The Grammar of English Grammars Part 208

Sisterly, | brotherly, Fatherly, | motherly, Feelings had | changed; Love, by harsh |evidence, Thrown from its |eminence Even G.o.d's | providence Seeming e |-stranged.

Where the lamps | quiver So far in the river, With many a light, From window and cas.e.m.e.nt, From garret to bas.e.m.e.nt, She stood, with amazement, Houseless, by | night.

The bleak wind of March Made her tremble and s.h.i.+ver; But not the dark arch, Or the black-flowing river: Mad from life's | history, Glad to death's | mystery, Swift to be | hurled,-- Anywhere, | anywhere, Out of the | world!

In she plung'd | boldly,-- No matter how coldly The rough | river ran,-- Over the | brink of it: Picture it, | think of it, Dissolute | man!"

_Clapp's Pioneer_, p. 54.

OBS. 5.--As each of our princ.i.p.al feet,--the Iambus, the Trochee, the Anapest, and the Dactyl,--has always one, and only one long syllable; it should follow, that, in each of our princ.i.p.al orders of verse,--the Iambic, the Trochaic, the Anapestic, and the Dactylic,--any line, not diversified by a secondary foot, must be reckoned to contain just as many feet as long syllables. So, too, of the Amphibrach, and any line reckoned Amphibrachic.

But it happens, that the common error by which single-rhymed Trochaics have so often been counted a foot _shorter_ than they are, is also extended by some writers to single-rhymed Dactylics--the rhyming syllable, if long, being esteemed _supernumerary!_ For example, three dactylic stanzas, in each of which a pentameter couplet is followed by a hexameter line, and this again by a heptameter, are introduced by Prof. Hart thus: "The _Dactylic Tetrameter, Pentameter_, and _Hexameter_, with the _additional_ or _hypermeter syllable_, are all found combined in the following extraordinary specimen of versification. * * * This is the only specimen of Dactylic _hexameter_ or even _pentameter_ verse that the author recollects to have seen."

LAMENT OF ADAM.

"Glad was our | meeting: thy | glittering | bosom I | _heard_, Beating on | mine, like the | heart of a | timorous | _bird_; Bright were thine | eyes as the | stars, and their | glances were | radiant as | _gleams_ Falling from | eyes of the | angels, when | singing by | Eden's pur |-pureal | _streams._

"Happy as | seraphs were | we, for we | wander'd a | -_lone_, Trembling with | pa.s.sionate | thrills, when the | twilight had | _flown_: Even the | echo was | silent: our | kisses and | whispers of | _love_ Languish'd un | -heard and un | -known, like the | breath of the | blossoming | buds of the | _grove._

"Life hath its | pleasures, but | fading are | they as the | _flowers_; Sin hath its | sorrows, and | sadly we | turn'd from those | _bowers_; Bright were the | angels be | -hind with their | falchions of | heavenly | _flame!_ Dark was the | desolate | desert be | -fore us, and | darker the | depth of our | _shame!_"

--HENRY B. HIRST: _Hart's English Grammar_, p. 190.

OBS. 6.--Of Dactylic verse, our prosodists and grammarians in general have taken but very little notice; a majority of them appearing by their silence, to have been utterly ignorant of the whole species. By many, the dactyl is expressly set down as an inferior foot, which they imagine is used only for the occasional diversification of an iambic, trochaic, or anapestic line. Thus Everett: "It is _never used_ except as a _secondary foot_, and then in the _first place_ of the line."--_English Versification_, p. 122. On this order of verse, Lindley Murray bestowed only the following words: "The DACTYLIC measure being very uncommon, we shall give only one example of one species of it:--

Fr=om th~e l~ow pl=eas~ures ~of th=is f~all~en n=at~ure, Rise we to higher, &c."--_Gram._, 12mo, p. 207; 8vo, p. 257.

