And the rocks of Craig Royston like icicles melt,

Ere our wrongs be forgot, or our vengeance unfelt!"-SCOTT.
Formula x x a × 4+.

Here there is an additional syllable.

"If they rob'/us of name' / and pursue' / us with bea'/gles,
Give their roof to the flame and their flesh to the eagles,
While there's leaves in the forest and foam on the river,
MacGregor, despite them, shall flourish for ever!"-SCOTT.

AMPHIBRACH MEASURES.

SECTION DCLIII.-AMPHIBRACH MONOMETER.

Formula xa x.

The accented lines are composed of a single Amphibrach. "Whisperings heard by wakeful maids,

To whom the night-stars guide us;
Stolen walks through moonlit glades,
With those we love beside us:
Hearts beat'ing

At meet'ing;
Tears start'ing

At part/ing;

Oh sweet youth! how soon it fades !

Sweet joys of youth, how fleeting!"—MOORE.

SECTION DCLIV.-AMPHIBRÁCH DIMETER.

Formula x ax × 2.

The accented lines are composed of two Amphibrachs.

"The black' bands / came over

The Alps and their snow;
With Bourbon, / the rover,
They pass'd the broad Po:
We [have] beat'en all foe'men,
We [have] captured a king;

We [have] turn'd' back on no' men,

And so let us sing:

The Bourbon for ev'er!

Though penniless all,

We'll [have] one' more endeavour

At yonder old wall."-BYRON.

SECTION DCLV.-AMPHIBRACH TRIMETER.

Formula x ax x 3.

The accented lines are composed of three Amphibrachs. "A con'quest, / how hard' and / how glo'rious! Though fate had fast bound her

With Styx nine times round her!

Yet mu'sic and love' were victorious !"-POPE.
Formula x ax × 3-.

Here one syllable is wanting.

"Ye shepherds, / so cheer'ful / and gay',
Whose flocks never carelessly roam,

Should Corydon's happen to stray,
Oh call the poor wanderers home.

Allow me to muse and to sigh,

Nor talk of the change that ye find;

None once was so watchful as I;

I have left my dear Phyllis behind."-SHENSTONE.

SECTION DCLVI.-AMPHIBRACH TETRAMETER.

Formula x ax x 4.

"[Thanks], my lord', for your ven'ison; / for fin'er / nor fat'ter
Ne'er ranged' in the for'est nor smoked' on the plat'ter:
The flesh was a picture for painters to study,

The fat was so white and the lean was so ruddy.

[Though] my stomach was sharp, I could scarce help regretting
To spoil such a delicate picture by eating."

Formula x a x × 4—.

The accented lines are composed of four Amphibrachs, wanting

"But meeter for thee, gentle lover of nature,

To lay down/thy head' like / the meek' moun/tain lamb';
When wilder'd he drops from some cliff huge in stature,

And draws' his / last sob' by / the side' of / his dam'.
And more stately thy couch by this desert lake lying,

Thy obsequies sung by the gay plover flying,

With one faithful friend to witness thy dying,

In the arms of Helvellyn and Catchedicam."-SCOTT.

SECTION DCLVIII.-DACTYLIC DIMETER.
Formula a x x x 2 and a x x x 2-.

In the following the lines 1, 3, 5, &c., consist of two Dactyls, and the lines 2, 4, 6, &c., consist of two Dactyls wanting the last syllable.

SECTION DCLXI.- -DACTYLIC HEXAMETER.

The last line in each verse is a Spondee. The accented lines have five Dactyls.

"This' is the / for'est pri/me'val; but / where' are the /hearts' that be/neath it Leap'd' like the roe', when it hears' in the woodland the voice' of the huntsman ? Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian farmers?

Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands,

Darken'd by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of Heaven?"— LONGFELLOW.

CHAPTER III.

COMBINED MEASURES.

SECTION DCLXII.-THE SPENSERIAN STANZA.

THIS consists of nine Iambic lines, the eight first being Heroics, and the ninth an Alexandrine. The law of the rhyme may be seen in the following.

"I care not, Fortune, what you me deny :

You cannot rob me of free Nature's grace;

You cannot shut the windows of the sky,

Through which Aurora shows her bright'ning face;

You cannot bar my constant feet to trace

The woods and lawns by living stream at eve;
Let health my nerves and finer fibres brace,

And I their toys to the great children leave:

Of fancy, reason, virtue, nought can me bereave."-THOMSON.

A STANZA is a combination of several lines constituting the regular division of a poem.

