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132 ORTHOMETRY.
In this example, taken from a poet who is more distinguished for the smoothness than the variety of his measures, the varieties in two feet amount to eight, which is double the number that the hexameter is capable of making within the same compass j the varieties of our entire heroic line must therefore exceed those of the hexameter in a still greater proportion. |
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Next with regard to Trochaic measure. There being some affinity between the trochaic and iambic measures, the licences permitted in each will be similar, as far as consists in the substitution of some other foot for that which is characteristic of the kind. But beside these, there is another licence very generally extended to the trochaic; viz. that of cutting off part of the concluding syllable. This is allowed in every species of the trochaic verse, whether of two, three, or four feet; so that we have lines of three, five, and seven syllables, and many specimens of them have been given already.
The pure trochaic line is composed of trochees without the intermixture of any other foot: thus the normal trochaic tetrameter line is this—
and if quantity concurs with accent to form the measure, it is then perfect; as in the following example, where the accented syllables are all long and the unaccented all short: |
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