16. "A short way further along, I come across a boy gathering palm. He is a town boy, and has come all the way from Whitechapel thus early. He has already gathered a great bundle--worth five shillings to him, he says. This same palm will to-morrow be distributed over London, and those who buy sprigs of it by the Bank will know nothing of the blue-eyed boy who gathered it, and the murmuring river by which it grew. And the lad, once more lost in some squalid court, will be a sort of Sir John Mandeville to his companions--a Sir John Mandeville of the fields, with their water-rats, their birds' eggs, and many other wonders. And one can imagine him saying, 'And the sparrows there fly right up into the sun, and sing like angels.' But he won't get his comrades to believe _that._"

17. "We wandered to the Pine Forest That skirts the Ocean's foam; The lightest wind was in its nest, The tempest in its home.

The whispering waves were half asleep, The clouds were gone to play, And on the bosom of the deep The smile of heaven lay; It seemed as if the hour were one Sent from beyond the skies Which scattered from above the sun The light of Paradise.

"We paused amid the pines that stood The giants of the waste, Tortured by storms to shapes as rude As serpents interlaced,-- And soothed by every azure breath That under heaven is blown, To harmonies and hues beneath, As tender as its own: Now all the tree-tops lay asleep Like green waves on the sea, As still as in the silent deep The ocean woods may be."

18. "When a bee brings pollen into the hive, he advances to the cell in which it is to be deposited and kicks it off as one might his overalls or rubber boots, making one foot help the other; then he walks off without ever looking behind him; another bee, one of the indoor hands, comes along and rams it down with his head and packs it in the cell as the dairy-maid packs butter into a firkin."

19. "For thy desires Are wolfish, bloody, starved, and ravenous."

20. "What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!"

21. "And in her cheeks the vermeil red did shew Like roses in a bed of lilies shed."

22. He betrayed his friend with a Judas kiss.

23. "A true poet is not one whom they can hire by money and flattery to be a minister of their pleasures, their writer of occasional verses, their purveyor of table wit; he cannot be their menial, he cannot even be their partisan. At the peril of both parties let no such union be attempted. Will a Courser of the Sun work softly in the harness of a Dray-horse? His hoofs are of fire, and his path is through the heavens, bringing light to all lands; will he lumber on mud highways, dragging ale for earthly appetites from door to door?"

24. "Hath a dog money? is it possible A cur can lend three thousand ducats?"

25. "Kind hearts are more than coronets, And simple faith than Norman blood."

26. They sleep together,--the gray and the blue.

27. "Have not the Indians been kindly and justly treated?

Have not the temporal things--the vain baubles and filthy lucre of this world--which were apt to engage their worldly and selfish thoughts, been benevolently taken from them? And have they not, instead thereof, been taught to set their affections on things above?" (Quoted from Meiklejohn's "The Art of Writing English.")

28. "Poetry is truth in its Sunday clothes."

29. "His words were shed softer than leaves from the pine, And they fell on Sir Launfal as snows on the brine, That mingle their softness and quiet in one With the shaggy unrest they float down upon."

30. Too much red tape caused a great amount of suffering in the beginning of the war.

31. "Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll!

Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain."

32. "The old Mountain has thrown a stone at us for fear we should forget him. He sometimes nods his head, and threatens to come down."

33. "But pleasures are like poppies spread: You seize the flow'r, its bloom is shed; Or like the snow falls in the river, A moment white--then melts for ever; Or like the borealis race, That flit ere you can point their place; Or like the rainbow's lovely form Evanishing amid the storm."

CHAPTER XI

VERSE FORMS[56]

Preparer's note: In this chapter, the rhythms of the sample poetry lines were indicated with musical notes and rests.

In this text version, an eighth note is indicated by e, a quarter note by q, and an eighth rest by r.

No pupil has passed through the graded schools without being told that he should not sing verses, though no one is inclined to sing prose.

