This kind of verse, (the hexameter, in which the feet have all an equal quantity of sound,) is unknown in our language, either through want of cultivation, or want of capacity in the language itself. The pleasure of it consists greatly in the metri cal divisions so falling as to break the words in two; so that in reading we are obliged, in order to keep sense and sound together, to fuse and blend them in a line. The rules for the structure of this verse are given in treatises of Latin and Greek prosody. the musical divisions not only break the words, but even the syllables; which is another difficulty in our language, the consonantal sounds being so constantly employed to begin words, and to end them. English metres are sometimes of that kind in which the feet are all equal in quantity. Thus, in the lines, "When coldness wraps this suffering clay, Ah! whither strays the immortal mind?” to be read, When coldnesswrapsth--issuff'r--ingclay, When it is observed that hexameter verse requires always that the metrical divisions between the first four feet in the line must divide the dissyllable words, or if they be monosyllables, group them contrarily to the prosaic divisions; and that the feet must be all equal in quantity, so as to fill out an equal time in reading, without the aid of slurring long syllables, skipping harsh ones, or filling gaps with prosaic pauses, some notion of the difficulty of composing them may be attained; and it will be understood, why all the writers of pretended English hexameters have produced only a monotonous, prosaic kind of chant, instead of musical lines. Good verse requires to be read with the natural quantities of the syllables, but to read these English hexameters you must slur here and drawl there, to help your poet through his six equal feet. It is certainly possible, with great labor, to arrange the sounds of our language ined by it. hexametrical order, but whether it ever could become a habit of the ear and mind to compose in such divisions, is doubtful, to say the least. In the lines, "Like souls numberless called out of time to eternity's ocean," the hexametrical divisions and quantities may be seen by writing and spelling the syllables so as to show their real quantities; thus, Likesoulsn--umberlessc--alledoutoft--imetoët ernity's-ocean, in which the second and third feet are too heavy, having more sound than the fourth, in a natural reading; whereas, the law of the metre requires that with a full and easy reading the feet should be equal. the verse is perceived to consist of six heavy syllables, each composed of a vowel followed by a group of consonantal sounds, the whole measured into four equal feet. The movement is what is called spondaic, a spondee being a foot of two heavy sounds. The absence of short syllables gives the line a peculiar weight and solemnity suited to the sentiment, and doubtless prompt But the more frequent English metres are of the kind that have one, two, or three of the metrical divisions, shorter than the others; as in the following from Burns: "Sae flaxen were her ringlets, to be read thus, Saeflax-enwère-herringl-èts Hereyebrowsòf-adark-erhue Bewitch-ingly--o'eràrch-ing The first and third verses of this stanza have an iambus-that is to say, a foot consisting of one short or light, followed and have an effect of their own, very different from that of the others. To give these delicate metres a lean and flashy effect, or to make them heavy and dull, we have only to substitute short quantities where there are long ones, and vice versa. If any person who is accustomed to read verse critically, and is endowed by nature with a nice ear for quantity, well exercised in the classic metres, will read a piece of excellent verse by some master hand, he will probably find some of the lines more full and sonorous than others. On divid ing these by their musical accents, as in --- "So Helluo, late dictator of the feast, | of which the quantities are thus represented, by the accents and the commencing vowels of the feet: In Pope's poetry the line is often weak consonant. One vowel followed by another, unless the first be naturally made long in the reading, makes a short quantity, as in the old. So, also, a short vowel followed by a single short consonant, gives a short time or quantity, as in to give. A great variety of rules for the detection of long and short quantities have yet to be invented, or applied from the Greek and Latin prosody. In all languages they are of course the same, making due allowance for difference of organization; but it is as absurd to suppose that the Greeks should have a system of prosody differing in principle from our own, as that their rules of musical harmony should be different from the modern. Both result from the nature of the ear and of the organ of speech, and are consequently the same in and nations. all ages The two elements of musical metre, namely, time and accent, both together constituting quantity, are equally elements of the metre of verse. Each iambic foot or metre, is marked by a swell of the voice, concluding abruptly in an accent, or interruption, on the last sound of the foot; or, in metres of the trochaic order, in such words as dandy, handy, bottle, favor, labor, it begins with a heavy accented sound, and declines to a faint or light one at the close. The line is thus composed of a series of swells or waves of sound, concluding and beginning alike. The accents, or points at which the voice is most forcibly exerted in the feet, being the divisions of time, by which a part of its musical character is given to the verse, are usually made to coincide, in our language, with the accents of the words as they are spoken; which diminishes the musical character of our verse. In Greek hexameters and Latin hexameters, on the contrary, this coincidence is avoided, as tending to monotony and a prosaic character. Thus in the line from Virgil: Còrpora curàmus fèssos sòpor irrigat artus," to be read metrically— | so forcibly as to destroy their effect. Some languages, the French for example, seem to be without accent; and as the prosaic stress of voice is variable and arbitrary, good readers of verse make it as little conspicuous as possible. As it frequently happens that word and verse accent fall differently, so is it with the division of the sounds by syllables: the verse syllables, like the verse feet, differ in the prosaic and metrical reading of the line. Thus, in the verse, "How cunningly the sorceress displays," the metrical structure requires us to read, Howcunninglyth-ěsorc-ĕressd-isplays; for, if we read it by the prosaic syllabicaCorporac-ùram-usfess—òssõpăr—ìrrigăt— tion, there will be no possibility of measur àrtus, two of the accents are thrown out of their natural places by the breaking of the words