The Grammar of English Grammars Part 210

"Inf=an- | d=um, R=e | -g=in~a, j~u | -b=es r~en~o | -v=ar~e d~o | -l=or=em."--_Id._

Of this sort of verse, in English, somebody has framed the following very fair example:--

"M=an ~is ~a | c=ompl=ex, | c=omp=ound | c=omp=ost, | y=et ~is h~e | G=od-b=orn."

OBS. 7.--Of this species of versification, which may be called Mixed or Composite Hexameter, the most considerable specimen that I have seen in English, is Longfellow's Evangeline, a poem of one thousand three hundred and eighty-two of these long lines, or verses. This work has found admirers, and not a few; for, of these, nothing written by so distinguished a scholar could fail: but, surely, not many of the verses in question exhibit truly the feet of the ancient Hexameters; or, if they do, the ancients contented themselves with very imperfect rhythms, even in their n.o.blest heroics. In short, I incline to the opinion of Poe, that, "Nothing less than the deservedly high reputation of Professor Longfellow, could have sufficed to give currency to his lines as to Greek Hexameters. In general, they are neither one thing nor another. Some few of them are dactylic verses--English dactylics. But do away with the division into lines, and the most astute critic would never have suspected them of any thing more than prose."--_Pioneer_, p. 111. The following are the last ten lines of the volume, with such a division into feet as the poet is presumed to have contemplated:--

"Still stands the | forest pri | -meval; but | under the | shade of its | branches Dwells an | -other | race, with | other | customs and | language.

Only a | -long the | sh.o.r.e of the | mournful and | misty At | -lantic Linger a | few A | -cadian | peasants, whose | fathers from | exile Wandered | back to their | native | land to | die in its | bosom.

In the | fisherman's | cot the | wheel and the | loom are still | busy; Maidens still | wear their | Norman | caps and their | kirtles of | homespun, And by the | evening | fire re | -peat E | -vangeline's story, While from its | rocky | caverns the | deep-voiced, | neighbouring | ocean Speaks, and in | accents dis | -consolate | answers the | wail of the | forest."

HENRY W. LONGFELLOW: _Evangeline_, p. 162.

OBS. 8.--An other form of verse, common to the Greeks and Romans, which has sometimes been imitated--or, rather, which some writers have _attempted to imitate_--in English, is the line or stanza called Sapphic, from the inventress, Sappho, a Greek poetess. The Sapphic verse, according to Fabricius, Smetius, and all good authorities, has eleven syllables, making "five feet--the first a trochee, the second a spondee, the third a dactyl, and the fourth and fifth trochees." The Sapphic stanza, or what is sometimes so called, consists of three Sapphic lines and an Adonian, or Adonic,--this last being a short line composed of "a dactyl and a spondee."

Example from Horace:--

"=Int~e | -g=er v=i | -tae, sc~el~e | -r=isqu~e | p=ur~us Non e | -get Mau | -ri jacu | -lis ne | -qu' arcu, Nec ven | -ena | -tis gravi | -da 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 quant.i.ties 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 caesural 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; G.o.d had re | -leased her."

ROBERT SOUTHEY: _Poems_, Philad., 1843, p. 251.

Among the lyric poems of Dr. Watts, is one, ent.i.tled, "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 Rus.h.i.+ng a | -main down;

How the poor | sailors | stand a | -maz'd and | tremble!

While the hoa.r.s.e | thunder, | like a b.l.o.o.d.y | 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."--_Horae Lyricae_, 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, must occupy the second place: and, judging of the ancient feet and quant.i.ties by what he found, or supposed he found, in the English imitations, and not by what the ancient prosodists say of them, yet knowing that the ancient and the modern Sapphics are in several respects unlike, he presented forms of scansion for both, which are not only peculiar to himself, but not well adapted to either. "We have," says he, "no established rule for this kind of verse, in our English compositions, which has been uniformly adhered to. The rule for which, in Greek and Latin verse, _as far as I can ascertain_, was this: = ~ | = = = | ~ ~ |= ~ | = = a trochee, a _moloss_, a _pyrrhic_, a trochee, and [a] _spondee_; and _sometimes, occasionally_, a trochee, instead of a spondee, at the end. But as our language is not favourable to the use of the spondee and moloss, the moloss is seldom or never used in our English Sapphics; but, instead of which, some other _trissyllable_ foot is used. Also, instead of the spondee, a trochee is commonly used; and sometimes a trochee instead of the pyrrhic, in the third place. As some prescribed rule, or model for imitation, may be necessary, in this case, I will cite a stanza from one of our best English poets, which may serve for a model.

