Chapter CXI: Section IV: The Kinds of Verse (1)

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The principal kinds of verse, or orders of poetic numbers, as has already been stated, are four; namely, _Iambic, Trochaic, Anapestic_, and _Dactylic_. Besides these, which are sometimes called "_the simple orders_" being unmixed, or nearly so, some recognize several "_Composite orders_" or (with a better view of the matter) several kinds of mixed verse, which are said to constitute "_the Composite order_." In these, one of the four principal kinds of feet must still be used as the basis, some other species being inserted therewith, in each line or stanza, with more or less regularity.

PRINCIPLES AND NAMES.

The diversification of any species of metre, by the occasional change of a foot, or, in certain cases, by the addition or omission of a short syllable, is not usually regarded as sufficient to change the denomination, or stated order, of the verse; and many critics suppose some variety of feet, as well as a studied diversity in the position of the cæsural pause, essential to the highest excellence of poetic composition.

The dividing of verses into the feet which compose them, is called _Scanning_, or _Scansion_. In this, according to the technical language of the old prosodists, when a syllable is wanting, the verse is said to be _catalectic_; when the measure is exact, the line is _acatalectic_; when there is a redundant syllable, it forms _hypermeter_.

Since the equal recognition of so many feet as twelve, or even as eight, will often produce different modes of measuring the same lines; and since it is desirable to measure verses with uniformity, and always by the simplest process that will well answer the purpose; we usually scan by the principal feet, in preference to the secondary, where the syllables give us a choice of measures, or may be divided in different ways.

A single foot, especially a foot of only two syllables, can hardly be said to constitute a line, or to have rhythm in itself; yet we sometimes see a foot so placed, and rhyming as a line. Lines of two, three, four, five, six, or seven feet, are common; and these have received the technical denominations of _dim'eter, trim'eter, tetram'eter, pentam'eter, hexam'eter_, and _heptam'eter_. On a wide page, iambics and trochaics may possibly be written in _octom'eter_; but lines of this measure, being very long, are mostly abandoned for alternate tetrameters.

ORDER I.--IAMBIC VERSE.

In Iambic verse, the stress is laid on the even syllables, and the odd ones are short. Any short syllable added to a line of this order, is supernumerary; iambic rhymes, which are naturally single, being made double by one, and triple by two. But the adding of one short syllable, which is much practised in dramatic poetry, may be reckoned to convert the last foot into an amphibrach, though the adding of two cannot. Iambics consist of the following measures:--

MEASURE I.--IAMBIC OF EIGHT FEET, OR OCTOMETER.

_Psalm XLVII, 1 and 2_.

Each couplet of this verse is now commonly reduced to, or exchanged for, a simple stanza of four tetrameter lines, rhyming alternately, and each commencing with a capital; but sometimes, the second line and the fourth are still commenced with a small letter: as,

_An other Example_.

MEASURE II.--IAMBIC OF SEVEN FEET, OR HEPTAMETER.

_Example I.--Hat-Brims_.

_Example II.--Psalm XLII_, 1.

_Example III.--The Shepherd's Hymn_.

_Example IV.--"The Far, Far Fast."--First six Lines._

_Example V.--"Lament of the Slave."--Eight Lines from thirty-four._

_Example VI.--"Greek Funeral Chant."--First four of sixty-four Lines._

Everett observes, "The _Iliad_ was translated into this measure by CHAPMAN, and the _Æneid_ by PHAER."--_Eng. Versif._, p. 68. Prior, who has a ballad of one hundred and eighty such lines, intimates in a note the great antiquity of the verse. Measures of this length, though not very uncommon, are much less frequently used than shorter ones. A practice has long prevailed of dividing this kind of verse into alternate lines of four and of three feet, thus:--

This, according to the critics, is the most soft and pleasing of our lyric measures. With the slight change of setting a capital at the head of each line, it becomes the regular ballad-metre of our language. Being also adapted to hymns, as well as to lighter songs, and, more particularly, to quaint details of no great length, this stanza, or a similar one more ornamented with rhymes, is found in many choice pieces of English poetry. The following are a few popular examples:--

The rhyming of this last stanza is irregular and remarkable, yet not unpleasant. It is contrary to rule, to omit any rhyme which the current of the verse leads the reader to expect. Yet here the word "_shore_" ending the first line, has no correspondent sound, where twelve examples of such correspondence had just preceded; while the third line, without previous example, is so rhymed within itself that one scarcely perceives the omission. Double rhymes are said by some to unfit this metre for serious subjects, and to adapt it only to what is meant to be burlesque, humorous, or satiric. The example above does not confirm this opinion, yet the rule, as a general one, may still be just. Ballad verse may in some degree imitate the language of a simpleton, and become popular by clownishness, more than by elegance: as,

Even the line of seven feet may still be lengthened a little by a double rhyme: as,

Of this length, T. O. Churchill reckons the following couplet; but by the general usage of the day, the final _ed_ is not made a separate syllable:--

MEASURE III.--IAMBIC OF SIX FEET, OR HEXAMETER.