into feet. But, in such cases, by reading the line with regard merely to time, and the joining of the syllables in feet, the prosaic accents may be introduced beside; but this can be done only by a person possessed of a very nice ear. Although this interference of the word and verse accents is most noticeable in the Latin hexametrical metre, it is very frequent in Milton. Take, for example, the lines:"Scatter your leaves before the mellowing year, Bitter constraint and sàd occasion dear;" to be read metrically thus, Scattè-ryourleavesb-&c. But after all, it does not seem to be necessary to verse, that the time accents be marked all that is required is to give time, and fullness, to the long metrical syllables, and not to give the prose accent ing the quantities. The word the, for example, is short, standing by itself, and we should read, That the shrewd, &c. ; but, remembering that in a line of verse the feet, and not the words, are to be separated, we write, Thattheshrewd, &c., by which it appears that the first foot is a very heavy spondee, instead of being, as might appear, if we read it thus, That the, a trochee. It seems, from an examination, by the ear, of the structure of Greek, Latin, and English verse, that the metrical are perfectly distinct from the prosaic properties of verse; the most melodious verse may be composed of sounds devoid of meaning; a line of meaningless sounds such as the following, Nootalmonalltaidoughră plantĭpall, illustrates as perfectly the properties of the English iambic heroic line, as the most | which reads metrically, sublime verse of the Paradise Lost; and when we divide it metrically, it falls, not Sudounphr-onees--ăsmeet—-ǎpoi—-ōnōnph into words, of course, nor into prosaic syllables, for these are not in it at all, but into metrical syllables and feet: Thus, Nootàlm-onàllt-aidoùghr-aplànt-ĭpàll. Or, in the following, etnol-imbòst-ětnòov-eepùnch-inhòll, Latin O pantă nōmōn, Teirěsia didaktă tẽ, which read, Opant-anōm-ōnteir-ěsĭad-idakt—ǎtě. These lines, from the blank verse of the Edipus Tyrannus of Sophocles, are examples of the heroic verse of that of which we may imagine the following drama, of the blank verse of Sophocles prosaic order, generally. They prove that metre, like musical harmony, is an affair of the senses merely, and not of any ingenious predetermination by rule. In each of the lines we observe six divisions, or feet; and of the syllables, five are short in quantity. The distribution of the short syllables is not the same in all; for in the first example the spondaic foot is the third, in the next it is the fourth, in the next, third, in the next, fifth, in order. Thus it is perceived, that the necessary variety is given to this verse, by varying the position of the one spondaic foot. Again, in the last example given, a new arrangement appears, namely, the putting of two short syllables in the fourth foot of the verse, and inserting two spondaic Pòlin mèn ei kai mee blèpeis phròneis d'òmoze, feet. By this arrangement, the line is which read, Polinm-ěnéik-aimeebl-epeisphr-oneisd ŏmos. Another, Rusai dè pau mìasmà ton tèthneekòtos; which read, Rusai-děpaum--ĭasm-atont-ĕthneek--ŏtós. Another, Rusai seauton kai polin rusai d'emee; which read, Rusais-autonkaip-ölinr-usaid-ěmee. Another, filled out with the requisite quantity of sounds, and a greater variety introduced. In a word, the lines have all the same quality, or metrical duration, as in bars of music, but the short syllables are variously distributed. If we measure the duration of time by one metrical short syllable, taken as a unit of measurement, then the verse of Sophocles is just nineteen metrical units. in length; which may be distributed in an infinite variety of ways, provided the iambic form be always preserved. Thus in the last example given, there are seven instead of five short metrical syllables, arranged thus, ༦༤༦༦|--|༦༦, giving but five feet, when the usual number is six; but in all cases preserving the iambic metrical accents. Not to dwell Sud' oun phroneesas meet ap' oiōnon phatin, tediously upon the matter, and leaving such as may be interested in the inquiry to prove, or disprove, what is asserted, by farther examples, we venture to say, that the first principle of metrical, is the same with that of musical verse, namely, that the line taken for a rule, or model, though the number of its syllables may vary, will always be of the same metrical length, or in other words, will be equal to the same number of metrical units, or short times; and if a line varies from this measure, it is either an alexandrine or a curt line, introduced for variety, or it is falsely measured and out of time. We intend, also, that if these principles, with the others previously expressed, are true in the given instances, they are equally true for all languages and all varieties of metre, even to the denial that any poetic metres, founded on other principles, can properly exist. And this, of course, is directly opposed to a favorite theory of some writers, that good verse may be composed in our language by accents alone, without regard to quantity. It maintains that good English verse is as thoroughly quantitative as the Greek, though it be much more heavy and spondaic. We conclude with a few EXAMPLES OF ENGLISH METRES. Flavia's ǎ wit, has too much sense to pray. POPE. ཡ In this line there are four short (metrical) syllables. The first foot, has the form of a hexametrical dactyl, but as the metrical accent of that dactyl falls on the first, but that of this upon the last (metrical) syllable, it may be called an iambic dactyl, formed by the substitution of two short for one long time in the last portion of the foot. Iambic spondees and dactyls are to be distinguished by the metrical accent falling on the last syllable. The line consists of eleven syllables, although not longer in quantity than a spondaic one of nine, or an ordinary iambic line of ten; eleven syllables, four of which are short, being equal in quantity to nine long; or to ten, of which two are short. Yield not your truth || though gold you persuade, is equal in quantity to the regular iambic, but has a peculiar character and accent. Flavia's ǎ wit, but a wit or harsh or keen, there are twelve syllables; but equal in metrical quantity to the more usual verse of ten syllables, two short. Six of the syllables being short and six long, the whole together equal two shorts and eight long, or eighteen times, or units; which is the invariable quantity of all English heroics of this form, except alexandrines. It does not often happen that more than two shorts are used in this line, and in good verse rarely more than four. "Flavia's à wit, has too much sense to pray; With too much spirit to be ere ǎt ease; You purchase pain with all that joy can give, |