tions of syllables mentioned above. The following is an example of feet depending on classification; (iv.) i.e., accent. Zéphyr | with Aur|óra | pláying.

MILTON.

Here an accented syllable is followed by an unaccented one, and this recurring combination is a foot. The various kinds of feet will be enumerated in the next paragraph.

A combination of feet (mostly the same feet) for metrical purposes is called (c) a verse;1 e.g., the line quoted above from Milton. A combination of verses is called by many different names, according to the number of verses in the combination, or according to the recurrence of rhymes. The most common names are (d) couplet and stanza. A couplet consists of two verses, a stanza1 of a variable number, but each stanza in the same poem has generally the same number of verses.

Examples of the different kinds of metre, based upon the five classifications mentioned above, are,

i. The French Alexandrine (which adds rhyme), owing to the want of marked accents in French words, approximates to this.

ii. The Greek and Latin poetry.

iii. Early English Alliterative poetry (which, however, counts accents).

iv. Blank verse.

v. Doggerel; i.e., when rhyme is used without regard to the number of accents.

Modern English poetry is based upon (iv.) and (v.),—i.e., upon accent and rhyme, apart or conjoined; but (ii.) quantity

1 Sometimes line is used for verse, and verse for stanza, especially in hymns.

and (iii.) alliteration, though secondary, yet exercise a considerable influence; and (i.) the reckoning of the mere number of syllables imposes certain restrictions.

97. Names of Feet.- The following names of feet, or measures, are most of them connected with the metres of Greek and Latin poetry, where a foot was estimated by quantity, and not by accent. It will be easily borne in mind that in English poetry, which has rules quite uninfluenced by quantity, the names of feet denote groups of accented and non-accented syllables, without reference to quantity.

I. The Monosyllabic Foot. This is very rare. Coleridge, in his poem of "Christabel," where, as he says, "in each line the accents will be found to be only four," may perhaps have intended

Whát sées shé | thére?

to be pronounced slowly as a verse of four monosyllabic feet, and so of the verse describing the hooting of the owl : :

Tú-whít-tú-whóo.

In Cowper's "Loss of the Royal George," each verse has three accents, which makes it probable that we should read the italicised syllables as monosyllabic feet in

Toll | for the brave.

Weigh the véss el úp.

In Chaucer, monosyllabic feet are not uncommon as an irregular first foot in a dissyllabic metre. They are also common in Shakspeare:

Now it shín | eth, nów | it ráin | eth fást.

CHAUCER.

Stáy, the king | hath thrówn | his wárd | er down.

SHAKSPEARE.

II. Dissyllabic Feet.- (An unaccented syllable is denoted by'.)

(1) The accented syllable may come first. Such a foot may be called the first dissyllabic, but it is usually called a trochee :

Cómfort

Agrée

Trochee, or 1st dissyllabic.

Iambic, or 2d dissyllabic.

(2) The accented syllable may come second:

III. Trisyllabic Feet.

(1) The accented syllable may come first:

Fréquently . . . Dactyl, or 1st trisyllabic.

.....

(2) The accented syllable may come second. This foot is perhaps not required in English poetry:

Rècéiving.

Amphibrach, or 2d trisyllabic.

(3) The accented syllable may come third:

Còlònnáde

98. Accent means a loud stress of the voice. Every English polysyllable has at least one syllable more loudly pronounced than the syllable or syllables next to it; e.g., the first in sérvile, the second in servility. Sometimes two or more accents are distinctly heard, as in incompatibility where there are three, viz., on the first, third, and fifth

syllables.

Accent in Metre, if it fall on any syllable in a word, must fall on the principal Word-accent. The following is intended to be faulty:

But wonder on, till truth make all things plain,

This beauteous lady Thisby is certain.

Midsummer-Night's Dream, v. 1. 131.

Accent in Metre may fall on syllables that have not a distinct Word-accent. The following rules are subject to no exceptions but those which spring from contractions in pronunciation.1 The first applies to Monosyllables as well as to Polysyllables:

(1) We can never have three consecutive clearly pronounced Syllables without a Metrical Accent. (2) We cannot have two consecutive Syllables in the same word Metrically Accented.

(3) In Polysyllables, Metrical Accent, if it falls on more than one Syllable, falls on alternate Syllables.

Thus we cannot have sólitary, interesting. This rule is subject to many exceptions from slurring or contraction; e.g., téd(i)ousness. (See 114.)

99. Emphasis is a stress laid in speaking on monosyllables, or on the accented syllables of polysyllables, for the purpose of calling attention to the meaning. Emphasis often means this and nothing else;" e.g., "He did it," i.e., " He and no one else."

66

In good poetry an emphatic monosyllable will generally receive a metrical accent. But there are exceptions to this rule which will be given hereafter. See 101, ii., where it is also shown that unemphatic syllables sometimes receive the metrical accent.

Meanwhile let it be noted distinctly that when accent in

1 It will be understood that we are speaking of ordinary English poetry, not of the early English alliterative poems.

metre is mentioned hereafter, it is to be remembered that all accented syllables are not equally emphatic (which would produce an unpleasant monotony both in conversation and metre), but only that they are emphatic relative to the syllables in the same foot.

100. Accent favors Dissyllabic Metre. This is evident from a glance at one of the examples in Paragraph 98. If sérvile made sérvilitý, it would suit trisyllabic metre very well, but could never be used as two trochees, or as two iambs. Thus the word solitary is easily admitted in

Thy fóll y, ór | with sól|itár|y hánd;

whereas we could not have —

MILTON.

All in a fishing-boat | out on the | séa,
Hópeless and helpless and | sólitar ý.

Indeed, words of four syllables, with the principal accent on the first syllable,1 cannot be used in anapæstic metre, for the use would enforce disregard of Rule (3) above. Hence words of more than three syllables are of rare occurrence in the best examples of this metre; e.g., in Browning's "Good News from Ghent," and in Cowper's "Poplars."

101. Accent in Trisyllables and Monosyllables. — (i.) Trisyllables. Although there is often little or no more accent on the third than on the second syllable of a trisyllable, - e.g., úrgency, —yet the system of accentuation described in Paragraph 98 is consistently carried out, even in trisyllables, for metrical purposes. Two accents cannot come together in