Thus in the following:
"On every side with shadowy squadrons deep,"
by apostrophizing every and shadowy, the line loses its harmony. The same remark applies to the following:
"And hosts infuriate shake the shudd'ring plain."
"But fashion so directs, and moderns raise
On fashion's mould'ring base, their transient praise."
Churchill.
Poetic lines which abound with these trissyllabic feet, are the most flowing and melodious of any in the language; and yet the poets themselves, or their printers, murder them with numberless unnecessary contractions.
It requires but little judgement and an ear indifferently accurate, to distinguish the contractions which are necessary, from those which are needless and injurious to the versification. In the following passage we find examples of both.
"She went from op'ra, park, assembly, play,
To morning walks and pray'rs three times a day;
To part her time 'twixt reading and bohea,
To muse and spill her solitary tea;
Or o'er cold coffee trifle with the spoon,
Count the slow clock, and dine exact at noon;
Divert her eyes with pictures in the fire,
Hum half a tune, tell stories to the 'squire;
Up to her godly garret after sev'n,
There starve and pray, for that's the way to heav'n."
Pope's Epistles.