and called the example "an excellently well conceived and well managed
specimen of versification," counts many syllables long, which such a
reading makes short, and he also divides all but the iambics in a way quite
different from mine, thus: "Let us scan the first stanza.

'I s=aw | h~im =once | b~ef=ore
As h~e | p=ass~ed | b=y th~e | d=oor,
And ~a- | g=ain

Th~e p=ave- | m~ent st=ones | r~es=ound
As h~e | t=ott~ers | =o'er th~e | gr=ound
W=ith h~is c=ane.'

This," says he, "is the general scansion of the poem. We have first three
iambuses. The second line shifts the _rhythm_ into the _trochaic_, giving
us three trochees, with a caesura equivalent, in this case, to a trochee.
The third line is a trochee and equivalent caesura."--POE'S NOTES UPON
ENGLISH VERSE: _Pioneer_, p. 109. These quantities are the same as those by
which the whole piece is made to consist of iambs and amphimacs.

OBS. 3.--In its _rhythmical effect_ upon the ear, a supernumerary short
syllable at the end of a line, may sometimes, perhaps, compensate for the
want of such a syllable at the beginning of the next line, as may be seen
in the fourth example above; but still it is unusual, and seems improper,
to suppose such syllables to belong to the scansion of the subsequent line;
for the division of lines, with their harmonic pauses, is greater than the
division of feet, and implies that no foot can ever actually be split by
it. Poe has suggested that the division into lines may be disregarded in
scanning, and sometimes must be. He cites for an example the beginning of
Byron's "Bride of Abydos,"--a passage which has been admired for its easy
flow, and which, he says, has greatly puzzled those who have attempted to
scan it. Regarding it as essentially anapestic tetrameter, yet as having
some initial iambs, and the first and fifth lines dactylic, I shall here
divide it accordingly, thus:--

"Kn=ow y~e th~e | l=and wh~ere th~e | c=ypr~ess ~and | m=yrtl~e
Ar~e =em | -bl~ems ~of d=eeds | th~at ~are d=one
| ~in th~eir cl=ime--
Where the rage | of the vul | -ture, the love | of the tur | -tle,
Now melt | into soft | -ness, now mad | -den to crime?
Know ye the | land of the | cedar and | vine.
Where the flow'rs | ever blos | -som, the beams | ever shine,
And the light | wings of Zeph | -yr, oppress'd | with perfume,
Wax faint | o