Chaucer, Prol. 500.
And wé’ll nót fail | When Dúncan ís asléep.
Shakesp. Macb. I. vii. 61.
We may distinguish between two kinds of inversion of rhythm, viz. (i) natural inversion, and (2) rhetorical inversion. The former is caused by word-accent, the latter by the rhetorical accent, as illustrated by the last examples. The second kind differs very clearly from level stress, as the word in question or the first syllable of it (see the second line of the following quotation) is to be uttered with an unusually strong emphasis, e.g.:
Síck, or in héalth, | in évil fáme or góod. Surrey, p. 17.
Lústy of scháip, lýght of delíveránce.
Dunbar, Thriss. and Rois 95.
In the second example inversion of rhythm occurs (as it often does) twice over, viz. at the beginning of the verse and after the caesura.
Not unfrequently also two inversions of rhythm follow immediately upon one another, e.g.: