To show | a heart | grief-rent;
To starve | thy sin,
Not bin:
Ay, that's | to keep | thy Lent."
ROBERT HERRICK: Clapp's Pioneer, p. 48.
Example II.—"To Mary Ann."
[This singular arrangement of seventy-two separate iambic feet, I find without intermediate points, and leave it so. It seems intended to be read in three or more different ways, and the punctuation required by one mode of reading would not wholly suit an other.]
"Your face Your tongue Your wit
So fair So sweet So sharp
First bent Then drew Then hit
Mine eye Mine ear Mine heart
Mine eye Mine ear Mine heart
To like To learn To love
Your face Your tongue Your wit
Doth lead Doth teach Doth move
Your face Your tongue Your wit
With beams With sound With art
Doth blind Doth charm Doth rule
Mine eye Mine ear Mine heart
Mine eye Mine ear Mine heart
With life With hope With skill
Your face Your tongue Your wit
Doth feed Doth feast Doth fill
O face O tongue O wit
With frowns With cheek With smart
Wrong not Vex not Wound not
Mine eye Mine ear Mine heart
This eye This ear This heart
Shall joy Shall bend Shall swear
Your face Your tongue Your wit
To serve To trust To fear."
ANONYMOUS: Sundry American Newspapers, in 1849.