Part 196 (2/2)

'They neither added nor confounded, They neither wanted nor abounded' _Prior_

”In that of seven,

'For resistance I could _fear none_, But with twenty shi+ps had done, What thou, brave and happy _Vernon_, Hast achieved with six alone' _Glover_

”To these lish verse”--_Dr Johnson's Graue_, p 14 See his _Quarto Dict_ Here, except a few less important remarks, and sundry examples of the metres named, is Johnson's _whole scheme_ of versification

OBS 7--Hohen a prosodist judges certain exa syllable at the end,” he can ”look upon the additional syllable to be at the beginning,” is a matter of marvel; yet, to abolish trochaics, Churchill not only does and advises this, but i of lines; while so ones, to make iambs, and yet does not always count these as feet in the verse, when he has done so!

Johnson's instructions are both rammarian I have therefore cited the retrenched from an _anapest_, there remains an _iaross error of reckoning such a foot an anapest still?--or to that of co a syllable not used by the poet? The preceding stanza from Glover, is _trochaic of four feet_; the odd lines full, and of coursedouble rhy with a long syllable counted as a foot Johnson cited itin it no ”additional syllable,” except perhaps the thich terminate the two trochees, ”fear none” and ”Vernon” These, it may be inferred, he iular measure; because he reckoned measures by the nule rhy verse

OBS 8--There is false scansion in rammar, but perhaps none more uncouthly false, than Churchill's pretended amendments of Johnson's

The second of these--wherein ”the old _seven_[-]_foot iambic_” is professedly found in two lines of Glover's _trochaic tetrameter_--I shall quote:--

”In the anapaestic measure, Johnson himself allows, that a syllable is often retrenched froives _as an example of trochaics with an additional syllable at the end of the even lines_ a stanza, which, by adopting the _same principle_, would be in the iambic measure:

”For | resis- | tance I | could fear | none, But | with twen | ty shi+ps | had done, What | thou, brave | and hap | py Ver- | non, Hast | achiev'd | with six | alone

In fact, _the second and fourth lines_ here stamp the character of the measure; [Fist] _which is the old seven[-]foot iambic broken into four and three_, WITH AN ADDITIONAL SYLLABLE AT THE BEGINNING”--_Churchill's New Gram_, p 391

After these observations and criticis the trochaic order of verse, I proceed to say, trochaics consist of the following measures, or metres:--

MEASURE I--TROCHAIC OF EIGHT FEET, OR OCTOMETER

_Exahteen Stanzas_

1

”Once up | -on a | ht | dreary, | while I | pondered, | weak and | weary, Over | _otten | lore, While I | nodded, | nearly | napping, | sudden |-ly there | ca | at my | chamber | door

”Tis so | at| more”

2

Ah! dis |-tinctly | I re |-member | it was | in the | bleak De |-ceht its | ghost up |-on the | floor; Eager |-ly I | wished the | morrow; | vainly | had I | tried to | borrow From my | books sur |-cease of | sorrow--| sorrow | for the | lost Le |-nore-- For the | rare and | _r=ad~i~ant_ | els | name Le |-nore-- Nameless | here for | ever |-more”

EDGAR A POE: _A less co verse less frequently ter syllable counted as a foot The species of h catalectic By Lindley Murray, and a number who implicitly re-utter what he teaches, the verse of _six trochees_, in which are _twelve syllables_ only, is said ”to be _the longest_ Trochaic line that our language admits”--_Murray's Octavo Gram_, p 257; _Weld's E Gram_, p 211 The examples produced here will sufficiently show the inaccuracy of their assertion

_Example II--”The Shadow of the Obelisk”--Last two Stanzas_

”Herds are | feeding |in the | Forum, | as in | old E | -vander's | time: Tumbled | fro sub |-lie! that | what see | prove; Strange! that |what is | hourly || no mu |-tation | can re |- a |-go, have | ceased to | roll-- E'en the | Obe |-lisk is | broken |--but the | shadow | still is | whole

9

Out a |--las! if | _htiest_ | empires | leave so | little | mark be |-hind, How much | less must | heroes | hope for, | in the | wreck of | human | kind!

Less than | e'en this | darksome | picture, | which I | tread be |-neath my | feet, Copied | by a | lifeless | moonbeam | on the | pebbles | of the | street; Since if | Caesar's | best a, | was, to | be re |-nowned, What shall | Cassar | leave be |-hind him, | save the | shadow | of a | sound?”

T W PARSONS: _Lowell and Carter's ”Pioneer,”_ Vol i, p 120

_Example III--”The Slaves of Martinique”--Nine Couplets out of Thirty-six_