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- ian, or Adonic,—this last being a short line composed of "a dactyl and a spondee." Example from Horace:
"Īntĕ\-gēr vī\-tæ, scĕlĕ\-rīsquĕ \ pūrŭs
Non e\-get Mau\-ri jacu\-lis ne\-qu' arcu,
Nec ven\-ena\-tis gravi\-dâ sa\-gittis,
Fusce, pha\-retra." - To arrange eleven syllables in a line, and have half or more of them to form trochees, is no difficult matter; but, to find rhythm in the succession of "a trochee, a spondee, and a dactyl," as we read words, seems hardly practicable. Hence few are the English Sapphics, if there be any, which abide by the foregoing formule of quantities and feet. Those which I have seen, are generally, if not in every instance, susceptible of a more natural scansion as being composed of trochees, with a dactyl, or some other foot of three syllables, at the beginning of each line. The cæsural pause falls sometimes after the fourth syllable, but more generally, and much more agreeably, after the fifth. Let the reader inspect the following example, and see if he do not agree with me in laying the accent on only the first syllable of each foot, as the feet are here divided. The accent, too, must be carefully laid. Without considerable care in the reading, the hearer will not suppose the composition to be any thing but prose:
"The Widow."—(In "Sapphics.")
"Cold was the \ night-wind, \ drifting \ fast the \ snow fell,
Wide were the \ downs, and \ shelter\-less and \ naked,
When a poor \ Wanderer \ struggled \ on her \ journey,
Weary and \ way-sore.Drear were the \ downs, more \ dreary \ her re\-flections;
Cold was the \ night-wind, \ colder \ was her \ bosom;
She had no \ home, the \ world was \ all be\-fore her;
She had no \ shelter.Fast o'er the \ heath a \ chariot \ rattlee \ by her;
'Pity me!' \ feebly \ cried the \ lonely \ wanderer;
'Pity me, \ strangers! \ lest, with \ cold and \ hunger,
Here I should \ perish.'Once I had \ friends,—though \ now by \ all for\-saken!
'Once I had \ parents, \ —they are \ now in \ heaven!
'I had a \ home once, \ —I had \ once a \ husband—
Pity me, \ strangers!'I had a \ home once, \ —I had \ once a \ husband—
'I am a \ widow, \ poor and \ broken\-hearted!'
Loud blew the \ wind; un\-heard was \ her com\-plaining;
On drove the \ chariot.Then on the \ snow she \ laid her \ down to \ rest her;
She heard a \ horseman; \ 'Pity \ me!' she \ groan'd out;
Loud was the \ wind; un\-heard was \ her com\-plaining;
On went the \ horseman.Worn out with \ anguish, \ toil, and \ cold, and \ hunger,
Down sunk the \ Wanderer; \ sleep had \ seized her \ senses;
There did the \ traveller \ find her \ in the \ morning;
God had re\-leased her."
Robert Southey: Poems, Philad., 1843, p. 251. - Among the lyric poems of Dr. Watts, is one, entitled, "THE DAY OF JUDGEMENT; an Ode attempted in English Sapphic." It is perhaps as good an example as we have of the species. It consists of nine stanzas, of which I shall here cite the first three, dividing them into feet as above:
"When the fierce \ North Wind, \ with his \ airy \ forces,
Rears up the \ Baltic \ to a \ foaming \ fury;
And the red \ lightning \ with a \ storm of \ hail comes
Rushing a\-main down;How the poor \ sailors \ stand a\-maz'd and \ tremble!
While the hoarse \ thunder, \ like a bloody \ trumpet,
Roars a loud \ onset \ to the \ gaping \ waters,
Quick to de\-vour them.Such shall the \ noise be, \ and the \ wild dis\-order,
(If things e\-ternal \ may be \ like these \ earthly,)
Such the dire \ terror, \ when the \ great Arch\-angel
Shakes the cre\-ation."—Horæ Lyricæ, p. 67. - "These lines," says Humphrey, who had cited the first four, "are good English Sapphics, and contain the essential traits of the original as nearly as the two languages, Greek and English, correspond to each other. This stanza, together with the poem, from which this was taken, may stand for a model, in our English compositions."—Humphrey's E. Prosody, p. 19. This author erroneously supposed, that the trissyllabic foot, in any line of the Sapphic stanza,
