Only the \ true, the strong,
The love \ whose trust
Woman's deep \ soul too long
Pours on \ the dust."
Hemans: Poetical Works, Vol. ii, p. 157.
Here are fourteen stanzas of composite dimeter, each having two sorts of lines; the first sort consisting, with a few exceptions, of a dactyl and an amphimac; the second, mostly, of two iambs; but, in some instances, of a trochee and an iamb;—the latter being, in such a connexion, much the more harmonious and agreeable combination of quantities.
Example IV.—Airs from a "Serenata."
Air 1.
"Love sounds \ the alarm,
And fear \ is a-flyĭng;
When beau\-ty's the prize,
What mor\-tal fears dy\-ĭng?
In defence \ of my treas\-ŭre,
I'd bleed \ at each vein;
Without \ her no pleas\-ure;
For life \ is a pain."
Air 2.
"Consid\-er, fond shep\-hĕrd,
How fleet\-ing's the pleas\-ŭre,
That flat\-ters our hopes
In pursuit \ of the fair:
The joys \ that attend \ ĭt,
By mo\-ments we meas\-ŭre;
But life \ is too lit\-tle
To meas\-ure our care."
Gay's Poems: Johnson's Works of the Poets, VoL vii, p. 378.
These verses are essentially either anapestic or amphibrachic. The anapest divides two of them in the middle; the amphibrach will so divide eight. But either division will give many iambs. By the present scansion, the first foot is an iamb in all of them but the two anapestics.
Example V.—"The Last Leaf."
1.
"I saw \ him once \ before
As he pass\-ĕd by \ the door,
And again
The pave\-ment stones \ resound
As he tot\-ters o'er \ the ground
With his cane.
2.
They say \ that in \ his prime,
Ere the prun\-ing knife of Time
Cut him down,
Not a bet\-ter man \ was found
By the cri\-er on \ his round
Through the town.
3.
But now \ he walks \ the streets,
And he looks \ at all \ he meets
So forlorn;
And he shakes \ his fee\-ble head,
That it seems \ as if \ he said,
They are gone.
4.
The mos\-sy mar\-bles rest
On the lips \ that he \ has press'd
In their bloom;
And the names \ he lov'd \ to hear
Have been carv'd \ for man\-y a year
On the tomb.
5.
My grand\-mamma \ has said,—
Poor old La\-dy! she \ is dead
Long ago,—
That he had \ a Ro\-man nose,
And his cheek \ was like \ a rose
In the snow.
6.
But now \ his nose \ is thin,
And it rests \ upon \ his chin
Like a staff;
And a crook \ is in \ his back
And a mel\-anchol\-y crack
In his laugh.
7.
I know \ it is \ a sin
For me [thus] \ to sit \ and grin
At him here;
But the old \ three-cor\-ner'd hat,
And the breech\-es, and \ all that,
Are so queer!
8.
And if I \ should live \ to be
The last leaf \ upon \ the tree
In the spring,—
Let them smile, \ as I \ do now,
At the old \ forsak\-en bough
Where I cling."
Oliver W. Holmes: The Pioneer, 1843, p. 108.
OBSERVATIONS.
- Composite verse, especially if the lines be short, is peculiarly liable to uncertainty, and diversity of scansion; and that which does not always abide by one chosen order of quantities, can scarcely be found agreeable; it must be more apt to puzzle than to please the reader. The eight stanzas of this last example, have eight lines of iambic trimeter; and, since seven times in eight, this metre holds the first place in the stanza, it is a double fault, that one such line seems strayed from its proper position. It would be better to prefix the word Now to the fourth line, and to mend the forty-third thus:
The trissyllabic feet of this piece, as I scan it, are numerous; being the sixteen short lines of monometer, and the twenty-four initial feet of the lines of seven syllables. Every one of the forty—(except the thirty-sixth, "The last leaf"—) begins with a monosyllable which may be varied"And should \ I live \ to be"—
