Composition-Rhetoric Part 31

Merrily swinging on brier and weed, Near to the nest of his little dame, Over the mountain side or mead, Robert of Lincoln is telling his name: Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link, Spink, spank, spink, Snug and safe is this nest of ours, Hidden among the summer flowers.

Chee, chee, chee.

--Bryant.

7.

Grow old along with me!

The best is yet to be, The last of life, for which the first was made: Our times are in His hand Who saith, "A whole I planned, Youth shows but half; trust G.o.d: see all, nor be afraid!"

--Browning.

+109. Feet.+--The metrical effect of the preceding selections is produced by the regular recurrence of accented and unaccented syllables. A group of accented and unaccented syllables is called a foot. There are four regular feet in English verse, the iambus, the anapest, the trochee, and the dactyl. Three irregular feet, the pyrrhic, the spondee, the amphibrach, are occasionally found in lines, but not in entire poems, and are often considered merely as subst.i.tutes for regular feet. For the sake of convenience the accented syllables are indicated thus: _, and the unaccented syllables thus: U.

_An iambus_ is a foot consisting of two syllables with the accent on the last.

U _| U _| U _| U _| U _| Let not ambition mock their useful toil.

--Gray.

U _|U _| U _|U _| He prayeth best who loveth best

U _| U _| U _| All things both great and small;

_ U | U _| U _|U _| For the dear G.o.d who loveth us,

U _| U _|U _| He made and loveth all.

--Coleridge.

_An anapest_ is a foot consisting of three syllables with the accent on the last.

U U _| U U _|U U _| I am monarch of all I survey.

U U _ | U U _ | U U _ | I would hide with the beasts of the chase.

_A trochee_ is a foot consisting of two syllables with the accent on the first.

_ U | _ U | _ U | _ U| Double, double, toil and trouble.

--Shakespeare.

_ U | _ U |_ U |_ U | Let us then be up and doing, _ U| _ U | _U | _ | With a heart for any fate, _ U |_ U | _ U|_ U | Still achieving, still pursuing, _ U | _ U |_ U | _ | Learn to labor and to wait.

--Longfellow.

_A dactyl_ is a foot consisting of three syllables with the accent on the first.

_ U U | _ U U | Cannon to right of them, _ U U | _ U U | Cannon to left of them, _ U U | _ U U | Cannon in front of them, _ U U |_ U | Volleyed and thundered.

--Tennyson.

It will be convenient to remember that two of these, the iambus and the anapest, have the accent on the last syllable, and that two, the trochee and the dactyl, have the accent on the first syllable.

_A spondee_ is a foot consisting of two syllables, both of which are accented about equally. It is an unusual foot in English poetry.

U _ | _ _ | U _| U _ | Come now, blow, Wind, and waft us o'er.

_A pyrrhic_ is a foot consisting of two syllables both of which are unaccented. It is frequently found at the end of a line.

U _ | U _ | U _|U U Life is so full of misery.

_An amphibrach_ is a foot consisting of three syllables, with the accent on the second.

U _ U U _ U| U _ U| U _ | Creator, Preserver, Redeemer and friend.

+110. Names of Verse.+--A single line of poetry is called a verse. A stanza is composed of several verses. When a verse consists of one foot, it is called a monometer; of two feet, a dimeter; of three feet, a trimeter; of four feet, a tetrameter; of five feet, a pentameter; and of six feet, a hexameter.

_ U Monometer. Slowly.

_ U U| _ U U | Dimeter. Emblem of happiness.

_ U| _U| _ U | Trimeter. Like a poet hidden.

_ U| _ U| _ U | _ U | Tetrameter. Tell me not in mournful numbers.

U _ |U _ |U _| U _ | U _ | Pentameter. O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath.