The Grammar of English Grammars, Goold Brown [ebook reader for manga txt] 📗

ev | -ery neigh
                                                         | -bouring place:
    And there | is not | a hound | but fall | -eth to | the chase."
        DRAYTON: Three Couplets from twenty-three,
                 in Everett's Versif., p. 66.

Example III.—An Extract from Shakespeare.

   "If love | make me | forsworn, | how shall | I swear | to love?
    O, nev | -er faith | could hold, | if not | to beau | -ty vow'd:
    Though to | myself | forsworn, | to thee | I'll con | -stant prove;
    Those thoughts, | to me | like oaks, | to thee | like o | -siers bow'd.
    St=ud~y | his bi | -as leaves, | and makes | his book | thine eyes,
    Where all | those pleas | -ures live, | that art | can com | -prehend.
    If knowl | -edge be | the mark, | to know | thee shall | suffice;
    Well learn | -ed is | that tongue | that well | can thee | commend;
    All ig | -norant | that soul | that sees | thee with' | o~ut wonder;
    Which is | to me | some praise, | that I | thy parts | admire:
    Thine eye | Jove's light | -ning seems, | thy voice | his dread
                                                        | -ful thunder,
    Which (not | to an | -ger bent) | is mu | -sic and | sweet fire.
    Celes | -tial as | thou art, | O, do | not love | that wrong,
    To sing | the heav | -ens' praise | with such | an earth | -ly tongue."
        The Passionate Pilgrim, Stanza IX;
            SINGER'S SHAK., Vol. ii, p. 594.

Example IV.—The Ten Commandments Versified.

   "Adore | no God | besides | me, to | provoke | mine eyes;
    Nor wor | -ship me | in shapes | and forms | that men | devise;
    With rev | 'rence use | my name, | nor turn | my words | to jest;
    Observe | my sab | -bath well, | nor dare | profane | my rest;
    Honor | and due | obe | -dience to | thy pa | -rents give;
    Nor spill | the guilt | -less blood, | nor let | the guilt
                                                        | -y live;[507]
    Preserve | thy bod | -y chaste, | and flee | th' unlaw | -ful bed;
    Nor steal | thy neigh | -bor's gold, | his gar | -ment, or | his bread;
    Forbear | to blast | his name | with false | -hood or deceit;
    Nor let | thy wish | -es loose | upon | his large | estate."
        DR. ISAAC WATTS: Lyric Poems, p. 46.

This verse, consisting, when entirely regular, of twelve syllables in six iambs, is the Alexandrine; said to have been so named because it was "first used in a poem called Alexander."—Worcester's Dict. Such metre has sometimes been written, with little diversity, through an entire English poem, as in Drayton's Polyolbion; but, couplets of this length being generally esteemed too clumsy for our language, the Alexandrine has been little used by English versifiers, except to complete certain stanzas beginning with shorter iambics, or, occasionally, to close a period in heroic rhyme. French heroics are similar to this; and if, as some assert, we have obtained it thence, the original poem was doubtless a French one, detailing the exploits of the hero "Alexandre." The phrase, "an Alexandrine verse," is, in French, "un vers Alexandrin." Dr. Gregory, in his Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, copies Johnson's Quarto Dictionary, which says, "ALEXANDRINE, a kind of verse borrowed from the French, first used in a poem called Alexander. They [Alexandrines] consist, among the French, of twelve and thirteen syllables, in alternate couplets; and, among us, of twelve." Dr. Webster, in his American Dictionary, improperly (as I think) gives to the name two forms, and seems also to acknowledge two sorts of the English verse: "ALEXAN'DRINE, or ALEXAN'DRIAN, n. A kind of verse, consisting of twelve syllables, or of twelve and thirteen alternately." "The Pet-Lamb," a modern pastoral, by Wordsworth, has sixty-eight lines, all probably meant for Alexandrines; most of which have twelve syllables, though some have thirteen, and others, fourteen. But it were a great pity, that versification so faulty and unsuitable should ever be imitated. About half of the said lines, as they appear in the poet's royal octave, or "the First Complete American, from the Last London Edition," are as sheer prose as can be written, it being quite impossible to read them into any proper rhythm. The poem being designed for children, the measure should have been reduced to iambic trimeter, and made exact at that. The story commences thus:—

