Part 198 (1/2)
6
Thither, | thither | would I | roam; There my | children | may be | free; I for | therave 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 || 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 | nani | -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 tih there seeht 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 beco line of this sort is reduced to two short ones, thereto 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 hyper lines; which, if tritten as one, would make exactly our full trochaic of seven feet, the , | heard by | wakeful | uide_ | _us_, Stolen | walk, through | ht | shades, With those | we love | _beside_ | _us_”--_Moore's Melodies_, p 276
But trochaic of seven feetcouplet, which is given anonymously, and, after a false custom, erroneously, in N Butler's recent Gra syllable_:--
”Night and || over | Water | -loo; cocks had | sung their | _earliest_ | greeting; | faint and | low they | crew” [511]
In Frazee's Grammar, a separate line or two, sihtly reckoned to have _seven feet_, andthose above froives for _Heptaer, are presented as trochaics of _eight_ feet; but Everett, the surest of our prosodists, reer to our octometers, and too little acquainted with trochaic hepta a couple of stanzas in which two such lines are set with shorter ones of different sorts, and with soely concludes that all lines of more than ”_six trochees_” must necessarily be condemned as prosodial anomalies Itsuch corrections and est 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 toomy third species of trochaics, which is Everett's tenth
MEASURE III--TROCHAIC OF SIX FEET, OR HEXAMETER
_Example--Health_
”Up the | dewy | htly; On her | brows a | garland, | twin'd with | richest | posies: Gay is | she, e | -late with | hope, and | shthly; Redder | is her | cheek, and | sweeter | than the | rose is”
G BROWN: _The Institutes of English Grammar_, p 258
This h, as in that case, I know no good reason why it ue
Professor John S Hart says of it: ”This is the _longest_ Trochaic verse that see Gra of its cultivation he doubtless found only in sundry rarammarians, who vainly profess to have illustrated ”every species of English verse,”--ra from hand to hand, has everywhere served to exemplify it
Of this, ”the line of six Trochees,” Everett says: ”Thisexample is often cited:
'On a | mountain, | stretched be | -neath a | hoary | , 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=i | d=own b~e | -f=ore th~ee, _Wh~ich_ w=ert, | ~and =art, | ~and =ev | -~erh the | darkness | hide thee, Though the | eye of | sinful | lory | 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 co 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 est species of Trochaic line known to English verse”--_Everett's Versification_, pp 95 and 96
This, in view of the exaer trochaics,deduced his rules froreat poets, he has the best reason for being confident of their correctness”--_Ibid_, Pref, p 5
Trochaic hexale rhyme_; perhaps more easily than a speci already written Let me try:--
_Example I--The Sorcerer_