Q: How do a certain number and variety of syllables get the name of feet? A. Because it is chiefly by their means that the voice steps, as it were, along the verse, dividing it into distinct portions, which constitute what is called measure. Q. Can you illustrate this by example? A. "But Hope can here | her moon light vigils keep, And sing to charm | the spirit of the deep." Q. On what do these poetic feet depend? A. With us they depend principally upon accent; among the Greeks and Romans, they depended altogether upon quantity, one long syllable being equal to two short ones. Q. In what respect, therefore, may all syllables be viewed with regard to poetry? A. Either as long and short, or as accented and un accented. Q. Do accent and quantity ever coincide? A. They always do so when the accent falls upon a vowel, which causes the syllable to be long as well as accented; as grateful, polite. Q. How many kinds of poetic feet are there? A. Two those having but two syllables, and those having three. Q. What are the feet that have each only two syllables? A. The Trochee, the Iambus, the Spondee, and the Pyrrhic. Q. What are those which have three each? Ă. The Dactyl, the Amphibrach, the Anapæst, and the Tribrach. Q. Can you explain the feet consisting of two syllables each? A. The trochee has the first syllable accented, and the second unaccented; the iambus the first unaccented, and the second accented; the spondee, both accented; and the pyrrhic, both unaccented; as, bōldněss; dēlīght; pāle sūns; on it. Q. Can you explain the trisyllabic feet, or those which have three syllables each? A. The dactyl has the first syllable accented, and the second and third unaccented; the amphibrach the first and third unaccented, and the second accented; the anapast the first and second unaccented, and the third accented; and the tribrach the whole three unaccented; as, rēgălăr; dětērmine; countĕrvāil: measŭrăblĕ. Q. Do these feet admit of any other division? A. Yes; they are divided into those called principal, and those called secondary feet. Q. What are the principal feet? A. The Iambus, the Trochee, the Dactyl, and tne Anapæst while the Spondee, the Pyrrhic, the Amphibrach, and the Tribrach, are the secondary. Q. Why are the former called principal feet? A. Because that of them alone, or, at least chiefly, whole poems may be formed. Q. Why are the others called secondary feet? A. Because they never either wholly or chiefly form whole poems, but are merely mixed with the other feet, for the sake of varying the measure or movement of the verse. CHAPTER IX. OF VARIETIES OF VERSE. Q. How are different kinds of verse denominated? A. According to the particular kind of feet of which it is either wholly or principally formed; as, Iambic, Trochaic, Dactylic, and Anapæstic verse. Q. How many sorts of iambic verse are there? A. Chiefly four, according as it consists of twe three, four, or five feet. Q. Can you illustrate these different kinds of Fambic carsa ↑ examples? A. 1. "With ravished ears The monarch hears, Assumes tho gōd, Affects to nōd, 2. And seems to shake the spheres." 3. "And now when busy crowds retiré 2. To take their evening rest, 3. The hermit trimm'd his little fire, "Yě friends to truth, yě statesmen, who survey Q. What is this last species called? A. Heroic measure, and is the most common species of verse in the English language. Q. Does iambic verse never consist of more than five feet? A. Occasionally it takes six, and is then called Alexandrine measure, the chief use of which is to give variety to the other species of iambic verse. Q. When is the Alexandrine measure commonly introduced? A. Chiefly at the close of a poem, a paragraph, or a stanza, of heroic measure; as, "The seas shall waste, the skies in smoke decay, Q. What is done with iambic verse consisting of seven feet? A. It is divided into two lines or verses, the one containing three, the other four feet; as, "Alas! by some degree of wō, We ev'ry bliss must gāin; The heart căn nÆer a transport know, Q. What is the next most common species of verse? A. The Anapæstic, which may consist of two, three, or four feet; as, "In my rage shall be seen The revenge of ǎ queen." "Not ǎ pine in my grōve is there seen, But with tendrils of woodbine is bound •* Not ǎ beech is more beautiful green, 66 But ǎ sweet-brier entwines it ǎround." May I gōvěrn my passions with absolute sway, And grow wiser or better as life wears ǎway." Q. Is anapæstic verse a common species of poetry? A. Pretty common for short poems, but seldom used in poems of any length. Q. Is there much fine trochaic and dactylic verse? A. Very little; for, though often found mixed up with iambic or anapæstic verse, neither is much used by itself. Q. Can you give any examples of this admixture of feet of which you speak? A. "Soon would the vine his wounds deplōre, And yield its purple gifts no more." "She tells with what delight he stood To trace his features in the flood." Q. Can you explain the mixture of feet to be found in thes. couplets ? A. The first foot of the first verse is a trochee; while the third in the last verse is a pyrrhic. Q. What do you call the reducing of verses into their different feet? A. Scansion, or scanning, an exercise which tends much to improve one's skill and taste in poetry CHAPTER X. OF POETIC PAUSES. Q. What do you mean by pauses as applied to poetry? A. Those rests of the voice which are necessary for preserving the harmony. Q. Does poetry, in reading, admit of any pauses which prose would not? A. Some say it does; but it may be safely asserted, that no pause should be made in poetry that in the slightest degree interferes with the sense, or would be altogether improper in prose. Q. What poetry is most harmonious A. That which is so constructed as to admit of pauses at something like stated and regular distances from each other, and in proper places of the verse. Q. Is it the poet, then, or the reader, that regulates the pauses? A. The poet principally; for, if he so constructs his verse as not to admit of pauses in their proper places without injuring the sense, no skill in reading will be able to render it harmonious. Q. How many sorts of poetic pauses are there? A. Two: Final and Casural. Q. What do you mean by the Final pause? A. That which takes place at the close of the verse, or when the sense is complete Q. What do you mean by the Casural pause? A. That which takes place in the middle of a verse where the sense is incomplete, and which marks a mere suspension of the voice for the sake of harmony. Q. Can you illustrate both of these? A. "The time shall come, when free, | as seas or wind, Q. When are heroic verses generally most harmonious? A. When so constructed that the cæsural pause. takes place immediately after the fourth, fifth, or sixth syllable. Q. Can you give any examples of this? A. "And hence the charm | historic scenes impart; Q. When is the harmony of verse impaired ? A. When the casural pause happens nearer the beginning than the fourth, or nearer the end than the sixth syllable. Q. Can you give an example? A. "As o'er the dusky furniture | I bend, Each chair | awakes the feelings of a friend." Q. Does a verse never admit of more than one cæsural pause? A. No; for though each of the verses, if the pauses are judiciously placed, may be sufficiently harmonious in itself, yet too much sameness soon tires, or even disgusts. Q. When, therefore, are they so placed as to produce the most lasting pleasure? A. When they are most varied, especially within that range of position most favorable to the harmony of each verse individually. Q Have all the verses of any of the particular species of poe try exactly the same number of syllables? |
