Note 24 — INTRODUCTION

Our poets can, and do, imitate the emphatic position of a word placed at the beginning of a line with a stop immediately following (as βάλλ’ in Hom. Il. i. 52, κόπτ’ in Odyss. ix. 290, and haesit in Virg. Aen. xi. 803):—

And over them triumphant Death his dart Shook, but delayed to strike.

Milton Paradise Lost xi. 491.

Or (still nearer to the ‘me, me, adsum,’ of Virgil):—

Me, though just right, and the fixed laws of Heaven, Did first create your leader—next, free choice, With what besides in council or in fight Hath been achieved of merit—yet this loss, Thus far at least recovered, hath much more Established in a safe, unenvied throne, Yielded with full consent.

Milton Paradise Lost ii. 18-24.