522 Transactions. , 



5. Muck more common is the miit composed of an unaccented syllable 

 jollowei, by a pavise. It is the normal fourth unit of verse of the Nibelungen 

 type, as in — 



(11.) The love/ that 1/ hae ch6/.se?i. / 

 I'll there/with be/ content/; 

 The saut/ sea sail/ be fru/zew / 



Before/ that 1/ repent/. 

 Repent/ it sail/ I ne/ver / 



Until/ the day/I dee/; 

 But the hkw/lands /o' Hol/land / 

 Hae twinn'd/ my love/ and me/. 



(" The Lowlands o' Holland," st. 1.) 



The pause is perfectly evident to the ear when reading aloud, more especi- 

 ally when a verse containing the pause is followed by one from which it is 

 absent, as in Macaulay's " Horatius " : — 



(12.) Tlien out/ spake brave/ Hora//*Ms, / 

 Tlie cap/tain of/ the gate/: 

 To e/very man/ upon/ this earth/ 

 Death com/eth soon/ or late/. 



The great German epic poem " Die Nibelungen Noth " is composed almost 

 entirely of verses containing this paused unit at each half-line end ; but 

 its double occurrence as in the last verse of (11) is rare. Burns is the only 

 modern poet who has used it at all consistently, and then only as the con- 

 clusion of a particular stanza : — 



(13.) While winds frae aff Ben-Lomond blaw, 

 And bar the doors wi' drivin' snaw, 



And hing us owi-e the ingle, 

 I set me down to pass the time, 

 And spin a verse or twa o' rhyme, 



In hamely, westlin jingle : 

 While frosty winds blaw in the drift, 



Ben to the chimla lug, 

 I grudge a wee the great folks' gift, 

 Tliat live sae bien an' snug : 



I tent/ less, /and want/ less / 



Their roo/my fi/re side/; 

 But hkn/ker, /and ckn/ker, / 

 To see/ their cur/sed pride/. 



(" Epistle to Davie.") 



This stanza form is thought to* have been invented by the Scottish poet 

 Alexander Montgomerie, born about 1540. 



6. The peculiarity of this unit is that it is the stressed syllable has been 

 dropped, the unstressed syllable remaining ; so that this unit might almost 

 be regarded as a still lighter form of the one discussed in paragraph 5 of 

 Section V. The actuality of the latter, however, is dubitable ; whereas 

 the existence of the former is quite beyond doubt. It may be called the 

 " light paused unit." 



7. The Hght paused unit may be found at the verse-end of blank verse^ 



but this is unusual : — 



(14.) Up, up, and see 



The gi-eat/ doom's i/mage ! ]\Ial/colm ! Bkn/quo ! 

 As from your gi'aves rise u]>. and walk like sprites. 

 To countenance this horror. (Macb., II, iii, 83.) 



In this instance perhaps a better scansion might be, — 



(14a.) The great/ doom's i/mage ! / Mal/colm ! Ban/(quo!) 



