330 The Birth of Uméd— [Juuy, 
The lines marked * thus in the first five stanzas are those which exactly repre- 
sent in structure the pddas or quarters of stanzas in the original—consisting of an 
Iambus or Spondee, a Bacchius, an Anapzst and Bacchius ; thus, 
ENG ee 
This hendecasyllable measure, called by the Hindus 443 or Indra’s thunderbolt, 
(probably, because in one of the Brahmanas of the Sama Véda, Indra is said to have 
aimed his thunder at the demon Vritra by means of Sanscrit metres!) extends 
through the whole of this canto, with the exception of the last stanza, the 61st : 
and is next to the Anustup or ordinary loose Iambic, the most frequently 
used, beside being one of the most harmonious, measures of Sanscrit poetry. In its 
application to the less measured structure of English syllables, its rhythmical effect 
is perhaps better represented by the following musical notation, than by any terms 
of prosody: (the semiquavers denoting the rapid or short syllables, and the quaver 
and all beyond, without distinction, denoting the long :) 
aI lJ FI ld oil fF 
” Asty = ut-ta-ras - yam di-si dé-va-tat —- ma. 
a notation which may also serve to shew the reason why the riyorously exact 
imitation of this, as of other measures belonging to classical ancient languages, is 
not accordant with the genius of our English metrical composition. The Teutonic 
ear, content with the regularly recurring accent in every third syllable, and insen- 
sibly attaching the idea of equality of time to this recurrence, as in the musical bars 
above written, does not acknowledge any law that should thus perpetually and 
invariably distinguish the middle bar, by a dactylic subdivision, from the amphi- 
macer of the bars preceding and following it : but allows, and even requires, for va- 
riety’s sake, the mutual interchange of these different modes of subdivision, in the 
several repeated periods of the same rhythm. Such is the case with more or less va- 
riation in all the lines not marked with a star in the first four stanzas : and the 
plentiful intermixture of such lines is therefore morea matter of taste, to avoid what 
would be in English an intolerable uniformity, than a sacrifice to the mere ease of 
versification. 
It is far different with the ancient languages of Greece and Rome; which in the 
regulation of metre by quantity exclusively of accent exactly resemble the Sanscrit. 
In all these, the conception of time being adjusted rigorously to that standard of 
quantity, which counts two short syllables (or Mdatrds in Sanscrit) equivalent to one 
long, the substitution in any lyric measure of dactyl for amphimacer, or anapeest for 
bacchius, is known to be impossible. Adopting therefore their standard, the most 
perfect conception may be attained by a classical scholar of our present Indian 
measure, by joining an Alcaic commencement to a Sapphic termination. Thus 
if in the first of the Alcaic odes of Horace, we transpose or slightly interpolate the 
ends of its two first lines, the middle of its third, and the beginning of its fourth, 
thus—we make the complete Indra-vajra stanza. 
Vides ut alta nive candidum stet 
Soracte, nec sustineant onus jam 
Silve labore exanimes, geluque 
En, flumina wé constiterint acuto. 
Or if we take the 22nd ode, which is in the Sapphic measure, a yet slighter alte- 
ration will suffice to give each line the Alcaic commencement necessary to make the 
same Indian metre ; thus, 
