So oft er trank daraus.
Und als er kam zu sterben,
Zählt’ er seine Städt’ im Reich,
Gönnt’ alles seinem Erben,
Den Becher nicht zugleich:—
and the end:—
Die Augen thäten ihm sinken,
Trank nie einen Tropfen mehr.
The italicised trisyllabic measures are fine. Observe also the elisions of final -e before a following vowel (Städt’ being very unusual), and the omission of the dative -e in im Reich, to rhyme with zugleich.”
I have only to add that my special thanks are due to Sir F. Madden for his permission to make use of his valuable notes, glossary, and preface, and for his assistance; as also to Mr Ellis for his notes, which, however, reached me only at the last moment, when much alteration of the proofs was troublesome. There are many things probably which Mr Ellis does not much approve of in this short popular sketch of the metre, in which attention is drawn only to some of the principal points. In particular, he disapproves of the term slurring over, though I believe that I mean precisely the same thing aa he does, viz. that these light syllables are really fully pronounced, and not in any way forcibly suppressed; but that, owing to their being light syllables, and occurring before vowel sounds, the full pronunciation of them does not cause the verse to halt, but merely imparts to it an agreeable vivacity. As I have already said elsewhere[46]— “A poet’s business is, in fact, to take care that the syllables which are to be rapidly pronounced are such as easily can be so; and that the syllables which are to be heavily accented are naturally those that ought to be. If he gives attention to this, it does not much matter whether each foot has two or three syllables in it.”