OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.—Trochaic verse without the final short syllable, is the same as iambic would be without the initial short syllable;—it being quite plain, that iambic, so changed, becomes trochaic, and is iambic no longer. But trochaic, retrenched of its last short syllable, is trochaic still; and can no otherwise be made iambic, than by the prefixing of a short syllable to the line. Feet, and the orders of verse, are distinguished one from an other by two things, and in general by two only; the number of syllables taken as a foot, and the order of their quantities. Trochaic verse is always as distinguishable from iambic, as iambic is from any other. Yet have we several grammarians and prosodies who contrive to confound them—or who, at least, mistake catalectic trochaic for catalectic iambic; and that too, where the syllable wanting affects only the last foot, and makes it perhaps but a common and needful cæsura.

OBS. 2.—To suppose that iambic verse may drop its initial short syllable, and still be iambic, still be measured as before, is not only to take a single long syllable for a foot, not only to recognize a pedal cæsura at the beginning of each line, but utterly to destroy the only principles on which iambics and trochaics can be discriminated. Yet Hiley, of Leeds, and Wells, of Andover, while they are careful to treat separately of these two orders of verse, not only teach that any order may take at the end "an additional syllable," but also suggest that the iambic may drop a syllable "from the first foot," without diminishing the number of feet,—without changing the succession of quantities,—without disturbing the mode of scansion! "Sometimes," say they, (in treating of iambics,) "a syllable is cut off from the first foot; as,

OBS. 3.—Now this couplet is the precise exemplar, not only of the thirty-six lines of which it is a part, but also of the most common of our trochaic metres; and if this may be thus scanned into iambic verse, so may all other trochaic lines in existence: distinction between the two orders must then be worse than useless. But I reject this doctrine, and trust that most readers will easily see its absurdity. A prosodist might just as well scan all iambics into trochaics, by pronouncing each initial short syllable to be hypermeter. For, surely, if deficiency may be discovered at the beginning of measurement, so may redundance. But if neither is to be looked for before the measurement ends, (which supposition is certainly more reasonable,) then is the distinction already vindicated, and the scansion above-cited is shown to be erroneous.

OBS. 4.—But there are yet other objections to this doctrine, other errors and inconsistencies in the teaching of it. Exactly the same kind of verse as this, which is said to consist of "four iambuses" from one of which "a syllable is cut off," is subsequently scanned by the same authors as being composed of "three trochees and an additional syllable; as,

There is, in the works here cited, not only the inconsistency of teaching two very different modes of scanning the same species of verse, but in each instance the scansion is wrong; for all the lines in question are trochaic of four feet,—single-rhymed, and, of course, catalectic, and ending with a cæsura, or elision. In no metre that lacks but one syllable, can this sort of foot occur at the beginning of a line; yet, as we see, it is sometimes imagined to be there, by those who have never been able to find it at the end, where it oftenest exists!

OBS. 5.—I have hinted, in the main paragraph above, that it is a common error of our prosodists, to underrate, by one foot, the measure of all trochaic lines, when they terminate with single rhyme; an error into which they are led by an other as gross, that of taking for hypermeter, or mere surplus, the whole rhyme itself, the sound or syllable most indispensable to the verse.

"(For rhyme the rudder is of verses,
With which, like ships, they steer their courses.)"—Hudibras.

Iambics and trochaics, of corresponding metres, and exact in them, agree of course in both the number of feet and the number of syllables; but as the former are slightly redundant with double rhyme, so the latter are deficient as much, with single rhyme; yet, the number of feet may, and should, in these cases, be reckoned the same. An estimable author now living says, "Trochaic verse, with an additional long syllable, is the same as iambic verse, without the initial short syllable."—N. Butler's Practical Gram., p. 193. This instruction is not quite accurate. Nor would it be right, even if there could be "iambic verse without the initial short syllable," and if it were universally true, that, "Trochaic verse may take an additional long syllable."—Ibid. For the addition and subtraction here suggested, will inevitably make the difference of a foot, between the measures or verses said to be the same!

