"Where the | wood is | waving, | shady, | green, and | high,
Fauns and | dryads, | nightly, | watch the | starry | sky."
See Hart's E. Gram., p. 187; or the citation thence below.
A couplet of this sort might easily be reduced to a pleasant little stanza, by severing each line after the third foot, thus:—
Hearken! | hearken! | hear ye;
Voices | meet my | ear.
Listen, | never | fear ye;
Friends—or | foes—are | near.
Friends! "So | -ho!" they're | shouting.—
"Ho! so | -ho, a | -hoy!"—
'Tis no | Indian, | scouting.
Cry, so | -ho! with | joy.
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.
"C=ome ~un |-t=o´ th~ese | y=ell~ow | s=ands,
And th=en | t~ake h=ands:
Court'sied | when you | have and | kiss'd,
(The wild | waves whist,)
Foot it | featly | here and | there;
And, sweet | sprites, the | burden | bear."
SINGER'S SHAKSPEARE: Tempest, Act i, Sc. 2.
MEASURE IV.—TROCHAIC OF FIVE FEET, OR PENTAMETER
Example I.—Double Rhymes and Single, Alternated.
"Mountain | winds! oh! | whither | do ye | call me?
Vainly, | vainly, | would my | steps pur |-sue:
Chains of | care to | lower | earth en |-thrall me,
Wherefore | thus my | weary | spirit | woo?