The Grammar of English Grammars Part 265

1. "All knees to thee shall bow, of them that _bide_ In heav'n, or earth, or under earth in h.e.l.l."

--_Milton, P. L._, B. iii, l. 321.

2. "Of a horse, _ware_ the heels; of a bull-dog, the jaws; Of a bear, the embrace; of a lion, the paws."

--_Churchills Cram._, p. 215.

XXVIII. Some few verbs they abbreviate: as _list_, for _listen_; _ope_, for _open_; _hark_, for _hearken_; _dark_, for _darken_; _threat_, for _threaten_; _sharp_, for _sharpen_.

XXIX. They employ several verbs that are not used in prose, or are used but rarely; as, _appal, astound, brook, cower, doff, ken, wend, ween, trow_.

x.x.x. They sometimes imitate a Greek construction of the infinitive; as,

1. "Who would not sing for Lycidas? he knew Himself _to sing_, and _build_ the lofty rhyme."

--_Milton_.

2. "For not, _to have been dipp'd_ in Lethe lake, Could save the son of Thetis _from to die_."

--_Spenser_.

x.x.xI. They employ the PARTICIPLES more frequently than prose writers, and in a construction somewhat peculiar; often intensive by acc.u.mulation: as,

1. "He came, and, standing in the midst, explain'd The peace _rejected_, but the truce _obtain'd_."

--_Pope_.

2. "As a poor miserable captive thrall Comes to the place where he before had sat Among the prime in splendor, now _depos'd, Ejected, emptied, gaz'd, unpitied, shunn'd_, A spectacle of ruin or of scorn."

--_Milton, P. R._, B. i, l. 411.

3. "Though from our birth the faculty divine Is _chain'd_ and _tortured--cabin'd, cribb'd, confined_."

--_Byron, Pilg._, C. iv, St. 127.

x.x.xII. In turning participles to adjectives, they sometimes ascribe actions, or active properties, to things to which they do not literally belong; as,

"The green leaf quivering in the gale, The _warbling hill_, the _lowing vale_."

--MALLET: _Union Poems_, p. 26.

x.x.xIII. They employ several ADVERBS that are not used in prose, or are used but seldom; as, _oft, haply, inly, blithely, cheerily, deftly, felly, rifely, starkly_.

x.x.xIV. They give to adverbs a peculiar location in respect to other words; as,

1. "Peeping from _forth_ their alleys green."

--_Collins_.

2. "Erect the standard _there_ of ancient Night"

--_Milton_.

3. "The silence _often_ of pure innocence Persuades, when speaking fails."

--_Shakspeare_.

4. "Where Universal Love _not_ smiles around."

--_Thomson_.

5. "Robs me of that which _not_ enriches him."

--_Shakspeare_.

x.x.xV. They sometimes omit the introductory adverb _there_: as,

"_Was_ nought around but images of rest."

--_Thomson_.

x.x.xVI. They briefly compare actions by a kind of compound adverbs, ending in _like_; as,

"Who bid the stork, _Columbus-like_, explore Heavens not his own, and worlds unknown before?"

--_Pope_.

x.x.xVII. They employ the CONJUNCTIONS, _or--or_, and _nor--nor_, as correspondents; as,

1. "_Or_ by the lazy Scheldt _or_ wandering Po."

--_Goldsmith_.

2. "Wealth heap'd on wealth, _nor_ truth, _nor_ safety buys."

--_Johnson_.

3. "Who by repentance is not satisfied, Is _nor_ of heaven, _nor_ earth; for these are pleas'd."

--_Shakspeare_.

4. "Toss it, _or_ to the fowls, _or_ to the flames."

--_Young, N. T._, p. 157.

5. "_Nor_ shall the pow'rs of h.e.l.l, _nor_ wastes of time, _Or_ vanquish, _or_ destroy."

--_Gibbon's Elegy on Davies_.

x.x.xVIII. They oftener place PREPOSITIONS and their adjuncts, before the words on which they depend, than do prose writers; as,

"_Against_ your fame _with_ fondness hate _combines_; The rival batters, and the lover mines."

--_Dr. Johnson_.

x.x.xIX. They sometimes place a long or dissyllabic preposition after its object; as,

1. "When beauty, _Eden's bowers within_, First stretched the arm to deeds of sin, When pa.s.sion burn'd and prudence slept, The pitying angels bent and wept."

--_James Hogg_.

2. "The Muses fair, _these peaceful shades among_, With skillful fingers sweep the trembling strings."

--_Lloyd_.

3. "Where Echo walks _steep hills among_, List'ning to the shepherd's song."

--_J. Warton, U. Poems_, p. 33.

XL. They have occasionally employed certain prepositions for which, perhaps, it would not be easy to cite prosaic authority; as, _adown, aloft, aloof, anear, aneath, askant, aslant, aslope, atween, atwixt, besouth, traverse, thorough, sans_. (See Obs. 10th, and others, at p. 441.)

XLI. They oftener employ INTERJECTIONS than do prose writers; as,