The Grammar of English Grammars Part 205

I'll not leave | thee, thou lone | _~one!_ To pine | on the stem!

Since the love | -ly are sleep | -_~ing_, Go, sleep | thou with them; Thus kind | -ly I scat | -_t~er_ Thy leaves | o'er thy bed, Where thy mates | of the gar | -_d~en_ Lie scent | -less and dead.

3.

So, soon | may I fol | -_l~ow_, When friend | -s.h.i.+ps decay, And, from love's | s.h.i.+ning cir | -_cl~e_, The gems | drop away; When true | hearts lie with | -_~er'd_, And fond | ones are flown, Oh! who | would inhab | -_it_ This bleak | world alone ?"

T. MOORE: _Melodies, Songs, and Airs_, p. 171.

_Example V.--Nemesis Calling up the Dead Astarte_.

"Shadow! | or spir | -_~it!_ Whatev | -er thou art, Which still | doth inher | -_~it_ The whole | or a part Of the form | of thy birth, Of the mould | of thy clay, Which return'd | to the earth, Re-appear | to the day!

Bear what | thou bor | -_~est_, The heart | and the form, And the as | -pect thou wor | -_~est_ Redeem | from the worm!

Appear!--Appear!--Appear!"

LORD BYRON: _Manfred_, Act ii, Sc. 4.

_Example VI.--Anapestic Dimeter with Trimeter_.

FIRST VOICE.

"Make room | for the com | -bat, make room; Sound the trum | -pet and drum; A fair | -er than Ve | -nus prepares To encoun | -ter a great | -er than Mars.

Make room | for the com | -bat, make room; Sound the trum | -pet and drum."

SECOND VOICE.

"Give the word | to begin, Let the com | -batants in, The chal | -lenger en | -ters all _glo | r~io~us_; But Love | has decreed, Though Beau | -ty may bleed, Yet Beau | -ty shall still | be vic_to | -r~io~us_."

GEORGE GRANVILLE: _Johnson's British Poets_, Vol. v, p. 58.

_Example VII.--Anapestic Dimeter with Tetrameter_.

AIR.

"Let the pipe's | merry notes | aid the skill | of the voice; For our wish | -es are crown'd, | and our hearts | shall rejoice.

Rejoice, | and be glad; For, sure, | he is mad, Who, where mirth, | and good hum | -mour, and har | -mony's found, Never catch | -es the smile, | nor lets pleas | -ure go round.

Let the stu | -pid be grave, 'Tis the vice | of the slave; But can nev | -er agree With a maid | -en like me, Who is born | in a coun | -try that's hap | -py and free."

LLOYD: _Johnson's British Poets_, Vol. viii, p, 178.

MEASURE IV.--ANAPESTIC OF ONE FOOT, OR MONOMETER.

This measure is rarely if ever used except in connexion with longer lines.

The following example has six anapestics of two feet, and two of one; but the latter, being verses of double rhyme, have each a surplus short syllable; and four of the former commence with the iambus:--

_Example I.--A Song in a Drama._

"Now, mor |-tal, prepare, For thy fate | is at hand; Now, mor |-tal, prepare, ~And s~urr=en |-d~er.

For Love | shall arise, Whom no pow'r | can withstand, Who rules | from the skies T~o th~e c=en |-tr~e."

GRANVILLE, VISCOUNT LANSDOWNE: _Joh. Brit. Poets_, Vol. v, p. 49.

The following extract, (which is most properly to be scanned as anapestic, though considerably diversified,) has two lines, each of which is pretty evidently composed of a single anapest:--

_Example II.--A Chorus in the Same_.

"Let trum |-pets and tym |-b~als, Let at~a |--bals and cym |-b~als, Let drums | and let haut |-boys give o |-v~er; B~ut l~et fl=utes, And l~et l=utes Our pas |-sions excite To gent |-ler delight, And ev |-ery Mars | be a lov |-~er."

_Ib._, p. 56.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.--That a single anapest, a single foot of any kind, or even a single long syllable, may be, and sometimes is, in certain rather uncommon instances, set as a line, is not to be denied. "Dr. Caustic," or T. G.

Fessenden, in his satirical "Directions for _Doing_ Poetry," uses in this manner the monosyllables, "_Whew_," "_Say_," and "_Dress_" and also the iambs, "_The gay_" and, "_All such_," rhyming them with something less isolated.

