The Grammar of English Grammars Part 196

(2.)

"_Weave the | warp, and | weave the | woof_, The wind | -ing-sheet | of Ed | -ward's race.

Give am | -ple room, | and verge | enough, The char | -acters | of h.e.l.l | to trace.

_Mark the |year, and | mark the | night_, When Sev | -ern shall | re-ech | -o with | affright."

"_The Bard, a Pindaric Ode_;"

_British Poets_, Vol. vii, p. 281 and 282.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.--Trochaic verse without the final short syllable, is the same as iambic would be without the _initial_ short syllable;--it being quite plain, that iambic, so changed, _becomes trochaic, and_ is iambic no longer. But trochaic, retrenched of its last short syllable, is trochaic still; and can no otherwise be made iambic, than by the prefixing of a short syllable to the line. Feet, and the orders of verse, are distinguished one from an other by two things, and in general by two only; the number of syllables taken as a foot, and the order of their quant.i.ties.

Trochaic verse is always as distinguishable from iambic, as iambic is from any other. Yet have we several grammarians and prosodies who contrive to confound them--or who, at least, mistake catalectic trochaic for catalectic iambic; and that too, where the syllable wanting affects only the last foot, and makes it perhaps but a common and needful caesura.

OBS. 2.--To suppose that iambic verse may drop its initial short syllable, and still be iambic, still be measured as before, is not only to take a single long syllable for a foot, not only to recognize a pedal caesura at the _beginning_ of each line, but utterly to destroy the only principles on which iambics and trochaics can be discriminated. Yet Hiley, of Leeds, and Wells, of Andover, while they are careful to treat separately of these two orders of verse, not only teach that any order may take at the end "an additional syllable," but also suggest that the iambic _may drop_ a syllable "from the first foot," without diminishing the number of feet,--without changing the succession of quant.i.ties,--without disturbing the mode of scansion! "Sometimes," say they, (in treating of iambics,) "a syllable is cut off from the first foot; as,

Praise | to G.o.d, | immor |-tal praise, For | the love | that crowns | our days."[--BARBAULD.]

_Hiley's E. Gram._, Third Edition, London, p. 124; _Wells's_, Third Edition, p. 198.

OBS. 3.--Now this couplet is the precise exemplar, not only of the thirty-six lines of which it is a part, but also of the most common of our trochaic metres; and if this may be thus scanned into iambic verse, so may all other trochaic lines in existence: distinction between the two orders must then be worse than useless. But I reject this doctrine, and trust that most readers will easily see its absurdity. A prosodist might just as well scan all iambics into trochaics, by p.r.o.nouncing each initial short syllable to be hypermeter. For, surely, if deficiency may be discovered at the _beginning_ of measurement, so may redundance. But if neither is to be looked for before the measurement ends, (which supposition is certainly more reasonable,) then is the distinction already vindicated, and the scansion above-cited is shown to be erroneous.

OBS. 4.--But there are yet other objections to this doctrine, other errors and inconsistencies in the teaching of it. Exactly the same kind of verse as this, which is said to consist of "_four iambuses_" from one of which "a syllable _is cut off_," is subsequently scanned by the same authors as being composed of "_three trochees_ and an _additional_ syllable; as,

'Haste thee, | Nymph, and | bring with | _thee_ Jest and | youthful | Jolli |-_ty_.'--MILTON."

_Wells's School Grammar_, p. 200.

"V=it~al | sp=ark of | he=av'nly | _fl=me_, Q=uit ~oh | q=uit th~is | m=ort~al | _fr=ame_." [509][--POPE.]

_Hiley's English Grammar_, p. 126.

There is, in the works here cited, not only the inconsistency of teaching two very different modes of scanning the same species of verse, but in each instance the scansion is wrong; for all the lines in question are _trochaic of four feet_,--single-rhymed, and, of course, catalectic, and ending with a caesura, or elision. In no metre that lacks but one syllable, can this sort of foot occur _at the beginning_ of a line; yet, as we see, it is sometimes _imagined_ to be there, by those who have never been able to find it _at the end_, where it oftenest exists!

OBS. 5.--I have hinted, in the main paragraph above, that it is a common error of our prosodists, to underrate, by one foot, the measure of all trochaic lines, when they terminate with single rhyme; an error into which they are led by an other as gross, that of taking for hypermeter, or mere surplus, the whole rhyme itself, the sound or syllable most indispensable to the verse.

"(For rhyme the _rudder_ is of verses, With which, like ships, they steer their courses.)"--_Hudibras._

Iambics and trochaics, of corresponding metres, and exact in them, agree of course in both the number of feet and the number of syllables; but as the former are slightly redundant with double rhyme, so the latter are deficient as much, with single rhyme; yet, the number of feet may, and should, in these cases, be reckoned the same. An estimable author now living says, "Trochaic verse, with an additional long syllable, is the same as iambic verse, without the initial short syllable."--_N. Butler's Practical Gram._, p. 193. This instruction is not quite accurate. Nor would it be right, even if there could be "iambic verse without the initial short syllable," and if it were universally _true_, that, "Trochaic verse may take an additional _long_ syllable."--_Ibid._ For the addition and subtraction here suggested, will inevitably make the difference of a foot, between the measures or verses said to be the same!