OBS. 6.—"I doubt," says T. O. Churchill, "whether the trochaic can be considered as a legitimate English measure. All the examples of it given by Johnson have an additional long syllable at the end: but these are iambics, if we look upon the additional syllable to be at the beginning, which is much more agreeable to the analogy of music."—Churchill's New Gram., p. 390. This doubt, ridiculous as must be all reasoning in support of it, the author seriously endeavours to raise into a general conviction that we have no trochaic order of verse! It can hardly be worth while to notice here all his remarks. "An additional long syllable" Johnson never dreamed of—"at the end"—"at the beginning"—or anywhere else. For he discriminated metres, not by the number of feet, as he ought to have done, but by the number of syllables he found in each line. His doctrine is this: "Our iambick measure comprises verses—Of four syllables,—Of six,—Of eight,—Of ten. Our trochaick measures are—Of three syllables,—Of five,—Of seven. These are the measures which are now in use, and above the rest those of seven, eight and ten syllables. Our ancient poets wrote verses sometimes of twelve syllables, as Drayton's Polyolbion; and of fourteen, as Chapman's Homer." "We have another measure very quick and lively, and therefore much used in songs, which may be called the anapestick.

'May I góvern my pássion with ábsolute swáy,
And grow wiser and bétter as life wears awáy.' Dr. Pope.

"In this measure a syllable is often retrenched from the first foot, [;] as [,]

'When présent we lóve, and when ábsent agrée,
I th'nk not of I'ris [.] nor I'ris of mé.' Dryden.

"These measures are varied by many combinations, and sometimes by double endings, either with or without rhyme, as in the heroick measure.

''Tis the divinity that stirs within us,
'Tis heaven itself that points out an hereafter..' Addison.

"So in that of eight syllables,

'They neither added nor confounded,
They neither wanted nor abounded.' Prior.

"In that of seven,

'For resistance I could fear none,
But with twenty ships had done,
What thou, brave and happy Vernon,
Hast achieved with six alone.' Glover.

"To these measures and their laws, may be reduced every species of English verse."—Dr. Johnson's Grammar of the English Tongue, p. 14. See his Quarto Dict. Here, except a few less important remarks, and sundry examples of the metres named, is Johnson's whole scheme of versification.

OBS. 7.—How, when a prosodist judges certain examples to "have an additional long syllable at the end," he can "look upon the additional syllable to be at the beginning," is a matter of marvel; yet, to abolish trochaics, Churchill not only does and advises this, but imagines short syllables removed sometimes from the beginning of lines; while sometimes he couples final short syllables with initial long ones, to make iambs, and yet does not always count these as feet in the verse, when he has done so! Johnson's instructions are both misunderstood and misrepresented by this grammarian. I have therefore cited them the more fully. The first syllable being retrenched from an anapest, there remains an iambus. But what countenance has Johnson lent to the gross error of reckoning such a foot an anapest still?—or to that of commencing the measurement of a line by including a syllable not used by the poet? The preceding stanza from Glover, is trochaic of four feet; the odd lines full, and of course making double rhyme; the even lines catalectic, and of course ending with a long syllable counted as a foot. Johnson cited it merely as an example of "double endings" imagining in it no "additional syllable," except perhaps the two which terminate the two trochees, "fear none" and "Vernon." These, it may be inferred, he improperly conceived to be additional to the regular measure; because he reckoned measures by the number of syllables, and probably supposed single rhyme to be the normal form of all rhyming verse.

OBS. 8.—There is false scansion in many a school grammar, but perhaps none more uncouthly false, than Churchill's pretended amendments of Johnson's. The second of these—wherein "the old seven[-]foot iambic" is professedly found in two lines of Glover's trochaic tetrameter—I shall quote:—

"In the anapæstic measure, Johnson himself allows, that a syllable is often retrenched from the first foot; yet he gives as an example of trochaics with an additional syllable at the end of the even lines a stanza, which, by adopting the same principle, would be in the iambic measure:

In fact, the second and fourth lines here stamp the character of the measure; [Fist] which is the old seven[-]foot iambic broken into four and three, WITH AN ADDITIONAL SYLLABLE AT THE BEGINNING."—Churchill's New Gram., p. 391.

After these observations and criticisms concerning the trochaic order of verse, I proceed to say, trochaics consist of the following measures, or metres:—

MEASURE I.—TROCHAIC OF EIGHT FEET, OR OCTOMETER.

Example I.—"The Raven"—First Two out of Eighteen Stanzas.

Double rhymes being less common than single ones, in the same proportion, is this long verse less frequently terminated with a full trochee, than with a single long syllable counted as a foot. The species of measure is, however, to be reckoned the same, though catalectic. By Lindley Murray, and a number who implicitly re-utter what he teaches, the verse of six trochees, in which are twelve syllables only, is said "to be the longest Trochaic line that our language admits."—Murray's Octavo Gram., p. 257; Weld's E. Gram., p. 211. The examples produced here will sufficiently show the inaccuracy of their assertion.

