Observations · The Grammar of English Grammars

The Grammar of English Grammars · Chapter 369Observations

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OBS. 1.—Trochaic verse without the final short syllable, is the same as iambic would be without the initial short syllable;—it being quite plain, that iambic, so changed, becomes trochaic, and is iambic no longer. But trochaic, retrenched of its last short syllable, is trochaic still; and can no otherwise be made iambic, than by the prefixing of a short syllable to the line. Feet, and the orders of verse, are distinguished one from an other by two things, and in general by two only; the number of syllables taken as a foot, and the order of their quantities. Trochaic verse is always as distinguishable from iambic, as iambic is from any other. Yet have we several grammarians and prosodies who contrive to confound them—or who, at least, mistake catalectic trochaic for catalectic iambic; and that too, where the syllable wanting affects only the last foot, and makes it perhaps but a common and needful cæsura.

OBS. 2.—To suppose that iambic verse may drop its initial short syllable, and still be iambic, still be measured as before, is not only to take a single long syllable for a foot, not only to recognize a pedal cæsura at the beginning of each line, but utterly to destroy the only principles on which iambics and trochaics can be discriminated. Yet Hiley, of Leeds, and Wells, of Andover, while they are careful to treat separately of these two orders of verse, not only teach that any order may take at the end "an additional syllable," but also suggest that the iambic may drop a syllable "from the first foot," without diminishing the number of feet,—without changing the succession of quantities,—without disturbing the mode of scansion! "Sometimes," say they, (in treating of iambics,) "a syllable is cut off from the first foot; as,

OBS. 3.—Now this couplet is the precise exemplar, not only of the thirty-six lines of which it is a part, but also of the most common of our trochaic metres; and if this may be thus scanned into iambic verse, so may all other trochaic lines in existence: distinction between the two orders must then be worse than useless. But I reject this doctrine, and trust that most readers will easily see its absurdity. A prosodist might just as well scan all iambics into trochaics, by pronouncing each initial short syllable to be hypermeter. For, surely, if deficiency may be discovered at the beginning of measurement, so may redundance. But if neither is to be looked for before the measurement ends, (which supposition is certainly more reasonable,) then is the distinction already vindicated, and the scansion above-cited is shown to be erroneous.

OBS. 4.—But there are yet other objections to this doctrine, other errors and inconsistencies in the teaching of it. Exactly the same kind of verse as this, which is said to consist of "four iambuses" from one of which "a syllable is cut off," is subsequently scanned by the same authors as being composed of "three trochees and an additional syllable; as,

There is, in the works here cited, not only the inconsistency of teaching two very different modes of scanning the same species of verse, but in each instance the scansion is wrong; for all the lines in question are trochaic of four feet,—single-rhymed, and, of course, catalectic, and ending with a cæsura, or elision. In no metre that lacks but one syllable, can this sort of foot occur at the beginning of a line; yet, as we see, it is sometimes imagined to be there, by those who have never been able to find it at the end, where it oftenest exists!

OBS. 5.—I have hinted, in the main paragraph above, that it is a common error of our prosodists, to underrate, by one foot, the measure of all trochaic lines, when they terminate with single rhyme; an error into which they are led by an other as gross, that of taking for hypermeter, or mere surplus, the whole rhyme itself, the sound or syllable most indispensable to the verse.

"(For rhyme the rudder is of verses, With which, like ships, they steer their courses.)"—Hudibras.

Iambics and trochaics, of corresponding metres, and exact in them, agree of course in both the number of feet and the number of syllables; but as the former are slightly redundant with double rhyme, so the latter are deficient as much, with single rhyme; yet, the number of feet may, and should, in these cases, be reckoned the same. An estimable author now living says, "Trochaic verse, with an additional long syllable, is the same as iambic verse, without the initial short syllable."—N. Butler's Practical Gram., p. 193. This instruction is not quite accurate. Nor would it be right, even if there could be "iambic verse without the initial short syllable," and if it were universally true, that, "Trochaic verse may take an additional long syllable."—Ibid. For the addition and subtraction here suggested, will inevitably make the difference of a foot, between the measures or verses said to be the same!

OBS. 6.—"I doubt," says T. O. Churchill, "whether the trochaic can be considered as a legitimate English measure. All the examples of it given by Johnson have an additional long syllable at the end: but these are iambics, if we look upon the additional syllable to be at the beginning, which is much more agreeable to the analogy of music."—Churchill's New Gram., p. 390. This doubt, ridiculous as must be all reasoning in support of it, the author seriously endeavours to raise into a general conviction that we have no trochaic order of verse! It can hardly be worth while to notice here all his remarks. "An additional long syllable" Johnson never dreamed of—"at the end"—"at the beginning"—or anywhere else. For he discriminated metres, not by the number of feet, as he ought to have done, but by the number of syllables he found in each line. His doctrine is this: "Our iambick measure comprises verses—Of four syllables,—Of six,—Of eight,—Of ten. Our trochaick measures are—Of three syllables,—Of five,—Of seven. These are the measures which are now in use, and above the rest those of seven, eight and ten syllables. Our ancient poets wrote verses sometimes of twelve syllables, as Drayton's Polyolbion; and of fourteen, as Chapman's Homer." "We have another measure very quick and lively, and therefore much used in songs, which may be called the anapestick.

