Art is long, and Time is fleeting, And our hearts, though stout and brave, Still, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave. The practice in English is to break up the long trochaic “line” into two when the words at the diæresis rhyme (as in the above passage from Longfellow), but not to do so when the only rhymes occur at the catalectic foot. We print the opening of another poem by Longfellow thus:— In the market-place of Bruges stands the belfry old and brown; Thrice consumed and thrice rebuilded, still it watches o’er the town. In Greek there is, of course, no rhyme-scheme to settle this, but the regular catalexis is felt to mark off separate units. The entire question depends upon personal fancy,[870] though the instance from the _Philoctetes_ shows that Sophocles at any rate regarded the whole octonarius as the unit. Subjoined is the scheme:— 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 –⏑ –⏑ –⏑ –⏑ –⏑ –⏑ –⏑ –ꞈ ⏑⏑⏑ – – ⏑⏑⏑ – – ⏑⏑⏑ – – ⏑⏑⏑ ⏑⏑⏑ [–⏑⏑] ⏑⏑⏑ ⏑⏑⏑ ⏑⏑– ⏑⏑– ⏑⏑– [–⏑⏑] § IV. THE ANAPÆSTIC METRE Whereas iambics and trochaics were declaimed by the actors, anapæsts were used mostly by the chorus, and were chanted in recitative. They are found when the chorus move into the orchestra, or salute the entrance of a new character. Most tragedies end with a brief anapæstic system, executed by the singers as they depart. The most usual line is a tetrapody—that is, a verse of four feet:— ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ ⏑ – τι συ προς | μελαθροις | τι συ τῃδ|ε πολεις; (_Alcestis_, 29). But lines consisting of anapæsts alone are very uncommon. The spondee is often found:— – – ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ ⏑ – – – ουκ ηρκ|εσε σοι | μορον Αδμ|ητου (_Alcestis_, 32). Dactyls also are frequent:— – – ⏑ ⏑ – – ⏑ ⏑ – – σφηλαντ|ι τεχνῃ | νυν δ επι | τῃδ αυ (_Ibid._, 34). No other foot is admitted, but each of these three may occur at any place in the line. Besides the tetrapody, we find now and then a dipody, or verse of two feet. Anapæstic systems are invariably closed by a catalectic verse:— – – ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ ⏑– – αυτη | προθανειν | Πελιου | παιςꞈ̄ (_Ibid._, 37). In systems of considerable length such lines occur at intervals. They are called “parœmiacs”.[871] § V. LYRICS The metres of Greek songs form a difficult and complicated study. So long as we do not know the music composed for them, the scansion of lyrics must remain a more difficult and doubtful question than that of the iambics, episodic trochaics, and anapæsts. The best preparation for their study is the habit of reading iambics and trochaics with correct quantities and natural emphasis. Let us, so prepared, address ourselves to the following passage[872] from the _Agamemnon_ (975 _sqq._):—