"Now, mor |-tal, prepare,
For thy fate | is at hand;
Now, mor |-tal, prepare,
~And s~urr=en |-d~er.
For Love | shall arise,
Whom no pow'r | can withstand,
Who rules | from the skies
T~o th~e c=en |-tr~e."
GRANVILLE, VISCOUNT LANSDOWNE: Joh. Brit. Poets, Vol. v, p. 49.
The following extract, (which is most properly to be scanned as anapestic, though considerably diversified,) has two lines, each of which is pretty evidently composed of a single anapest:—
Example II.—A Chorus in the Same.
"Let trum |-pets and tym |-b~als,
Let at~a |—bals and cym |-b~als,
Let drums | and let haut |-boys give o |-v~er;
B~ut l~et fl=utes,
And l~et l=utes
Our pas |-sions excite
To gent |-ler delight,
And ev |-ery Mars | be a lov |-~er."
Ib., p. 56.
OBSERVATIONS.
OBS. 1.—That a single anapest, a single foot of any kind, or even a single long syllable, may be, and sometimes is, in certain rather uncommon instances, set as a line, is not to be denied. "Dr. Caustic," or T. G. Fessenden, in his satirical "Directions for Doing Poetry," uses in this manner the monosyllables, "Whew," "Say," and "Dress" and also the iambs, "The gay" and, "All such," rhyming them with something less isolated.
OBS. 2.—Many of our grammarians give anonymous examples of what they conceive to be "Anapestic Monometer," or "the line of one anapest," while others—(as Allen, Bullions, Churchill, and Hiley—) will have the length of two anapests to be the shortest measure of this order. Prof. Hart says, "The shortest anapæstic verse is a single anapæst; as,
'~In =a sw=eet
R~es~on=ance,
~All th~eir f=eet
~In th=e d=ance