"For is there aught in sleep can charm the wise ?"

"T is Fancy, in her fiery car,

Transports me to the thickest war."

"Who never fasts, no banquet e'er enjoys."

"Bliss is the same in subject as in king,

In who obtain defense, or who defend."

3. In poetry, adjectives are often elegantly connected with nouns which they do not strictly qualify; as—

"The ploughman homeward plods his weary way.”

"The tenants of the warbling shade."

"And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds."

4. The rules of grammar are often violated by the poets. A noun and its pronoun are often used in reference to the same verb; as— "It ceased, the melancholy sound."

"My banks they are furnished with bees."

5. An adverb is often admitted between the verb and To, the sign of the infinitive; as

"To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell;

To slowly trace the forest's shady scenes."

6. A common poetic license consists in employing or and nor, instead of either and neither; as

Or on the listed plain, or stormy sea."

"Nor grief nor fear shall break my rest."

7. Intransitive verbs are often made transitive, and adjectives are used like abstract nouns; as

"The lightnings flash a larger curve."

"Still in harmonious intercourse, they lived
The rural day, and talked the flowing heart."
"Meanwhile, whate'er of beautiful or new,

By chance or search, was offered to his view,
He scanned with curious eye."

8. Greek, Latin, and other foreign idioms, are allowable in poetry, though inadmissible in prose ; as—

He knew to sing, and build the lofty rhyme." "Give me to seize rich Nestor's shield of gold."

"There are, who, deaf to mad ambition's call,

Would shrink to hear the obstreperous trump of fame." "Yet to their general's voice they all obeyed."

-"Never, since created man,

Met such embodied force."

1049. Such are a few of the licenses allowed to poets, but denied to prose writers; and, among other purposes which they obviously serve, they enhance the pleasure of reading poetic composition, by increasing the boundary of separation set up, especially in our language, between it and common prose.

EXERCISES.

Point out, name, and define, the figures of Etymology in the following phrases and sentences:

His courage 'gan fail.-Bend 'gainst the steepy hill thy breast.'Twas mine, 'tis his.-Vain tamp'ring has but fostered his disease.Enchained he lay, a monster-What way soe'er he turned, it met him.-Th' aërial pencil forms the scene anew.

Point out, name, and define, the figures of Syntax in the following

sentences:

The law I gave to nature him forbids.—So little mercy shows who needs so much.-My head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.-Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.— He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

Point out, name, and define, the figures of Rhetoric in the following sentences:

As thy day is, so shall thy strength be.-Without discipline, the favorite, like a neglected forester, runs wild.-Thy name is as ointment poured forth.-The Lord God is a sun and shield.—I saw their chief, tall as a rock of ice, his spear the blasted fir.-At which the universal host sent up a shout that tore hell's concave.

PART IV.

PROSODY.

1050. Prosody treats of Elocution and Versifi cation.

ELOCUTION.

1051. Elocution is correct pronunciation, and the proper management of the voice in reading or speaking.

In order to read and speak with grace and effect, attention must be paid to correct enunciation, the proper pitch of the voice, the accent and quantity of the syllables, and to emphasis, pauses, and tones.

1052.-1. The enunciation should be distinct and clear upon every letter and syllable, giving to each element its proper sound.

1053.-2. In the pitch and management of the voice, it should be neither too high nor too low; the utterance neither too quick nor too slow, and neither too varied nor too monotonous.

1054.-3. Accent is the laying of a particular stress of voice on a certain syllable in a word, as the syllable vir- in vir' tue, vir' tuous.

1053.-4. The quantity of a syllable is the relative time which is required to pronounce it. A long syllable, in quantity, is equal to two short ones. Thus, pine, tube, note, require to be sounded as long again as pin, tub, not. In English versification, an accented syllable is long, an unaccented one is short.

1056.—5. Emphasis means that greater stress of the voice which we lay on some particular word or words, in order to mark their superior importance in the sentence, and thereby the better to convey the idea intended by the writer or speaker.

1057.-6. Pauses, or rests, are cessations of the voice, in order to enable the reader or speaker to take breath, and to give the hearer a distinct perception of the meaning, not only of each sentence, but of the whole discourse (985). For poetic pauses, see (1115, 1118).

1058.-7. Tones consist in the modulation of the voice, and the notes, or variations of sound, which we employ in speaking, to express the different sentiments, emotions, or feelings, intended.

*** A full consideration of these topics, in a work of this kind, would be as impracticable as it would be out of place, since it would require a volume for that purpose. They are fully treated of and exemplified in works on elocution,—a subject which is, or should be, taken up as a separate branch of study.

VERSIFICATION.

1059. Versification is the art of arranging words into poetical lines, or verses.

1060. A Verse, or Poetical Line, consists of a certain number of accented and unaccented syllables, arranged according to fixed rules. This regular alternation of long and short syllables constitutes Rhythm.

1061. A Couplet, or Distich, consists of two lines or verses taken together, whether rhyming with each other or not. A Triplet consists of three lines rhyming together.

1062. A Stanza is a combination of several verses or lines, varying in number according to the poet's fancy, and constituting a regular division of a poem or song. This is often incorrectly called

a verse.

1063. Rhyme is the similarity of sound in the last syllables of two or more lines arranged in a certain order. Poetry, the verses of which have this similarity, is sometimes called Rhyme.

1064. Blank Verse is the name given to that species of poetry. which is without rhyme.

Feet.

1065. Feet are the smaller portions into which a line is divided -each of which consists of two or more syllables, combined according to accent.

1066. In English versification, an accented syllable is accounted long; an unaccented syllable, short. In the following

examples, a straight line, or macron (−), over a syllable shows that it is accented, and a curved line, or breve (~), that it is unaccented. 1097. Monosyllables, which, when alone, are regarded as without accent, often receive it when placed in a poetical line, and are long or short, according as they are with or without the accent. Thus

"To rouse him with the spur and rein,

With more than rapture's ray."

[In the ancient languages, each syllable has a certain quantity, long or short, independent of accent, for which there are certain definite rules. In this they differ widely from the English.]

1068. Meter, or Measure, is the arrangement of a certain number of poetical feet in a verse or line.

1. When a line has the proper metre, or number of feet, it is called Acatalectic.

2. When it is deficient, it is called Catalectic.

3. When it has a redundant syllable, it is called Hypercatalectic, or Hypermeter.

1069. A line consisting of one foot is called monometer; of two, dimeter; of three, trimeter ; of four, tetrameter; of five, pentameter; of six, hexameter; of seven, heptameter.

1070. Scanning is dividing a verse into the feet of which it is composed.

1071. All feet in poetry are reducible to eight kinds; four of two syllables, and four of three, as follows:

1072. Of all these, the principal are the Iambus, Trochee,

Anapæst, and Dactyl. The other four feet are used chiefly in connection with these, in order to give variety to the measure.