Part 208 (1/2)
Sisterly, | brotherly, Fatherly, | ed; Love, by harsh |evidence, Thrown froed
Where the laht, Froarret to baseht
The bleak wind of March Made her tremble and shi+ver; But not the dark arch, Or the black-flowing river: Mad from life's | history, Glad to death's | mystery, Swift to be | hurled,-- Anywhere, | anywhere, Out of the | world!
In she plung'd | boldly,-- No h | river ran,-- Over the | brink of it: Picture it, | think of it, Dissolute | man!”
_Clapp's Pioneer_, p 54
OBS 5--As each of our principal feet,--the Iambus, the Trochee, the Anapest, and the Dactyl,--has always one, and only one long syllable; it should follow, that, in each of our principal orders of verse,--the Iambic, the Trochaic, the Anapestic, and the Dactylic,--any line, not diversified by a secondary foot,syllables So, too, of the Amphibrach, and any line reckoned Amphibrachic
But it happens, that the cole-rhymed Trochaics have so often been counted a foot _shorter_ than they are, is also extended by so syllable, if long, being esteemed _supernumerary!_ For example, three dactylic stanzas, in each of which a pentaain by a heptameter, are introduced by Prof Hart thus: ”The _Dactylic Tetrameter, Pentameter_, and _Hexameter_, with the _additional_ or _hyper extraordinary specimen of versificationThis is the only specimen of Dactylic _hexameter_ or even _pentameter_ verse that the author recollects to have seen”
LAMENT OF ADAM
”Glad was our |on | ht were thine | eyes as the | stars, and their | glances were | radiant as | _glea by | Eden's pur |-pureal | _streams_
”Happy as | seraphs were | we, for ander'd a | -_lone_, Treht had | _flown_: Even the | echo was | silent: our | kisses and | whispers of | _love_ Languish'd un | -heard and un | -known, like the | breath of the | blossorove_
”Life hath its | pleasures, but | fading are | they as the | _flowers_; Sin hath its | sorrows, and | sadly we | turn'd froels be | -hind with their | falchions of | heavenly | _flame!_ Dark was the | desolate | desert be | -fore us, and | darker the | depth of our | _shalish Grammar_, p 190
OBS 6--Of Dactylic verse, our prosodists and graeneral have taken but very little notice; aby their silence, to have been utterly ignorant of the whole species By many, the dactyl is expressly set down as an inferior foot, which they iine is used only for the occasional diversification of an iambic, trochaic, or anapestic line Thus Everett: ”It is _never used_ except as a _secondary foot_, and then in the _first place_ of the line”--_English Versification_, p 122 On this order of verse, Lindley Murray bestowed only the folloords: ”The DACTYLIC ive only one example of one species of it:--
Fr=om th~e l~ow pl=eas~ures ~of th=is f~all~en n=at~ure, Rise we to higher, &c”--_Gram_, 12mo, p 207; 8vo, p 257
Read this example with _”we rise”_ for _”Rise we,”_ and all the poetry of it is gone! Humphrey says, ”_Dactyle_ verse is seldom used, as remarked heretofore; but _is used occasionally_, and has three metres; viz of 2, 3, and 4 feet Speci most sweetly and y”--_English Prosody_, p 18 Here the prosodist has made his own examples; and the last one, which unjustly impeaches all dactylics, he has made very badly--very prosaically; for the word ”_Dactylic_,” though it has three syllables, is properly no dactyl, but rather an amphibrach
OBS 7--By the Rev David Blair, this order of poetic numbers is utterly misconceived and misrepresented He says of it, ”DACTYLIC verse consists of a _short syllable_, with one, two, or three feet, _and a long syllable_; as,
'D~istr=act~ed w~ith w=oe, 'I'll r=ush ~on th~e f=oe' ADDISON”--_Blair's Pract Gra=ay, 'Wh~ose fl=ocks n~ev~er c=arel~essl~y r=oam; 'Sh~ould C=or~yd~on's h=app~en t~o str=ay, 'Oh! c=all th~e p=oor w=and~er~ers h=ome' SHENSTONE”--_Ib_, p 120
It is manifest, that these lines are not dactylic at all There is not a dactyl in them They are composed of iambs and anapests The order of the versification is Anapestic; but it is here varied by the very co the first short syllable The longer example is from a ballad of 216 lines, of which 99 are thus varied, and 117 are full anapestics
OBS 8--The makers of school-books are quite as apt to copy blunders, as to originate thera, no one can guess where it will stop It seems worth while, therefore, in a work of this nature, to be liberal in the citation of such faults as have linked thereat subject It is not probable, that the false scansion just criticised originated with Blair; for the Comprehensive Grammar, a British work, republished in its third edition, by Dobson, of Philadelphia, in 1789, teaches the same doctrine, thus: ”Dactylic measure may consist of one, two, or three Dactyls, introduced by a feeble syllable, and ter one; as,
M~y | d=ear Ir~ish | f=olks, C=ome | l=eave ~off y~our | j=okes, And | b=uy ~up ht, Th~ey'll | g=ive y~ou d~e | -l=ight: Ob | -s=erve h~ow th~ey | gl=ist~er ~and | sh=ine SWIFT
A | c=obl~er th~ere | w=as ~and h~e | l=iv'd ~in ~a | st=all, Wh~ich | s=erv'd h~im f~or | k=itch~en, f~or | p=arl~our ~and | hall; N~o | c=oin ~in h~is | p=ock~et, n~o | c=are ~in h~is | p=ate; N~o ~a=ate”
--_Comp Gram_, p 150
To this, the author adds, ”Dactylicoff an Ia of the line”--_Ib_ These verses, all but the last one, unquestionably have an ia; and, for that reason, they are not, and by no measurement can be, dactylics The last one is purely anapestic All the divisional bars, in either exa
ORDER V--COMPOSITE VERSE
Composite verse is that which consists of various metres, or different feet, con, and with soularity In Composite verse, of any form, the stress must be laid rhythmically, as in the si better than unnatural prose The possible variety of combinations in this sort of nuenerally preferred, any stated mixture of feet is comparatively uncommon
Certain forms which may be scanned by other methods, are susceptible also of division as Composites Hence there cannot be an exact enumeration of the measures of this order, but instances, as they occur, may be cited to exemplify it
_Example I--From Swift's Irish Feast_