One can scarcely help singing verse, and one cannot well sing prose.

What is there about the form that leads a person to sing verses of poetry? For example, when a person reads the first lines of "The Lady of the Lake," he falls naturally into a sing-song which can be represented by musical notation as follows:--

^ ^ ^ ^ e q e q e q e q "The stag at eve had drunk his fill, ^ ^ ^ ^ e q e q e q e q Where danced the moon on Mon an's rill, ^ ^ ^ ^ e q e q e q e q And deep his mid night lair had made ^ ^ ^ ^ e q e q e q e q In lone Glenart ney's ha zel shade."

The second, fourth, sixth, and eighth syllables in each of these lines are naturally accented in reading, while the other syllables are read without stress. The eight syllables of each line fall naturally into groups of two, an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable, just as in the musical notation given, an unaccented eighth note is followed by an accented quarter.

In "Hiawatha" the accented syllable comes first, and the unaccented follows it.

^ ^ ^ ^ q e q e q e q e "By the shores of Gitchee Gumee, ^ ^ ^ ^ q e q e q e q e By the shining Big-Sea-Water, ^ ^ ^ ^ q e q e q e q e Stood the wigwam of No komis, ^ ^ ^ ^ q e q e q e q e Daughter of the Moon, No komis."

So, too, there are groups in which there are three syllables. The accent may fall on any one of the three. In the following stanza from "The Bridge of Sighs," the accent falls on the first syllable of each group.

^ ^ e e e e e e "Touch her not scornfully; ^ ^ e e e e e e Think of her mournfully, ^ ^ e e e e e e Gently and humanly, ^ ^ e e e e e e Not of the stains of her; ^ ^ e e e e e e All that re mains of her ^ ^ e e e e e e Now is pure womanly."

The accent may be upon the second syllable of the group. This is not common. The following is from "The Three Fishers."

^ ^ ^ ^ e e e e e e e e e e q "Three fishers went sailing out into the West, ^ ^ ^ ^ e e e e e e e q e q Out into the West as the sun went down; ^ ^ ^ ^ e e e e e e e e e e q Each thought on the woman that loved him the best; ^ ^ ^ ^ [e] e e e e e e e e e e q [And] the children stood watching them out of the town."

Or the accent may be upon the last syllable of the group. This form is very common. It is found in the poem entitled "Annabel Lee."

^ ^ ^ ^ e e e e e e e e e e q "It was man y and man y a year ago, ^ ^ ^ e e e e q e q In a king dom by the sea, ^ ^ ^ ^ e e e e e e e q e q That a maid en there lived whom you may know ^ ^ ^ e e e e q e e e By the name of An nabel Lee; ^ ^ ^ ^ e e e e e e e q e e e And this maid en she lived with no other thought ^ ^ ^ e e e e e e e q Than to love and be loved by me."

Poetic Feet.

If all these verses be observed carefully, it will be seen that in each group of syllables there is one accented syllable combined with one or two unaccented. Such a group of syllables is called a foot. The foot is the basis of the verse; and from the prevailing kind of foot that is found in any verse, the verse derives its name.

_A foot is a group of syllables composed of one accented syllable combined with one or more unaccented._ It will be noticed further that if musical notation be used, all of these forms are but variations of the one form, represented by the standard measure 3/8. They are:--

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ e q ; q e ; e e e ; e e e ; and e e e .

Accordingly there are five forms of poetic feet made of this musical rhythm. Of these, four are in common use.

_An Iambus is a two-syllable foot accented on the last syllable. Verse made of this kind of feet is called iambic._ It is the most common form found in English poetry. Example:--

"The stag at eve had drunk his fill."

_A Trochee is a two-syllable foot accented on the first syllable.

Verse made of this kind of feet is called trochaic._ Example:--

"Stood the wigwam of Nokomis."

_A Dactyl is a three-syllable foot accented on the first syllable.

Such verse is called dactylic._ Example:--