_Example I.--A Couplet_.

_Example II.--From a Description of a Stag-Hunt_.

_Example III.--An Extract from Shakespeare_.

_Example IV.--The Ten Commandments Versified_.

This verse, consisting, when entirely regular, of twelve syllables in six iambs, is the _Alexandrine_; said to have been so named because it was "first used in a poem called _Alexander_."--_Worcester's Dict._ Such metre has sometimes been written, with little diversity, through an entire English poem, as in Drayton's Polyolbion; but, couplets of this length being generally esteemed too clumsy for our language, the Alexandrine has been little used by English versifiers, except to complete certain stanzas beginning with shorter iambics, or, occasionally, to close a period in heroic rhyme. French heroics are similar to this; and if, as some assert, we have obtained it thence, the original poem was doubtless a French one, detailing the exploits of the hero "_Alexandre_." The phrase, "_an Alexandrine verse_," is, in French, "_un vers Alexandrin_." Dr. Gregory, in his Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, copies Johnson's Quarto Dictionary, which says, "ALEXANDRINE, a kind of verse borrowed from the French, first used in a poem called Alexander. They [Alexandrines] consist, among the French, of twelve and thirteen syllables, in alternate couplets; and, among us, of twelve." Dr. Webster, in his American Dictionary, _improperly_ (as I think) gives to the name two forms, and seems also to acknowledge two sorts of the English verse: "ALEXAN'DRINE, or ALEXAN'DRIAN, _n._ A kind of verse, consisting of twelve syllables, or of twelve and thirteen alternately." "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:--

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:--

MEASURE IV.--IAMBIC OF FIVE FEET, OR PENTAMETER.

_Example I.--Hector to Andromache._

_Example II.--Angels' Worship._

_Example III.--Deceptive Glosses_.

_Example IV.--Praise God_.

_Example V.--The Christian Spirit_.

_Example VI.--To London_.

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,

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,

(2.) By a synæresis 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:--

(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._

_Example II.--A Wish to Please_.

MEASURE V.--IAMBIC OF FOUR FEET, OR TETRAMETER.

_Example I.--Presidents of the United States of America_.

_Example II.--The Shepherd Bard_.

_Example III.--Two Stanzas from Eighteen, Addressed to the Ettrick Shepherd_.

_Example IV.--"Elegiac Stanzas," in Iambics of Four feet and Three_.

This line, the iambic tetrameter, is a favourite one, with many writers of English verse, and has been much used, both in couplets and in stanzas. Butler's Hudibras, Gay's Fables, and many allegories, most of Scott's poetical works, and some of Byron's, are written in couplets of this measure. It is liable to the same diversifications as the preceding metre. The frequent admission of an additional short syllable, forming double rhyme, seems admirably to adapt it to a familiar, humorous, or burlesque style. The following may suffice for an example:--

The following lines have _ten syllables_ in each, yet the measure is not iambic of five feet, but that of four with hypermeter:--

MEASURE VI.--IAMBIC OF THREE FEET, OR TRIMETER.

_Example.--To Evening_.

"Now teach | me, maid | compos'd
To breathe | some soft | -en'd strain."--_Collins_, p. 39.

This short measure has seldom, if ever, been used alone in many successive couplets; but it is often found in stanzas, sometimes without other lengths, but most commonly with them. The following are a few examples:--

_Example I.--Two ancient Stanzas, out of Many_,

_Example II.--Acis and Galatea_.

_Example III.--"Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin_."

_Example IV.--Lyric Stanzas_.

_Example V.--Lyric Stanzas_.

_Example VI.--England's Dead_.

The following examples have some of the common diversifications already noticed under the longer measures:--

_Example I.--"Languedocian Air_."

_Example II.--From "a Portuguese Air_."

_Example III.--Resignation_.

MEASURE VII.--IAMBIC OF TWO FEET, OR DIMETER.

_Example--A Scolding Wife_.

Iambic dimeter, like the metre of three iambs, is much less frequently used alone than in stanzas with longer lines; but the preceding example is a refutation of the idea, that no piece is ever composed wholly of this measure, or that the two feet cannot constitute a line. In Humphrey's English Prosody, on page 16th, is the following paragraph; which is not only defective in style, but erroneous in all its averments:--

"Poems are never composed of lines of two [-] feet metre, in succession: they [combinations of two feet] are only used occasionally in poems, hymns, odes, &c. to diversify the metre; and are, in no case, lines of poetry, or verses; but hemistics, [_hemistichs_,] or half lines. The shortest metre of which iambic verse is composed, in lines successively, is that of three feet; and this is the shortest metre _which_ can be denominated lines, or verses; and _this is not frequently used_."

