Note 902 — APPENDIX.
Reading edition
Thus our poets use this verse indifferently with twelve, eleven, and even ten syllables. For though regularly it consists of four Anapests (˘ ˘ ¯) or twelve syllables, yet they frequently retrench a syllable from the first or third Anapest; and sometimes from both; as in these instances from Prior, and from the Song of Conscience:
"Whŏ hăs eēr beĕn ăt Pārĭs, mŭst nēeds knŏw thĕ Grēve, Thĕ fātăl rĕtrēat ŏf th' ŭnfōrtŭnăte brāve. Hĕ stēpt tŏ hĭm strāight, ănd dīd hĭm rĕquīre."