each there is a continuous repetition of two or of three syllables arranged in a certain order. In the first two verses, when an unaccented syllable has been followed by an accented one, there is a repetition of the same order, and another unaccented syllable is followed by another accented one; and in the second example quoted, when an accented syllable has been followed by an unaccented one, the same arrangement is repeated; and in the third and fourth examples, when two unaccented syllables have been followed by an accented syllable, or when an accented syllable has been followed by two unaccented ones, the same arrangement is repeated. Each verse is therefore arranged in one or more groups of syllables, which groups all resemble each other. The verses in the first two examples are composed of groups of two syllables, and those of the two following examples of groups of three syllables.

These groups of syllables are called feet by their measured pace the verse moves on, as it were, step by step, to the end, as our feet carry us, step by step, from one point to another.

These feet have received distinctive names borrowed from the prosody of the Greek and Latin languages.

The foot composed of an unaccented syllable followed by an accented one, as return, is called an iambus; and a verse composed of this foot repeated a certain number of times is called an iambic verse.

The foot consisting of an accented syllable followed by an unaccented one, as wonder, is called a trochee; and a verse formed by a repetition of this foot a certain number of times is called a trochaic verse.

The foot composed of two accented syllables is called a spondee.

The foot composed of two unaccented syllables is called a pyrrhic.

In the verse,

Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes,

MILTON.

there is a spondee, sóul sit, and a pyrrhic, ting in. Spondees and pyrrhics are mixed with other feet in English verse; but there are no verses composed entirely of spondees or of pyrrhics, because an uninterrupted succession either of accented or of unaccented syllables is an impossibility.

The foot composed of two unaccented syllables followed by an accented one, as persevere, is called an anapæst; and a verse formed of a certain number of such feet is called an anapæstic verse.

The foot composed of an accented syllable followed by two unaccented ones, as : thúnderer, is called a dactyl, and a verse formed of one or more dactyls is called a dactylic verse.

The foot formed of an accented syllable between two unaccented ones, as deliver, is called an amphibrach.

The foot composed of an unaccented syllable between two accented ones, as óver hill, is called an amphi

macer.

The foot composed of an unaccented syllable followed by two accented ones, as the gréen earth, is called a bacchius.

The foot composed of two accented syllables followed by an unaccented one, as rough winter, is called an antibacchius.

The foot composed of three unaccented syllables, as the syllables ferance and in the verse:

This, my long sufferance, and my day of gráce,

is called a tribrach.

MILTON.

It is superfluous to remark that verses composed of tribrachs are as impossible as verses composed of pyrrhics.

Though verses composed of amphibrachs, or amphimacers, or bacchiuses, or antibacchiuses, are not an absolute impossibility, it is very doubtful whether any such exist in English poetry.

To the feet already enumerated may be added four others, each composed of four syllables, called pæons. The first has been named pæon a majori. Lord Kames, in his 'Elements of criticism,' calls it pæon 1st. It is formed of one accented syllable followed by three unaccented ones, as dilatory. Pæon 2nd, as Lord Kames calls it, has an accent on the second syllable only, as : solémnity, extravagant. Pæon 3rd has the third syllable accented, as independent, condescending. Pæon 4th, or pæon a minori, has the last syllable accented, as : in his remorse.

To these may be added another foot of four syllables, called antispastus, composed of two accented syllables between two unaccented ones, as a good sailor.

These feet are of very rare occurrence in English verse, with the exception of the third and fifth, which sometimes terminate anapæstic verses.

If we turn over the pages of any number of English poets and examine the structure of their verse, we shall find that iambic verses abound; that they are far more numerous than the other kinds; that very few long poems are written in other than iambic verses. Trochaic and anapæstic verses are very frequently used for short poems,

dactylic verses rarely. The other kinds of feet enumerated above are never used exclusively to compose even very short poems, but are mixed with other feet in different kinds of verse.

II

ADAPTATION OF WORDS TO METRE

It will be well in this place to notice certain expedients that English poets have recourse to, in order to adapt to their verse appropriate words which could not otherwise be used.

If, in the following line of Cowper,

Hárk! 'tis the twánging hórn o'er yónder bridge,

no contractions were made; if it were written thus :

Hárk! it is the twánging hórn óver yónder bridge,

the first foot would be a dactyl, and the fourth an amphimacer; and the line would read like prose. To remedy this, the two syllables it is are contracted into one, 'tis, by the suppression of the i in it; and over is shortened into o'er by the suppression of the conso

nant v.

In like manner the contractions, used in colloquial language, of the auxiliaries after pronouns, I'll for I will, I'm for I am, he'll for he will, they'd for they would, he's for he is, you 're for you are; and of pronouns after auxiliaries, as let's, for let us; and others of the same