The Grammar of English Grammars Part 209

Only one | thought, one pow'r, _Thee_ could | have led, So through the | tempest's hour To lift | thy head!

Only the | true, the strong, The love | whose trust Woman's deep | soul too long Pours on | the dust."

HEMANS: _Poetical Works_, Vol. ii, p. 157.

Here are fourteen stanzas of composite dimeter, each having two sorts of lines; the first sort consisting, with a few exceptions, of a dactyl and an amphimac; the second, mostly, of two iambs; but, in some instances, of a trochee and an iamb;--the latter being, in such a connexion, much the more harmonious and agreeable combination of quant.i.ties.

_Example IV.--Airs from a "Serenata."_

Air 1.

"Love sounds | the alarm, And fear | is a-fly~ing; When beau |-ty's the prize, What mor |-tal fears dy |-~ing?

In defence | of my treas |-~ure, I'd bleed | at each vein; Without | her no pleas |-ure; For life | is a pain."

Air 2.

"Consid |-er, fond shep |-h~erd, How fleet |-ing's the pleas |-~ure, That flat |-ters our hopes In pursuit | of the fair: The joys | that attend | ~it, By mo |-ments we meas |-~ure; But life | is too lit |-tle To meas |-ure our care."

GAY'S POEMS: _Johnson's Works of the Poets_, VoL vii, p. 378.

These verses are essentially either anapestic or amphibrachic. The anapest divides two of them in the middle; the amphibrach will so divide eight. But either division will give many iambs. By the present scansion, the _first foot_ is an iamb in all of them but the two anapestics.

_Example V.--"The Last Leaf."_

1.

"I saw | him once | before As he pa.s.s |-~ed by | the door, And again The pave |-ment stones | resound As he tot |-ters o'er | the ground With his cane.

2.

They say | that in | his prime, Ere the prun |-ing knife of Time Cut him down, Not a bet |-ter man | was found By the cri |-er on | his round Through the town.

3.

But now | he walks | the streets, And he looks | at all | he meets So forlorn; And he shakes | his fee |-ble head, That it seems | as if | he said, They are gone.

4.

The mos |-sy mar |-bles rest On the lips | that he | has press'd In their bloom; And the names | he lov'd | to hear Have been carv'd | for man |-y a year On the tomb.

5.

My grand |-mamma | has said,-- Poor old La |-dy! she | is dead Long ago,-- That he had | a Ro |-man nose, And his cheek | was like | a rose In the snow.

6.

But now | his nose | is thin, And it rests | upon | his chin Like a staff; And a crook | is in | his back And a mel |-anchol |-y crack In his laugh.

7.

I know | it is | a sin For me [thus] | to sit | and grin At him here; But the old | three-cor |-ner'd hat, And the breech |-es, and | all that, Are so queer!

8.

And if I | should live | to be The last leaf | upon | the tree In the spring,-- Let them smile, | as I | do now, At the old | forsak |-en bough Where I cling."

OLIVER W. HOLMES: _The Pioneer_, 1843, p. 108.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.--Composite verse, especially if the lines be short, is peculiarly liable to uncertainty, and diversity of scansion; and that which does not always abide by one chosen order of quant.i.ties, can scarcely be found agreeable; it must be more apt to puzzle than to please the reader. The eight stanzas of this last example, have eight lines of _iambic trimeter_; and, since seven times in eight, this metre holds the first place in the stanza, it is a double fault, that one such line seems strayed from its proper position. It would be better to prefix the word _Now_ to the fourth line, and to mend the forty-third thus:--

"And should | I live | to be"--

The trissyllabic feet of this piece, as I scan it, are numerous; being the sixteen short lines of monometer, and the twenty-four initial feet of the lines of seven syllables. Every one of the forty--(except the thirty-sixth, "_The_ last leaf"--) begins with a monosyllable which may be varied in quant.i.ty; so that, with stress laid on this monosyllable, the foot becomes an _amphimac_; without such stress, an _anapest_.

OBS. 2.--I incline to read this piece as composed of iambs and anapests; but E. A. Poe, who has commended "the effective harmony of these lines,"

and called the example "an excellently well conceived and well managed specimen of versification," counts many syllables long, which such a reading makes short, and he also divides all but the iambics in a way quite different from mine, thus: "Let us scan the first stanza.

