"Not in vain the distance beacons Forward, forward, let us

range.

Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of
change.
Through the shadow of the globe we sweep into the younger day;
Better fifty years in Europe than a cycle in Cathay.'

99

Poe's remarkable poem, The Raven, is also composed in this measure, and in its structure shews a wonderful command of language regulated by a delicate sense of harmony :

"Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,

In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore. Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;

But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber doorPerched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber doorPerched, and sat, and nothing more."

Neither has it been considered unworthy of a place in our hymnology:

"Pilgrim, burthen'd with thy sin,
Come the way to Zion's gate,

There, till mercy let thee in,

Knock and weep, and watch and wait.
"Knock!-He knows the sinner's cry:

Weep!-He loves the mourner's tears:
Watch-for saving grace is nigh:
Wait!-till heavenly light appears."

Montgomery's Wanderer of Switzerland is also com

posed in this measure:

Long before thy sun descend,

May thy woes and wanderings cease;

Late and lovely be thine end;

Hope and triumph, joy and peace!

"As our lakes, at day's decline,

Brighten thro' the gathering gloom,
May thy latest moments shine

Thro' the nightfall of the tomb."

Various combinations of this verse, with the addition of two or more lines occur; but it is unnecessary to multiply examples; let the following suffice :—

"Onward, onward may we press

Through the path of duty;
Virtue is true happiness,

Excellence, true beauty.

Minds are of celestial birth;

Make we then a heaven of earth.”

This verse is not unfrequently employed in those lyrical poems, called Anacreontic:

"Little inmate, full of mirth,
Chirping on my kitchen hearth,
Whersoe'er be thine abode,
Always harbinger of good,
Pay me for thy warm retreat

With a song more soft and sweet;
In return thou shall receive

Such a strain as I can give."

Let us now close this form of line with a feminine syllable, or double ending; that is, let the last word have the accent on the penult syllable, and we produce the measure in which Longfellow composed his Song of Hiawatha: ·

"She was thinking of a hunter,

From another tribe and country,
Young and tall, and very handsome,
Who one morning, in the Spring-time
Came to buy her father's arrows,
Sat and rested in the wigwam,
Lingered long about the door-way,
Looking back as he departed."

This verse may be compared to the seventh note in inusic, which has been characteristically called the seeking note, as if the ear sought another note on which to rest, as a more satisfactory close. It has accordingly been alternated with a line ending in a male syllable, and thus is formed a quatrain which is frequently employed in the minor poems of the German poets, as in Schiller's Pilgrim, Longing, &c.; and in which Longfellow composed his sweet, but defective Psalm of Life:"Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime;
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwreck'd brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again."

There yet remains to be considered our Anapestic verse, in which the characteristic feet are composed of two short syllables and one long. One of the short syllables may be awanting, in which case the line begins

with an lamb. The lines are not confined to a certain number of feet, but lines either of three or four feet are the most common. From its general use, we might infer that it is best calculated for the expression of pensive subjects, as in Shenstone's Pastoral Ballad :

"I have found out a gift' for my fa'ir;

I have found where the wood-pigeons bre'ed;
But let me the plunder forbear;

She will say 'twas a barbarous deed."

Or in Beattie's Hermit:

"At the clo'se of the da'y, when the ha'm let is still,
And mo'rtals the swee'ts of forge't fulness pro've,
Where nought but the torrent is heard on the hill,

And nought but the nightingale's song in the grove."

And yet, as if to shew the versatility of our metres, this very verse, in couplets, has been employed by Goldsmith in his Retaliation, by Anstey in his New Bath Guide, and by numerous imitators, in light satirical and humorous compositions:

"If our la'nd lord suppli'es us with beef and with fish, | Let each guest bring himself, and he brings the best dish."

IMITATION OF CLASSICAL METRES.

To

Frequent attempts have been made to introduce some of the classical metres into English poetry, but the popular ear seems incapable of relishing them. some of these attempts we shall briefly advert. The hexameter, which has been considered the noblest of the Greek and Roman measures, and which has been introduced into German versification, has been attempted by Southey, Longfellow, Alford, &c. When this verse is purely dactylic, with the necessary exception of the last foot, it has too much of the cadence of a horse at the canter, as in the hackneyed illustration

"

'Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum ;"

This is the measure in which Longfellow has conposed, and, as some think, spoiled his tales of Evange line and the Courtship of Miles Standish; from the latter we give the following illustration:

"Dimly the shadowy | form of the | May-Flower | riding at anchor,

Rocked on the rising tide, and ready to sail on the morrow;
Heard the voices of men through the mist, the rattle of cordage
Thrown on the deck, the shouts of the mate, and the sailors' Ay,
ay, Sir!'

Clear and distinct, but not loud, in the dripping air of the twilight. Still for moment he stood, and listened and stared at the vessel," &c.

When a greater variety of feet is introduced and the peculiar dactylic cadence is lost, the verse seems so closely to resemble English prose, that the poetical rhythm is scarcely perceived, as in the following lines:

:

"Still, one cannot believe that, if North and South were to sever, Slavery could endure ten years in its present condition."

Were these lines written without break, one would not readily perceive that they were intended to be poetical; for they could be easily matched by quotations from the prose translation of the psalms; thus:

Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.

Several excellent specimens of hexameters, with an occasional slight alteration, might be found in Lord Macaulay's Essay on Dryden :

"Who in a sea fight Thought of the price of the china which beat out the brains of a sailor?"

Dr Watts imitated the well-known Sapphic verse; but, as it nearly agrees with the rhythm of some of our secular songs, this association is certainly not calculated to fit it for serious poetry :

:

"When the fierce north | wind with his | airy | forces,

Rears up the Baltic to a foaming fury;

And the red lightning, with a storm of hail comes

Rushing a main down;

How the poor sailors stand amaz'd and tremble,
While the hoarse thunder, like a bloody trumpet,

Roars a loud onset to the gaping waters,

Quick to devour them."

The rhythm of these verses will readily suggest to the reader The Widow of Southey, and the Needy KnifeGrinder of Canning.

Tennyson, in his recent volume, has given a few specimens of "experiments" in other classical metres. The first, called Boädicea, is in Trochaic Tetrameter, which properly consists of eight trochees, but considerable variations are admitted, of which our Laureate has availed himself, by frequently introducing a dactyl in the sixth foot, and occasionally closing his line with a catalectic syllable :

་བ

"Roar'd as when the rolling | breakers | boom and | blanch on the precipices,

Yell'd as when the winds of winter tear an oak on a promontory, So the silent colony hearing her tumultuous adversaries."

The second of his experiments is entitled Milton, and 18 composed in Horatian verse. The first two lines are greater Alcaic; the third line is Archilochian, and the fourth, less Alcaic. The nature of the feet will be perceived by the scansion signs which we have placed over one of the stanzas :

"O Mightly-mouth'd | inventor of harmonies,
O skill'd to sing of Time or Eternity,

God-gifted organ-voice of England,

Milton, a name to re sound for ages." The last of these "experiments" is in Phalacian, or hendecasyllabic verse, forming a line of eleven syllables, disposed in the following feet, chiefly trochaic, although Catullus, to whom the Laureate refers, took certaiu liberties with the first and second :

Look, I come to the test, a tiny poem,
All composed in a metre of Catullus.'

As the anapest consists of two short and one long syllable, so the dactyl consists of one long and two short. Of Dactylic Tetrameter or Alcmanian verse, the following specimen is from Southey's Soldier's Wife:—

"We'ary way-wand'erer, lan'guid and | sick' at heart,
Travelling painfully over the rugged road,

Wild-visaged Wanderer, ah, for thy heavy chance!