the practice of our best poets, in whose effusions we very frequently observe that the perfect Iambic has un-avoidably and imperceptibly crept in among the Trochaïcs, so that it is very rare to find even a score of Trochaïc lines unmixed with perfect Iambics. This form of the Trochaïc is sometimes called Anacreontic, but very erroneously, as Anacreon's metre is quite different". It is easy to account for the error.-Some English poet, acquainted with Anacreon, wrote, like him, on light lively subjects -like him, also, in light easy style-like him, too, in short metre, though different from that of the Greek songster. From those features of partial resemblance, he styled his pieces Anacreontic, as we give the name of Pindaric to odes composed in the bold irregular manner of Pindar, though not written in Pindar's metre. Hence the English reader, equally un-acquainted with Anacreon in the original Greek, and with the imitations of his metre in Latin, erroneously conceived, that, in those English productions, the metre itself was Anacreontic-an egregious error, excusable however in him, though it would be unpardonable in any classical scholar. In short, as already observed in page 24, the metre in which Anacreon chiefly wrote, and which alone bears the title of Anacreontic in Greek and Latin, is our three-foot Iambic with a supernumerary short syllable, and with the first foot sometimes an anapast, as here exemplified in two of his own lines ŏlö-|-lă, mā-|-těr, ēi-|-pěn..... ǎpolōi-|-to prō-|-tŏs aū-|-tŏs...... in the former of which lines, his metre is exactly this 'Twas when the seas were roar--Ing... in the latter, It was when the seas were roar--Ing... Hypermeter, with double rhime— Trembling, | hōping, | ling'ring, | flying. Trochaic of two feet and a half. Prithee, why so ¦ pāle ? (Suckling. This measure is little used, and cannot be employed to advantage, except occasionally, for the sake of variety, in mixed stanzas of various metre. Hypermeter, with double rhime -- The Trochaic of one foot and a half may not unaptly be called the Lilliputian Trochaïc, partly from the brevity of its measure, partly from the circumstance of its having been so characteristically employed by Gay in his Lilliputian odes to Gulliver; e. gr. See him strīde Valleys wide, ōvěr woods, ōvěr floods, &c. Except on some Lilliputian occasion of similar kind, this metre cannot otherwise be employed than in diversifying mixed stanzas consisting of different kinds of verse. Hypermeter, with double rhime Soft de-i-nials Are but trials. (Hughes Anapastic Verses properly consist of anapæsts alone, as The misfōr--tunes that fall | to the lōt | of the great. (Ainsty. The first foot, however, in all the different forms of Anapastic metre, may be a foot of two syllables; and, provided that the latter syllable of that foot be accented, as is the case in the spondee and iambus, the syllabic difference between either of those feet and the anapæst, in the first station of the verse, hardly produces (as before observed under the head of Trochaïcs) any perceptible difference in the measure, and none at all 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. But the Pyrrhic and Trochee, which have not the second syllable accented, are, on that account, inadmissible. The Anapastic metre is happily adapted to themes of every kind, except the heroic, for which it does not possess, in an adequate degree, the necessary character of masculine energy and dignified elevation. In stanzas of four-foot lines with alternate rhime, it well accords with grave, solemn, melancholy musings*: in stanzas alternately subjoining verses of three feet to verses of four, or entirely consisting of three-foot verses with alternate rhime, it is admi * 'Tis night; and the landscape is lovely no more. I mourn: but, ye woodlands, I mourn not for you; rably suited to soft, tender, sentimental, pathetic subjects; while, in rhimed couplets of the long measure, it is conveniently subservient to wit, humour, mirth, festivity, ridicule, satire-to the animated effusions of martial enthusiasm, or the proud exultation of triumph *.-On subjects of terrific complexion, Mr. Lewis has very successfully employed Anapæstic stanzas of five lines, of four feet and three. Anapastic of four feet. 'Tis the voice of the slūg-l-gård: ĭ hear | him complain : For inorn is approaching, your charms to restore, Kind Nature the embryo blossom shall save: Oh! when shall it dawn on the night of the grave? (Beattie, * If, like Tyrtæus of old, I had to awake dormant valour with the voice of song, I would, in preference to every other form of English metre, choose the Anapæstic of four feet in couplets, which-if well written, in real anapæsts un-encumbered with an undue weight of heavy syllables, and judiciously aided by appro priate music-could hardly fail to martialise even shivering cowards, and warm them into heroes; the brisk animating inarch of the verse having the same effect on the soul, as the body expe. riences from the quick lively step, which, by accelerating the circulation of the blood, at once warms and dilates the heart and renders the warrior more prompt to deeds of prowess.Many lines may be found in Mr. Lewis's productions, which would justify my choice, and a few in No. 776 of the following Exercises. “You have wāk'd | mě too sōon: | ĭ must slūm-|-běr ǎgain." (Watts. The spur-|-row and lîn--net will feed | from your haud, Grōw tāme | ǎt your kind--ness, ănd cōme | ǎt com(Garrick. mand. This metre is sometimes called Ansteian or Ainsteian, from Mr. Ainsty, who successfully employed it in his "New Bath Guide;" and it is perhaps (with the exception of the old ballad-measure) the > easiest metre in our language, to a writer who can reconcile his ear to more than one heavy or accented syllable in each foot. But, to a poet who wishes to write real anapæsts of two perfectly light syllables and only one heavy or accented, it is perhaps the most difficult-more so even than the pure Trochaïc -because the number of monosyllabic substantives, adjectives, and verbs, with which our language abounds, and which cannot be made to glide off smoothly without any accent, renders it almost impossible to find a constant supply of pure real anapæests. Accordingly, in the very best of our anapæstic productions, we frequently meet with lines in which we are compelled either to injure the sense by slightly passing over syllables which justly claim notice and emphasis, or to retard the speed of the verse, by laying on those syllables a weight of accent too heavy for the rapid course of the real anapæst. For this reason, unwilling to deviate from the line of propriety on either side, I have, in the "KEY," avoided |