The Anapestic Dimeter Hypercatalectic consists of two Anapests, with an additional syllable, as in the third line of the following stanza:

"Her sheets shall be gory,
Her Tyber all red,

And her temples, so hoary,

Shall clang with our tread.”

BYRON.

The Anapestic Trimeter Acatalectic consists of three Anapæsts; as,

"I have found out a gift for my fair,

I have found where the wood-pigeons breed;
But let me that plunder forbear

She will say, 'tis a barbarous deed!

For be ne'er could be true, she avow'd,
Who can rob a poor bird of its young;
And I lov'd her the more when I heard
Such tenderness fall from her tongue."

SHENSTONE.

The Anapastic Tetrameter Acatalectic consists of four perfect Anapæsts; as,

"As a beam o'er the face of the waters may glow,
While the tide runs in darkness and coldness below;
So the cheek may be tinged with a warm sunny smile,
Tho' the cold heart to ruin runs darkly the while."

MOORE. The Anapæstic Tetrameter Hypercatalectic consists of four Anapests, with an additional syllable, as in the first line of the following stanza :

"Caledonia, my country! thy rivers and fountains,

And green fertile valleys, exulting, I sing!

How pleasant thy sweet blooming moorlands and mountains, When dress'd in the gaudy profusion of spring." F. SMITH. In Anapæstic verse the first syllable is often long, being an equivalent for two short syllables, as in the first and third lines of the following extract:

Hail, England, dear England, true Queen of the West,
With thy fair swelling bosom and evergreen vest;

How nobly thou sitt'st on thine own steady light;
On the left of thee Freedom, and Truth on the right;
While the clouds, at thy smile, break apart and turn bright!"

The Anapestic is a very pretty metre, and is calculated for subjects of most kinds, with the exception of the Heroic, as it does not possess sufficient dignity for the sublime. The briskness of the verse is well calculated to elevate the spirits, and is therefore particularly suitable for martial subjects.

Although the Iambic, the Trochaic, and the Anapæstic, are the principal kinds of poetry in our language, yet there is another, the Dactylic, which is sometimes, but rarely, used. One example only of this kind of poetry will therefore be given.

"Infinite Arms still uphold the vast ocean,

Stilling the winds and the waves by their sway;
They also put the round world into motion,
Rolling the years and the ages away."

A combination of different measures, and also of different kinds, is used according to the taste of the poet; these are so numerous that it would be almost impossible to consider them individually. All poetry is, however, generally composed either in couplets or in stanzas; when composed in couplets, the rhymes follow one another.

A composition in stanzas is called Lyric Poetry,which, when it consists of several, is called an Ode. Each stanza contains a certain number of verses, often alternating in length and rhyme. Stanzas in English Poetry never consist of fewer than three verses, and ought not to exceed twelve, except in Pindaric Odes. It is absolutely necessary that the sense should conclude the stanza, and not be carried on to the following one. An example of this irregular kind of poetry in stanzas is subjoined.

"Hail to thy living light,

Ambrosial Morn! all hail thy roseat ray,

That bids young Nature all her charms display
In varied beauty bright;

That bids each dewy-spangled flowret rise,

And dart around its vermil dyes;

Bids silver lustre grace yon sparkling tide,

That, winding, warbles down the mountain's side.

Away, ye Goblins all,

Wont the bewilder'd traveller to daunt,

Whose vagrant feet have traced your secret haunt,
Beside some lonely wall,

Or shatter'd ruin of a moss-grown tower,
Where, at pale midnight's stillest hour,
Through each rough chink the solemn orb of night
Pours momentary gleams of trembling light.

Away ye Elves, away,

Shrink at ambrosial Morning's living ray;
That living ray, whose power benign,
Unfolds the scene of glory to our eye.
Where, throned in artless majesty,

The cherub Beauty sits on Nature's rustic shrine."

MASON.

It may be observed, that there are various Licences allowed in Poetry which are not admissible in prose. Thus, the usual order of the words may be inverted whenever it may be done without ambiguity; as, "Spake the Almighty," for "The Almighty spake." Words may be also abbreviated; as, helm for helmet, dread for dreadful, &c. By Apheresis the initial letter or syllable of a word is omitted; as, 'gainst for against, 'gan for began. By Syncope, a letter or syllable is struck out from the body of a word; as, wand'ring for wandering, o'er for over, &c. By Apocope, the final vowel or syllable is cut off; as, o' for of, &c. The concourse of vowels should at all times be as much avoided as possible, as it occasions a kind of hiatus or gaping, very unpleasant to the ear. The ancients had so great an abhorrence for this sound, that they are said, even in prose, whenever a word ended in a vowel, and the next began with one, never to have sounded the vowel of the first word, but to lose it in the pronunciation.

Terms that are obsolete in prose are often used advantageously and elegantly in poetry; as, benison, guerdon, welkin, &c. But as Poetic Licence is very circumstantially explained in the "Rhetorical Speaker," the reader is referred to that work for a copious detail.

It is hoped that the above remarks will afford the juvenile reader a general idea of the nature of Versification; and if he has a taste for poetry, and there are very few that are devoid of taste for it, he may be induced to examine and criticise as he reads, which will afford him both instruction and delight.

102

CLASSICAL MODERN POETRY.

HAPPINESS.

ONE morning in the month of May,
I wander'd o'er the hill;
Tho' nature all around was gay,
My heart was heavy still.

Can God, I thought, the just, the great,
These meaner creatures bless,
And yet deny to man's estate
The boon of happiness?

Tell me, ye woods, ye smiling plains,
Ye blessed birds around,

In which of nature's wide domains
Can bliss for man be found?

The birds wild caroll'd over head,
The breeze around me blew,
And nature's awful chorus said-
No bliss for man she knew.

I question'd LOVE, whose early ray
So rosy bright appears,

And heard the timid genius say,

His light was dimm'd by tears.

I question'd FRIENDSHIP. FRIENDSHIP sigh'd,
And thus her answer gave:—
The few whom fortune never turn'd
Were wither'd in the grave!

I ask'd if VICE could bliss bestow?
VICE boasted loud and well;
But fading, from her wither'd brow,
The borrow'd roses fell.

I sought of FEELING, if her skill

Could sooth the wounded breast;
And found her mourning, faint, and still,
For others' woes distress'd!

I question'd VIRTUE: VIRTUE sigh'd,
No boon could she dispense;
Nor virtue was her name, she cried,
But humble penitence.

I question'd DEATH: the grisly shade
Relax'd his brow, severe;

And, "I AM HAPPINESS," he said,
"If virtue guides thee here."

HEBER.

WHAT IS LIFE?

And what is Life? An hour-glass on the run,
A mist retreating from the morning sun,
A busy, bustling, still-repeated dream.-
Its length ?-A minute's pause, a moment's thought..
And happiness?-A bubble on the stream,
That, in the act of seizing, shrinks to nought.
What is vain Hope?-The puffing gale of morn,
That robs each flow'ret of its gem, and dies;

A cobweb, hiding disappointment's thorn,

Which stings more keenly through the thin disguise. And thou, O Trouble ?-Nothing can suppose (And sure the Power of Wisdom only knows)

What need requirest thee:

So free and liberal as thy bounty flows,
Some necessary cause must surely be.
But disappointments, pains, and every woe
Devoted wretches feel,

The universal plague of life below,

Are mysteries still, 'neath Fate's unbroken seal. And what is Death? is still the cause unfound? That dark, mysterious name, of horrid sound?A long and lingering sleep, the weary crave. And Peace? where can its happiness abound? Nowhere at all, save heaven, and the grave.