230 necessary nor essential it is believed has been demonstrated by the illustrations given above. It may be worth while in the same connection to point out that it is also true that there is no necessary difference of rhythm between the iambic and anapestic measures, as is shown by the ease with which some poems glide from one into the other without any obvious change of rhythmical character. That large group of metres called by Schipper "iambic-anapestic," in which one cannot be certain which is the prevailing type, depends for its right to exist on this fact. Difference in the length of the rhythmical units is never absolutely dependent on the number of syllables they contain; and a foot of three syllables in some poems will undoubtedly be given less time than a foot of two syllables in others. All of which, though important to the serious student of verse, does not in the least affect the common and correct impression that the four great types of metre produce quite different effects owing to the way in which our words fit themselves to the different arrangement of stresses. This matter is discussed with admirable clearness by Mr. Omond, in A Study of Metre. In speaking of " duple rising" and " duple falling" metre, as he prefers to call iambic and trochaic, he says: "These are really subdivisions of the same metre. Our poets, as has been already noted, pass backwards and forwards from one form to the other at their pleasure. Critics have professed to find different effects in the two types; but in view of this interchangeability such professions must be received with distrust. Others would fain annihilate the distinction by writing both alike. As in music the accented note comes first in a bar, so in verse-they say-the syllable of main accentuation should always begin the period. In itself this latter 66 idea is harmless. Where we place the division-mark matters little, so long as uniformity is maintained. Marks for distinguishing periods, like lines showing bars in music, are mere aids to the eye. . . . There is therefore no real objection to adopting this method, if any one greatly desires it; but there are circumstances which make it less natural and convenient in metre than in music, as a moment's consideration will show." (pp. 61, 62.) For practical purposes, the beginning of the verse will be found to be the place where one Practical may best look for the normal metre, methods of since it affects the ear more promptly naming metres. than the end, and is less frequently altered.* Thus the line "Spied a blossom passing fair" is best called trochaic verse, especially if one discovers that in the poem from which it is taken the large majority of verses begin with the stressed syllable. The omission of the light syllable at the end is not unusual or striking. The line "We met an host and quelled it" is best called iambic verse, because it represents a metre regularly beginning with the unstressed syllable; and the addition of a light syllable at the end of such verse is not unusual. We may expect, then, * Less frequently, that is, by way of addition or subtraction, while on the other hand it is the favorite place for alterations of stress, such as are avoided at the end of the verse. that iambic and anapestic verses will easily take on additional syllables at the end; they will less easily take them on at the beginning, and will be still less likely to omit a syllable at the beginning. On the other hand, trochaic and dactylic verses will easily lose a light syllable at the end of the verse, and will somewhat less easily take one on at the beginning. To omit the stressed syllable at the end of iambic or anapestic verse, or at the beginning of trochaic or dactylic, would of course change the whole character of the rhythm, which depends on the regular recurrence of stress. Four principal metrical types. We find it convenient, then, to recognize these four types of metre, which group themselves in two different ways. Iambic and trochaic verse are alike in being dissyllabic, anapestic and dactylic are alike in being trisyllabic. But iambic and anapestic are alike in being formed by what is called "rising" or "ascending" rhythm, unstressed syllables being followed by stressed; and trochaic and dactylic are alike in being formed by falling" or "descending rhythm, stressed syllables being regularly followed by unstressed. The two types of rising rhythm are by far the most familiar in English poetry, for reasons which will be considered somewhat later. 66 It remains to inquire whether other types of feet are to be found in our verse besides the four already considered. All familiar English metres are made up of these four; but exceptional arrange ments of stresses within the verse are constantly found, and it is convenient to use cer- Various extain other names in describing them. ceptional feet. Thus we sometimes find a foot in which not one, but both, syllables are stressed. In "The cumbrous elements-Earth, Flood, Air, Fire" this is true of both the fourth and the fifth foot. Such feet are conveniently called spondees. On the other hand, we sometimes (less frequently) find a foot in which neither syllable is stressed; as the fourth of this verse "Who thought the power of monarchy too much." Such feet are conveniently called pyrrhics. For obvious reasons, no metre could be wholly composed of either spondees or pyrrhics. There still remain those compromised relations of stress which were discussed in the preceding chapter; we need names for feet which involve secondary stress as well as full-stress and no-stress, but no such names are in use. The general tendency to reduce our metres to fully stressed and wholly unstressed syllables, together with the fact that the secondarily stressed syllable in metre is hard to define or perfectly agree upon, has prevented the adoption of any terminology which recognizes the existence of feet partly composed of unstressed syllables. With this exception, the six feet already considered (iambus, trochee, anapest, dactyl, spondee, pyrrhic) will serve for the description of all familiar metrical phenomena, so far as they depend on arrangements of stress. Certain other feet are recognized by some writers as occurring in English verse, and therefore deserve mention. The amphibrach, a foot consisting of a stressed syllable between two unstressed, may be called the unit of rhythm in such a verse as "And into | the midnight | we galloped | abreast." But a division into anapests, with initial truncation (And in to the mid | night we gal | loped abreast), is quite as satisfactory, since-to repeat what has already been said more than once-the phrase divisions have nothing to do with the feet. There is more reason for viewing the amphibrach as an exceptional substituted foot in such a verse as this, which Mr. Omond wishes to divide as indicated: By day | a cloud, | by night | a pillar | of fire. But since "a pil- " is a tolerable iambus, the more conventional method of calling the fifth foot an anapest is adequate. Some writers, again, recognize a foot of three unstressed syllables called the tribrach, in such verses as these: From their pure in | fluence to | pervade | the room. Mistaken men | and pa | triots in their hearts. |