Part 210 (1/2)
”Inf=an- | d=u=in~a, j~u | -b=es r~en~o | -v=ar~e d~o | -l=or=elish, so very fair example:--
”M=an ~is ~a | c=ompl=ex, | c=omp=ound | c=omp=ost, | y=et ~is h~e | G=od-b=orn”
OBS 7--Of this species of versification, which may be called Mixed or Composite Hexalish, is Longfellow's Evangeline, a poe lines, or verses This work has found ad written by so distinguished a scholar could fail: but, surely, not many of the verses in question exhibit truly the feet of the ancient Hexameters; or, if they do, the ancients contented themselves with very imperfect rhythms, even in their noblest heroics In short, I incline to the opinion of Poe, that, ”Nothing less than the deservedly high reputation of Professor Longfellow, could have sufficed to give currency to his lines as to Greek Hexa nor another Solish dactylics But do aith the division into lines, and the most astute critic would never have suspected theare the last ten lines of the volume, with such a division into feet as the poet is presumed to have contemplated:--
”Still stands the | forest pri | -meval; but | under the | shade of its | branches Dwells an | -other | race, with | other | custo the | shore of the | er a | few A | -cadian | peasants, whose | fathers from | exile Wandered | back to their | native | land to | die in its | bosom
In the | fisherman's | cot the | wheel and the | loom are still | busy; Maidens still | wear their | Norman | caps and their | kirtles of | hoeline's story, While fro | ocean Speaks, and in | accents dis | -consolate | answers the | wail of the | forest”
HENRY W LONGFELLOW: _Evangeline_, p 162
OBS 8--An other form of verse, common to the Greeks and Romans, which has sometimes been imitated--or, rather, which solish, is the line or stanza called Sapphic, from the inventress, Sappho, a Greek poetess The Sapphic verse, according to Fabricius, S ”five feet--the first a trochee, the second a spondee, the third a dactyl, and the fourth and fifth trochees” The Sapphic stanza, or what is sometimes so called, consists of three Sapphic lines and an Adonian, or Adonic,--this last being a short line composed of ”a dactyl and a spondee”
Exa=er v=i | -tae, sc~el~e | -r=isqu~e | p=ur~us Non e | -get Mau | -ri jacu | -lis ne | -qu' arcu, Nec ven | -ena | -tis gravi | -da sa | -gittis, Fusce, pha | -retra”
To arrange eleven syllables in a line, and have half or more of them to form trochees, is no difficult matter; but, to find _rhythm_ in the succession of ”a trochee, a spondee, and a dactyl,” as we read words, seelish Sapphics, if there be any, which abide by the foregoing forenerally, if not in every instance, susceptible of acomposed of trochees, with a dactyl, or so_ of each line The caesural pause falls soenerally, and reeably, after the fifth Let the reader inspect the following exa the accent on only the first syllable of each foot, as the feet are here divided The accent, too, must be carefully laid Without considerable care in the reading, the hearer will not suppose the co but prose:--
”THE WIDOW”--(IN ”SAPPHICS”)
”Cold was the | night-wind, | drifting | fast the | snow fell, Wide were the | downs, and | shelter | -less and | naked, When a poor | Wanderer | struggled | on her | journey, Weary and | way-sore
Drear were the | downs, ht-wind, | colder | was her | bosom; She had no | home, the | world was | all be | -fore her; She had no | shelter
Fast o'er the | heath a | chariot | rattlee | by her; 'Pity me!' | feebly | cried the | lonely | wanderer; 'Pity er, Here I should | perish
'Once I had | friends,--though | now by | all for | -saken!
'Once I had | parents, | --they are | now in | heaven!
'I had a | hoers!
'I had a | home once, | --I had | once a | husband-- 'I am a | , | poor and | broken | -hearted!'
Loud blew the | wind; un | -heard was | her co; On drove the | chariot
Then on the | snow she | laid her | down to | rest her; She heard a | horseroan'd out; Loud was the | wind; un | -heard was | her co; On went the | horseuish, | toil, and | cold, and | hunger, Down sunk the | Wanderer; | sleep had | seized her | senses; There did the | traveller | find her | in the | ; God had re | -leased her”
ROBERT SOUTHEY: _Poe the lyric poems of Dr Watts, is one, entitled, ”THE DAY OF JUDGEMENT; _an Ode atteood an example as we have of the species It consists of nine stanzas, of which I shall here cite the first three, dividing them into feet as above:--
”When the fierce | North Wind, | with his | airy | forces, Rears up the | Baltic | to a | foa | with a | stor a | -main down;
How the poor | sailors | stand a | -maz'd and | tremble!
While the hoarse | thunder, | like a bloody | tru | waters, Quick to de | -vour them
Such shall the | noise be, | and the | wild dis | -order, (If things e | -ternal | may be | like these | earthly,) Such the dire | terror, | when the | great Arch | -angel Shakes the cre | -ation”--_Horae Lyricae_, p 67
”These lines,” says Hulish Sapphics, and contain the essential traits of the original as nearly as the two languages, Greek and English, correspond to each other
This stanza, together with the poem, frolish compositions”--_Humphrey's E Prosody_, p 19