produce different modes of measuring the same lines; and since it is desirable to measure verses with uniformity, and always by the simplest process that will well answer the purpose; we usually scan by the principal feet, in preference to the secondary, where the syllables give us a choice of measures, or may be divided in different ways.
A single foot, especially a foot of only two syllables, can hardly be said to constitute a line, or to have rhythm in itself; yet we sometimes see a foot so placed, and rhyming as a line. Lines of two, three, four, five, six, or seven feet, are common; and these have received the technical denominations of dim'eter, trim'eter, tetram'eter, pentam'eter, hexam'eter, and heptam'eter. On a wide page, iambics and trochaics may possibly be written in octom'eter; but lines of this measure, being very long, are mostly abandoned for alternate tetrameters.
ORDER I.—IAMBIC VERSE.
In Iambic verse, the stress is laid on the even syllables, and the odd ones are short. Any short syllable added to a line of this order, is supernumerary; iambic rhymes, which are naturally single, being made double by one, and triple by two. But the adding of one short syllable, which is much practised in dramatic poetry, may be reckoned to convert the last foot into an amphibrach, though the adding of two cannot. Iambics consist of the following measures:
MEASURE I.—IAMBIC OF EIGHT FEET, OR OCTOMETER.
Psalm XLVII, 1 and 2.
"O āll \ yĕ pēo\-plĕ, clāp \ yŏur hānds, \ ănd wīth \ trĭūm\-phănt vōi\-cĕs sīng;
No force \ the might\-ȳ power \ withstands \ of God, \ the u\-niver\-sal King."
See the "Psalms of David, in Metre," p. 54.
Each couplet of this verse is now commonly reduced to, or exchanged for, a simple stanza of four tetrameter lines, rhyming alternately, and each commencing with a capital; but sometimes, the second line and the fourth are still commenced with a small letter: as,
"Your ut\-most skill \ in praise \ be shown,
for Him \ who all \ the world \ commands,
Who sits \ upon \ his right\-eous throne,
and spreads \ his sway \ o'er heath\-en lands."
Ib., verses 7 and 8; Edition bound with Com. Prayer,
N. Y., 1819.
An other Example.
"The hour \ is come \ —the cher\-ish'd hour,
When from \ the bus\-y world \ set free,
I seek \ at length \ my lone\-ly bower,
And muse \ in si\-lent thought \ on thee."
Theodore Hook's Remains: The Examiner, No. 82.
MEASURE II.—IAMBIC OF SEVEN FEET, OR HEPTAMETER.
Example I.—Hat-Brims.
"It's odd \ how hats \ expand [ their brims \ as youth \ begins \ to fade,
As if \ when life \ had reached \ its noon, \ it want\-ed them \ for shade."
Oliver Wendell Holmes: From a Newspaper.
Example II.—Psalm XLII, 1.
"As pants \ the hart \ for cool\-ing streams, \ when heat\-ed in \ the chase;
So longs \ my soul, \ O God, \ for thee, \ and thy \ refresh\-ing grace."
Episcopal Psalm-Book: The Rev. W. Allen's Eng. Gram., p. 227.
Example III.—The Shepherd's Hymn.
"Oh, when \ I rove \ the des\-ert waste, \ and 'neath \ the hot \ sun pant,
The Lord \ shall be \ my Shep\-herd then, \ he will \ not let \ me want;
He'll lead \ me where \ the past\-ures are \ of soft \ and shad\-y green,
And where \ the gen\-tle wa\-ters rove, \ the qui\-et hills \ between.
And when \ the sav\-age shall \ pursue, \ and in \ his grasp \ I sink,
He will \ prepare \ the feast \ for me, \ and bring \ the cool\-ing drink,
And save \ me harm\-less from \ his hands, and strength\-en me \ in toil,
And bless \ my home \ and cot\-tage lands, and crown \ my head \ with oil.
With such \ a Shep\-herd to \ protect, \ to guide \ and guard \ me still,
And bless \ my heart \ with ev\-'ry good, \ and keep \ from ev\-'ry ill,
