The feet sick at heart, rugged road, bending back, hush the base, blinding snow, and haggard face are, strictly speaking, amphimacers, if taken by themselves; but in the position they occupy in the verse, the effect of the rhythm is such that the first syllable of each foot is much more strongly accented than the third, and it is difficult to read all these feet otherwise than as dactyls.

The longest form of dactylic verse in English poetry consists of five dactyls followed by an accented syllable or a trochee, as in the subjoined specimen.

Hándful of ❘ mén as we | wére, we were | English in | héart and in

Still

| lính,

Strong with the | strength of the | ráce to com|mánd, to o|béy, to en dúre, Each of us | fought as if | hópe for the | gárrison | húng but on | hím; could we watch at all | póints? we were | évery day | féwer and féwer. There was a whisper a móng us, but | ónly a | whisper that | pássed: "Children and wíves-if the | tigers leap | into the | fóld una | wáres— Évery man | díe at his | póst— and the | fóe may out|líve as at | lást – Bélter to fall by the | hands that they |lóve, than to | fáll into | théirs!" TENNYSON, The Defence of Lucknow.

VII

THE CESURA

Lord Kames has written at some length on what is called the cæsura, or pause, in English verse. His critical observations on the passages quoted by him from the English poets are ingenious and interesting, and will amply repay the student for an attentive perusal; but they do not give very satisfactory proof that the cæsura necessarily exists in English.

It is, however, true that a pause almost always divides the English iambic verse of six feet, or alexandrine, into two hemistichs, or half-verses, of three feet, as in the following verses :

Darkness more dread than night was poured upon the ground. SHELLEY.

Direct my course so right, as with thy hand to show

Which way thy forests range, | which way thy rivers flow;
Wise genius, by thy help that so I may descry

How thy fair mountains stand,

and how thy valleys lie;

From those clear pearly cliffs | which see the morning's pride,

And check the surly imps of Neptune when they chide,

Unto the big-swoln waves | in the Iberian stream,

Where Titan still unyokes | his fiery-hoofèd team,

And oft his flaming locks | in luscious nectar steeps,
When from Olympus' top | he plungeth in the deeps:
That from the Armotic sands |, on surging Neptune's leas,
Through the Hibernic gulf, those rough Vergivian seas,
My verse with wings of skill | may fly a lofty gait,
As Amphitrite clips | this island fortunate,

Till through the sleepy main | to Thule I have gone,
And seen the frozen isles, the cold Deucalidon.

DRAYTON.

This pause is analogous to that which is obligatory in the French alexandrine. Drayton's alexandrines in his 'Polyolbion,' from which the above passage is taken, nearly all conform to the French rule.

Here are a few more examples of this pause.

Did ever mortal eye | behold such heavenly grace?

SPENSER.

All night she thinks too long, and often looks for light.

SPENSER.

Yet all these sounds yblent | inclined all to sleep.

THOMSON.

The murmuring main was heard, and scarcely heard, to flow.

THOMSON.

But even in the alexandrine, this pause, dividing the verse into two equal hemistichs, can hardly be considered obligatory. Although exceptions are rare, yet there are exceptions, as in the following verses,

Loose life, unruly passions, and diseases pale.

THOMSON.

of fancy, reason, virtue, nought can me bereave.

THOMSON.

And in her many troubles | did most pleasure take.

Wrapt in eternal silence | far from enemies.

SPENSER.

SPENSER.

where the pause comes after the seventh syllable but does not affect the harmony of the verse.

Be the case as it may with alexandrines, in iambic verses of five feet there is no metrical pause, that is, no pause without which the verse would not be verse. The poet is at liberty to introduce what pause or pauses he pleases, and where he pleases. He constructs his poetical phrase according to the metre, and with a view to harmony, and he may, by a skilful grouping of his words, with any pauses or breaks on the lines that are consistent with the sense, and the effect he endeavours to produce, compose very melodious verse.

Here are a few passages with the pauses marked.

Early, before the morn || with crimson ray
The windows of bright heaven || opened had,
Through which | into the world || the dawning day
Might look, || that maketh every creature glad,
Uprose Sir Guyon, || in bright armour clad,
And to his purposed journey || him prepared :
With him the Palmer eke || in habit sad
Himself addressed || to that adventure hard:
So to the river's side || they both together fared.
SPENSER.

The pause marked here in each verse by two strokes is what Lord Kames calls the capital pause. When there are more than one, the less perceptible pause, or pauses, he calls sub-pauses. The capital pause (when there are more than one, it is not always easy to decide which is the principal), occurs, in the verses just quoted

after the fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh syllable, except in the last verse, which is an alexandrine and is, divided according to the French rule.

The joyous birds, || shrouded in cheerful shade,
Their notes unto the voice || attempered sweet;
The angelical soft trembling voices || made
To the instruments divine || respondence meet;
The silver-sounding instruments || did meet
With the base murmur || of the waters' fall;
The waters' fall || with difference discreet,
Now soft, now loud, || unto the wind did call;
The gentle warbling wind || low answerèd to all.
SPENSER.

Here the pause occurs in two places in which it did not occur in the preceding passage; it divides the third verse after the ninth syllable, and in the fifth verse it comes after the eighth syllable.

Thus with the year

Seasons return; || but not to me returns
Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn,
Or sight of vernal bloom, || or summer's rose,
Or flocks, or herds, || or human face divine.

MILTON.

First in his east || the glorious lamp was seen,

Regent of day. || and all the horizon round

Invested with bright rays, || jocund to run

His longitude through heaven's high road; || the gray
Dawn, and the Pleiades, || before him danced,

Shedding sweet influence.

MILTON.

These examples, added to the former, sufficiently show that English poets are restricted by no laws in the use they make of pauses in their verse, and the student has