Who was her | father?
Who was her | mother?
Had she a | sister?
Had she a | brother?
Was there a | dearer one
Yet, than all | other?
Alas, for the rarity
Of Christian charity
Under the | sun!
O, it was | pitiful!
Near a whole | city full,
Home she had | none.
Sisterly, | brotherly,
Fatherly, | motherly,
Feelings had | changed;
Love, by harsh |evidence,
Thrown from its |eminence
Even God's | providence
Seeming e |-stranged.
Where the lamps | quiver
So far in the river,
With many a light,
From window and casement,
From garret to basement,
She stood, with amazement,
Houseless, by | night.
The bleak wind of March
Made her tremble and shiver;
But not the dark arch,
Or the black-flowing river:
Mad from life's | history,
Glad to death's | mystery,
Swift to be | hurled,—
Anywhere, | anywhere,
Out of the | world!
In she plung'd | boldly,—
No matter how coldly
The rough | river ran,—
Over the | brink of it:
Picture it, | think of it,
Dissolute | man!"
Clapp's Pioneer, p. 54.
OBS. 5.—As each of our principal feet,—the Iambus, the Trochee, the Anapest, and the Dactyl,—has always one, and only one long syllable; it should follow, that, in each of our principal orders of verse,—the Iambic, the Trochaic, the Anapestic, and the Dactylic,—any line, not diversified by a secondary foot, must be reckoned to contain just as many feet as long syllables. So, too, of the Amphibrach, and any line reckoned Amphibrachic. But it happens, that the common error by which single-rhymed Trochaics have so often been counted a foot shorter than they are, is also extended by some writers to single-rhymed Dactylics—the rhyming syllable, if long, being esteemed supernumerary! For example, three dactylic stanzas, in each of which a pentameter couplet is followed by a hexameter line, and this again by a heptameter, are introduced by Prof. Hart thus: "The Dactylic Tetrameter, Pentameter, and Hexameter, with the additional or hypermeter syllable, are all found combined in the following extraordinary specimen of versification. * * * This is the only specimen of Dactylic hexameter or even pentameter verse that the author recollects to have seen."
LAMENT OF ADAM.
"Glad was our | meeting: thy | glittering | bosom I | heard,
Beating on | mine, like the | heart of a | timorous | bird;
Bright were thine | eyes as the | stars, and their | glances were
| radiant as | gleams
Falling from | eyes of the | angels, when | singing by | Eden's pur
|-pureal | streams.
"Happy as | seraphs were | we, for we | wander'd a | -lone,
Trembling with | passionate | thrills, when the | twilight had
| flown:
Even the | echo was | silent: our | kisses and | whispers of | love
Languish'd un | -heard and un | -known, like the | breath of the
| blossoming | buds of the | grove.