et | unsung,
Untouch'd | by for | -mer strains;
Though claim | -ing ev | -_ery mu_ | -se's smile,
And ev | -_ery po_ | -et's pains!

All oth | -er du | -ties cres | -cents are
Of vir | -tue faint | -ly bright;
The glo | -_rious con_ | -summa | -tion, thou,
Which fills | her orb | with light!"
YOUNG: _British Poets_, Vol. viii, p. 377.

MEASURE VII.--IAMBIC OF TWO FEET, OR DIMETER.

_Example--A Scolding Wife_.

1.

"There was | a man
Whose name | was Dan,
Who sel | -dom spoke;
His part | -ner sweet
He thus | did greet,
Without | a joke;

2.

My love | -ly wife,
Thou art | the life
Of all | my joys;
Without | thee, I
Should sure | -ly die
For want | of noise.

3.
O, prec | -ious one,
Let thy | tongue run
In a | sweet fret;
And this | will give
A chance | to live,
A long | time yet.

4.

When thou | dost scold
So loud | and bold,
I'm kept | awake;
But if | thou leave,
It will | me grieve,
Till life | forsake.

5.

Then said | his wife,
I'll have | no strife
With you, | sweet Dan;
As 'tis | your mind,
I'll let | you find
I am | your man.

6.

And fret | I will,
To keep | you still
Enjoy | -ing life;
So you | may be
Content | with me,
A scold | -ing wife."
ANONYMOUS: _Cincinnati Herald_, 1844.

Iambic dimeter, like the metre of three iambs, is much less frequently used
alone than in stanzas with longer lines; but the preceding example is a
refutation of the idea, that no piece is ever composed wholly of this
measure, or that the two feet cannot constitute a line. In Humphrey's
English Prosody, on page 16th, is the following paragraph; which is not
only defective in style, but erroneous in all its averments:--

"Poems are never composed of lines of two [-] feet metre, in succession:
they [combinations of two feet] are only used occasionally in poems, hymns,
odes, &c. to diversify the metre; and are, in no case, lines of poetry, or
verses; but hemistics, [_hemistichs_,] or half lines. The shortest metre of
which iambic verse is composed, in lines successively, is that of three
feet; and this is the shortest metre _which_ can be denominated lines, or
verses; and _this is not frequently used_."

In ballads, ditties, hymns,