et, but that of four with hypermeter:--

"There was | ~an =an | -cient sage | phi_losopher_,
Who had | read Al | -exan | -der _Ross over_."--_Butler's Hudibras_.

"I'll make | them serve | for per | -pen_diculars_,
As true | as e'er | were us'd | by _bricklayers_."
--_Ib._, Part ii, C. iii, l. 1020.

MEASURE VI.--IAMBIC OF THREE FEET, OR TRIMETER.

_Example.--To Evening_.

"Now teach | me, maid | compos'd
To breathe | some soft | -en'd strain."--_Collins_, p. 39.

This short measure has seldom, if ever, been used alone in many successive
couplets; but it is often found in stanzas, sometimes without other
lengths, but most commonly with them. The following are a few examples:--

_Example I.--Two ancient Stanzas, out of Many_,

"This while | we are | abroad,
Shall we | not touch | our lyre?
Shall we | not sing | an ode?
Shall now | that ho | -ly fire,
In us, | that strong | -ly glow'd,
In this | cold air, | expire?

Though in | the ut | -most peak,
A while | we do | remain,
Amongst | the moun | -tains bleak,
Expos'd | to sleet | and rain,
No sport | our hours | shall break,
To ex | -ercise | our vein."
DRAYTON: _Dr. Johnson's Gram._, p. 13; _John Burn's_, p. 244.

_Example II.--Acis and Galatea_.

"For us | the zeph | -yr blows,
For us | distils | the dew,
For us | unfolds | the rose,
And flow'rs | display | their hue;

For us | the win | -ters rain,
For us | the sum | -mers shine,
Spring swells | for us | the grain,
And au | -tumn bleeds | the vine."
JOHN GAY: _British Poets_, Vol. vii, p. 376.

_Example III.--"Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin_."

"The king | was on | his throne,
The sa | -traps thronged | the hall;
A thou | -sand bright | lamps shone
O'er that | high fes | -tival.
A thou | -sand cups | of gold,
In Ju | -dah deemed | divine--
Jeho | -vah's ves | -sels, hold
The god | -less Hea | -then's wine!

In that | same hour | and hall,
The fin | -gers of | a hand
Came forth | against | the wall,
And wrote | as if | on sand:
The fin | -gers of | a man,--
A sol | -ita | -ry hand
Along | the let | -ters ran,
And traced | them like | a wand."
LORD BYRON: _Vision of Belshazzar_.

_Example IV.--Lyric Stanzas_.

"Descend, | celes | -tial fire,
And seize