;8o Oil RTTHMICJL MEASURES. 



vour the defign of the poet. Verfes of this form occur frc- 

 ^ji;ently in the works of this author. 



The ftrudture of the Englifh heroic verfe, and the uneven 

 number of feet of which it is compofed, effeftually fecures it 

 againft the danger, or even the poffibility of its being divided 

 into two parts which are equal, and at the fame time fimilar 

 and convertible. When the break takes place at an accented or 

 ftrong fyllable, the two members are neceffarily unequal. When, 

 again, as in the two lines laft quoted, the divifion happens at 

 the fifth fyllable, the two members, though they may be equal 

 in time, are neceflarily different in cadence, as the firft begins 

 and ends with a feeble found, and the fecond regularly begins 

 and ends with a ftrong found. This feems to give to the Englifh 

 verfe of this form a confiderable advantage over the common 

 French verfe of fix feet, which uniformly divides into equal 

 and fimilar hemifticks. 



These breaks or divifions In verfes have perhaps been im- 

 properly terined paufes. In many cafes, the paufe is more ima- 

 ginary than real. I have formerly obferved, that we have al- 

 ways, in a greater or lefs degree, the imprefTion of a paufe be- 

 twixt every parcel of equal times which we form. When we 

 hear a minuet, or any piece of mulic, which is conflrudled ac- 

 cording to regular rythni, we have the imprefTion of a paufe at 

 the end of every bar ; we have the fame impreffion more 

 ftrongly at the end of every phrafe ; and yet we are certain, that, 

 at many of thofe paffages, no real paufe is made. It frequently 

 happens, that the proper break or rythmical divifion of a verfe 

 takes place at one part of it, when the refl, the grammatical 

 flop, or the paufe of fufpenfion, occurs at another part of it. 



And I leaves the | world — to | darknefs | f and to | me. 



In this line, the rythmical divifion takes place at the fourth 

 fyllable, where little or no real paufe is neceflary. From what 



was 



