A History of English VersificationSchipper, J. (Jakob)
History
A History of English Versification
Schipper, J. (Jakob)
English language -- Versification; English poetry -- History and criticism
_Áll that's bríght must fáde,--
The bríghtest stíll the fléetest;
Áll that's swéet was máde
But to be lóst when swéetest._
When masculine rhymes are used throughout, the six-foot rhythm is
preserved in anisorhythmical stanzas of this kind just as well as when
lines like the first of those in the example quoted above, _Day by day_,
&c., are broken up by inserted rhymes (_a ~ b ~ a ~ b₃ ~_); or again
when they have masculine endings in the second half-lines (_a ~ b a ~
b₃_). If the first half is masculine, however, and the second feminine
(or if both have masculine endings on account of a pause caused by the
missing thesis), the verses have a three-foot character, e.g. in Moore:
_Whíle I tóuch the stríng,
Wréathe my bróws with láurel,
Fór the tále I síng
Hás for ónce a móral._
§ =184.= The =five-foot trochaic line= also occurs both in acatalectic
(feminine) and catalectic (masculine) form, and each of them is found in
stanzas rhyming alternately, as e.g. in Mrs. Hemans's _O ye voices_
(vii. 57):
_Ó ye vóices róund | my ówn hearth sínging!
Ás the wínds of Máy | to mémory swéet,
Míght I yét retúrn, | a wórn heart brínging,
Wóuld those vérnal tónes | the wánderer gréet?_
Such verses, of course, can be used also in stanzas with either
masculine or feminine endings only.
As in the five-foot iambic verse, the caesura generally occurs either
after the second or third foot (in which case it is feminine), or
usually within the second or third foot (masculine caesura).
In a few cases this metre is also used without rhyme; e.g. in Robert
Browning's _One Word More_ (v. 313-21); feminine endings are used here
throughout; run-on lines occasionally occur, and the caesura shows still
greater variety in consequence. A specimen is given in _Metrik_, ii, §
217.
§ =185.= The =four-foot trochaic line= (discussed above in its
relationship to the eight- and seven-foot verse) is the most frequent of
all trochaic metres. It likewise occurs either with alternate feminine
and masculine rhymes or with rhymes of one kind only. We find it both in
stanzas and in continuous verse. The latter form, with feminine rhymes
only, we have in Shakespeare's _Tempest_, IV. i. 106-9:
_Hónour, ríches, márriage-bléssing,
Lóng contínuance, ánd incréasing,
Hóurly jóys be stíll upón you!
Júno síngs her bléssings ón you_, &c.
With masculine endings only it is found in _Love's Labour's Lost_, IV.
iii. 101:
_Ón a dáy--aláck the dáy!--
Lóve, whose mónth is éver Máy,
Spíed a blóssom pássing fáir
Pláying ín the wánton áir._
As in the five-foot verse, here also the caesura if used at all may fall
at different places; mostly its place is after or within the second
foot.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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