One form of dactylic verse consists of two dactyls and a redundant accented syllable; as,
'Where shall we | bury our | shame?
Where, in what desolate place,
Hide the last wreck of a name
Broken and stained by disgrace?'
Another consists of three dactyls; as,
'Oh! in thy | absence what | hours did I|number !
Saying oft, "Idle bird, how could he rest?"
But thou art come at last, take now thy slumber,
And lull thee in dreams of all thou lov'st best.'
Let the learner explain and divide the lines in the following specimens of trisyllabic metre.
1. From life without freedom, say, who would not fly?
For one day of freedom, oh! who would not die?
Hark, hark, 'tis the trumpet! the call of the brave,
The death-song of tyrants, the dirge of the slave.
Our country lies bleeding haste, haste to her aid;
One arm that defends is worth hosts that invade.'
'I've been, O sweet daughter,
To fountain and sea,
To seek in their water
Some bright gem for thee;
Where diamonds were sleeping
Their sparkle I sought,
Where crystal was weeping
Its tears I have caught.'
'Pibroch of Donuil Dhu,
Pibroch of Donuil,
Wake thy wild voice anew,
Summon clan Conuil.
Come away, come away,
Hark to the summons!
Come in your war array,
Gentles and Commons!'
Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,
As his corpse to the rampart we hurried;
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot
O'er the grave where our hero we buried.'
'Of Nelson and the North
Sing the glorious day's renown,
When to battle fierce came forth
All the might of Denmark's crown,
And her arms along the deep proudly shone;
By each gun the lighted brand,
In a bold determined hand,
And the prince of all the land
When two lines of equal length rhyme, the form is called a 'couplet;' as,
1. 'My mother! when I learned that thou wast dead, Say, wast thou conscious of the tears I shed?'
In rhyming couplets the sense should be always brought to a close at the end of the second line. When four lines rhyme alternately, the form is called a quatrain;' as,
They grew in beauty, side by side,
They filled one home with glee;
Their graves are severed far and wide,
By mount, and stream, and sea.'
Any set number of lines (more than four) at the end of which the metrical versification stays, or stops, is called a stanza; as,
1. 'One summer eve, with pensive thought,
I wandered on the sea-beat shore,
Where oft in heedless infant sport
I gathered shells in days before.
The splashing waves like music fell
Responsive to my fancy wild,
A dream came o'er me like a spell,—
I thought I was again a child.'
1. Roll on thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll;
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain :
Man marks the earth with ruin - his control
Stops with the shore; upon the watery plain
The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain
A shadow of man's ravage save his own,
When, for a moment, like a drop of rain,
He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan,
Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown.' This form is called the Spenserian stanza from the poet Spenser, who first adopted it. It is constructed as follows:-The first eight lines are ten-syllable iambics; and the ninth is an Alexandrine. The first and third lines of the stanza rhyme together; as do the second, fourth, fifth, and seventh; also the sixth, eighth, and ninth.
The form called a sonnet consists of fourteen long iambic lines (ten syllables). The whole may be divided into two series; the first containing eight, and the second six, lines. In the first division the first, fourth, fifth, and eight lines rhyme together; as do the second, third, sixth, and seventh. In the second division, the ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth, and the tenth, twelfth, and fourteenth end in the same rhyme; thus:
1. If it be true that guardian spirits tend
2. The steps of mortals through this world below,
3. Who aid and comfort, though unseen, bestow
4. In ways that far our loftiest thought transcend,—
Would I were thine! my wings of light I'd bend
6. To shelter thee from every blast of woe,
7. From all the onsets of each raging foe,
8. And lead thee to man's best and surest Friend. 9. I'd bring thee gifts from heaven's immortal bowers, 10. Bright gems of glory, living streams of grace, 11. And fruits that angels pluck, and fadeless flowers; 12. And, when prepared for yonder holy place, 13. I'd swiftly bear thee to its diamond towers,
14. Where thou should'st see thy Maker face to face."
Let the learner explain the forms of verse used in the following extracts.
'But now secure the painted vessel glides,
The sunbeams trembling on the floating tides;
While melting music steals upon the sky,
And softened sounds along the water die:
Smooth flow the waves, the zephyrs gently play,
Belinda smiled, and all the world was gay,-
All but the sylph: with careful thoughts oppressed,
The impending woe sat heavy on his breast.
He summons straight his denizens of air;
The lucid squadrons round the sail repair;
Soft o'er the shrouds aërial whispers breathe
That seemed but zephyrs to the train beneath,' &c.
'Where art thou, my beloved son!
Where art thou worse to me than dead?
Oh, find me, prosperous or undone.!
Or, if the grave be now thy bed,
Why am I ignorant of the same,
That I may rest, and neither blame
Nor sorrow may attend my name?
'Seven years, alas! to have received
No tidings of an only child;
To have despaired, have hoped, believed,
And been for evermore beguiled;
Sometimes with thoughts of very bliss,
I catch at them, and then I miss :
Was ever darkness like to this?'
'Beyond participation lie
My troubles, and beyond relief:
If any chance to heave a sigh,
They pity me, and not my grief.
Then come to me, my son, or send
Some tidings, that my woes may end:
I have no other earthly friend!'
All suddenly a stormy whirlwind blew
Throughout the house, that clapped every door,
With which that iron wicket open flew,
As it with mighty levers had been tore;
And forth issued, as on the ready floor
Of some theatre, a grave personage,
That in his hand a bunch of laurel bore,
With comely 'haviour, and countenance sage,
Yclad in costly garments, fit for tragic stage.
'Proceeding to the midst he still did stand,
As if in mind he somewhat had to say,
And to the vulgar beckoning with his hand,
In sign of silence, as to hear a play,
By lively actions he 'gan bewray
Some argument of matter passioned;
Which done, he back retired soft away,
And, passing by, his name discovered,-
Ease, on his robe in golden letters cypherèd.'
'Much have I travelled in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been,
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold;
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told,
That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne;
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene,
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold;
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies,
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez, when, with eagle eyes,
He stared at the Pacific-and all his men
Looked at each other with a wild surmise ·
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.'
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