import signified extension. The cæsura was a figure used in Greek and Roman prosody, by which the quantity of certain syllables, on which it fell, was augmented; and as this has its effect in augmenting the quantity, the pause is used with a like effect on the time.

The casural pause is designated by this mark ["] being placed above the line, and over where the pause is to be made. This pause is of various lengths, as occasion may require; sometimes equal to that of a comma, and sometimes longer, but most commonly less; and for the smaller pauses, which are called demicæsura, this [] a single mark is used; and these marks are used in both cases alike, for the intermediate pause and the final pause.

The final pause occurs at the end of a line, in verse, where a syntax pause is wanting, and serves to shew its length and boundary; it shews the metre of the verse and when the line is ended, and prevents its running into another; as, in the following examples:

"A soul without reflection, like a pile
Without inhabitant, to ruin runs."

"Tutor❜d by thee, hence poetry exalts,
Her voice to ages, and informs the page,
With music, image, sentiment and thought,

Never to die, the treasure of mankind!"-Thompson.

I do not follow the examples of my predecessors generally, in marking a full cæsura at the end of the line: I think, in those cases where syntax requires no pause, a short pause, and less than that of a comma, is sufficient." For this reason I commonly mark the demicæsura for the intermediate pause: I think this most proper in common cases, and that the full cæsura should occur more seldom, and in cases only where sense and harmony, both united, require a pause a little longer than ordinary; as, in the following:

And could these laws have chang'd,
Nestor might now the fates of Troy relate,
And Homer live, immortal as his song."

Let no machine,

."—Armstrong.

Descending here, no fabled god be seen;

Behold the God of gods indeed descend,

And worlds unnumber'd, his approach attend."-Young.

There are some cases, as in the foregoing examples, in which the minor members of the sentence are too closely connected by syn

tax to admit a pause, by the common rules of punctuation; but where the sense will admit a pause, and harmony requires it, the cæsural pause is properly admissible, and more especially so when sense and harmony, both united, require a pause.

Nor is it necessary, in any case, to suppress the syntax pauses for the sake of introducing the cæsural pause, as some of our writers on prosody have done; of which I will cite an example, together with the accompanying remarks of the writer.

Thus with the year

Seasons return, but not to me returns

Day" or the sweet approach of even or morn."

"Here the cæsura, after the first semipede day, stops us unexpectedly, and forcibly impresses the imagination with the greatness of the author's loss, the loss of sight ”—Murray.

In the example here cited the bard has very appropriately introduced a pause after the word day, as Murray has very justly remarked. But here he fell into an error, by substituting the cæsura where a syntax pause belonged, which should never be done; for wherever a syntax pause may properly occur, it answers the purpose, in all respects, as well as the cæsura, and, as respects the syntactic construction, better. And, if the syntax pauses could be so distributed, in every respect, as the harmony of verse might require, the use of the poetic pauses would never be needed. But, as this cannot be done in many lines successively, the poetic pauses are, in all compositions, more or less needed. In the following examples, the use of these is superseded, except in a few instances. "In all misfortunes, this advantage lies,

They make us humble, and they make us wise:
Let's bear it calmly, though a grievous woe,
And still adore, the hand that gives the blow;
And he, who can acquire such virtue, gains,
An ample recompense for all his pains."

"What does not fade? the tower that long had stood
The crush of thunder, and the warring winds,
Shook by the slow, but sure destroyer, time,

Now hangs, in doubtful ruins, o'er its base."-Armstrong.

In the former of these examples, the demicæsura was found wanting in three instances; and in the latter example, in one.

Remarks.

I would here remark, that different kinds of verse, and verse treating on different topics and subjects of discourse, require different distributions of sounds and pauses. Different poets also have different modes of distribution. Different readers also may differ in their taste, judgment, and mode of reading; so that no rules

can be given, in this respect, which will apply in all cases, either as rules for versification or reading. But in some cases taste and judgment must be used, and these, in some cases, must dictate.

But this, we may observe, is true, our best poets have never been able, in a single page, so to adjust their verse, by the distribution of sounds and pauses, as harmony requires, without marring the sense or diction. Hence, the cæsural pause must occasionally be used in reading. And what pertains to the poet, in the case before us, is this, where the syntax pauses fail, in producing harmony and just proportions of sound, so to construct and arrange his diction, as to admit the cæsura, at proper intervals, without marring the sense.

Between blank verse and rhyme there is a difference seen, as respects the distribution of sounds and pauses: blank verse admits of greater anomalies, a greater scope to diversified numbers, and a greater scope to sentences going transverse to the metre. Of this last mode of arrangement, the following is an example.

verse.

