, like the | heart of a | timorous | _bird_;
Bright were thine | eyes as the | stars, and their | glances were
| radiant as | _gleams_
Falling from | eyes of the | angels, when | singing by | Eden's pur
|-pureal | _streams._

"Happy as | seraphs were | we, for we | wander'd a | -_lone_,
Trembling with | passionate | thrills, when the | twilight had
| _flown_:
Even the | echo was | silent: our | kisses and | whispers of | _love_
Languish'd un | -heard and un | -known, like the | breath of the
| blossoming | buds of the | _grove._

"Life hath its | pleasures, but | fading are | they as the | _flowers_;
Sin hath its | sorrows, and | sadly we | turn'd from those | _bowers_;
Bright were the | angels be | -hind with their | falchions of
| heavenly | _flame!_
Dark was the | desolate | desert be | -fore us, and | darker the
| depth of our | _shame!_"
--HENRY B. HIRST: _Hart's English Grammar_, p. 190.

OBS. 6.--Of Dactylic verse, our prosodists and grammarians in general have
taken but very little notice; a majority of them appearing by their
silence, to have been utterly ignorant of the whole species. By many, the
dactyl is expressly set down as an inferior foot, which they imagine is
used only for the occasional diversification of an iambic, trochaic, or
anapestic line. Thus Everett: "It is _never used_ except as a _secondary
foot_, and then in the _first place_ of the line."--_English
Versification_, p. 122. On this order of verse, Lindley Murray bestowed
only the following words: "The DACTYLIC measure being very uncommon, we
shall give only one example of one species of it:--

Fr=om th~e l~ow pl=eas~ures ~of th=is f~all~en n=at~ure,
Rise we to higher, &c."--_Gram._, 12mo, p. 207; 8vo, p. 257.

Read this example with _"we rise"_ for _"Rise we,"_ and all the poetry of
it is gone! Humphrey says, "_Dactyle_ verse is seldom used, as remarked
heretofore; but _is used occasionally_, and has three metres; viz. of 2, 3,
and 4 feet. Specimens follow. 2 feet. Free from anxiety. 3 feet. Singing
most sweetly and merrily. 4 feet. Dactylic measures are wanting in
energy."--_English Proso