The enchantment that afterwards befell.
Those whose taste sanctions such outré effects probably find pleasure in the strangeness and daring of the rhythm.
An analogous case to this distributed stress but with monosyllables instead of polysyllabic words is the familiar line in Lycidas—
The hungry sheep look up and are not fed.
One does not read: "but are not fed" nor "but are not fed" but rather something midway between. This variation, common with all poets, was a special favorite of Shelley's—
To deck with their bright hues his withered hair.
... His eyes beheld
Their own wan light through the reflected lines
Of his thin hair, distinct in the dark depth
Of that still fountain....
Mingling its solemn song, whilst the broad river.
Alastor.
The monosyllabic foot in which the unstressed element is missing offers no difficulty. The familiar example of
Break, break, break,
has been discussed above (pages 63 f.). Compare also Tennyson's Sweet and Low; Fletcher's song—