We pay | a high | and ho | -ly debt;
No tears | of pas | -sionate | regret
Shall stain | this vo | -tive lay;
Ill-wor | -thy, Beau | -mont! were | the grief
That flings | itself | on wild | relief
When Saints | have passed | away."
W. WORDSWORTH: Poetical Works, First complete Amer. Ed., p. 208.
This line, the iambic tetrameter, is a favourite one, with many writers of English verse, and has been much used, both in couplets and in stanzas. Butler's Hudibras, Gay's Fables, and many allegories, most of Scott's poetical works, and some of Byron's, are written in couplets of this measure. It is liable to the same diversifications as the preceding metre. The frequent admission of an additional short syllable, forming double rhyme, seems admirably to adapt it to a familiar, humorous, or burlesque style. The following may suffice for an example:—
"First, this | large par | -cel brings | you tidings
Of our | good Dean's | eter | -nal chidings;
Of Nel | -ly's pert | -ness, Rob | -in's leasings,
And Sher | -idan's | perpet | -ual teasings.
This box | is cramm'd | on ev | -ery side
With Stel | -la's mag | -iste | -rial pride."
DEAN SWIFT: British Poets, Vol. v, p. 334.
The following lines have ten syllables in each, yet the measure is not iambic of five feet, but that of four with hypermeter:—
"There was | ~an =an | -cient sage | phi_losopher_,
Who had | read Al | -exan | -der Ross over."—Butler's Hudibras.
"I'll make | them serve | for per | -pen_diculars_,
As true | as e'er | were us'd | by bricklayers."
—Ib., Part ii, C. iii, l. 1020.
MEASURE VI.—IAMBIC OF THREE FEET, OR TRIMETER.
Example.—To Evening.
"Now teach | me, maid | compos'd
To breathe | some soft | -en'd strain."—Collins, p. 39.
This short measure has seldom, if ever, been used alone in many successive couplets; but it is often found in stanzas, sometimes without other lengths, but most commonly with them. The following are a few examples:—