Example VI.—Four Stanzas of an Ode.
"XXVIII.
Gold pleas | -ure buys;
But pleas | -ure dies",
Too soon | the gross | fruiti | -on cloys:
Though rapt | -ures court,
The sense | is short;
But vir | -tue kin | -dles liv | -ing joys:
XXIX.
Joys felt | alone!
Joys ask'd | of none!
Which Time's | and For | -tune's ar | -rows miss;
Joys that | subsist,
Though fates | resist,
An un | -preca | -rious, end | -less bliss!
XXX.
The soul | refin'd
Is most | inclin'd
To ev | -~er=y m=or | -al ex | -cellence;
All vice | is dull,
A knave's | a fool;
And Vir | -tue is | the child | of Sense.
XXXI.
The vir | -tuous mind
Nor wave, | nor wind,
Nor civ | -il rage, | nor ty | -rant's frown,
The shak | -en ball,
Nor plan | -ets' fall,
From its | firm ba | -sis can | dethrone."
YOUNG'S "OCEAN:" British Poets, Vol. viii, p 277.
There is a line of five syllables and double rhyme, which is commonly regarded as iambic dimeter with a supernumerary short syllable; and which, though it is susceptible of two other divisions into two feet, we prefer to scan in this manner, because it usually alternates with pure iambics. Twelve such lines occur in the following extract:—
LOVE TRANSITORY
"Could Love | for ev_er_
Run like | a riv_er_,
And Time's | endeav_our_
Be tried | in vain,—
No oth | -er pleas_ure_
With this | could meas_ure_;
And like | a treas_ure_
We'd hug | the chain.
But since | our sigh_ing_
Ends not | in dy_ing_,
And, formed | for fly_ing_,
Love plumes | his wing;
Then for | this rea_son_
Let's love | a sea_son_;
But let | that sea_son_
Be on | -ly spring."
LORD BYRON: See Everett's Versification, p. 19;
Fowler's E. Gram., p. 650.