'I s=aw | h~im =once | b~ef=ore As h~e | p=a.s.s~ed | b=y th~e | d=oor, And ~a- | g=ain

Th~e p=ave- | m~ent st=ones | r~es=ound As h~e | t=ott~ers | =o'er th~e | gr=ound W=ith h~is c=ane.'

This," says he, "is the general scansion of the poem. We have first three iambuses. The second line shifts the _rhythm_ into the _trochaic_, giving us three trochees, with a caesura equivalent, in this case, to a trochee.

The third line is a trochee and equivalent caesura."--POE'S NOTES UPON ENGLISH VERSE: _Pioneer_, p. 109. These quant.i.ties are the same as those by which the whole piece is made to consist of iambs and amphimacs.

OBS. 3.--In its _rhythmical effect_ upon the ear, a supernumerary short syllable at the end of a line, may sometimes, perhaps, compensate for the want of such a syllable at the beginning of the next line, as may be seen in the fourth example above; but still it is unusual, and seems improper, to suppose such syllables to belong to the scansion of the subsequent line; for the division of lines, with their harmonic pauses, is greater than the division of feet, and implies that no foot can ever actually be split by it. Poe has suggested that the division into lines may be disregarded in scanning, and sometimes must be. He cites for an example the beginning of Byron's "Bride of Abydos,"--a pa.s.sage which has been admired for its easy flow, and which, he says, has greatly puzzled those who have attempted to scan it. Regarding it as essentially anapestic tetrameter, yet as having some initial iambs, and the first and fifth lines dactylic, I shall here divide it accordingly, thus:--

"Kn=ow y~e th~e | l=and wh~ere th~e | c=ypr~ess ~and | m=yrtl~e Ar~e =em | -bl~ems ~of d=eeds | th~at ~are d=one | ~in th~eir cl=ime-- Where the rage | of the vul | -ture, the love | of the tur | -tle, Now melt | into soft | -ness, now mad | -den to crime?

Know ye the | land of the | cedar and | vine.

Where the flow'rs | ever blos | -som, the beams | ever shine, And the light | wings of Zeph | -yr, oppress'd | with perfume, Wax faint | o'er the gar | -dens of Gul | in her bloom?

Where the cit | -ron and ol | -ive are fair | -est of fruit, And the voice | of the night | -ingale nev | -er is mute?

Where the vir | -gins are soft as the ros | -es they twine, And all, | save the spir | -it of man, | is divine?

'Tis the land | of the East- | 't is the clime | of the Sun-- Can he smile | on such deeds | as his chil | -dren have done?

Oh, wild | as the ac | -cents of lov | -ers' farewell, Are the hearts | that they bear, | and the tales | that they tell."

OBS. 4.--These lines this ingenious prosodist divides not thus, but, throwing them together like prose unpunctuated, finds in them "a regular succession of _dactylic rhythms_, varied only at three points by equivalent _spondees_, and separated into two distinct divisions by equivalent terminating _caesuras_." He imagines that, "By all who have ears--not over long--this will be acknowledged as the true and the sole true scansion."--_E. A. Poe: Pioneer_, p. 107. So it may, for aught I know; but, having dared to show there is an other way quite as simple and plain, and less objectionable, I submit both to the judgement of the reader:--

"Kn=ow y~e th~e | l=and wh~ere th~e | c=ypr~ess ~and | m=yrtl~e ~are | =embl~ems ~of | d=eeds th~at ~are | d=one ~in th~eir | cl=ime wh~ere th~e | r=age ~of th~e | v=ult~ure th~e | l=ove ~of th~e | t=urtl~e n~ow | m=elt ~int~o | s=oftn~ess n~ow | madd~en t~o | _crime_. Kn=ow y~e th~e | l=and ~of th~e | c=ed~ar ~and | v=ine wh~ere th~e | fl=ow'rs ~ev~er | bl=oss~om th~e | b=eams ~ev~er | sh=ine wh~ere th=e | l=ight w~ings =of | z=eph=yr ~op | -pr=ess'd w~ith p~er | -_f=ume w=ax_ | f=aint ~o'er th~e | g=ard~ens ~of | G=ul ~in h~er | bl=oom wh~ere th~e | c=itr~on ~and | =oli~ve ~are | f=air~est ~of | fr=uit ~and th~e | v=oice ~of th~e | n=ight~ing~ale | n=ev~er ~is | m=ute wh~ere th~e | v=irg~ins ~are | s=oft ~as th~e | r=os~es th~ey | _tw=ine =and_ | =all s~ave th~e | sp=ir~it ~of | m=an ~is d~i- | v=ine 't~is th~e | l=and ~of th~e | E=ast 't~is th~e | cl=im~e ~of th~e | S=un c~an h~e | sm=ile ~on s~uch | d=eeds ~as h~is | ch=ildr~en h~ave | _d~one =oh_ w=ild ~as th~e | =acc~ents ~of | l=ov~ers' f~are- | w=ell ~are th~e | h=earts th~at th~ey | be=ar and th~e | t=ales th~at th~ey | _t=ell_."--_Ib._

