Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/887



Example I.&mdash;A Song in a Drama. "Now, mor\-tal, prepare,   For thy fate \ is at hand;    Now, mor\-tal, prepare,    Ănd sŭrrēn\-dĕr.

For Love \ shall arise, Whom no pow'r \ can withstand, Who rules \ from the skies Tŏ thĕ cēn\-trĕ."       GRANVILLE, VISCOUNT LANSDOWNE: Joh. Brit. Poets, Vol. v, p. 49. The following extract, (which is most properly to be scanned as anapestic, though considerably diversified,) has two lines, each of which is pretty evidently composed of a single anapest:

Example II.&mdash;A Chorus in the Same. "Let trum\-pets and tym\-băls,   Let ată \&mdash;bals and cym\-băls,    Let drums \ and let haut\-boys give o\-vĕr;    Bŭt lĕt flūtes,    And lĕt lūtes    Our pas\-sions excite    To gent\-ler delight,    And ev\-ery Mars \ be a lov\-ĕr." Ib., p. 56.

OBSERVATIONS.

That a single anapest, a single foot of any kind, or even a single long syllable, may be, and sometimes is, in certain rather uncommon instances, set as a line, is not to be denied. "Dr. Caustic," or T. G. Fessenden, in his satirical "Directions for Doing Poetry," uses in this manner the monosyllables, "Whew," "Say," and "Dress" and also the iambs, "The gay" and, "All such," rhyming them with something less isolated. Many of our grammarians give anonymous examples of what they conceive to be "Anapestic Monometer," or "the line of one anapest," while others&mdash;(as Allen, Bullions, Churchill, and Hiley&mdash;) will have the length of two anapests to be the shortest measure of this order. Prof. Hart says, "The shortest anapæstic verse is a single anapæst; as,   'Ĭn ā swēet    Rĕsŏnānce,

Ăll thĕir fēet Ĭn thē dānce

ĂAll thē nīght Tĭnklĕd līght.' This measure," it is added, "is, however, ambiguous; for by laying an accent on the first, as well as the third syllable, we may generally make it a trochaic."&mdash;Hart's English Gram., p. 188. The same six versicles are used as an example by Prof. Fowler, who, without admitting any ambiguity in the measure, introduces them, rather solecistically, thus: "Each of the following lines consist of a single Anapest."&mdash;Fowler's E. Gram., 8vo, 1850, §694. Verses of three syllables, with the second short, the last long, and the first common, or variable, are, it would seem, doubly doubtful in scansion; for, while the first syllable, if made short, gives us an anapest, to make it long, gives either an amphimac or what is virtually two trochees. For reasons of choice in the latter case, see Observation 1st on Trochaic Dimeter. For the fixing of variable quantities, since the case admits no other rule, regard should be had to the analogy of the verse, and also to the common principles of accentuation. It is doubtless possible to read the six short lines above, into the measure of so many anapests; but, since the two monosyllables "In" and "All" are as easily made long as short, whoever considers the common pronunciation of the longer words, "Resonance" and "Tinkled," may well doubt whether the learned professors have, in this instance, hit upon the right mode of scansion. The example may quite as well be regarded either as Trochaic Dimeter, cataletic, or as Amphimacric Monometer, acatalectic. But the word resonance, being accented usually on the first syllable only, is naturally a dactyl; and, since the other five little verses end severally with a monosyllable, which can be varied in quantity, it is possible to read them all as being dactylics; and so the whole may be regarded as trebly doubtful with respect to the measure. L. Murray says, "The shortest anapæstic verse must be a single anapæst; as,   Bŭt ĭn vāin    They complain." And then he adds, "This measure is, however, ambiguous; for, by laying the stress of the voice on the first and third syllables, we might make a trochaic. And therefore the first and simplest form of our genuine Anapæstic verse, is made up of two anapæsts."&mdash;Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 257; 12mo, p. 207. This conclusion is utterly absurd, as well as completely contradictory to his first assertion. The genuineness of this small metre depends not at all on what may be made of the same words by other pronunciation; nor can it be a very natural reading of this passage, that gives to "But" and "They" such emphasis as will make them long. Yet Chandler, in his improved grammar of 1847, has not failed to repeat the substance of all this absurdity and self-contradiction, carefully dressing it up in other language, thus: "Verses composed of single Anapæsts are frequently found in stanzas of songs; and the same is true of several of the other kinds of feet; but we may consider the first [i.e., shortest] form of anapæstic verse as consisting of two Anapæsts."&mdash;Chandler's Common School Gram., p. 196. Everett, speaking of anapestic lines, says, "The first and shortest of these is composed of a single Anapest following an Iambus."&mdash;English Versification, p. 99. This not only denies the existence of Anapestic Monometer, but improperly takes for the Anapestic verse what is, by the statement itself, half Iambic, and therefore of the Composite Order. But the false assertion is plainly refuted even by the author himself and on the same page. For, at the bottom of the page, he has this contradictory note: "It has been remarked (§15) that though the Iambus with