Example II.—"The Shadow of the Obelisk."—Last two Stanzas.

Example III.—"The Slaves of Martinique."—Nine Couplets out of Thirty-six.

Example IV.—"The Present Crisis"—Two Stanzas out of sixteen.

Example V.—The Season of Love.—A short Extract.

Trochaic of eight feet, as these sundry examples will suggest, is much oftener met with than iambic of the same number; and yet it is not a form very frequently adopted. The reader will observe that it requires a considerable pause after the fourth foot; at which place one might divide it, and so reduce each couplet to a stanza of four lines, similar to the following examples:—

PART OF A SONG, IN DIALOGUE.

SYLVIA.

CORIN.

SYLVIA.

CORIN.

Poems by ANNA LÆTITIA BARBAULD, p. 56.

PART OF A CHARITY HYMN.

A still more common form is that which reduces all these tetrameters to single rhymes, preserving their alternate succession. In such metre and stanza, is Montgomery's "Wanderer of Switzerland, a Poem, in Six Parts," and with an aggregate of eight hundred and forty-four lines. Example:—

First six stanzas of Part VI, pp. 71 and 72.

MEASURE II.—TROCHAIC OF SEVEN FEET, OR HEPTAMETER.

Example.—Psalm LXX,[510] Versified.

This verse, like all other that is written in very long lines, requires a cæsural pause of proportionate length; and it would scarcely differ at all to the ear, if it were cut in two at the place of this pause—provided the place were never varied. Such metre does not appear to have been at any time much used, though there seems to be no positive reason why it might not have a share of popularity. To commend our versification for its "boundless variety," and at the same time exclude from it forms either unobjectionable or well authorized, as some have done, is plainly inconsistent. Full trochaics have some inconvenience, because all their rhymes must be double; and, as this inconvenience becomes twice as much when any long line of this sort is reduced to two short ones, there may be a reason why a stanza precisely corresponding to the foregoing couplets is seldom seen. If such lines be divided and rhymed at the middle of the fourth foot, where the cæsural pause is apt to fall, the first part of each will be a trochaic line of four feet, single-rhymed and catalectic, while the rest of it will become an iambic line of three feet, with double rhyme and hypermeter. Such are the prosodial characteristics of the following lines; which, if two were written as one, would make exactly our full trochaic of seven feet, the metre exhibited above:—

But trochaic of seven feet may also terminate with single rhyme, as in the following couplet, which is given anonymously, and, after a false custom, erroneously, in N. Butler's recent Grammar, as "trochaic of six feet, with an additional long syllable:—

In Frazee's Grammar, a separate line or two, similar in metre to these, and rightly reckoned to have seven feet, and many lines, (including those above from Tennyson, which W. C. Fowler erroneously gives for Heptameter,) being a foot longer, are presented as trochaics of eight feet; but Everett, the surest of our prosodists, remaining, like most others, a total stranger to our octometers, and too little acquainted with trochaic heptameters to believe the species genuine, on finding a couple of stanzas in which two such lines are set with shorter ones of different sorts, and with some which are defective in metre, sagely concludes that all lines of more than "six trochees" must necessarily be condemned as prosodial anomalies. It may be worth while to repeat the said stanzas here, adding such corrections and marks as may suggest their proper form and scansion. But since they commence with the shorter metre of six trochees only, and are already placed under that head, I too may take them in the like connexion, by now introducing my third species of trochaics, which is Everett's tenth.

MEASURE III.—TROCHAIC OF SIX FEET, OR HEXAMETER.

Example.—Health.

This metre appears to be no less rare than the preceding; though, as in that case, I know no good reason why it may not be brought into vogue. Professor John S. Hart says of it: "This is the longest Trochaic verse that seems to have been cultivated."—Hart's Eng. Gram., p. 187. The seeming of its cultivation he doubtless found only in sundry modern grammars. Johnson, Bicknell, Burn, Coar, Ward, Adam,—old grammarians, who vainly profess to have illustrated "every species of English verse,"—make no mention of it; and, with all the grammarians who notice it, one anonymous couplet, passing from hand to hand, has everywhere served to exemplify it.