"Hear, dread Niagara! my latestvoice:

Yet a few years, and the cold earth shall close,
Over the bones of him who sings thee now
Thus feelingly. Would that this, my humble verse
Might be, like thee, immortal. I, meanwhile,
Cheerfully passing to the appointed rest,

Might raise my radiant forehead in the clouds,
To listen to the echoes of my fame."-Payne.

In some of these lines the sentences are arranged, not in accor› dance with the metre of the verse; but in a manner transverse to the metre, and bringing the pauses, not to the ends of the lines, but to the intermediate parts. This is an anomaly which is practised by the poets, Milton and others, and is admissible occasionally in blank This mode of versifying is practised frequently by some of our poets: occasionally it may serve as a diversification; but, like all other anomalies, breaks the regular harmony which should be a leading principle in versification. In rhyme, where a harmonious correspondence between line and line should be more strictly observed, this mode of versifying is less admissible than in blank verse; as, in the following:

"The book unfolding, the resplendent seat,
Of saints and angels, the tremendous fate,
Of guilty souls, the gloomy realms of woe,
And all the horrors of the world below,
I next presume to sing: what yet remains,

Demands my last, but most exalted strains."-Young.

In some of these lines there is a want of harmonious correspondence, which, as a general rule, should be preserved in rhyme."

I do not contend that verse should be composed of sentences of such lengths, as will exactly correspond to the metre; or so as to bring the pauses to the ends of the lines, and not in the intermediate parts; for this cannot always be done without marring the sense, nor does harmony always require this. But I lay this down as a general rule, that the harmony of verse should not be marred by improper arrangements of sounds and pauses. I remark also, when arrangements cannot conveniently or properly be made, to bring the pauses to the end of the lines, yet, if there be a proper arrangement of sounds, so as to bring such syllables to the ends of the lines as have some degree of accent or quantity, the harmony of the verse is then in a good degree preserved; as, in the following example, from the poem above cited.

“Tremendous torrent! for an instant hush,

The terrors of thy voice, and cast aside,

Those wide-involving shadows, that my eyes
May see the fearful beauty of thy face!”—Payne.

5. Other Metres.

In verse composed in short metres the poetic pauses are not so essentially necessary as in that of the pentameter and those which are longer; but even in this the final pause is necessarily used where a syntax pause is wanting; as, in the following:

"High as the heavens are rais'd,
Above the ground we tread,

So far the riches of his grace,

Our highest thoughts exceed.”—Watts.

"Ten thousand ages ere the skies,

Were into motion brought;

All the long years and worlds to come
Stood present to his thought."-Watts.

In the line of four feet metre pauses are sometimes admissible, and sometimes, but not always, harmony requires a pause, in the intermediate parts of the line; as, in the following:

"The God of our salvation hears,

The groans of Zion mix'd with tears;
Yet when he comes with kind designs,
Through all the way, his terror shines."-Watts.
"At his command, the morning ray,

Smiles in the east, and leads the day;
He guides the sun's declining wheels,
Over the tops of western hills."”—Watts.

We perceive that in some of those lines, which contain syntax pauses in their intermediate parts, the harmony of the verse is not marred, but rather improved by the pauses; hence we infer that short pauses are admissible, and also proper, in some of the other lines, where the sense will admit them. But this we may observe, pauses do not occur in every line of this metre, and when they do, short pauses, like the demicæsura, are most proper. Also in composition the syntax pauses should be so arranged, as not to bring a full pause in the intermediate parts of the line. In lines of shorter metre than four feet iambic, the poetic pauses are never needed in their intermediate parts.

The Alexandrine, or line of six feet iambic, is seldom used except to diversify poems of other metres; but whenever used, either in lines successively or singly, it admits a pause after the third foot, or in the middle of the line; as, in the following:

"Thy realm forever lasts, thy own Messiah reigns."

"'Twas little Barbara Lethwaite, a child of beauty rare: I watch'd them with delight; they were a lovely pair. And now with empty can, the maiden turn'd away; But ere ten yards were gone, her footsteps did she stay." Wordsworth. Lines of this metre admit a pause in the middle, even if other pauses occur in the line; as:

"Alas! the mountain tops, that look so green and fair;

I've heard of fearful winds and darkness that come there."

Wordsworth.

"The little brooks, that seem, all pastime and all play, When they are angry, roar, like lions for their prey."

Wordsworth.

Iambic verse of seven feet metre admits a pause uniformly after the fourth foot, whether written in two lines or in one; as, in the following:

"God prosper long our noble king, our lives and safeties all:
A woful hunting once there did in Chevy-chace befal."

"I sing th' almighty power of God, that made the mountains rise;
That spread the flowing seas abroad, and built the lofty skies.
I sing the wisdom that ordain'd, the sun to rule the day:
The moon shines full at his command, and all the stars obey."
Watts.

6. Other Kinds of Verse.

Of trochaic verse we have but a few examples, of the long metres especially: but this kind of verse admits of