Read this example with _"we rise"_ for _"Rise we,"_ and all the poetry of it is gone! Humphrey says, "_Dactyle_ verse is seldom used, as remarked heretofore; but _is used occasionally_, and has three metres; viz. of 2, 3, and 4 feet. Specimens follow. 2 feet. Free from anxiety. 3 feet. Singing most sweetly and merrily. 4 feet. Dactylic measures are wanting in energy."--_English Prosody_, p. 18. Here the prosodist has made his own examples; and the last one, which unjustly impeaches all dactylics, he has made very badly--very prosaically; for the word "_Dactylic_," though it has three syllables, is properly no dactyl, but rather an amphibrach.

OBS. 7.--By the Rev. David Blair, this order of poetic numbers is utterly misconceived and misrepresented. He says of it, "DACTYLIC verse consists of a _short syllable_, with one, two, or three feet, _and a long syllable_; as,

'D~istr=act~ed w~ith w=oe, 'I'll r=ush ~on th~e f=oe.' ADDISON."--_Blair's Pract. Gram._, p. 119.

"'Y~e sh=eph~erds s~o ch=eerf~ul ~and g=ay, 'Wh~ose fl=ocks n~ev~er c=arel~essl~y r=oam; 'Sh~ould C=or~yd~on's h=app~en t~o str=ay, 'Oh! c=all th~e p=oor w=and~er~ers h=ome.' SHENSTONE."--_Ib._, p. 120.

It is manifest, that these lines are not dactylic at all. There is not a dactyl in them. They are composed of iambs and anapests. The order of the versification is Anapestic; but it is here varied by the very common diversification of dropping the first short syllable. The longer example is from a ballad of 216 lines, of which 99 are thus varied, and 117 are full anapestics.

OBS. 8.--The makers of school-books are quite as apt to copy blunders, as to originate them; and, when an error is once started in a grammar, as it pa.s.ses with the user for good learning, no one can guess where it will stop. It seems worth while, therefore, in a work of this nature, to be liberal in the citation of such faults as have linked themselves, from time to time, with the several topics of our great subject. It is not probable, that the false scansion just criticised originated with Blair; for the Comprehensive Grammar, a British work, republished in its third edition, by Dobson, of Philadelphia, in 1789, teaches the same doctrine, thus: "Dactylic measure may consist of one, two, or three Dactyls, introduced by a feeble syllable, and terminated by a strong one; as,

M~y | d=ear Ir~ish | f=olks, C=ome | l=eave ~off y~our | j=okes, And | b=uy ~up m~y | h=alfp~ence s~o | f=ine; S~o | f=air ~and s~o | br=ight, Th~ey'll | g=ive y~ou d~e | -l=ight: Ob | -s=erve h~ow th~ey | gl=ist~er ~and | sh=ine. SWIFT.

A | c=obl~er th~ere | w=as ~and h~e | l=iv'd ~in ~a | st=all, Wh~ich | s=erv'd h~im f~or | k=itch~en, f~or | p=arl~our ~and | hall; N~o | c=oin ~in h~is | p=ock~et, n~o | c=are ~in h~is | p=ate; N~o ~am | -b=it~ion h~e | h=ad, ~and n~o | d=uns ~at h~is | g=ate."

--_Comp. Gram._, p. 150.

To this, the author adds, "Dactylic measure becomes Anapestic by setting off an Iambic foot in the beginning of the line."--_Ib._ These verses, all but the last one, unquestionably have an iambic foot at the beginning; and, for that reason, they are not, and by no measurement can be, dactylics. The last one is purely anapestic. All the divisional bars, in either example, are placed wrong.

ORDER V.--COMPOSITE VERSE.

Composite verse is that which consists of various metres, or different feet, combined,--not accidentally, or promiscuously, but by design, and with some regularity. In Composite verse, of any form, the stress must be laid rhythmically, as in the simple orders, else the composition will be nothing better than unnatural prose. The possible variety of combinations in this sort of numbers is unlimited; but, the pure and simple kinds being generally preferred, any stated mixture of feet is comparatively uncommon.