   "The dew | was fall | -ing fast, | the stars | began | to blink;
    I heard | a voice; | it said, | 'Drink, pret | -ty crea
                                                       | -ture, drink!'
    And, look | -ing o'er | the hedge, | before | me I | espied
    A snow | -white moun | -tain Lamb | w=ith =a M=aid | -en at
                                                       | its side."

All this is regular, with the exception of one foot; but who can make any thing but prose of the following?

   "Thy limbs will shortly be twice as stout as they are now,
    Then I'll yoke thee to my cart like a pony in the plough."
    "Here thou needest not dread the raven in the sky;
    Night and day thou art safe,—our cottage is hard by."
        WORDSWORTH'S Poems, New-Haven Ed., 1836, p. 4.

In some very ancient English poetry, we find lines of twelve syllables combined in couplets with others of fourteen; that is, six iambic feet are alternated with seven, in lines that rhyme. The following is an example, taken from a piece of fifty lines, which Dr. Johnson ascribes to the Earl of Surry, one of the wits that flourished in the reign of Henry VIII:—

   "Such way | -ward wayes | hath Love, | that most | part in | discord,
    Our willes | do stand, | whereby | our hartes | but sel | -dom do
                                                            | accord;
    Decyte | is hys | delighte, | and to | begyle | and mocke,
    The sim | ple hartes | which he | doth strike | with fro | -ward di
                                                            | -vers stroke.
    He caus | -eth th' one | to rage | with gold | -en burn | -ing darte,
    And doth | allay | with lead | -en cold, | again | the oth
                                                            | -er's harte;
    Whose gleames | of burn | -ing fyre | and eas | -y sparkes | of flame,
    In bal | -ance of | ~un=e | -qual weyght | he pon | -dereth | by ame."
        See Johnson's Quarto Dict., History of the Eng. Lang., p. 4.

MEASURE IV.—IAMBIC OF FIVE FEET, OR PENTAMETER.

Example I.—Hector to Andromache.

   "Andr=om | -~ach=e! | m=y s=oul's | f~ar b=et | -t~er p=art,
    Wh=y w~ith | untime | -ly | sor | -rows heaves | thy heart?
    No hos | -tile hand | can an | -tedate | my doom,
    Till fate | condemns | me to | the si | -lent tomb.
    Fix'd is | the term | to all | the race | of earth;
    And such | the hard | conditi | -on of | our birth,
    No force | can then | resist, | no flight | can save;
    All sink | alike, | the fear | -ful and | the brave."
        POPE'S HOMER: Iliad, B. vi, l. 624-632.

Example II.—Angels' Worship.

   "No soon | -er had | th' Almight | -y ceas'd | but all
    The mul | -titude | of an | -gels with | a shout
    Loud as | from num | -bers with' | -out num | -ber, sweet
    As from | blest voi | -ces ut | t~er ~ing j=oy, | heav'n rung
    With ju | -bilee, | and loud | hosan | -nas fill'd
    Th' eter | -nal | re | -gions; low | -ly rev | -erent
    Tow'rds ei | -ther throne | they bow, | and to | the ground
    With sol | -emn ad | -ora | -tion down | they cast
    Their crowns | inwove | with am | -arant | and gold."
        MILTON: Paradise Lost, B. iii, l. 344.

Example III.—Deceptive Glosses.