OBS. 2.--Many of our grammarians give anonymous examples of what they conceive to be "_Anapestic Monometer_," or "_the line of one anapest_,"

while others--(as Allen, Bullions, Churchill, and Hiley--) will have the length of two anapests to be the _shortest_ measure of this order. Prof.

Hart says, "The shortest anapaestic verse is a _single_ anapaest; as,

'~In =a sw=eet R~es~on=ance,

~All th~eir f=eet ~In th=e d=ance

~All th=e n=ight T~inkl~ed l=ight.'

This measure," it is added, "is, however, _ambiguous_; for by laying an accent on the first, as well as the third syllable, we may generally make it a trochaic."--_Hart's English Gram._, p. 188. The same six versicles are used as an example by Prof. Fowler, who, without admitting any ambiguity in the measure, introduces them, rather solecistically, thus: "_Each_ of the following lines _consist_ of a single Anapest."--_Fowler's E. Gram._, 8vo, 1850, --694.

OBS. 3.--Verses of three syllables, with the second short, the last long, and the first _common, or variable_, are, it would seem, _doubly doubtful_ in scansion; for, while the first syllable, if made short, gives us an anapest, to make it long, gives either an amphimac or what is virtually two trochees. For reasons of choice in the latter case, see Observation 1st on Trochaic Dimeter. For the _fixing of variable quant.i.ties_, since the case admits no other rule, regard should be had to the _a.n.a.logy of the verse_, and also to the common principles of accentuation. It is doubtless possible to read the six short lines above, into the measure of so many _anapests_; but, since the two monosyllables "_In_" and "_All_" are as easily made long as short, whoever considers the common p.r.o.nunciation of the longer words, "_Resonance_" and "_Tinkled_," may well doubt whether the learned professors have, in this instance, hit upon the right mode of scansion. The example may quite as well be regarded either as Trochaic Dimeter, cataletic, or as Amphimacric Monometer, acatalectic. But the word _resonance_, being accented usually on the first syllable only, is naturally a _dactyl_; and, since the other five little verses end severally with a monosyllable, which _can_ be varied in quant.i.ty, it is possible to read them all as being _dactylics_; and so the whole may be regarded as _trebly doubtful_ with respect to the measure.

OBS. 4.--L. Murray says, "_The shortest anapaestic verse must be a single anapaest_; as,

B~ut ~in v=ain They complain."

And then he adds, "This measure is, however, ambiguous; for, by laying the stress of the voice on the first and third syllables, we _might make_ a trochaic. _And therefore_ the first and simplest form of our genuine Anapaestic verse, is made up of _two anapaests_."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p.

257; 12mo, p. 207. This conclusion is utterly absurd, as well as completely contradictory to his first a.s.sertion. The genuineness of this small metre depends not at all on what may be made of the same words by other p.r.o.nunciation; nor can it be a very natural reading of this pa.s.sage, that gives to "_But_" and "_They_" such emphasis as will make them long.

OBS. 5.--Yet Chandler, in his improved grammar of 1847, has not failed to repeat the substance of all this absurdity and self-contradiction, carefully dressing it up in other language, thus: "Verses composed of single Anapaests _are frequently found_ in stanzas of songs; and the same is true of several of the other kinds of feet; _but we may consider the first_ [i.e., shortest] _form_ of anapaestic verse as consisting of _two_ Anapaests."--_Chandler's Common School Gram._, p. 196.

OBS. 6.--Everett, speaking of anapestic lines, says, "The first and shortest of these is composed of a _single Anapest following an Iambus_."--_English Versification_, p. 99. This not only denies the existence of _Anapestic Monometer_, but improperly takes for the Anapestic verse what is, by the statement itself, half Iambic, and therefore of the Composite Order. But the false a.s.sertion is plainly refuted even by the author himself and on the same page. For, at the bottom of the page, he has this contradictory note: "It has been remarked (--15) that though the Iambus with an additional short syllable _is the shortest line that is known_ to Iambic verse, _there are isolated instances of a single Iambus_, and even of a _single long syllable_. There are examples of _lines made up of a single Anapest_, as the following example will show:--

'Jove in his chair, Of the sky lord mayor, With his nods Men and G.o.ds Keeps in awe; When he winks, Heaven shrinks; * * * *

c.o.c.k of the school, He bears despotic rule; His word, Though absurd, Must be law.

Even Fate, Though so great, Must not prate;

His bald pate Jove would cuff, He's so bluff, For a straw.

Cowed deities, Like mice in cheese, To stir must cease Or gnaw.'

O'HARA:--_Midas_, Act i, Sc. 1."--_Everett's Versification_, p. 99