In ballads, ditties, hymns, and versified psalms, scarcely any line is _more common_ than the iambic trimeter, here denied to be "frequently used;" of which species, there are about seventy lines among the examples above. Dr. Young's poem entitled "Resignation," has eight hundred and twenty such lines, and as many more of iambic tetrameter. His "Ocean" has one hundred and forty-five of the latter, and two hundred and ninety-two of the species now under consideration; i.e., iambic dimeter. But how can the metre which predominates by two to one, be called, in such a case, an occasional diversification of that which is less frequent?

Lines of two iambs are not very uncommon, even in psalmody; and, since we have some lines _yet shorter_, and the lengths of all are determined only by the act of measuring, there is, surely, no propriety in calling dimeters "hemistichs," merely because they are short. The following are some examples of this measure combined with longer ones:--

_Example I.--From Psalm CXLVIII_.

_Example II.--From Psalm CXXXVI._

_Example III.--Gloria Patri_.

_Example IV.--Part of Psalm III_.

_Example V.--Six Lines of an "Air."_

"As when | the dove
Laments | her love
All on | the na | -ked spray;

When he | returns,
No more | she mourns,
But loves | the live | -long day."
JOHN GAY: _British Poets_, Vol. vii, p. 377.

_Example VI.--Four Stanzas of an Ode_.

There is a line of five syllables and double rhyme, which is commonly regarded as iambic dimeter with a supernumerary short syllable; and which, though it is susceptible of two other divisions into two feet, we prefer to scan in this manner, because it usually alternates with pure iambics. Twelve such lines occur in the following extract:--

LOVE TRANSITORY

MEASURE VIII.--IAMBIC OF ONE FOOT, OR MONOMETER.

"The shortest form of the English Iambic," says Lindley Murray, "consists of an Iambus with an additional short syllable: as,

Disdaining,
Complaining,
Consenting,
Repenting.

We have no poem of this measure, but it may be met with in stanzas. The Iambus, with this addition, coincides with the Amphibrach."--_Murray's Gram._, 12mo, p. 204; 8vo, p. 254. This, or the substance of it, has been repeated by many other authors. Everett varies the language and illustration, but teaches the same doctrine. See _E. Versif._, p. 15.

Now there are sundry examples which may be cited to show, that the iambus, without any additional syllable, and without the liability of being confounded with an other foot, may, and sometimes does, stand as a line, and sustain a regular rhyme. The following pieces contain instances of this sort:--

_Example I.--"How to Keep Lent."_

Example II.--"To Mary Ann."

[This singular arrangement of seventy-two separate iambic feet, I find _without intermediate points_, and leave it so. It seems intended to be read in three or more different ways, and the punctuation required by one mode of reading would not wholly suit an other.]

"Your face Your tongue Your wit
So fair So sweet So sharp
First bent Then drew Then hit
Mine eye Mine ear Mine heart

Mine eye Mine ear Mine heart
To like To learn To love
Your face Your tongue Your wit
Doth lead Doth teach Doth move

Your face Your tongue Your wit
With beams With sound With art
Doth blind Doth charm Doth rule
Mine eye Mine ear Mine heart

Mine eye Mine ear Mine heart
With life With hope With skill
Your face Your tongue Your wit
Doth feed Doth feast Doth fill

O face O tongue O wit
With frowns With cheek With smart
Wrong not Vex not Wound not
Mine eye Mine ear Mine heart

This eye This ear This heart
Shall joy Shall bend Shall swear
Your face Your tongue Your wit
To serve To trust To fear."

ANONYMOUS: _Sundry American Newspapers_, in 1849.

_Example III.--Umbrellas._

"The late George Canning, of whom Byron said that 'it was his happiness to be at once a wit, poet, orator, and statesman, and excellent in all,' is the author of the following clever _jeu d' esprit_:" [except three lines here added in brackets:]

_Example IV.--Shreds of a Song._

I. SPRING.

II. WINTER.

_Example V.--Puck's Charm._

[_When he has uttered the fifth line, he squeezes a juice on Lysander's eyes_.]

"On the ground,
_Sleep sound_;
I'll apply
To your eye,
Gentle | lover, | remedy.
When thou wak'st,
_Thou tak'st_
True delight
In the sight
Of thy | former | lady's eye." [508]
IDEM: _Midsummer-Night's Dream_, Act iii, Sc. 2.

ORDER II.--TROCHAIC VERSE.

In Trochaic verse, the stress is laid on the odd syllables, and the even ones are short. Single-rhymed trochaic omits the final short syllable, that it may end with a long one; for the common doctrine of Murray, Chandler, Churchill, Bullions, Butler, Everett, Fowler, Weld, Wells, Mulligan, and others, that this chief rhyming syllable is "_additional_" to the real number of feet in the line, is manifestly incorrect. One long syllable is, in some instances, used _as a foot_; but it is one or more _short syllables_ only, that we can properly admit _as hypermeter_. Iambics and trochaics often occur in the same poem; but, in either order, written with exactness, the number of feet is always the number of the long syllables.

_Examples from Gray's Bard._

(1.)

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The Grammar of English GrammarsChapter CXI: Section IV: The Kinds of Verse (1)

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