FOOTNOTES:
[108] Especially in these two, as here:
| Half Alex. | Winds | ŏf thĕ Wēst, | arise! | |
| Alex. | Hesper|ĭăn bāl|mĭĕst āirs, | O waft | back those | sweet sighs | |
| Dec. couplet. | { | To her | that breathes | them from | her own | pure skies, |
| Dew-drop|ping, mixt | with Dawn's | engold|ened dyes | ||
| Half Alex. | O'er my | unhap|py eyes! | |
| Fourteener. | From prim|rose bed | and wil|low bank | where your | moss cra|dle lies. | |
| Alex. | O! from | your rush|y bowers | to waft | back her | sweet sighs— | |
| Half Alex. | Winds | of the West, | arise! |
(Darley.)
If thou | wilt ease | thine heart
Of love | and all | its smart,
Then sleep, | dear, sleep;
And not | a sor|row
Hang a|ny tear | on your | eyelash|es;
Lie still | and deep,
Sad soul, | until | the sea-|wave wash|es
The rim | ŏ' thĕ sūn | tŏ-mōr|row
In east|ern sky.
(Beddoes.)
The redundant syllables are specially marked off here, to bring out their contrast with the acatalectic lines.
[109] Macaulay's prosody is mostly plain sailing; but in The Last Buccaneer he has (perhaps following Moore) attempted a rather unusual rhythm. See Hist. Pros. iii. 135-137. For Praed v. sup. p. [114].
[110] This did not appear till 1842.
The poet in a golden clime was born,
With golden stars above;
Dower'd with the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn,
The love of love.
I built my soul a lordly pleasure-house,
Wherein at ease for aye to dwell.
I said, "O Soul, make merry and carouse,
Dear soul, for all is well."
I read, before my eyelids dropt their shade,
The Legend of Good Women, long ago
Sung by the morning star of song, who made
His music heard below.
[114] A few examples may be given:—
(1)Oh || heart! oh! | blood that | freezes, | blood that | burns!
Earth's re|turns
For whole | centu|ries of | folly, | noise, and | sin!
Shut them | in
With their | triumphs | and their | glories, | and the | rest;
Love is | best.
(Love, among the Ruins.)
(Regular trochees alternately trimeter and monometer, but both catalectic. One monosyllabic substitution.)
(2)What hand and brain went ever paired?
What heart alike conceived and dared?
What act proved all its thought had been?
What will but felt the fleshly screen?
We ride | and I see | her bosom heave.
There's ma|ny a crown | for who can reach.
Ten lines, a statesman's life in each!
The flag stuck on a heap of bones,
A soldier's doing! what atones?
They scratch his name | on the Ab|bey stones.
My ri|ding is bet|ter, by their leave.
(The Last Ride Together.)
(Iambic dimeter stanza; three or four trisyllabic substitutions.)
(3)Oh, | what a dawn | of day!
How the March | sun feels | like May!
All is blue | again
After last | night's rain,
And the South | dries the haw|thorn spray.
On|ly, my Love's | away!
I'd as lief | that the blue | were grey.
(Iambic-anapæstic with monosyllabic feet admitted into partnership.)
(4)Is all | our fire | of ship|wreck wood,
Oak ¦ and | pine?
Oh, for | the ills | half-un|derstood,
The dim | dead woe |
Long ¦ a|go
Befallen | this bit|ter coast | of France!
Well, poor | sailors | took their | chance:
I ¦ take | mine.
(Iambic-trochaic; or, if monosyllabic initial feet be granted in some lines, all iambic, and perhaps better so.)
[116] Morning | and eve|ning
Maids heard | the gob|lins cry:
"Come buy | our or|chard fruits,
Come buy, | come buy:
Apples and | quinces,
Lemons and | oranges,
Plump unpecked | cherries,
Melons and | raspberries."
. . . . . . .
(Where, as almost always, the dactylic lines can be made anapæstic with anacrusis, "Mel|ons and rasp|berries," etc.)
[117] She clipped | a pre|cious gold|en lock,
She dropped | a tear | more rare | than pearl,
Then sucked | their fruit | globes fair | or red.
Sweeter | than hon|ey from | the rock,
Stronger | than man-|rejoic|ing wine,
Clearer | than wa|ter flowed | that juice.
[118] But ev|er in | the noon|light
She pined | and pined | away;
Sought them | by night | and day,
Found them | no more, | but dwin|dled and | grew grey;
Then fell | with the | first snow,
While to | this day | no grass | will grow
Where she | lies low:
I plant|ed dai|sies there | a year | ago
That nev|er blow.
[119] Laughed every | goblin
When they | spied her | peeping:
Came towards her | hobbling,
Flying, | running, | leaping, |
Puffing and | blowing.
[120] Where sun|less riv|ers weep
Their waves | into | the deep,
She sleeps | a charm|èd sleep:
Awake | her not.
Led by | a sin|gle star,
She came | from ver|y far,
To seek, | where sha|dows are,
Her plea|sant lot.
[121] Come to | me in | the si|lence of | the night;
Come in | the speak|ing si|lence of | a dream;
Come with | soft round|ed cheeks | and eyes | as bright
As sun|light on | a stream;
Come back | in tears,
O mem|ory, | hope, love, | of fin|ished years.
[122] One by one | slowly,
Ah | how sad | and slow!
Wailing and | praying
The spir|its rise | and go:
Clear stainless | spirits,
White, as | white as | snow;
Pale spirits, | wailing
For an | over|throw.
[123] "Oh! whence | do you come,|| my de|ar friend, | to me?
