ers, with that of Darwin, Goldsmith,
Johnson, Haley, and others of the same "school," is alleged to have wrought
a general corruption of taste in respect to versification--a fashion that
has prevailed, not temporarily,

"_But ever since Pope spoil'd the ears of the town
With his cuckoo-song verses, half up and half down_"--_Ib._

OBS. 3.--Excessive monotony is thus charged by one critic upon all verse of
"the purely Anapestic measure;" and, by an other, the same fault is alleged
in general terms against all the poetry "of the school of Pope," well-nigh
the whole of which is iambic. The defect is probably in either case, at
least half imaginary; and, as for the inherent joyousness of anapestics,
that is perhaps not less ideal. Father Humphrey says, "Anapaestic and
amphibrachic verse, being similar in measure and movement, are pleasing to
the ear, and well adapted to cheerful and humourous compositions; and
_sometimes to elegiac compositions_, and subjects important and
solemn."--_Humphrey's English Prosody_, p. 17.

OBS. 4.--The anapest, the dactyl, and the amphibrach, have this in
common,--that each, with one long syllable, takes two short ones. Hence
there is a degree of similarity in their rhythms, or in their several
effects upon the ear; and consequently lines of each order, (or of any two,
if the amphibrachic be accounted a separate order,) are sometimes
commingled. But the propriety of acknowledging an order of "_Amphibrachic
verse_," as does Humphrey, is more than doubtful; because, by so doing, we
not only recognize the amphibrach as one of the principal feet, but make a
vast number of lines ambiguous in their scansion. For our Amphibrachic
order will be _made up_ of lines that are commonly scanned as
anapestics--such anapestics as are diversified by an iambus at the
beginning, and sometimes also by a surplus short syllable at the end; as in
the following verses, better divided as in the sixth example above:--

"Th~ere c=ame t~o | th~e b=each ~a | p~oor Ex~ile | ~of Er~in
The dew on | his thin robe | was heavy | and chill:
F~or h~is co=un | -tr~y h~e s=ighed, | wh=en ~at tw=i
| -l~ight r~ep=air | _-~ing_
To wander | alone by | the wind-beat | -en hill."

MEASURE II.--ANAPESTIC OF THREE FEET, OR TRIMETER.

_Example I.--"Alexander Selkirk."--First Two Stanzas._

I.

"I am mon | -arch of all | I survey,
My right | there i