ENGLISH LANGUAGE: (continued 2)
Reading edition
And of fourteen, as Chapman's Homer.
And as the mind of such a man, that hath a long way gone, And either knoweth not his way, or else would let alone, His purpos'd journey, is distract.
The measures of twelve and fourteen syllables were often mingled by our old poets, sometimes in alternate lines, and sometimes in alternate couplets.
The verse of twelve syllables, called an Alexandrine, is now only used to diversify heroick lines.
Waller was smooth, but Dryden taught to join The varying verse, the full resounding line, The long majestick march, and energy divine. Pope.
The pause in the Alexandrine must be at the sixth syllable.
The verse of fourteen syllables is now broken into a soft lyrick measure of verses, consisting alternately of eight syllables and six.
She to receive thy radiant name, Selects a whiter space. Fenton. When all shall praise, and ev'ry lay Devote a wreath to thee, That day, for come it will, that day Shall I lament to see. Lewis to Pope. Beneath this tomb an infant lies To earth whose body lent, Hereafter shall more glorious rise, But not more innocent. When the Archangel's trump shall blow, And souls to bodies join, What crowds shall wish their lives below Had been as short as thine! Wesley.
We have another measure very quick and lively, and therefore much used in songs, which may be called the anapestick, in which the accent rests upon every third syllable.
May I góvern my pássions with ábsolute swáy, And grow wíser and bétter as lífe wears awáy. Dr. Pope.
In this measure a syllable is often retrenched from the first foot, as
Diógenes súrly and próud. Dr. Pope. When présent, we lóve, and when ábsent agrée, I thínk not of Íris, nor Íris of me. Dryden.
These measures are varied by many combinations, and sometimes by double endings, either with or without rhyme, as in the heroick measure.
'Tis the divinity that stirs within us, 'Tis heaven itself that points out an hereafter, And intimates eternity to man. Addison.
So in that of eight syllables,
They neither added nor confounded, They neither wanted nor abounded. Prior.
In that of seven,
For resistance I could fear none, But with twenty ships had done, What thou, brave and happy Vernon, Hast atchiev'd with six alone. Glover.
In that of six,
'Twas when the seas were roaring, With hollow blasts of wind, A damsel lay deploring, All on a rock reclin'd. Gay.
In the anapestick,
When terrible tempests assail us. And mountainous billows affright, Nor power nor wealth can avail us, But skilful industry steers right. Ballad.
To these measures and their laws, may be reduced every species of English verse.
Our versification admits of few licences, except a synalœpha, or elision of e in the before a vowel, as th' eternal; and more rarely of o in to, as t' accept; and a synaresis, by which two short vowels coalesce into one syllable, as question, special; or a word is contracted by the expulsion of a short vowel before a liquid, as av'rice, temp'rance.
Thus have I collected rules and examples, by which the English language may be learned, if the reader be already acquainted with grammatical terms, or taught by a master to those that are more ignorant. To have written a grammar for such as are not yet initiated in the schools, would have been tedious, and perhaps at last ineffectual.