and is admirably used by Milton in describing Satan's arduous flight through Chaos—
O'er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare,
With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way,
And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies.
Paradise Lost, II, 948 ff.
Theoretically each rhythmic stress is of equal force or strength, but in verse there is the greatest variety, some stresses being so strong as to dominate a whole line, others so light as hardly to be felt. Thus it happens sometimes that in a 5-stress line there are actually only four or three stresses: the rhythmic result being a syncopation of four or three against five. Sometimes the word which contains the weak stress receives unusual emphasis, as—
Which if not victory is yet revenge.
Paradise Lost, II, 105.
Fall'n cherub, to be weak is miserable.
Ibid., I, 157.
Me miserable! which way shall I fly.
Ibid., IV, 73.
Low-seated she leans forward massively.
Thomson, City of Dreadful Night.
Like earth's own voice lifted unconquerable.
Shelley, Revolt of Islam, IX, 3.
Sometimes the emphasis seems distributed, as—
As he our darkness, cannot we his light.
Paradise Lost, II, 269.