y third syllable, the
first two syllables of each foot being short. The first foot of an
anapestic line, may be an iambus. This is the most frequent diversification
of the order. But, as a diversification, it is, of course, not _regular_ or
_uniform_. The stated or uniform adoption of the iambus for a part of each
line, and of the anapest for the residue of it, produces verse of the
_Composite Order_. As the anapest ends with a long syllable, its rhymes are
naturally single; and a short syllable after this, producing double rhyme,
is, of course, supernumerary: so are the two, when the rhyme is triple.
Some prosodists suppose, a surplus at the end of a line may compensate for
a deficiency at the beginning of the next line; but this I judge to be an
error, or at least the indulgence of a questionable license. The following
passage has two examples of what may have been _meant_ for such
compensation, the author having used a dash where I have inserted what
seems to be a necessary word:--

"Apol | -lo smil'd shrewd | -ly, and bade | him sit down,
With 'Well, | Mr. Scott, | you have man | -aged the town;
Now pray, | copy less-- | have a lit | -tle temer | -_~it~y_--
[And] Try | if you can't | also man | -age poster | -_ity_.
[For] All | you add now | only les | -sens your cred | -_it_;
And how | could you think, | too, of tak | -ing to ed | -_ite?_'"
LEIGH HUNT'S _Feast of the Poets_, page 20.

The anapestic measures are few; because their feet are long, and no poet
has chosen to set a great many in a line. Possibly lines of five anapests,
or of four and an initial iambus, might be written; for these would
scarcely equal in length some of the iambics and trochaics already
exhibited. But I do not find any examples of such metre. The longest
anapestics that have gained my notice, are of fourteen syllables, being
tetrameters with triple rhyme, or lines of four anapests and two short
surplus syllables. This order consists therefore of measures reducible to
the following heads:--

MEASURE I.--ANAPESTIC OF FOUR FEET, OR TETRAMETER.

_Example I.--A "Postscript."--An Example with Hypermeter._

"Lean Tom, | when I saw | him, last week, | on his _horse_ | _awry_,
Threaten'd loud | -ly to turn | me to stone | with his _sor_ | -_cery_.
But, I think, | little Dan, | that, in spite | of what _our_
| _foe says_,
He will find | I re