418 . Transactions. 



I A' pleasure exile me, 



Dishonour delile me. 

 If e'er I beguile thee. 

 My Eppie Adair ! 



(Burns, " Eppie Adair."' 



>^_' " Variation (4). 



(Half-stanzas.) 



The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold, 

 And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold. 

 And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, 

 \Vlreu the blue wave rolls nigltly on deep Galilee. 



(Byron, "The Destruction of Sennacherib.") 



'Tis the last rose of summer 



Left blooming alone ; 

 All her lovely companions 



Are faded and gone ; 

 No flower of her kindred 

 No rosebud, is nigh, 

 ■^ To reflect back her blushes 



Or give sigh for sigli. 



(Moore, " The Last Rose of Summer.") 



It will be seen that the same rhythm runs through all these examples, the 

 variations being external — as it were in the matter of scent and colour. 



Besides showing poets and others what forms had been much or little 

 used, a classification of English poetry on these lines might lead to the dis- 

 covery of yet more laws guiding its growth. 



Art. XLII. — Development of Four-syUabled Metrical Unit in the Australian 



Modification of the English Ballad. 



By Johannes C. Andersen, 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterliury, 5th August, 1908.] 



Between every two beats or stresses which distinguish poetry from prose 

 there are found a comparatively regular number of syllables ; and each 

 stress, with the syllables between it and the adjoining stress, either behind 

 or before, constitutes the most elementary unit in verse, usually called a 

 "foot." These feet, which will be hereafter called "stress-units," or 

 "units," have been classified, according to the position of the stress, and 

 according to whether they contain two or three syllables, as iamb, trochee, 

 anapest, amphibrach, and dactyl. As pointed out in the paper of last 

 session, these may be resolved to two fundamental units — the iamb, and 

 its extension the anapest ; and the stress is always on the last syllable 

 of the unit, which I have therefore called "stress-unit" in preference 

 to "foot." For the purposes of the present paper it is necessary only 

 to state that so greatly do two- and three-syllabled, or dissyllabic and 

 trisyllabic, units preponderate in English poetry that they are commonly 

 held to be the only units, though the existence of a four-syllabled unit 

 is admitted. As, however, when such units do occur in good verse it is 