OBS. 6.--"I doubt," says T. O. Churchill, "whether the _trochaic_ can be considered as a legitimate English measure. All the examples of it given by Johnson have an additional long syllable at the end: but these are _iambics_, if we look upon the additional syllable to be at the beginning, which is much more agreeable to the a.n.a.logy of music."--_Churchill's New Gram._, p. 390. This doubt, ridiculous as must be all reasoning in support of it, the author seriously endeavours to raise into a general conviction _that we have no trochaic order of verse!_ It can hardly be worth while to notice here all his remarks. _"An additional long syllable"_ Johnson never dreamed of--"at the end"--"at the beginning"--or anywhere else. For he discriminated metres, not by the number of feet, as he ought to have done, but by the number of _syllables_ he found in each line. His doctrine is this: "Our _iambick_ measure comprises verses--Of four syllables,--Of six,--Of eight,--Of ten. Our _trochaick_ measures are--Of three syllables,--Of five,--Of seven. These are the measures _which are now in use_, and above the rest those of seven, eight and ten syllables. Our ancient poets wrote verses sometimes of twelve syllables, as Drayton's Polyolbion; and of fourteen, as Chapman's Homer." "We have another measure very quick and lively, and therefore much used in songs, which may be called the _anapestick_.

'May I govern my pa.s.sion with absolute sway, And grow wiser and better as life wears away.' _Dr. Pope_.

"In this measure a syllable is often retrenched from the first foot, [;] as [,]

'When present we love, and when absent agree, I th'nk not of I'ris [.] nor I'ris of me.' _Dryden_.

"These measures are varied by many combinations, and sometimes by _double endings_, either with or without rhyme, as in the _heroick_ measure.

"Tis the divinity that stirs _within us_, 'Tis heaven itself that points out an _hereafter._.' _Addison_.

"So in that of eight syllables,

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

"In that of seven,

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

"To these measures and their laws, may be reduced every species of English verse."--_Dr. Johnson's Grammar of the English Tongue_, 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.--How, when a prosodist judges certain examples to "have an additional long 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 imagines short syllables removed sometimes from the beginning of lines; while sometimes he couples final short syllables with initial long 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 misunderstood and misrepresented by this grammarian. I have therefore cited them the more fully. The first syllable being retrenched from an _anapest_, there remains an _iambus_. But what countenance has Johnson lent to the gross error of reckoning such a foot an anapest still?--or to that of commencing the measurement of a line by including a syllable not used by the poet? The preceding stanza from Glover, is _trochaic of four feet_; the odd lines full, and of course making double rhyme; the even lines catalectic, and of course ending with a long syllable counted as a foot. Johnson cited it merely as an example of "_double endings_" imagining in it no "additional syllable," except perhaps the two which terminate the two trochees, "fear none" and "Vernon." These, it may be inferred, he improperly conceived to be additional to the regular measure; because he reckoned measures by the number of syllables, and probably supposed single rhyme to be the normal form of all rhyming verse.

OBS. 8.--There is false scansion in many a school grammar, 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 from the first foot; yet he gives _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 ships | 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 criticisms concerning 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.

_Example I.--"The Raven"--First Two out of Eighteen Stanzas_.

1.

"Once up | -on a | midnight | dreary, | while I | pondered, | weak and | weary, Over | _m=any ~a_ | quaint and | _c=ur~io~us_ | volume | of for | -gotten | lore, While I | nodded, | nearly | napping, | sudden |-ly there | came a | tapping, As of | some one | gently | rapping, | rapping | at my | chamber | door.

"Tis some | visit |-or,' I | muttered, | 'tapping | at my | chamber | door-- Only | this, and |nothing | more."

2.

Ah! dis |-tinctly | I re |-member | it was | in the | bleak De |-cember, And each | _s=ep~ar~ate_ | dying | ember | wrought 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_ | maiden, | whom the | angels | name Le |-nore-- Nameless | here for | ever |-more."

EDGAR A. POE: _American Review for February_, 1845.

Double rhymes being less common than single ones, in the same proportion, is this long verse less frequently terminated with a full trochee, than with a single long syllable counted as a foot. The species of measure is, however, to be reckoned the same, though 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 a.s.sertion.

_Example II.--"The Shadow of the Obelisk."--Last two Stanzas._

"Herds are | feeding |in the | Forum, | as in | old E | -vander's | time: Tumbled | from the | steep Tar |_-peian_ | _every_ | pile that | sprang sub |-lime.

Strange! that | what seemed | most in |-constant | should the | most a | -biding | prove; Strange! that |what is | hourly | moving | no mu |-tation | can re |-move: Ruined | lies the | cirque! the | _chariots_, | long a |-go, have | ceased to | roll-- E'en the | Obe |-lisk is | broken |--but the | shadow | still is | whole.

9.

Out a |--las! if | _mightiest_ | 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 am |-bition, | living, | was, to | be re |-nowned, What shall | Ca.s.sar | 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._