One would think | she might like | to retire
To the bow'r | I have la | -bour'd to rear;
Not a shrub | that I heard | her admire,
But I hast | -ed and plant | -ed it there.
O how sud | -den the jes | -samine strove
With the li | -lac to ren | -der it gay!
Alread | -y it calls | for my love,
To prune | the wild branch | -es away."
SHENSTONE: British Poets, Vol. vii, p. 139.
Anapestic lines of four feet and of three are sometimes alternated in a stanza, as in the following instance:—
Example IV.—"The Rose."
"The rose | had been wash'd, | just wash'd | in a show'r,
Which Ma | -ry to An | -na convey'd;
The plen | -tiful moist | -ure encum | -ber'd the flow'r,
And weigh'd | down its beau | -tiful head.
The cup | was all fill'd, | and the leaves | were all wet,
And it seem'd | to a fan | -ciful view,
To weep | for the buds | it had left, | with regret,
On the flour | -ishing bush | where it grew.
I hast | -ily seized | it, unfit | as it was
For a nose | -gay, so drip | -ping and drown'd,
And, swing | -ing it rude | -ly, too rude | -ly, alas!
I snapp'd | it,—it fell | to the ground.
And such, | I exclaim'd, | is the pit | -iless part
Some act | by the del | -icate mind,
Regard | -less of wring | -ing and break | -ing a heart
Alread | -y to sor | -row resign'd.
This el | -egant rose, | had I shak | -en it less,
Might have bloom'd | with its own | -er a while;
And the tear | that is wip'd | with a lit | -tle address,
May be fol | -low'd perhaps | by a smile."
COWPER: Poems, Vol. i, p. 216; English Reader, p. 212.
MEASURE III.—ANAPESTIC OF TWO FEET, OR DIMETER.
Example I.—Lines with Hypermeter and Double Rhyme.