The Laws of VerseCambridge University Press, 1928 - 224 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
accented syllable amphibrach anapaest appear Ballad verse Ballad-six beat Blank Verse breath caesura Christabelle contain cross-rimed crotchet D. G. Rossetti definite divided Dr Johnson dropped end-stopped examples feminine ending feminine iamb four-syllabled rhythm four-syllabled unit full verse heart Heroic couplet Heroic verse hover irregular last unit line is doubled lyric poetry metre metrical Milton minor stress natural Nibelungen number of syllables obtained by taking occurs paused Alexandrine poem poet poulter's measure printed Professor Saintsbury prose prosodic prosodists quoted R. H. Barham reader regular rime Romance metre Romance verse scansion second line second unit Series shew shewn shortening sing song sound spondee stress-units sweet syntactical taken taking lines Tamburlaine temporal metre thee third line Thou thought three syllables three-syllabled units time-value trebled triplet trochaic trochee tune two-syllabled units unaccented syllable variations vary verse of eight verse-end verse-unit vowel wave-crest whilst words
Popular passages
Page 190 - THE Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
Page 30 - I arise from dreams of thee In the first sweet sleep of night, When the winds are breathing low, And the stars are shining bright; I arise from dreams of thee, And a spirit in my feet Has led me — who knows how?
Page 81 - Tis not enough no harshness gives offence, The sound must seem an Echo to the sense : Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows, And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows...
Page 134 - A wet sheet and a flowing sea, A wind that follows fast, And fills the white and rustling sail, And bends the gallant mast; And bends the gallant mast, my boys, While, like the eagle free, Away the good ship flies, and leaves Old England on the lee. O for a soft and gentle wind!
Page 165 - No war, or battle's sound Was heard the world around : The idle spear and shield were high up hung ; The hooked chariot stood Unstain'd with hostile blood; The trumpet spake not to the armed throng; And kings sat still with awful eye, As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by.
Page 26 - KNOW ye the land where the cypress and myrtle Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime? Where the rage of the vulture, the love of the turtle, Now melt into sorrow, now madden to crime...
Page 190 - Twelve years have elapsed since I last took a view Of my favourite field, and the bank where they grew ; And now in the grass behold they are laid, And the tree is my seat that once lent me a shade. The blackbird has fled to another retreat, Where the hazels afford him a screen from the heat, And the scene where his melody charm'd me before Resounds with his sweet-flowing ditty no more.
Page 80 - Who haunt Parnassus but to please their ear, Not mend their minds; as some to church repair, Not for the doctrine, but the music there. These equal syllables alone require, Tho...
Page 156 - You meaner beauties of the night, That poorly satisfy our eyes More by your number than your light ; You common people of the skies ; What are you when the moon shall rise?
Page 1 - My dream was past ; it had no further change. It was of a strange order, that the doom Of these two creatures should be thus traced out Almost like a reality — the one To end in madness — both in misery.