_ U| U| U |
Trimeter. Like a poet hidden.
U| U| U | U |
Tetrameter. Tell me not in mournful numbers.
U |U |U | U | U _ |
Pentameter. O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath.
U U | U U | U U | U U | U
Hexameter. This is the forest primeval; the murmuring pines and
U | U |
the hemlocks.
When we say that a verse is of any particular kind, we do not mean that every foot in that line is necessarily of the same kind. Verse is named by stating first the prevailing foot which composes it, and second the number of feet in a line. A verse having four iambic feet is called iambic tetrameter. So we have dactylic hexameter, trochaic pentameter, iambic trimeter, anapestic dimeter, etc.
EXERCISES
A. Mark the accented and unaccented syllables in the following selections, and name the kind of verse:—
1.
Build me straight, O worthy Master!
Stanch and strong, a goodly vessel
That shall laugh at all disaster
And with wave and whirlwind wrestle.
—Longfellow.