OBS. 5.--In the sum and proportion of their quant.i.ties, the anapest, the dactyl, and the amphibrach, are equal, each having two syllables short to one long; and, with two short quant.i.ties between two long ones, lines may be tolerably accordant in rhythm, though the order, at the commencement, be varied, and their number of syllables be not equal. Of the following sixteen lines, nine are pure anapestic tetrameters; one _may_ be reckoned dactylic, but it may quite as well be said to have a trochee, an iambus, and two anapests or two amphimacs; one is a spondee and three anapests; and the rest _may_ be scanned as amphibrachics ending with an iambus, but are more properly anapestics commencing with an iambus. Like the preceding example from Byron, they lack the uniformity of proper composites, and are rather to be regarded as anapestics irregularly diversified.

THE ALBATROSS.

"'Tis said the Albatross never rests."--_Buffon_.

"Wh~ere th~e f=ath | -~oml~ess w=aves | in magnif | -icence toss, H=omel~ess | ~and h=igh | soars the wild | Albatross; Unwea | -ried, undaunt | -ed, unshrink | -ing, alone, The o | -cean his em | -pire, the tem | -pest his throne.

When the ter | -rible whirl | -wind raves wild | o'er the surge, And the hur | -ricane howls | out the mar | -iner's dirge, In thy glo | -ry thou spurn | -est the dark | -heaving sea, Pr=oud b=ird | of the o | -cean-world, home | -less and free.

When the winds | are at rest, | and the sun | in his glow, And the glit | -tering tide | sleeps in beau | -ty below, In the pride | of thy pow | -er trium | -phant above, With thy mate | thou art hold | -ing thy rev | -els of love.

Untir | -ed, unfet | -tered, unwatched, | unconfined, Be my spir | -it like thee, | in the world | of the mind; No lean | -ing for earth, | e'er to wea | -ry its flight, And fresh | as thy pin | -ions in re | -gions of light."

SAMUEL DALY LANGTREE: _North American Reader_, p. 443.

OBS. 6.--It appears that the most noted measures of the Greek and Latin poets were not of any simple order, but either composites, or mixtures too various to be called composites. It is not to be denied, that we have much difficulty in reading them rhythmically, according to their stated feet and scansion; and so we should have, in reading our own language rhythmically, in any similar succession of feet. Noticing this in respect to the Latin Hexameter, or Heroic verse, Poe says, "Now the discrepancy in question is not observable in English metres; where the scansion coincides with the reading, _so far as the rhythm is concerned_--that is to say, if we pay no attention to the _sense_ of the pa.s.sage. But these facts indicate _a radical difference_ in the genius of the two languages, as regards their capacity for modulation. In truth, * * * the Latin is a far more _stately_ tongue than our own. It is essentially spondaic; the English is as essentially dactylic."--_Pioneer_, p. 110. (See the marginal note in --3d.

at Obs. 22d, above.) Notwithstanding this difference, discrepance, or difficulty, whatever it may be, some of our poets have, in a few instances, attempted imitations of certain Latin metres; which imitations it may be proper briefly to notice under the present head. The Greek or Latin Hexameter line has, of course, six feet, or pulsations. According to the Prosodies, the first four of these may be either dactyls or spondees; the fifth is always, or nearly always, a dactyl; and the sixth, or last, is always a spondee: as,

"L=ud~er~e | qu=ae v=el | -l=em c~al~a | -m=o p=er | -m=is~it ~a | -gr=est=i."--_Virg._