As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

""Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door

Only this and nothing more."

III. Dactylic. Long and two short

Dactylic Dimeter

Cannon to right of them,

Canon to left of them,

Cannon in front of them,
Volleyed and thundered:
Stormed at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell,

Rode the six hundred.

IV. Anapestic.-Two shorts and one long

Anapestic Tetrameter

I am fond of the swallow, I learn from her flight,
Had I skill to improve it, a lesson of love;
How seldom on earth do we see her alight!
She dwells in the skies, she is ever above.

Amphibrachic:-trisyllabic foot, having the accent on the middle syllable (amphi-on both sides, and brachysshort.)

V. Amphibrachic Tetrameter

There came to the beach a poor exile of Erin,
The dew on his thin robe was heavy and chill-

VI. Mixed Verse.—Mixed meter

There be none of Beauty's daughters
With a magic like thee:
And like music on the waters
Is thy sweet voice to me.

VII. Spondee

We have a fifth kind of foot, consisting of two syllables, both accented, as twilight, lamplight, outside, etc. Such a foot is called a spondee. But we have no whole lines made up of spondees and consequently we have no such thing as spondaic verse.

VIII. Blank Verse.-Verse that does not rhyme

Most of our blank verse is Iambic pentameter. In this are written Milton's Paradise Lost, the plays of Shakespeare, and the greater part of the rest of our heroic and dramatic verse. However, blank verse may be written in any number of feet or in any measure.

So commonly has Iambic been used that many students think Iambic the only form. The failure of the interpreter to understand this blank verse construction is often the cause of failure to interest his auditors. It is unfortunate indeed that the high schools in the public and private school system of the world, do not lay greater stress upon prosody; did they do so, without doubt many indifferent or even fairly good writers would be ranked among the literary lights of the world; for we hope the time is at hand, when this country should produce one great poet who will be fit to shine among the great stars of foreign constellations.

IX. Metrical Feet

Trochee trips from long to short;

Samuel T. Coleridge.

From long to short long in solemn sort

Slow Spondee stalks; strong feet, yet ill able
Ever to come up with Dactyl trissyllable.
Iambics march from short to long;-

With a leap and a bound the swift Anapests throng;
One syllable long, with one short at each side,
Amphibrachys hastes with a stately stride;

First and last being long, middle short, Amphimacer Strikes his thundering hoofs like a proud highbred racer.

PART VI