Of this, "the line of six Trochees," Everett says: "This measure is languishing, and rarely used. The following example is often cited:

Again: "We have the following from BISHOP HEBER:—

Only the first and the third lines of these stanzas are to our purpose," remarks the prosodist. That is, only these he conceived to be "lines of six Trochees." But it is plain, that the third line of the first stanza, having seven long syllables, must have seven feet, and cannot be a trochaic hexameter; and, since the third below should be like it in metre, one can hardly forbear to think the words which I have inserted in brackets, were accidentally omitted.

Further: "It is worthy of remark," says he, "that the second line of each of these stanzas is composed of six Trochees and an additional long syllable. As its corresponding line is an Iambic, and as the piece has some licenses in its construction, it is far safer to conclude that this line is an anomaly than that it forms a distinct species of verse. We must therefore conclude that the tenth [the metre of six trochees] is the longest species of Trochaic line known to English verse."—Everett's Versification, pp. 95 and 96.

This, in view of the examples above, of our longer trochaics, may serve as a comment on the author's boast, that, "having deduced his rules from the usage of the great poets, he has the best reason for being confident of their correctness."—Ibid., Pref., p. 5.

Trochaic hexameter, too, may easily be written with single rhyme; perhaps more easily than a specimen suited to the purpose can be cited from any thing already written. Let me try:—

Example I.—The Sorcerer.

Example II.—An Example of Hart's, Corrected

A couplet of this sort might easily be reduced to a pleasant little stanza, by severing each line after the third foot, thus:—

But a similar succession of eleven syllables, six long and five short, divided after the seventh, leaving two iambs to form the second or shorter line,—(since such a division produces different orders and metres both,—) will, I think, retain but little resemblance in rhythm to the foregoing, though the actual sequence of quantities long and short is the same. If this be so, the particular measure or correspondent length of lines is more essential to the character of a poetic strain than some have supposed. The first four lines of the following extract are an example relevant to this point:—

Ariel's Song.

MEASURE IV.—TROCHAIC OF FIVE FEET, OR PENTAMETER

Example I.—Double Rhymes and Single, Alternated.

Example II—Rhymes Otherwise Arranged.

This measure, whether with the final short syllable or without it, is said, by Murray, Everett, and others, to be "very uncommon." Dr. Johnson, and the other old prosodists named with him above, knew nothing of it. Two couplets, exemplifying it, now to be found in sundry grammars, and erroneously reckoned to differ as to the number of their feet, were either selected or composed by Murray, for his Grammar, at its origin—or, if not then, at its first reprint, in 1796. They are these:—

(1.)

L. Murray's Gram., 12mo, 175; 8vo, 257; Chandler's, 196; Churchill's, 187; Hiley's, 126; et al.

(2.)

Murray, same places; N. Butler's Gr., p. 193; Hallock's, 244; Hart's, 187; Weld's, 211; et al.

Richard Hiley most absurdly scans this last couplet, and all verse like it, into "the Heroic measure," or a form of our iambic pentameter; saying, "Sometimes a syllable is cut off from the first foot; as,

J. S. Hart, who, like many others, has mistaken the metre of this last example for "Trochaic Tetrameter," with a surplus "syllable," after repeating the current though rather questionable assertion, that, "this measure is very uncommon," proceeds with our "Trochaic Pentameter," thus: "This species is likewise uncommon. It is composed of five trochees; as,

And again: [Fist] "The SAME with an ADDITIONAL accented syllable; as,

These examples appear to have been made for the occasion; and the latter, together with its introduction, made unskillfully. The lines are of five feet, and so are those about the ruddy farmer; but there is nothing "additional" in either case; for, as pentameter, they are all catalectic, the final short syllable being dispensed with, and a cæsura preferred, for the sake of single rhyme, otherwise not attainable. "Five trochees" and a rhyming "syllable" will make trochaic hexameter, a measure perhaps more pleasant than this. See examples above.

MEASURE V.—TROCHAIC OF FOUR FEET, OR TETRAMETER.

Example I.—A Mournful Song.

Example II.—A Song Petitionary.

Example III.—Song of Juno and Ceres.

Example IV.—On the Vowels.

Example V.—Use Time for Good.

Example IV.[sic for VI—KTH]—"The Turkish Lady"—First Four Stanzas.

Example VII.—The Palmer's Morning Hymn.

Example VIII—A Short Song, of Two Stanzas.

Example IX.—Lingering Courtship.

Example X.—"Boadicea"—Four Stanzas from Eleven.

Example XI—"The Thunder Storm"—Two Stanzas from Ten.

Example XII.—"The Triumphs of Owen," King of North Wales.[513]

Example XIII.—"Grongar Hill."—First Twenty-six Lines.