"And since he could not save her—with her dy'd."—Dryden.
From all this it appears, that the pause is determined by the seat of the accent; but if the accents happen to be equally strong on the second, fourth, and sixth syllable of a verse, the sense and construction of the words must then guide to the observation of the pause. For example, in one of the verses I have cited as an instance of it at the seventh syllable,
"Mirrors are taught to flatter, but our Springs."
The accent is as strong on taught, as on the first syllable of flatter; and if the pause were observed at the fourth syllable of the verse, it would have nothing disagreeable in its sound; as,
"Mirrors are taught—to flatter, but our Springs
Present th' impartial Images of things."
Which though it be no violence to the ear, yet it is to the sense, and that ought always carefully to be avoided in reading or in repeating of verses.
For this reason it is, that the construction or sense should never end at a syllable where the pause ought not to be made; as at the eighth and second in the two following verses:—
"Bright Hesper twinkles from afar:—Away
My Kids!—for you have had a Feast to Day."—Stafford.