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POETIC LICENCES. 123
And first, as regards the Iambic measure, which embraces the bulk of our poetry. The regular heroic line is common enough, if to have accented syllables in the even places be all that is required to form it:
![]() but if quantity be regarded together with accent; if the syllables in a regular verse ought to be not only accented and unaccented, but also long and short, very few such will be found in our poetry. This line is of the sort:
On hungry waves that howl around the fold.
So are the following from a celebrated poem whose numbers are most highly polished :
When o'er the blasted heath the day declined.
But why prolong the tale ; his only child-----
Rogers.
The next approaches very near the same regularity :
'/ 'Twas all he gave, 'twas all he had to give.
Ibid.
It bears a strong resemblance, to a line in Gray's Elegy which is perfect:
He gained from heaven, 'twas all he wished, a friend. |
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