Unto this | harvest ground,
Proud reap |-ers came,
Some for that | stirring sound,
A warr |-ior's name:
Some for the | stormy play,
And joy | of strife,
And some to | fling away
A wea |-ry life.
But thou, pale | sleeper, thou,
With the | slight frame,
And the rich | locks, whose glow
Death can |-not tame;
Only one | thought, one pow'r,
Thee could | have led,
So through the | tempest's hour
To lift | thy head!
Only the | true, the strong,
The love | whose trust
Woman's deep | soul too long
Pours on | the dust."
HEMANS: Poetical Works, Vol. ii, p. 157.
Here are fourteen stanzas of composite dimeter, each having two sorts of lines; the first sort consisting, with a few exceptions, of a dactyl and an amphimac; the second, mostly, of two iambs; but, in some instances, of a trochee and an iamb;—the latter being, in such a connexion, much the more harmonious and agreeable combination of quantities.
Example IV.—Airs from a "Serenata."
Air 1.
"Love sounds | the alarm,
And fear | is a-fly~ing;
When beau |-ty's the prize,
What mor |-tal fears dy |-~ing?
In defence | of my treas |-~ure,
I'd bleed | at each vein;
Without | her no pleas |-ure;
For life | is a pain."