Again we find, especially in dactyllic and anapestic lines, a trochee or spondee thrown in to vary the movement. In this anapestic line the meter is varied by a spondee:
| ⌣ | ⌣ | — | | | — | — | | | ⌣ | ⌣ | — | | | ⌣ ⌣ | — |
| “Not | a | drum | | | was | heard | | | not | a | fun | | | eral | note.” |
This insertion of a foot is always allowable if it helps the proper movement of the line and if it is put in voluntarily. With a beginner whose ear is none too well trained it is better to try only pure lines—lines made up of but one kind of foot. In this way the false extra syllable or foot is sooner found out and corrected.
A first-class exercise is to write verse without rhyme or very much reason, whose only virtue shall be lines of exact length with meter regular to the verge of singsongness. As an exercise, too, it is helpful to take a dozen lines or more of good verse and break them up into feet. The greatest poets are not necessarily the best for this purpose, owing to the irregularity of much of their work. It is better for the beginner to steer clear of Browning and try the simpler and more regular constructions of Dobson and Praed.