The Grammar of English Grammars Part 195

YOUNG'S "OCEAN:" _British Poets_, Vol. viii, p 277.

There is a line of five syllables and double rhyme, which is commonly regarded as iambic dimeter with a supernumerary short syllable; and which, though it is susceptible of two other divisions into two feet, we prefer to scan in this manner, because it usually alternates with pure iambics.

Twelve such lines occur in the following extract:--

LOVE TRANSITORY

"Could Love | for ev_er_ Run like | a riv_er_, And Time's | endeav_our_ Be tried | in vain,-- No oth | -er pleas_ure_ With this | could meas_ure_; And like | a treas_ure_ We'd hug | the chain.

But since | our sigh_ing_ Ends not | in dy_ing_, And, formed | for fly_ing_, Love plumes | his wing; Then for | this rea_son_ Let's love | a sea_son_; But let | that sea_son_ Be on | -ly spring."

LORD BYRON: See _Everett's Versification_, p. 19; _Fowler's E. Gram._, p. 650.

MEASURE VIII.--IAMBIC OF ONE FOOT, OR MONOMETER.

"The shortest form of the English Iambic," says Lindley Murray, "consists of an Iambus with an additional short syllable: as,

Disdaining, Complaining, Consenting, Repenting.

We have no poem of this measure, but it may be met with in stanzas. The Iambus, with this addition, coincides with the Amphibrach."--_Murray's Gram._, 12mo, p. 204; 8vo, p. 254. This, or the substance of it, has been repeated by many other authors. Everett varies the language and ill.u.s.tration, but teaches the same doctrine. See _E. Versif._, p. 15.

Now there are sundry examples which may be cited to show, that the iambus, without any additional syllable, and without the liability of being confounded with an other foot, may, and sometimes does, stand as a line, and sustain a regular rhyme. The following pieces contain instances of this sort:--

_Example I.--"How to Keep Lent."_

"Is this | a Fast, | to keep The lard | -er lean And clean From fat | of neats | and sheep?

Is it | to quit | the dish Of flesh, | yet still To fill The plat | -ter high | with fish?

Is it | to fast | an hour, Or ragg'd | to go, Or show A down | -cast look | and sour?

No:--'Tis | a Fast | to dole Thy sheaf | of wheat, And meat, Unto | the hun | -gry soul.

It is | to fast | from strife, From old | debate, And hate; To cir | -c.u.mcise | thy life;

To show | a _heart_ | grief-rent; To starve | thy sin, Not _bin_: Ay, that's | to keep | thy Lent."

ROBERT HERRICK: _Clapp's Pioneer_, p. 48.

Example II.--"To Mary Ann."

[This singular arrangement of seventy-two separate iambic feet, I find _without intermediate points_, and leave it so. It seems intended to be read in three or more different ways, and the punctuation required by one mode of reading would not wholly suit an other.]

"Your face Your tongue Your wit So fair So sweet So sharp First bent Then drew Then hit Mine eye Mine ear Mine heart

Mine eye Mine ear Mine heart To like To learn To love Your face Your tongue Your wit Doth lead Doth teach Doth move

Your face Your tongue Your wit With beams With sound With art Doth blind Doth charm Doth rule Mine eye Mine ear Mine heart

Mine eye Mine ear Mine heart With life With hope With skill Your face Your tongue Your wit Doth feed Doth feast Doth fill

O face O tongue O wit With frowns With cheek With smart Wrong not Vex not Wound not Mine eye Mine ear Mine heart

This eye This ear This heart Shall joy Shall bend Shall swear Your face Your tongue Your wit To serve To trust To fear."

ANONYMOUS: _Sundry American Newspapers_, in 1849.

_Example III.--Umbrellas._

"The late George Canning, of whom Byron said that 'it was his happiness to be at once a wit, poet, orator, and statesman, and excellent in all,' is the author of the following clever _jeu d' esprit_:" [except three lines here added in brackets:]

"I saw | a man | with two | umbrellas, (One of | the lon |--gest kind | of fellows,) When it rained, M=eet =a | l=ady On the | shady Side of | thirty |-three, Minus | one of | these rain |-dispellers.

'I see,'

Says she, 'Your qual | -ity | of mer | -cy is | not strained.'

[Not slow | to comprehend | an inkling, His eye | with wag |-gish hu |-mour twinkling.]

Replied | he, 'Ma'am, Be calm; This one | under | my arm Is rotten, [And can |-not save | you from | a sprinkling.]

Besides | to keep | you dry, 'Tis plain | that you | as well | as I, 'Can lift | your cotton.'"

See _The Ess.e.x County Freeman_, Vol. i, No. 1.

_Example IV.--Shreds of a Song._

I. SPRING.

"The cuck |--oo then, | on ev |--ery tree, Mocks mar |--ried men, | for thus | sings he, _Cuckoo'_; Cuckoo', | cuckoo',-- | O word | of fear, Unpleas |-ing to | a mar |-ried ear!"

II. WINTER.

"When blood | is nipp'd, | and ways | be foul, Then night | -ly sings | the star |-ing owl, _To-who_; To-whit, | to-who, | a mer | -ry note, While greas | -y Joan | doth keel | the pot."

--SHAKSPEARE: _Love's Labour's Lost_, Act v, Sc. 2.

_Example V.--Puck's Charm._

[_When he has uttered the fifth line, he squeezes a juice on Lysander's eyes_.]

"On the ground, _Sleep sound_; I'll apply To your eye, Gentle | lover, | remedy.

When thou wak'st, _Thou tak'st_ True delight In the sight Of thy | former | lady's eye." [508]

IDEM: _Midsummer-Night's Dream_, Act iii, Sc. 2.

ORDER II.--TROCHAIC VERSE.

In Trochaic verse, the stress is laid on the odd syllables, and the even ones are short. Single-rhymed trochaic omits the final short syllable, that it may end with a long one; for the common doctrine of Murray, Chandler, Churchill, Bullions, Butler, Everett, Fowler, Weld, Wells, Mulligan, and others, that this chief rhyming syllable is "_additional_" to the real number of feet in the line, is manifestly incorrect. One long syllable is, in some instances, used _as a foot_; but it is one or more _short syllables_ only, that we can properly admit _as hypermeter_. Iambics and trochaics often occur in the same poem; but, in either order, written with exactness, the number of feet is always the number of the long syllables.

_Examples from Gray's Bard._

(1.)

"_Ruin | seize thee,| ruthless | king_!

Confu | -sion on | thy ban |-ners wait, Though, fann'd | by Con | -quest's crim | -son wing.

They mock | the air | with i | -dle state.

_Helm, nor | hauberk's | twisted | mail_, Nor e'en | thy vir | -tues, ty | -rant, shall | avail."