Symbolically expressed, the following forms denote the following measures:
| 1. + - | , or ´ ¨ | , or a x | = týrant. |
| 2. - + | , or ¨ ´ | , or x a | = presúme. |
| 3. + - - | , or ´ ¨ ¨ | , or a x x | = mérrily. |
| 4. - + - | , or ¨ ´ ¨ | , or x a x | = disáble. |
| 5. - - + | , or ¨ ¨ ´ | , or x x a | = cavaliér. |
On these measures the following general assertions may be made; viz.
That the dissyllabic measures are, in English, commoner than the trisyllabic.
That, of the dissyllabic measures, the second is commoner than the first.
That of the trisyllabic measures, No. 3 is the least common.
That however much one measure may predominate in a series of verses, it is rarely unmixed with others. In
Týrants swim sáfest in a púrple floód—
Marlowe—
the measure a x appears in the place of x a. This is but a single example of a very general fact, and of a subject liable to a multiplicity of rules.