MEASURE V.—IAMBIC OF FOUR FEET, OR TETRAMETER.
Example I.—Presidents of the United States of America.
"First stands | the loft | -y Wash | -ington,
That no | -ble, great, | immor | -tal one;
The eld | -er Ad | -ams next | we see;
And Jef | -ferson | comes num | -ber three;
Then Mad | -ison | is fourth, | you know;
The fifth | one on | the list, | Monroe;
The sixth | an Ad | -ams comes | again;
And Jack | -son, sev | -enth in | the train;
Van Bu | -ren, eighth | upon | the line;
And Har | -rison | counts num | -ber nine;
The tenth | is Ty | -ler, in | his turn;
And Polk, | elev | -enth, as | we learn;
The twelfth | is Tay | -lor, peo | -ple say;
The next | we learn | some fu | -ture day."
ANONYMOUS: From Newspaper, 1849.
Example II.—The Shepherd Bard.
"The bard | on Ett | -rick's moun | tain green
In Na | -ture's bo | -som nursed | had been,
And oft | had marked | in for | -est lone
Her beau | -ties on | her moun | -tain throne;
Had seen | her deck | the wild | -wood tree,
And star | with snow | -y gems | the lea;
In love | -li~est c=ol | -ours paint | the plain,
And sow | the moor | with pur | -ple grain;
By gold | -en mead | and moun | -tain sheer,
Had viewed | the Ett | -rick wav | -ing clear,
Where shad | -=ow=y fl=ocks | of pur | -est snow
Seemed graz | -ing in | a world | below."
JAMES HOGG: The Queen's Wake, p. 76.
Example III.—Two Stanzas from Eighteen, Addressed to the Ettrick Shepherd.
"O Shep | -herd! since | 'tis thine | to boast
The fas | -cinat | -ing pow'rs | of song,
Far, far | above | the count | -less host,
Who swell | the Mus | -es' sup | -pli~ant throng,
The GIFT | OF GOD | distrust | no more,
His in | -spira | -tion be | thy guide;
Be heard | thy harp | from shore | to shore,
Thy song's | reward | thy coun | -try's pride."
B. BARTON: Verses prefixed to the Queen's Wake.
Example IV.—"Elegiac Stanzas," in Iambics of Four feet and Three.
"O for | a dirge! | But why | complain?
Ask rath | -er a | trium | -phal strain
When FER | MOR'S race | is run;
A gar | -land of | immor | -tal boughs
To bind | around | the Chris | -tian's brows,
Whose glo | -rious work | is done.