Note 24 — Chapter III
Reading edition
Some metrists, holding that every foot should begin with a stress, divide thus:
The | curfew | tolls the | knell of | parting | day.
Such a division can be justified on several grounds, but it remains awkward and obscures the plain fact of rising rhythm. It does not affect the division of word and foot; for compare Shelley's line:
Ne | cessi | ty! thou | mother | of the | world.