XXVIII. "Common," "Long," and "In Memoriam" Measure (Seventeenth Century)
(a) See above, § [XXIII]., for "Drink to me only."
(b) Donne(?), Ayton(?), Anon.(?), (C.M.):
Thou sent'st | me late | a heart | was crowned,
I took | it to | be thine;
But when | I saw | it had | a wound,
I knew | that heart | was mine.
A boun|ty of | a strange | conceit!
To send | mine own | to me,
And send | it in | a worse | estate
Than when | it came | to thee.
(A capital example of the possibility of rhetorical addition to the strict foot-system, as in line 2, "I took it || to be thine."[43] For "concayt" and "estate" cf. sup. § [XXV]. sub fin.)
(c) Herrick (C.M.):
Bid me | to live | and I | will live
Thy Pro|testant | to be;
Or bid | me love, | and I | will give
A lov|ing heart to | thee.
(Strongly flavoured, and greatly improved, by trochaic substitution in first foot.)
(d) Marvell (L.M.):
My love | is of | a birth | as rare
As 'tis | for ob|ject, strange | and high—
It was | begot|ten of | Despair
Upon | Impos|sibil|ity.
(e) Lord Herbert of Cherbury (In Memoriam metre):
For whose | affec|tion once | is shown,
No long|er can | the world | beguile;
Who sees | his pen|ance all | the while
He holds | a torch | to make | her known.
(Great regularity of feet; but already the "circular" motion which Tennyson was to perfect.)