'Wh=en th~e | fi=erce n=orth-w~ind, | w~ith h~is | =air~y | f=orc~es [,]

R=ears ~up | th~e B=alt~ic | t~o ~a | f=oam~ing | f=ur~y; And th~e | r=ed l=ightn~ing | w~ith ~a | st=orm ~of | h=ail c~omes R=ush~ing | ~am=ain d=own.'--Watts."--_Ib._, p. 19.

OBS. 12.--In "the Works of George Canning," a small book published in 1829, there is a poetical dialogue of nine stanzas, ent.i.tled, "The Friend of Humanity and the Knife-Grinder," said to be "a burlesque on Mr. Southey's Sapphics." The metre appears to be near enough like to the foregoing. But these verses I divide, as I have divided the others, into trochees with initial dactyls. At the commencement, the luckier party salutes the other thus:--

"'Needy knife | -grinder! | whither | are you | going?

Rough is the | road, your | wheel is | out of | order-- Bleak blows the | blast;--your | hat has | got a | hole in't, So have your | breeches!

'Weary knife | -grinder! | little | think the | proud ones Who in their | coaches | roll a | -long the | turnpike-- Road, what hard | work 'tis, | crying | all day, | 'Knives and Scissors to | grind O!'"--P. 44.

OBS. 13.--Among the humorous poems of Thomas Green Fessenden, published under the sobriquet of Dr. Caustic, or "Christopher Caustic, M. D.," may be seen an other comical example of Sapphics, which extends to eleven stanzas.

It describes a contra-dance, and is ent.i.tled, "Horace Surpa.s.sed." The conclusion is as follows:--

"w.i.l.l.y Wagnimble dancing with Flirtilla, Almost as light as air-balloon inflated, Rigadoons around her, 'till the lady's heart is Forced to surrender.

Benny Bamboozle cuts the drollest capers, Just like a camel, or a hippopot'mus; Jolly Jack Jumble makes as big a rout as Forty Dutch horses.

See Angelina lead the mazy dance down; Never did fairy trip it so fantastic; How my heart flutters, while my tongue p.r.o.nounces, 'Sweet little seraph!'

Such are the joys that flow from contra-dancing, Pure as the primal happiness of Eden, Love, mirth, and music, kindle in accordance Raptures extatic."--_Poems_, p. 208.

SECTION V.--ORAL EXERCISES.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE PROSODY, OR ERRORS OF METRE.

LESSON I.--RESTORE THE RHYTHM.

"The lion is laid down in his lair."--_O. B. Peirce's Gram._, p. 134.

[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the word "_lion_," here put for Cowper's word "_beast_" destroys the metre, and changes the line to prose. But, according to the definition given on p. 827, "Verse, in opposition to prose, is language arranged into metrical lines of some determinate length and rhythm--language so ordered as to produce harmony by a due succession of poetic feet." This line was composed of one iamb and two anapests; and, to such form, it should be restored, thus: "The _beast_ is laid down in his lair."--_Cowper's Poems_, Vol. i, p. 201.]

"Where is thy true treasure? Gold says, not in me."

--_Hallock's Gram._, 1842, p. 66.

"Canst thou grow sad, thou sayest, as earth grows bright?"

--_Frazee's Gram._, 1845, p. 140.

"It must be so, Plato, thou reasonest well."

--_Wells's Gram._, 1846, p. 122.

"Slow rises merit, when by poverty depressed."

--_Ib._, p. 195; _Hiley_, 132; _Hart_, 179.