   "The world | is still | deceiv'd | with or | -nament.
    In law, | what plea | so taint | -ed and | corrupt,
    But, be | -ing sea | -son'd with | a gra | -cious voice,
    Obscures | the show | of e | -vil? In | religi~on,
    What dam |—n~ed er | -ror, but | some so | -ber brow
    Will bless | it, and | approve | it with | a text,
    Hid~ing | the gross | -ness with | fair or | -nament?"
        SHAKSPEARE: Merch. of Venice, Act iii, Sc. 2.

Example IV.—Praise God.

   "Ye head | -long tor | -rents, rap | -id, and | profound;
    Ye soft | -er floods, | that lead | the hu | -mid maze
    Along | the vale; | and thou, | majes | -tic main,
    A se | -cret world | of won | -ders in | thyself,
    Sound His | stupen | -dous | praise; | whose great | -er voice
    Or bids | you roar, | or bids | your roar | -ings fall."
        THOMSON: Hymn to the Seasons.

Example V.—The Christian Spirit.

   "Like him | the soul, | thus kin | -dled from | above,
    Spreads wide | her arms | of u | -niver | -sal love;
    And, still | enlarg'd | as she | receives | the grace,
    Includes | cr~e=a | -tion in | her close | embrace.
    Behold | a Chris | -tian! and | without | the fires
    The found | -~er ~of | that name | alone | inspires,
    Though all | accom | -plishment, | all knowl | -edge meet,
    To make | the shin | -ing prod | -igy | complete,
    Whoev | -er boasts | that name— | behold | a cheat!"
        COWPER: Charity; Poems, Vol. i, p. 135.

Example VI.—To London.

   "Ten right | -eous would | have sav'd | a cit | -y once,
    And thou | hast man | -y right | -eous.—Well | for thee—
    That salt | preserves | thee; more | corrupt | -ed else,
    And there | -fore more | obnox | -ious, at | this hour,
    Than Sod | -om in | her day | had pow'r | to be,
    For whom | God heard | his Abr' | -ham plead | in vain."
        IDEM: The Task, Book iii, at the end.

This verse, the iambic pentameter, is the regular English heroic—a stately species, and that in which most of our great poems are composed, whether epic, dramatic, or descriptive. It is well adapted to rhyme, to the composition of sonnets, to the formation of stanzas of several sorts; and yet is, perhaps, the only measure suitable for blank verse—which latter form always demands a subject of some dignity or sublimity.

The Elegiac Stanza, or the form of verse most commonly used by elegists, consists of four heroics rhyming alternately; as,

   "Thou knowst | how trans | -port thrills | the ten | -der breast,
      Where love | and fan | -cy fix | their ope | -ning reign;
    How na | -ture shines | in live | -lier col | -ours dress'd,
      To bless | their un | -ion, and | to grace | their train."
        SHENSTONE: British Poets, Vol. vii, p. 106.

Iambic verse is seldom continued perfectly pure through a long succession of lines. Among its most frequent diversifications, are the following; and others may perhaps be noticed hereafter:—

(1.) The first foot is often varied by a substitutional trochee; as,

   "Bacchus, | that first | from out | the pur | -ple grape
    Crush'd the | sweet poi | -son of | mis-=us | -~ed wine,
    After | the Tus | -can mar | -iners | transform'd,
    Coasting | the Tyr | -rhene shore, | ~as th~e | winds list_~ed_,
    On Cir | -ce's isl | -and fell. | Who knows | not Cir_c~e_,
    The daugh | -ter of | the sun? | whose charm | -~ed cup
    Whoev | -er tast | -ed, lost | his up | -right shape,
    And down | -ward fell | =int~o a grov | -elling swine."
        MILTON: Comus; British Poets, Vol. ii, p. 147.

(2.) By a synæresis of the two short syllables, an anapest may sometimes be employed for an iambus; or a dactyl, for a trochee. This occurs chiefly where one unaccented vowel precedes an other in what we usually regard as separate syllables, and both are clearly heard, though uttered perhaps in so quick succession that both syllables may occupy