The last syllable of every verse is a common affair.
An elegiac, lack-a-daisical, or pentameter verse, consists of four feet and two long syllables, one of which is placed between the second and third foot, and the other at the end of the verse. The two first feet may be dactyls, spondees, or both; the two last are always dactyls, as
Rēs ēst īnfēlīx, plēnăquĕ frāudĭs ămōr:
Love is an unlucky affair, and full of humbug.
We feel compelled, notwithstanding what has been before said, to make a few additions to what is contained in the Eton Grammar with respect to verses.
The rhythm of Latin verses may be easily learned by practising (out of school), exercises on the principle of the examples following—
Dūm dĭdlĕ, dī dūm, dūm dūm, dēedlĕdy, dēēdlĕ dĕ, dūm dum;
Dūm dĭdlĕ, dūm dum, dē, dēedlĕdy̆, dēedlĕdy̆, dūm.
N.B. The following familiar piece of poetry would not have been admitted into the Comic Latin Grammar, but that there being many various readings of it, we wished to transmit the right one to posterity.
Patres conscripti—took a boat and went to Philippi.