Tetrameter and Dimeter. "Truth is large. Our aspiration "O brave poets, keep back nothing; Hold, in high poetic duty, Truest Truth, the fairest Beauty! Pan, Pan is dead." THE DEAD PAN.-Ibd. "Dew-drops are the gems of morning, But the tears of mournful eve! That only serves to make us grieve YOUTH AND AGE.-Coleridge. Tetrameter and Trimeter. "Oft in my waking dreams do I Live o'er again that happy hour, When midway on the mount I lay "The moonshine, stealing o'er the scene, "A maiden knight-to me is given Such hope, I know not fear; I yearn to breathe the airs of heaven I muse on joy that will not cease, Whose odours haunt my dreams; This weight and size, this heart and eyes, SIR GALAHAD.— Tennyson. Pentameter. "All my life grows sweet, I know not how to name it; from behind Comes up a murmur voluble and fleet Of mingling voices,- some were harsh, some kind, Aught but a loving message; so Earth sends Where I have passed, 'Friends, friends? we part as friends?' PAX IN NOVISSIMO.- Miss Greenwell. "Daughter of Faith, awake, arise, illume "I cannot go Where Universal Love not smiles around, And better t ence again, and better still, Myself in Him, in Light ineffable! Come, then, expressive silence, muse his praise." "How can I teach your children gentleness, THE BIRDS OF KILLINGWORTH.- Longfellow. Hexameter. "Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of Heaven, Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels." EVANGELINE.- Longfellow. "When the heart goes before, like a lamp, and illumines the path way, Many things are made clear, that else lie hidden in darkness. Talk not of wasted affection, affection never was wasted; ment; That which the fountain sends forth returns again to the fountain. Patience; accomplish thy labor; accomplish thy work of affection! Sorrow and silence are strong, and patient endurance is godlike. Therefore accomplish thy labor of love, till the heart is made godlike, Purified, strengthened, perfected, and rendered more worthy of heaven!"- Ibid. "Take from henceforth, as guides in the paths of existence, Prayer, with her eyes raised to heaven, and Innocence, bride of man's childhood. Innocence, child beloved, is a guest from the world of the blessed, Beautiful, and in her hand a lily; on life's roaring billows Swings she in safety, she heedeth them not, in the ship she is sleeping Calmly she gazes around in the turmoil of men; in the desert Angels descend and minister unto her; she herself knoweth Naught of her glorious attendance; but follows faithful and humble, Follows so long as she may her friend; O do not reject her, For she cometh from God and she holdeth the keys of the heavens." CHILDREN OF THE LORD'S SUPPER.- Bishop Tegnér. Dimeter, Trimeter, Tetrameter, Pentameter, and Hexameter. By slow Meander's margent green, Where the love-lorn nightingale Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well; That likest thy Narcissus are? O, if thou have Hid them in some flow'ry cave, Tell me but where, Sweet queen of parly, daughter of the sphere; So may'st thou be translated to the skies, And give resounding grace to all heaven's harmonies." Heptameter. COMUS.-Milton. "Love took up the harp of Life, and smote on all the chords with might; Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, passed in music out of LOCKSLEY HALL. — Tennyson. - sight." "Sit not like a mourner, Brother! by the grave of that dear Past, Throw the Present! 'tis thy servant only when 'tis overcast, — Give battle to the leaguéd world, if thou 'rt worthy, truly brave, Thou shalt make the hardest circumstance a helper or a slave, As when thunder wraps the setting sun, he struggles, glows with ire, Rifts the gloom with golden furrows, with a hundred bursts of fire, Melts the black and thunderous masses to a sphere of rosy light, Then on edge of glowing heaven smiles in triumph on the night." LIFE DRAMA. — Alexander Smith. Octameter. "Fear not! hopes no strength could warrant to the feeblest faith are given; Looking forward strains the eyesight, looking upward opens ON A BAPTISM. - Mrs. Charles. heaven." As before stated, this measure is usually divided, each verse making two of tetrameter. The chief faults which usually occur in the reading of poetry have been thus classified by Prof. Russell: Too rapid utterance, by which the effect of the verse is lost to the ear; this general hurry of the voice abridges the pauses, and sacrifices every characteristic beauty of the metre: — A plain and dry articulation, which, though sufficiently distinct for meaning, withholds the appropriate tone of poetry, neglecting to accommodate the voice to emotion and rhythm. A mouthing and chanting tone, producing the effect of bombast and of mock solemnity. This error consists in carrying prolongation and swell to excess, and causing the style of reading or recitation to be that of extravagance and caricature, rather than of solemn emotion. A want of true time, appearing in the disproportion of syllables to each other, and to their places, as component parts of metrical feet, in the irregular and varying succession of the different parts of a line, as compared with each other, in the want of correctness and symmetry in the pauses, whether as compared with each other, or the average rate of utterance. A mechanical observance of the harmonic pauses, without regard to meaning. Literal and uniform reading according to the rhythm, without regard to emphasis. Let it be remembered then, that poetry should be read more slowly than prose, with a moderate prolongation of vowel and liquid sounds, - with a slight degree of musical utterance, — in exact time, as prescribed by the emotion expressed in given passages, and by the nature of the verse. The utterance should indicate the metre, but should never render it prominent. |