'May I góvern my pássion with ábsolute swáy, And grow wiser and bétter as life wears awáy.' Dr. Pope.

"In this measure a syllable is often retrenched from the first foot, [;] as [,]

'When présent we lóve, and when ábsent agrée, I th'nk not of I'ris [.] nor I'ris of mé.' Dryden.

"These measures are varied by many combinations, and sometimes by double endings, either with or without rhyme, as in the heroick measure.

''Tis the divinity that stirs within us, 'Tis heaven itself that points out an hereafter..' Addison.

"So in that of eight syllables,

'They neither added nor confounded, They neither wanted nor abounded.' Prior.

"In that of seven,

'For resistance I could fear none, But with twenty ships had done, What thou, brave and happy Vernon, Hast achieved with six alone.' Glover.

"To these measures and their laws, may be reduced every species of English verse."—Dr. Johnson's Grammar of the English Tongue, p. 14. See his Quarto Dict. Here, except a few less important remarks, and sundry examples of the metres named, is Johnson's whole scheme of versification.

OBS. 7.—How, when a prosodist judges certain examples to "have an additional long syllable at the end," he can "look upon the additional syllable to be at the beginning," is a matter of marvel; yet, to abolish trochaics, Churchill not only does and advises this, but imagines short syllables removed sometimes from the beginning of lines; while sometimes he couples final short syllables with initial long ones, to make iambs, and yet does not always count these as feet in the verse, when he has done so! Johnson's instructions are both misunderstood and misrepresented by this grammarian. I have therefore cited them the more fully. The first syllable being retrenched from an anapest, there remains an iambus. But what countenance has Johnson lent to the gross error of reckoning such a foot an anapest still?—or to that of commencing the measurement of a line by including a syllable not used by the poet? The preceding stanza from Glover, is trochaic of four feet; the odd lines full, and of course making double rhyme; the even lines catalectic, and of course ending with a long syllable counted as a foot. Johnson cited it merely as an example of "double endings" imagining in it no "additional syllable," except perhaps the two which terminate the two trochees, "fear none" and "Vernon." These, it may be inferred, he improperly conceived to be additional to the regular measure; because he reckoned measures by the number of syllables, and probably supposed single rhyme to be the normal form of all rhyming verse.

OBS. 8.—There is false scansion in many a school grammar, but perhaps none more uncouthly false, than Churchill's pretended amendments of Johnson's. The second of these—wherein "the old seven[-]foot iambic" is professedly found in two lines of Glover's trochaic tetrameter—I shall quote:—

"In the anapæstic measure, Johnson himself allows, that a syllable is often retrenched from the first foot; yet he gives as an example of trochaics with an additional syllable at the end of the even lines a stanza, which, by adopting the same principle, would be in the iambic measure:

In fact, the second and fourth lines here stamp the character of the measure; [Fist] which is the old seven[-]foot iambic broken into four and three, WITH AN ADDITIONAL SYLLABLE AT THE BEGINNING."—Churchill's New Gram., p. 391.

After these observations and criticisms concerning the trochaic order of verse, I proceed to say, trochaics consist of the following measures, or metres:—

Measure I.—Trochaic of Eight Feet, or Octometer

Example I.—"The Raven"—First Two out of Eighteen Stanzas.

Double rhymes being less common than single ones, in the same proportion, is this long verse less frequently terminated with a full trochee, than with a single long syllable counted as a foot. The species of measure is, however, to be reckoned the same, though catalectic. By Lindley Murray, and a number who implicitly re-utter what he teaches, the verse of six trochees, in which are twelve syllables only, is said "to be the longest Trochaic line that our language admits."—Murray's Octavo Gram., p. 257; Weld's E. Gram., p. 211. The examples produced here will sufficiently show the inaccuracy of their assertion.

Example II.—"The Shadow of the Obelisk."—Last two Stanzas.

Example III.—"The Slaves of Martinique."—Nine Couplets out of Thirty-six.

Example IV.—"The Present Crisis"—Two Stanzas out of sixteen.

Example V.—The Season of Love.—A short Extract.

Trochaic of eight feet, as these sundry examples will suggest, is much oftener met with than iambic of the same number; and yet it is not a form very frequently adopted. The reader will observe that it requires a considerable pause after the fourth foot; at which place one might divide it, and so reduce each couplet to a stanza of four lines, similar to the following examples:—

Part of a Song, in Dialogue

Sylvia

Corin

Sylvia

Corin

Poems by ANNA LÆTITIA BARBAULD, p. 56.

Part of a Charity Hymn

A still more common form is that which reduces all these tetrameters to single rhymes, preserving their alternate succession. In such metre and stanza, is Montgomery's "Wanderer of Switzerland, a Poem, in Six Parts," and with an aggregate of eight hundred and forty-four lines. Example:—

First six stanzas of Part VI, pp. 71 and 72.