Certain forms which may be scanned by other methods, are susceptible also of division as Composites. Hence there cannot be an exact enumeration of the measures of this order, but instances, as they occur, may be cited to exemplify it.

_Example I.--From Swift's Irish Feast_.

"O'Rourk's | n.o.ble fare | will ne'er | be forgot, By those | who were there, | or those | who were not.

His rev |-els to keep, | we sup | and we dine On sev |-en score sheep, | fat bul |-locks, and swine.

Usquebaugh | to our feast | in pails | was brought up, An hun |-dred at least, | and a mad |-der our cup.

O there | is the sport! | we rise | with the light, In disor |-derly sort, | from snor |-ing all night.

O how | was I trick'd! | my pipe | it was broke, My pock |-et was pick'd, | I lost | my new cloak.

I'm ri |-fled, quoth Nell, | of man |-tle and kerch |-_er_: Why then | fare them well, | the de'il | take the search |-_er_."

_Johnson's Works of the Poets_, Vol. v, p. 310.

Here the measure is tetrameter; and it seems to have been the design of the poet, that each hemistich should consist of one iamb and one anapest. Such, with a few exceptions, is the arrangement throughout the piece; but the hemistichs which have double rhyme, _may_ each be divided into two amphibrachs. In Everett's Versification, at p. 100, the first six lines of this example are broken into twelve, and set in three stanzas, being given to exemplify "_The Line of a single Anapest preceded by an Iambus_," or what he improperly calls "The first and shortest species of Anapestic lines." His other instance of the same metre is also _Composite_ verse, rather than Anapestic, even by his own showing. "In the following example,"

says he, "we have this measure alternating with Amphibrachic lines:"

_Example II.--From Byron's Manfred._

"The Captive Usurper, Hurl'd down | from the throne.

Lay buried in torpor, Forgotten and lone; I broke through his slumbers, I s.h.i.+v |-er'd his chain, I leagued him with numbers-- He's Ty |-rant again!

With the blood | of a mill |-ion he'll an |-swer my care, With a na |-tion's destruc |-tion--his flight | and despair."

--Act ii, Sc. 3.

Here the last two lines, which are not cited by Everett, are pure anapestic tetrameters; and it may be observed, that, if each two of the short lines were printed as one, the eight which are here scanned otherwise, would become four of the same sort, except that these would each begin with an iambus. Hence the specimen _sounds_ essentially as anapestic verse.

_Example III.--Woman on the Field of Battle_.

"Gentle and | lovely form, What didst | thou here, When the fierce | battle storm Bore down | the spear?

Banner and | s.h.i.+ver'd crest, Beside | thee strown, Tell that a |-midst the best Thy work was done!

Low lies the | stately head, Earth-bound | the free: How gave those | haughty dead A place | to thee?

Slumb'rer! thine | early bier Friends should | have crown'd, Many a |flow'r and tear Shedding | around.

Soft voices, | dear and young, Mingling | their swell, Should o'er thy | dust have sung Earth's last | farewell.

Sisters a |-bove the grave Of thy | repose Should have bid | vi'lets wave With the | white rose.

Now must the | trumpet's note.

Savage | and shrill, For requi'm | o'er thee float, Thou fair | and still!

And the swift | charger sweep, In full | career, Trampling thy | place of sleep-- Why cam'st | thou here?

Why?--Ask the | true heart why Woman | hath been Ever, where | brave men die, Unshrink |-ing seen.

Unto this | harvest ground, Proud reap |-ers came, Some for that | stirring sound, A warr |-ior's name:

Some for the | stormy play, And joy | of strife, And some to | fling away A wea |-ry life.

But thou, pale | sleeper, thou, With the | slight frame, And the rich | locks, whose glow Death can |-not tame;