiding, Side by side as proudly riding, On her shadow long and gay, Lochlin ploughs the _watery_ way: There the Norman sails a -far Catch the winds, and join the war; Black and huge, a -long they sweep, Burthens of the angry deep.
Dauntless on his native sands, _The Drag -on-son of Mo -na stands;[514]
In glit -tering arms and glo -ry drest_, High he rears his ruby crest.
There the thundering stroke be -gin, There the press, and there the din; Taly -malfra's rocky shore _Echoing_ to the battle's roar; Where his glowing eyeballs turn, Thousand banners round him burn.
Where he points his purple spear, Hasty, hasty rout is there, Marking with in -dignant eye Fear to stop, and shame to fly.
There Con -fusion, Terror's child, Conflict fierce, and Ruin wild, Ago -ny, that pants for breath, _Despair_, and HON -OURA -BLE DEATH."
THOMAS GRAY: _Johnson's British Poets_, Vol. vii, p. 285.
_Example XIII.--"Grongar Hill."--First Twenty-six Lines_.
"Silent Nymph, with _curious_ eye, Who, the purple eve, dost lie On the mountain's lonely van, _Beyond_ _the noise_ _of bus_ _-y man_; Painting fair the form of things, While the yellow linnet sings; Or the tuneful nightin -gale Charms the forest with her tale; Come, with all thy various hues, Come, and aid thy sister Muse.
Now, while Phoebus, riding high, _Gives lus_ _-tre to_ _the land_ _and sky_, Grongar Hill in -vites my song; Draw the landscape bright and strong; Grongar, in whose mossy cells, Sweetly -musing Quiet dwells; Grongar, in whose silent shade, For the modest Muses made, _So oft_ _I have_, _the eve_ _-ning still_, At the fountain of a rill, Sat up -on a _flowery_ bed, With my hand be -neath my head, _While stray'd_ _my eyes_ _o'er Tow_ _-y's flood_, Over mead and over wood, _From house_ _to house_, _from hill_ _to hill_, _Till Con_ _-templa_ _-tion had_ _her fill_."
JOHN DYER: _Johnson's British Poets_, Vol. vii, p. 65.
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_.