"Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit

Of that forbidden tree, whose mōrtăl taste
Brought death into our world, and all our wõe,
With loss of Eden, till one greatĕr mān
Rěstōre us, and regain the blissful seat.

Sing, heavenly müse, that on the secret tōp

Of Oreb, ōr of Sīnăi, dīdst inspire

That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed,
In the beginning, hōw the heavens and earth
Rose out of chaos."

Thus of fifty-two feet, all but six are iambics. All ten syllable lines, whether blank verse or rhyme, are in like manner formed mainly of iambics. So also are all octo-syllabic poems, such as Scott's Marmion and Byron's Giaour. In sacred verse, the eight syllable, or long metre, the eight and six syllable, or common and short metre, are formed of iambics, with the exception occasionally of a trochee, or spondee, as the first foot of a line. In long metre, all the lines have four feet; in common metre, the first and third have four, the second and fourth, three feet; in short metre, the first, second, and fourth have three feet, the third four. There is also an eight syllable verse, formed of an iambic and two anapests, as:

"The moment a sinner believes."

Lines of eleven syllables consist of but four feet, the first being usually an iambic, trochee, or spondee, and the others anapests, or dactyls. dactyl is first, the last foot is a trochee.

When the

Thus :

"I would not live alway, I wish not to stay, Where storm ǎfter stōrm rises dārk o'er the way, The few lŭrid mornings that rise on us here

Arĕ enōugh for our wões, full ĕnough for our cheer.”

In the last hymn quoted in the volume, the first and third lines have a dactyl first, and close with a trochee; the second and fourth begin with an iambic and close with an anapest. Lines of seven syllables are formed of three feet, two trochees and one amphimacer:

"What could yōur Redeemer dō

Mōre than he has dōne for you?”

Seven and eleven syllable lines are usually employed only in songs, hymns, or poems of such moderate length, that the unvarying recurrence of the same movement does not tire. Were iambics, however, to be used exclusively in eight and ten syllable lines, the modulation would be too monotonous. To avoid that, trochees especially are used at the commencement, and occasionally in other

parts of a line; and now and then spondees also, though less frequently; and the use of those feet, particularly the trochee, is the means of producing the most delightful changes in the rhythm, and giving sprightliness and elegance to the movement. Thus in the passage immediately following that quoted from Milton, trochees are used in the third, fourth, and fifth lines, that vary the movement, and give it a life and rapidity far greater than a mere series of iambics would possess.

"Or if Sion hill

Dělight thĕe mōre, and Siloa's brook that flowed

Fast by the ōrăcle of Gōd, I thēnce

Invoke thy aid to my ădventurous sông,

That with no mīddlě flight intends to sōar
Abōve the Aōnĭan mōunt, while it pursues
Things ǎnǎttempted yet in prōse or rhyme."

Here the prolonged or heavy accent of fast, thāt, and things, at the beginning of the third, fifth, and seventh lines, and of while at the commencement of the last half of the sixth, by reversing the movement the verse would otherwise have, breaks the monotony, and gives a vivacity and charm to the modulation like that produced in music by passing from a long to a short note, and from a short to a long

one, or the elevation or descent of the voice from one tone to another.

This effect of the trochee at the commencement of a line is exemplified in the following passage:

"Thus Sātǎn tālking to his nearest māte,

With head uplift ǎbove the waves, and eyēs
That sparkling blazed, his other parts běsīde
Prōne on the flood, extended lōng and large,
Lǎy floating many ǎ rood; in bulk ǎs hüge
As whom the fables name of mōnstrous sīze,
Titanian ōr earth bōrn, thăt warred on Jōve,
Briārěōs, or Typhon, whōm the dēn

By ancient Tarsus hēld, or thāt sea-beast
Lěvīǎthan which Gōd of all his works

Created hugest that swim thě ōcean strēam;
Him haply slumbering on the Norway foam,
The pilot of some small night-foundĕred skīff,
Deeming some island, öft as seamen tell,
With fixed anchor in his scaly rind
Moors by his side under thě lēe, while night
Invēsts thě sẽa, ănd wished mōrn dělāys;

So stretch'd out huge, in length the archfiend lay,
Chain'd on thě būrning lake, nor ĕvěr thence
Had risen or heaved his head, but that the will

And high permission of all-ruling heaven
Left him ǎt large to his own dark děsīgns,

That with rĕītĕrātěd crimes he might

Heap on himself dămnātion, while he sought
Evil to others, and enraged might see
How all his malice served but to bring forth
Infinite goodness, grace, and mercy shown
On mãn, by him sĕdūcěd, but ōn himself
Treble confusion, wrath, and vengeance poured."

If the trochees with which nine of these lines commence were exchanged for iambics, the modulation from its uniformity would be comparatively tame, like a succession of bars in music in a monotone. By introducing them with trochees, an effect is produced analogous to a change in a tune to a quicker movement, or to a variation of positions and attitudes in a dance.

Another important element in the rhythm of verse is the cæsura or pause, at or near the centre of the line, dividing it into two parts, that, though not always equal in syllables, are to be pronounced as near as may be in equal times. This pause, which is followed by another of equal length at the end of the line, gives a perpetual swell and subsidence, as it were, to the pronunciation, like the vibrations of a pendulum; and varied as a portion of the lines are by trochees and spondees, invests it, to a tuneful ear, with the charm of a delicate musical movement. In the pronunciation, the