U U _ | U _ | U _|U
And the Moon rose o'er the city,

U _ | U _ | U _ |
Behind the dark church tower.

--Longfellow.

U _ | U _ |U _ | U _ | U _ | U _ |
Girt round with rugged moun[tains], the fair Lake Constance lies,

U _ | U _ | U _ | U _ | U _ |U _ |
In her blue heart reflect[ed] shine back the starry skies;

U _ | U _ | U _ | U _ |U _ | U _ |
And watching each white cloud[let] float silently and slow,

U _ | U _ | U _ | U _| U _ | U _|
You think a piece of heav[en] lies on our earth below.

--Adelaide A. Procter.

In the second illustration the extra syllables have the same relative
position in the metrical scheme as in the first, though they appear to be
in the middle of the line. The pauses fill in the time and preserve the
rhythm unbroken.

When the feet are accented on the first syllable--as in trochaic or
dactylic verse--a syllable may be omitted from the end of a line as in the
second and fourth below.

_ U U | _ U U | _ U U| _ U |
Up with the lark in the first flush of morning,

_ U U | _ U U | _ U U | _ |
Ere the world wakes to its work or its play;

_ U U| _ U U | _ U U | _ U |
Off for a spin to the wide-stretching country,

_ U U | _ U U | _ U U|_ |
Far from the close, stifling city away.

Sometimes we find it necessary to suppress a syllable in order to make the
rhythm more nearly perfect. Syllables may be suppressed in two ways: by
suppressing a vowel at the end of a word when the next word commences with
a vowel; by suppressing a vowel within a word. The former method is termed
elision, and the latter, slurring.

U _ | U _ |U _ | U _ | U _ |
Thou glorious mirror where the Almighty's form
U U

_ U |U _| U _ | U
Glasses itself in tempests.

--Byron.

An accented syllable often takes the place of an entire foot. This occurs
most frequently at the end of a line, but it is sometimes found at the
beginning. Occasionally whole lines are formed in this way. If a pause or
rest is made, the rhythm will be unbroken.

u _ | u _ | u _ |
Break, break, break,

U U _ | U _ | U _ |
On thy cold gray stones, O sea!

U U _ | U U _ | U _|U
And I would that my tongue could utter

U