"What can ennoble sots or slaves [)o]r c[=o]w[)a]rds, Alas! not all the blood of all th[)e] H[=o]w[)a]rds." Again: "To sigh for ribbands, if thou art s[)o] s[=i]ll[)y], Mark how they grace Lord Umbra or S[)i]r B[=i]ll[)y]." But these lines are of the high burlesque kind, and in this stile the Amphibrach closes lines with great beauty. The Tribrach is a foot of three syllables, all short; and it may be used in the third and fourth places. "And rolls impet_[)u]o[)u]s t[)o]_ the subject plain." Or thus: "And thunders down impet_[)u]o[)u]s t[)o]_ the plain." The Dactyl, a foot of three syllables, the first long and the two last short, is used principally in the first place in the line. "_F[=u]r[)i]o[)u]s_ he spoke, the angry chief replied." "_M[=u]rm[)u]r[)i]ng_, and with him fled the shades of night." The Anapæst, a foot consisting of three syllables, the two first short and the last long, is admissible into every place of the line. "C[)a]n [)a] b[=o]s[)o]m s[)o] g[=e]ntl[)e] r[)e]m[=a]in, Unmoved when her Corydon sighs? Will a nymph that is fond of the plains, These plains and these valleys despise? Dear regions of silence and shade, Soft scenes of contentment and ease, Where I could have pleasingly stay'd, If ought in her absence could please." The trissyllabic feet have suffered most by the general ignorance of critics; most of them have been mutilated by apostrophes, in order to reduce them to the Iambic measure. Thus in the line before repeated, "_Murmuring_, and with him fled the shades of night," we find the word in the copy reduced to two syllables, _murm'ring_, and the beauty of the Dactyl is destroyed. Thus in the following: "On every side with shadowy squadrons deep," by apostrophizing _every_ and _shadowy_, the line loses its harmony. The same remark applies to the following: "And hosts infuriate shake the shudd'ring plain." "But fashion so directs, and moderns raise On fashion's _mould'ring_ base, their transient praise." Churchill. Poetic lines which abound with these trissyllabic feet, are the most flowing and melodious of any in the language; and yet the poets themselves, or their printers, murder them with numberless unnecessary contractions. It requires but little judgement and an ear indifferently accurate, to distinguish the contractions which are necessary, from those which are needless and injurious to the versification. In the following passage we find examples of both.