SECTION DCLXIII.-GAY'S STANZA.

The formula for the odd lines is x a × 3 +; for the even lines, xax 3. The rhymes are alternate, and the odd rhymes double.

"'Twas when the seas were roaring

With hollow blasts of wind,

A damsel lay deploring,

All on a rock reclined;

Wide o'er the foaming billows

She cast a wistful look ;

Her head was crown'd with willows,

That trembled o'er the brook."

SECTION DCLXIV.-ELEGIAC OCTOSYLLABICS,

These are the same as the common octosyllabics (See Section DCXXXVII.), except that the rhymes are regularly alternate, and the verses are arranged in stanzas,

"And on her lover's arm she leant,

And round her waist she felt it fold;
And far across the hills she went,

In that new world which now is old:
Across the hills and far away,

Beyond their utmost purple rim;

And deep into the dying day

The happy princess followed him."-TENNYSON.

SECTION DCLXV.-OCTOSYLLABIC COUPLETS.

Four measures, x a, with pairs of rhymes. See Section DCXXXVII.

SECTION DCLXVI.-OCTOSYLLABIC TRIPLETS.

Four measures, x a, with three rhymes regularly in succession. "A still, small voice spake unto me:

Thou art so full of misery,

Were it not better not to be ?'

"Then to the still, small voice I said:

'Let me not cast in endless shade

What is so wonderfully made!" "—TENNYSON.

SECTION DCLXVII.-HEROIC COUPLETS.

Five measures, x a, with pairs of rhymes. See Section DCXXXVIII.

SECTION DCLXVIII. HEROIC TRIPLETS.

Five measures, x a, with three rhymes in succession.

"By this the brides are waked, their grooms are dress'd;

All Rhodes is summon'd to the nuptial feast!

All but myself, the sole unbidden guest."-DRYDEN.

SECTION DCLXIX. ELEGIAC HEROICS.

These are the same as the common heroics, except that the lines regularly alternate, and are arranged in stanzas.

"The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,

The lowing herds wind slowly o'er the lea;
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.'

SECTION DCLXX. RHYME ROYAL.

"GRAY.

Seven lines of heroics, with the last two rhymes in succession, and the five first recurring at intervals. It admits of varieties, according to the distribution of the five first rhymes.

"For, lo! the sea that fleets about the land,
And like a girdle clips her solid waist,
Music and measure both doth understand,
For his great crystal eye is always cast
Up to the moon, and on her fixeth fast;
And as she in her pallid sphere,

So danceth he about the centre here."-Sir JOHN DAVIS.

SECTION DCLXXI.-OTTAVA RIMA.

"Morgante had a palace in his mode,

Composed of branches, logs of wood, and earth,
And stretch'd himself at ease in this abode,

And shut himself at night within his berth.
Orlando knock'd, and knock'd again, to goad
The giant from his sleep; and he came forth
The door to open like a crazy thing,

For a rough dream had shook him slumbering."-BYRON.

"Many are poets who have never penn'd

Their inspiration, and, perchance, the best:
They felt, and loved, and died, but would not lend
Their thoughts to meaner beings; they compress'd
The God within them, and rejoin'd the stars
Unlaurell'd upon earth, but far more bless'd
Than those who are degraded by the jars
Of passion, and their frailties linked to fame,

Conquerors of high renown, but full of scars."-Byron.

SECTION DCLXXIII.-ALEXANDRINES..

Six measures, x a, with rhyme. The name is said to be taken from the fact that early romances upon the deeds of Alexander of Macedon, of great popularity, were written in this metre.

tion DCXXXIX.

SECTION DCLXXIV.-BALLAD STANZA.

See Sec

This consists of four lines. The first is composed of four lambics, formula xa x 4. The second is composed of three Iambics, formula xax 3. The third and fourth are like the first and second.

"The Past and Present here unite
Beneath Time's flowing tide;

Like footprints hidden by a brook,

But seen on either side."-LONGFELLOW.

SECTION DCLXXV.-RHOMBIC MEASURES.

"Ah me!

Am I the swain

That, late from sorrow free,

Did all the cares on earth disdain ?

And still untouch'd, as at some safer games,

Play'd with the burning coals of love and beauty's flames?
Was't I could drive and sound each passion's secret depth at will,
And from those huge o'erwhelmings rise by help of reason still?
And am I now, O Heavens! for trying this in vain,

So sunk that I shall never rise again?

Then let despair set sorrow's string

For strains that doleful be,

And I will sing

Ah me !"

WITHER.