With your gold|en hair || all fallen | below | your knee,
And your face | as white || as snow|drops on | the lea,
And your voice | as hol||low as | the hol|low sea?"
(This last extract is a most audacious, but quite justifiable, fingering of the ordinary five-foot iambic line, with substitutions and adaptations which give it now anapæstic, now trochaic undertone. The first exhibits, in a batch of five from Goblin Market, the same audacity and the same success in varying line-length as well as constitution; (2), (3), and (4), with more of what is commonly called "regularity," show the same various address.)
[116] Iamb and trochee followed by dactyl and trochee.
[117] Pure iambic dimeter with a trochee or two.
[118] Iambic, with length varied from two to five feet.
[119] Dactyl and trochee, or mere trochee.
[120] Iambic.
[121] Iambic, with some trochaic beginnings.
[122] Dactylic-trochaic and iambic alternately.
[123] Really "irregular." Norm dimeter anapæstic—
̆ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̆ ̄
but largely varied in rhythm and length. Best scanned as above, with strong pause, making five feet.
[124] For examples of Morris's prosody see Scanned Conspectus.
[125] Examples of lyric:
(1)You have cho|sen and clung | to the chance | they sent | you,
Life sweet | as per|fume, and pure | as prayer;
But will | it not one | day in heav|en repent | you?
Will they sol|ace you whol|ly, the days | that were?
Will you lift | up your eyes | between sad|ness and bliss?
Meet mine | and see | where the great | love is,
And trem|ble and turn | and be changed? | Content | you,
The gate | is strait; | I shall not | be there.
(Anapæstic dimeter with iambic substitution and redundance. A most perfect combination.)
(2)If love | were what | the rose | is
And I | were like | the leaf,
Our lives | would grow | togeth|er
In sad | or sing|ing wea|ther,
Blown fields | or flower|ful clo|ses,
Green plea|sure or | grey grief:
If love | were what | the rose | is
And I | were like | the leaf.
(Pure iambics. Dimeter catalectic and brachycatalectic by turns.)
(3)When the | game be|gan be|tween them | for a | jest,
He played | king and | she played | queen to | match the | best.
Laughter | soft as | tears, and | tears that | turned to | laughter,
These were | things she | sought for | years and | sorrowed | after.
(Trochaic trimeter catalectic; quite pure throughout.)
As a | star feels | the sun | and fal|ters,
Touched to | death by | divin|er eyes—
As on | the old gods' | untend|ed altars
The old fire | of with|ered wor|ship dies.
("Long measure"; but completely transfigured by the redundance and double rhyme in the odd places, and the trochaic and anapæstic substitution.)
We | are the mu|sic-mak|ers,
And we | are the dream|ers of dreams,
Wan|dering by lone | sea-break|ers,
And sit|ting by de|solate streams:
World-los|ers and world-|forsakers,
On whom | the pale | moon gleams;
For we | are the mov|ers and shak|ers
Of the world | for ev|er, it seems.
(Anapæsts used with singular skill.)
The stars are dimly seen among the shadows of the bay,
And lights that win are seen in strife with lights that die away.
The wave is very still—the rudder loosens in our hand;
The zephyr will not fill our sail, and waft us to the land;
O precious is the pause between the winds that come and go,
And sweet the silence of the shores between the ebb and flow.
. . . . . . .
Say, shall we sing of day or night, fair land or mighty ocean,
Of any rapturous delight or any dear emotion,
Of any joy that is on earth, or hope that is above,
The holy country of our birth, or any song of love?
. . . . . . .
Our heart in all our life is like the hand of one who steers
A bark upon an ocean rife with dangers and with fears:
The joys, the hopes, like waves or wings, bear up this life of ours—
Short as a song of all these things that make up all its hours.
(The old fourteener—but made almost new by the great variation of pause, by occasional redundance, and by the grouping of the lines.)
If ev|er thou | didst creep
From out | the world | of sleep,
When the sun | slips | and the moon | dips,
If ev|er thou | wast born;
Or upon | the starv|ing lips
Of the gray | uncol|oured morn.
(Especial effect produced by the anapæsts and monosyllabic feet of line 3.)
Thou go|est more | and more
To the sil|ent things: | thy hair | is hoar,
Emp|tier thy wear|y face: | like to | the shore
Far-ru|ined, and | the deso|late bil|low white
That recedes | and leaves | it waif-wrin|kled, gap-|rocked, weak.
The shore | and the bil|low white
Groan|—they cry | and rest | not: they | would speak
And call | the eter|nal Night
To cease | them for ev|er, bid|ding new | things is|sue
From her | cold tis|sue:
Night | that is ev|er young, | nor knows | decay,
Though old|er by | eter|nity | than they.
(Very fine "modern Pindaric," with extremely well-managed substitution.)
[129] For some supposed exceptions v. sup. last section of Scanned Conspectus, pp. [128-130]. One of the most interesting things in the study of prosody is the tracing of the history of lyric forms. Examples have been given above, and more will be found below; but completeness is here again impossible. Again, also, the "principles," properly followed out, will carry the student safely through all such investigations, as, for instance, that into the connection of Mr. Swinburne's "Anima Anceps" with Curran's "Deserter," and the entire pedigree of both. Perhaps it may be well to add that, where a choriambic effect occurs (̄ ̆ ̆ ̄), choice is often, if not always, open between scansion as trochee and iamb or as monosyllabic foot and anapæst. This has been already indicated expressly in some examples. See, especially, pp. [183], [184], [212].