2. Over the dim cloudlet, soar, musical cherub, singing, away! o'er fountain sheen and fell, o'er green mountain and moor, o'er the red streamer that heralds the day, over the rainbow's rim. (Six lines; four dimeters and two trimeters, the third line rhyming with the sixth, the others, in couplets.) 3. Let the trumpets, lads, be suing for us: to pleasure calling ; calling to ruin! Our life is stormy; such is its boon. (Six lines, dimeter -catalectic.) 4. To the chief who advances in triumph, hail! Be the ever-green pine blest and honored! may the tree, in his banner that glances, the shelter and grace of our line, long flourish! (Four lines, tetrametercatalectic-rhyming alternately.) EXERCISE LXXVIII. The following extracts are intended to illustrate some of the varieties of meter and stanza. Bring in the passages copied on paper, with the versification marked. In marking the versification, mark first each accented syllable and then mark the others as unaccented. When a number of lines in any piece have been thus marked, determine whether the movement is Iambic, Trochaic, Anapestic, or Dactylic, and divide it off accordingly into feet. The proper designation should then be given to the verse, as being Iambic, Trochaic, etc., and as being monometer, dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, etc. Thus in the following lines, the first is lambic trimeter; the second is Trochaic tetrameter; the third is Anapestic tetrameter; the fourth is Dactylic trimeter-catalectic: 1. Stand up and bless the Lord. In the case of rhyming passages, the rhyme should be described as being in couplets, quatrains, sonnet-meter, etc., and the formula for the rhyme and stanza should be given. 1. Italy, loved of the sun, Wooed of the sweet winds and wed by the sea, Was other inheritance like unto thee ?-Bayard Taylor. 2. I know not where his islands lift Their fronded palms in air ; Beyond his love and care.- -Whittier. 3. When breezes are soft and skies are fair, I steal an hour from study and care, 4. I thought the sparrow's note from heaven, Singing at dawn on the alder bough; He sings the song, but it cheers not now, 5. If our faith in Thee was shaken, Pardon Thou our hearts mistaken, 6. Willows whiten, aspens quiver, Little breezes dusk and shiver Flowing down to Camelot. Overlook a space of flowers, The Lady of Shalott. - Tennyson. 7. Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor breath nor motion; Upon a painted ocean.- Coleridge. 8. Rarely, rarely, comest thou, Spirit of Delight: Many a day and night? 'Tis since thou art fled away.-Shelley. 9. Launch thy bark, mariner! Christian, God speed thee! Good angels lead thee! Tempests will come; Christian, steer home!—Mrs. Southey. 10. I'll not leave thee, thou lone one, To pine on the stem; Go sleep thou with them. Thy leaves o'er the bed, Lie scentless and dead.—Moore. By the wolf-scaring fagot that guarded the slain, And thrice ere the morning I dreamt it again.-Campbell. 12. Touch us gently, Time! We've not proud nor soaring wings: Humble voyagers are we, Touch us gently, gentle Time !—B. W. Procter. 13. And I have loved thee, Ocean! and my joy Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be And trusted to thy billows far and near, And laid my hand upon thy mane—as I do here.—Byron. 14. Dwell within us, blessed Spirit; Where thou art, no ill can come; Reign in every heart and home. 15. O then shall the veil be removed, And round me Thy brightness be poured; Whom, not having seen, I adored. 16. The Lord my Shepherd is; I shall be well supplied; What can I want beside ?- Watts. 17. The Lord himself, the mighty Lord, Vouchsafes to be my guide ; My wants are all supplied. A stranger to myself and ee; Forgetful of my highest love. Joy to the lands that in darkness have lain; Zion in triumph begins her mild reign.-T. Hastings. 20. Who knows the errors of his thoughts? And from presumptuous sins restrain; And book of nature, not in vain. 21. Swell the anthem, raise the song; Praises to our God belong; 22. In Death's kindly bosom our last hope remains: The dead fear no tyrants; the grave has no chains. 23. 'Tis the wink of an eye, 'tis the draught of a breath, From the blossom of health to the paleness of death,– 24. Creep into thy narrow bed, Creep, and let no more be said ! Thou thyself must break at last.-Arnold. 25. Christmas is here; Winds whistle shrill, Little care we; Weather without, The mahogany-tree. - Thackeray. 26. Break, break, break, At the foot of thy crags, O Sea! Will never come back to me.— Tennyson. |