Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/867

 sions into two feet, we prefer to scan in this manner, because it usually alternates with pure iambics. Twelve such lines occur in the following extract: LOVE TRANSITORY

"Could Love \ for ever   Run like \ a river,    And Time's \ endeavour      Be tried \ in vain,&mdash;    No oth\-er pleasure    With this \ could measure;    And like \ a treasure      We'd hug \ the chain.

But since \ our sighing Ends not \ in dying, And, formed \ for flying, Love plumes \ his wing; Then for \ this reason Let's love \ a season; But let \ that season Be on\-ly spring."       LORD BYRON: See Everett's Versification, p. 19;           Fowler's E. Gram., p. 650.

MEASURE VIII.&mdash;IAMBIC OF ONE FOOT, OR MONOMETER.
"The shortest form of the English Iambic," says Lindley Murray, "consists of an Iambus with an additional short syllable: as,   Disdaining,    Complaining,    Consenting,    Repenting. We have no poem of this measure, but it may be met with in stanzas. The Iambus, with this addition, coincides with the Amphibrach."&mdash;Murray's Gram., 12mo, p. 204; 8vo, p. 254. This, or the substance of it, has been repeated by many other authors. Everett varies the language and illustration, but teaches the same doctrine. See E. Versif., p. 15.

Now there are sundry examples which may be cited to show, that the iambus,without any additional syllable, and without the liability of being confounded with an other foot, may, and sometimes does, stand as a line, and sustain a regular rhyme. The following pieces contain instances of this sort:

Example I.&mdash;"How to Keep Lent." "Is this \ a Fast, \ to keep     The lard\-er lean        And clean    From fat \ of neats \ and sheep?

Is it \ to quit \ the dish Of flesh, \ yet still To fill The plat\-ter high \ with fish?

Is it \ to fast \ an hour, Or ragg'd \ to go, Or show A down\-cast look \ and sour?

No:&mdash;'Tis \ a Fast \ to dole Thy sheaf \ of wheat, And meat, Unto \ the hun\-gry soul.

It is \ to fast \ from strife, From old \ debate, And hate; To cir\-cumcise \ thy life;

To show \ a heart \ grief-rent; To starve \ thy sin, Not bin: Ay, that's \ to keep \ thy Lent."       ROBERT HERRICK: Clapp's Pioneer, p. 48. Example II.&mdash;"To Mary Ann."

[This singular arrangement of seventy-two separate iambic feet, I find without intermediate points, and leave it so. It seems intended to be read in three or more different ways, and the punctuation required by one mode of reading would not wholly suit an other.] "Your face        Your tongue         Your wit      So fair            So sweet            So sharp    First bent         Then drew           Then hit      Mine eye           Mine ear            Mine heart

Mine eye          Mine ear           Mine heart To like           To learn           To love Your face         Your tongue        Your wit Doth lead         Doth teach         Doth move

Your face          Your tongue       Your wit With beams         With sound        With art Doth blind         Doth charm        Doth rule Mine eye           Mine ear          Mine heart

Mine eye          Mine ear          Mine heart With life         With hope          With skill Your face         Your tongue       Your wit Doth feed         Doth feast         Doth fill

O face            O tongue          O wit With frowns       With cheek        With smart Wrong not         Vex not           Wound not Mine eye          Mine ear          Mine heart