different kinds, to diversify the irregular ode-the only purpose for which it can be advantageously employed; for, although it might, as a continued metre, be well enough suited to light sportive themes, it would be next to impossible, even in a moderate number of successive lines, to find a rhime for every fourth syllable.

Hypermeter, with double rhime—
With other un-|-guish

I scorn to lan--guish.

(Thomson.

The Iambic of one foot, or two syllables, cannot be used as an independent metre, but may, as an auxiliary, be employed in stanzas of diversified measure, for the sake of variety-as the following eight, which are the first lines of as many stanzas in that curious old poem from which I have quoted one for an exemplification of the Iambic metres, in page 17..

are, in reality, only defective Iambies-that is to say.

Iambics wanting the first syllable, as

Vital spark of heav'nly flame. (Pope.

which line, scanned as Iambic, has a broken foot at the beginning

A Vi--tăl spark of heav'n-1-lỹ flame

scanned as Trochaïc, it has the broken foot at the end

Vital spark of heav'nly | flame

A

In like manner, if we cut off the first syllable from any other form of the lambic, we shall equally find that it may be scanned in both ways, with the deficiency of a semifoot at the beginning or the end, according as we scan it in Iambuses or Trochees.

Thus, the line which I have given as an exemplification of the Iambic metres in page 17, if deprived, in each form, of its first syllable, becomes Trochaïc, viz.

how) Blithe, when | first from | far I | came, to | wōo ănd | win the maid. 1

when) First from | får I | came, to | wōo ănd | win thě | mãid. from) Fār Y | cāme,tš | wõo ănd | win the | maid.

i) Căme, to wōo ănd | win the ¦ māid.

to) Wōo ănd | wīn the | mãid.

and) Win the | mãid.

and thus we see, that what we call Trochaïcs, regularly terminate in an accented syllable, as is the case in every other form of English metre; though, like every other form, they also admit an additional unaccented syllable at the end, producing a double rhime; so that, by changing Maid to Mãiden in each of the preceding lines (as heretofore in the Iambics,

page 17) we shall have twelve forms of Trochaïc metre *.

* It may, at first sight, appear capricious in me, and even preposterous, to consider the defective verses as the regular Trochaïcs, and to account those as irregular, which have the additional un-accented syllable, and are thus divisible into exact trochees, without either deficiency or redundancy. Had I been unacquainted with the Latin Trochaïcs and Iambics, I should certainly have done just the reverse. But, when I reflected, that, in Latin versification, the affinity between the Trochaïc and the Iambic is very intimate, as indeed it also is in English-that the grand Latin Trochaïc of seven feet and a half is only the greater Iambic deprived of its first semifoot, as I have shown in my "Latin Prosody"-and that those two forms are indiscrimi nately blended in the ancient comedies-I naturally paused to examine how the case stood in our English versification. Here too I found that the Iambic and the Trochaïc were in fact the same, with only the difference of the first syllable, sometimes inserted, sometimes omitted, as we very frequently see in our Anapæstic verses, where the omission of the first syllable hardly produces any perceptible difference in the measure, and none in the rhythm or cadence; the remainder of the line being accented, scanned, and pronounced in the same manner, whether the first foot consist of two syllables or of three. Accordingly, Milton makes no distinction between the Iambic and the Trochaïc. In the Allegro and the Penseroso, he mixes them without the smallest discrimination, uniting them even in the same couplet, of which the one line contains eight syllables, while its fellow is stinted to seven, accented, however, in the same manner as the corresponding syllables of the longer line, measured backward from the end, as, for example—

A

Cóine, but keep | thy wónt-1-ed státe, With é--ven stép and mú-1-sing gait.]

(Il Penseroso.

In modern times, the practice is the same. To instance from

But, of the six regular forms above exemplified, and the six hypermeters related to them, the first

an elegant poetess of our own day, we see, in Mrs. Barbauld's address" to Wisdom,"

Λ

Hópe with eá-lger spár-j-kling éyes,|

And ea--sy faith, and fond | surprise.

With respect to the additional un-accented syllable, making double rhime and exact trochees, that is a purely adventitious and accidental circumstance, as is sufficiently proved by the example of Milton, who, in one and the same couplet, equally makes the addition to the complete Iambic, as to the defective line which we call Trochaïc, viz.

A

Thén to cóme, in spite of

sór-||-row

And at my win--dow bid good mór-||-row— (L'Allegro. for surely nobody can suppose that he intended the latter of these lines for Trochaïc.-On the whole, then, as all our other metres regularly terminate with an accented syllable; as the addition of the supernumerary un-accented syllable is an arbitrary licence of the poet, and, in fact, only a privileged anomaly, which equally takes place in every other form of English verse; as the omission of the first syllable creates no difference in the nature of the Anapastic verse; and as the poets make, in reality, no distinction between the Iambic line of eight syllables and the Iambic or Trochaïc of seven; I conclude, that what we call Trochaïcs, are only defective Iambics, regularly termina ting in an accented syllable; and that those which have the additional un-accented syllable, are irregular hypermeter lines, although they accidentally happen to make even trochees, and although some poets have written entire pieces in that irregular measure, as indeed every other kind of defective, redundant, er otherwise anomalous metre, has occasionally pleased the fancy of some writer, who chose to employ it in his compositions.

three in each class are either not at all used, or at least so very rarely, as not to be worthy of further notice in these pages. Indeed, not one of them would be at all pleasing to a poetic ear; their too great length being inconsistent with that rapid easy lightness and volubility which we wish and expect from the defalcation of the regular Iambic metre. The longest regular Trochaïc which has any claim to our attention, is the

Trochaic of three feet and a half.

Man ǎ--lōne, in--tent to | stray,

ēvěr | tūrns from | wisdom's | way. (Moore. This metre is admirably calculated for light, lively, cheerful subjects: but it is an extremely difficult metre to any poet who wishes to write all Trochaïcs, without a mixture of eight-syllable Iambics: and the cause is obvious-a, the, and, of, for, and other un-emphatic monosyllables, will frequently present themselves for admission at the beginning of the line, where one of them will prove a very aukward stumbling-block in the poet's way. If he adopt that puny monosyllable to begin a seven-syllable line, he spoils his verse, which is thus destitute of the necessary accent and emphasis on the first syllable. If he seek to avoid that inconvenience, and cannot entirely discard the obnoxious monosyllable, he must make the line a perfect lambic of four feet complete, with the accent on the even syllables; and such indeed is