io6 On RYTHMICAL MEASURES. 



lines, we have then a rythm perfeflly regular, correfponding 

 to the minuet or ma'ch time in mufic. Such regular ftrudlure 

 is not always obferved. In the higher kinds of lyric poetry, 

 it is thought to be inconfiftent with that freedom and variety, 

 and a check to that fire and enthufiafm, which ought to cha- 

 raderife thofe compofitions. Accordingly, the writers of lyric 

 poetry have departed the fartheft of any from this regular 

 ftrudlure, and have indulged themfelves in almoft every kind 

 of licence. The lines, of which ftanzas are compofed, may 

 often confift of an unequal number of fyllables, whilfl: the 

 times employed in reciting them are ftridtly equal, the defi- 

 ciency of the fhorter ones being compenfated by paufes, or by 

 lengthened founds. Sometimes, however, the inequality is fo 

 great, as to render fuch compenfation impracticable. Such un- 

 equal lines, like unequal combinations in a mufical air, when 

 properly introduced, may communicate a fpirit and variety to 

 the ftanza, and give it a more marked and ftriking conclufion. 

 The adonian verfe, coming after three fapphic lines, gives an 

 agreeable variety and a graceful clofe to the ftanza. Amongfl: 

 the ancients, there are few or no inftances of ftanzas, confifting of 

 more than four lines. The modems, by the help of rhyme, are 

 enabled to form larger and more variegated ftanzas. 



So long as all the lines of a ftanza are compofed of the fame 

 or of equal timed feet, the rythm may be confidered as in fome 

 degree regular. Thus the hexameter and the falifcan verfe form 

 an agreeable couplet. 



Laudabunt alii claram Rhodon, aut Mitylenen, 

 Aut Ephefum, bimarifve Corinthi. 



The elegiac couplet is of the fame kind. The pentameter verfe 

 is indeed confidered as an uneven combination. When, how- 

 ever, it regularly divides into hemiftics, the paufes, which we 

 are difpofed to make at the caefuras, fill up the whole time of 



the 



