Such are the joys that flow from contra-dancing,
Pure as the primal happiness of Eden,
Love, mirth, and music, kindle in accordance
Raptures extatic."—Poems, p. 208.
SECTION V.—ORAL EXERCISES.
IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.
FALSE PROSODY, OR ERRORS OF METRE.
LESSON I.—RESTORE THE RHYTHM.
"The lion is laid down in his lair."—O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 134.
[FORMULE.—Not proper, because the word "lion," here put for Cowper's word "beast" destroys the metre, and changes the line to prose. But, according to the definition given on p. 827, "Verse, in opposition to prose, is language arranged into metrical lines of some determinate length and rhythm—language so ordered as to produce harmony by a due succession of poetic feet." This line was composed of one iamb and two anapests; and, to such form, it should be restored, thus: "The beast is laid down in his lair."—Cowper's Poems, Vol. i, p. 201.]
"Where is thy true treasure? Gold says, not in me."
—Hallock's Gram., 1842, p. 66.
"Canst thou grow sad, thou sayest, as earth grows bright?"
—Frazee's Gram., 1845, p. 140.
"It must be so, Plato, thou reasonest well."
—Wells's Gram., 1846, p. 122.