514 Transactions. 



» 

 has been endowed more and more with the highest spirit of poetry. Does 

 it not receive the perfect spirit of hfe at the hands of Swinburne in " Ityhis," 

 and are not the duple and triple measures perfectly blended by him in "An 

 Interlude " ? Nor is the quadruple metre without indications of what 

 it may throb to under master hands. The following hues are from Pater- 

 son's " Clancy of the Overflow " : — • 



(10.) And the bush hath friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him 

 In the mnrmur of the breezes and the river on its bars, 

 And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended. 

 And at night the wondrous glory of the everlasting stars. 



The majestic sweep of this unit is here fiUing with melody : another stop 

 has, without doubt, been added to the organ of poesy. 



11. In the same way as the duple and triple units, the quadruple may 

 contain one syllable accented and one stressed, as in (16) : — 



(16a.) And the bush/ hath friends to meetjl him, and their kin/dZy voices greet/ him 

 In the mur/mur of the bree/zes and the r';/ver on its bars/. 

 And he sees/ the vision splen/ldid of the sun//// pidins exteni, ded. 

 And at night/ the iv'mdrous glnjlvj of the e/veriasting stars/. 



This alternation of light and heavy units gives a most pleasing ef?ect. lu 

 the heavy units the unaccented syllables may be dropped, when a unit 

 of two syllables, one accented and one stressed, results, differing from the 

 ordinary heavy duple unit in the Avords being somewhat more separated 

 with pauses. Such unit was exemplified in (7o) and (8) of this section. 

 The following stanza shows it in its Australian form : — 



(17.) When you're ly/ing in your ham/ mock, sleeping soft// and sleeping sound//. 

 Without/ a care or trou//ble on your mind/, 

 And there's no/thing to disturb/ you but the en/gines going round//. 



And you're dream/ing of the gii'l/ you left behind//, 

 In the mi/ddle of your joys/ you'll be wa/kened by a noise/. 



And the cla/tter on the deck/ above your crown//. 

 And you'll hear/ the corporal shout// as he turns/ the picket out/, 

 " There's ano/ther blessed horse// fell dhwnji.'''' 



{Patersoii, " There's another blessed Horse fell down.") 



Units such as the third and fourth in the first line may be called " heavy 

 quadruple units " ; those like the last unit of the last line, " paused heavy 

 quadruple units." 



12. Is a unit possible that shall contain more than four syllables ? 

 Isolated examples do occur. These again are found in the lightest and least- 

 elevated forms of verse ; but, as they are found, they must be noted. An 

 example at the division of the verse may be found in Canning and Frere's 

 " Ballynahinch," stanza 2 : — 



(18.) The great state/sman, it seem=/, has perused/ all their ik/ces. 

 And being m^/ghtily struck/ with their loy/al griraa/ces ; 



and in Dibdin's " The Showman's Catalogue of Living Animals," stanza 2 : — 



(19.) Here's bru/in, the bear/, not fa/mous for gvk/ces, ! 



And his hag's/ like Mounseer's/ frater/nal embra/ces, ! 



In stanza 1 of Dibdin's poem such a unit occurs within the line, — 



(20.) We've rare species of monkeys, of sorts nearly twenty; 



Though a mon/key's no vk/rity, for in t wn/ there are plen/ty ; 



Dibdin's stanzas are in the " Museum of Mirth," and are presumably still 

 sung, so these units cannot be considered as having been perpetuated merely 

 through having been printed. They will be seen to be quite different from 

 the units where a stress has been suppressed between a duple and triple 



