VERSIFICATION, in English, is the harmonious arrangement of a particular number and variety of accented and unaccented syllables, according to particular laws.
RHYME is the correspondence of the sound of the last syllable in one line, to the sound of the last syllable in another; as,
"O'er the glad waters of the dark-blue sea,
"Our thoughts as boundless and our souls as free."
BLANK VERSE consists in poetical thoughts expressed in regular numbers, but without the correspondence of sound at the end of the lines which constitutes rhyme.
POETICAL FEET consist in a particular arrangement and connexion of a number of accented and unaccented syllables.
They are called feet, because it is by their aid that the voice, as it were, steps along through the verse in a measured pace.
All poetical feet consist either of two, or of three syllables; and are reducible to eight kinds; four of two syllables, and four of three, as follows:
| DISSYLLABLE. | TRISYLLABLE. |
| A Trochee - ̆ | A Dactyle - ̆ ̆ |
| An Iambus ̆ - | An Amphibrach ̆ - ̆ |
| A Spondee - - | An Anapaest ̆ ̆ - |
| A Pyrrhic ̆ ̆ | A Tribrach ̆ ̆ ̆ |
A Trochee has the first syllable accented, and the last unaccented; as, Hātefŭl, péttish:
Rēstlĕss mōrtăls tōil fŏr nāught.