ea_son_
Be on | -ly spring."
LORD BYRON: See _Everett's Versification_, p. 19;
_Fowler's E. Gram._, p. 650.

MEASURE VIII.--IAMBIC OF ONE FOOT, OR MONOMETER.

"The shortest form of the English Iambic," says Lindley Murray, "consists
of an Iambus with an additional short syllable: as,

Disdaining,
Complaining,
Consenting,
Repenting.

We have no poem of this measure, but it may be met with in stanzas. The
Iambus, with this addition, coincides with the Amphibrach."--_Murray's
Gram._, 12mo, p. 204; 8vo, p. 254. This, or the substance of it, has been
repeated by many other authors. Everett varies the language and
illustration, but teaches the same doctrine. See _E. Versif._, p. 15.

Now there are sundry examples which may be cited to show, that the iambus,
without any additional syllable, and without the liability of being
confounded with an other foot, may, and sometimes does, stand as a line,
and sustain a regular rhyme. The following pieces contain instances of this
sort:--

_Example I.--"How to Keep Lent."_

"Is this | a Fast, | to keep
The lard | -er lean
And clean
From fat | of neats | and sheep?

Is it | to quit | the dish
Of flesh, | yet still
To fill
The plat | -ter high | with fish?

Is it | to fast | an hour,
Or ragg'd | to go,
Or show
A down | -cast look | and sour?

No:--'Tis | a Fast | to dole
Thy sheaf | of wheat,
And meat,
Unto | the hun | -gry soul.

It is | to fast | from strife,
From old | debate,
And hate;
To cir | -cumcise | thy life;

To show | a _heart_ | grief-rent;
To starve | thy sin,
Not _bin_:
Ay, that's | to keep | thy Lent."
ROBERT HERRICK: _Clapp's Pioneer_, p. 48.

Example II.--"To Mary Ann."

[This singular arrangement of seventy-two separate iambic feet, I find
_without intermediate points_, and leave it so. It seems intended to be
read in three or more different ways, and the punctuation required by one
mode of reading would not wholly suit an other.]

"Your face Your tongue Your wit
So fair So sweet So sharp
First bent Then drew Then hit
Mine eye Mine ear Mine heart

Mine eye Mine ear Mine heart
To like To learn To love
Y