Andeksen. — Metre. 479 



time giving the variety of form to printed poetry. At first 

 the two rimes, as in ballad-metre, marked the stanza, and the 

 rimes came gradually to be looked upon as the end-words. 

 When, therefore, mid-rimes were introduced into ballad-metre, 

 the fourteen-syllabled line was cut into two — one of eight and 

 one of six syllables — as in quotation 18 :— 



And sometimes, when the highway fail'd. 



Then he his courage rouses, 

 He and his men have oft assailed 



Such rich men in their houses. 



The leonine or internal rime in the eight-syllabled line, as in 

 quotation 13, introduced a new change, such a line being some- 

 times printed 



Their bow|es bent | 



And forth | they went | 

 Sho|tynge all | in fere. | 



Sometimes the four syllables of each leonine will be expanded 

 to eight (the " light-horse gallop of verse "), as — 



When Ruth was left half desolate 

 Her father took another mate ; 



And Ruth, not seven years old, 

 A slighted child, at her own will 

 Went wandering over dale and hill, 



In thoughtless freedom bold. 



And again, both halves of such a stanza may further be resolved 

 into four-syllabled leonines, as — 



With ravished ears 

 The monarch hears ; 

 Assumes the god, 

 Affects to nod, 

 And seems to shake the spheres. 



Such variations become yet more complicated when the rimes 

 are feminine or double. A first reading would entirely fail to 

 make Shelley's " The Cloud " the same metre as " Jack and 

 Jill " — both ballad. But that the metre is the same is evident 

 in taking a more regular stanza : — 



I sift j the snow | 



On the mountains below, | 

 And their great | pines groan I aghast ; | 



And all | the night | 



'Tis my piljlow white, | 

 While I sleep | in the arms | of the Blast. | 



Jack | and Jill | 



Went up | the hill | 

 To fetch | a pail | of wa|ter ; 



Jack 1 fell down | 



And broke | his crown, | 

 And Jill j came tumbling after. 



