s short to
one long; and, with two short quantities between two long ones, lines may
be tolerably accordant in rhythm, though the order, at the commencement, be
varied, and their number of syllables be not equal. Of the following
sixteen lines, nine are pure anapestic tetrameters; one _may_ be reckoned
dactylic, but it may quite as well be said to have a trochee, an iambus,
and two anapests or two amphimacs; one is a spondee and three anapests; and
the rest _may_ be scanned as amphibrachics ending with an iambus, but are
more properly anapestics commencing with an iambus. Like the preceding
example from Byron, they lack the uniformity of proper composites, and are
rather to be regarded as anapestics irregularly diversified.

THE ALBATROSS.

"'Tis said the Albatross never rests."--_Buffon_.

"Wh~ere th~e f=ath | -~oml~ess w=aves | in magnif | -icence toss,
H=omel~ess | ~and h=igh | soars the wild | Albatross;
Unwea | -ried, undaunt | -ed, unshrink | -ing, alone,
The o | -cean his em | -pire, the tem | -pest his throne.
When the ter | -rible whirl | -wind raves wild | o'er the surge,
And the hur | -ricane howls | out the mar | -iner's dirge,
In thy glo | -ry thou spurn | -est the dark | -heaving sea,
Pr=oud b=ird | of the o | -cean-world, home | -less and free.
When the winds | are at rest, | and the sun | in his glow,
And the glit | -tering tide | sleeps in beau | -ty below,
In the pride | of thy pow | -er trium | -phant above,
With thy mate | thou art hold | -ing thy rev | -els of love.
Untir | -ed, unfet | -tered, unwatched, | unconfined,
Be my spir | -it like thee, | in the world | of the mind;
No lean | -ing for earth, | e'er to wea | -ry its flight,
And fresh | as thy pin | -ions in re | -gions of light."
SAMUEL DALY LANGTREE: _North American Reader_, p. 443.

OBS. 6.--It appears that the most noted measures of the Greek and Latin
poets were not of any simple order, but either composites, or mixtures too
various to be called composites. It is not to be denied, that we have much
difficulty in reading them rhythmically, according to their stated feet and
scansion; and so we should have, in reading our own language rhythmically,
in any similar succession of feet. Noticing this in respect to the Latin
Hexameter, or Heroic verse, Poe says, "Now the discrepancy in question is
not observable in English metres; where the scansion coincides with the
r