But thou ' too ' madest the floweret gáy I
To glitter in the dawn.

The hand that fired the orb of day,
The blazing comet launched away,
Painted the velvet làwn.

As falls a sparrow | to the ground,
Obedient to thy will,

By the same láw these globes wheel round;
Eách drawing eách, yet àll still found

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In the eternal system bound,

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One order to fulfil.

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4. RURAL LIFE.-James Thomson. B. 1700, d. 1748.

Oh, knew he but his happiness, of mén '
The happiest hé! who, far from public ráge,
Deep in the vale, with a choice few retired,
Drinks the púre pleasures of the rural life.

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He, when young spring protrudes the bursting géms,
Marks the first bùd, and sucks the healthful gále
Into his freshened sòul; her genial hours
He full enjoys; and not a beauty blóws,
And not an opening blossom breathes in vàin.

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Here too dwells simple Truth; plain Innocénce;
Unsullied Beauty; sound, unbroken Youth, '
Patient of lábor, with a little pleased;
Health ever blóoming; unambitious tóil;
Calm contemplation, and poétic eàse.

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5. HAPPINESS NOT DEPENDENT ON FORTUNE.-Thomson.

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I care not, fórtune, what you me deny ;
You cannot rob me of free nature's gráce;
You cannot shut the windows of the sky,
Through which Aurora shows her brightening fáce;
You cannot bar my constant feet to tráce |
The woods and lawns, by living streams at éve;
Let health my nerves and firmer fibres bráce, I
And I their toys to the great children lèave:
Of fáncy, reáson, vírtue, náught I can me berèave.

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6. GREEN RIVER.-W. C. Bryant.

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When breezes are soft and skies are fair,
I steal an hour from study and cáre,
And hie me away to the woodland scéne,
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Where wanders the stream with waters of gréen,
As if the bright fringe of herbs on its brink |
Had given their stain to the wáve they drink
And they whose meadows it murmurs through,
Have named the stream from its own fair hùe.

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Oh loveliest there the spring days cóme,
With blossoms, and birds, and wild bees' húm;
The flowers of summer are fairest thére,
And freshest the breath of the summer air;
And sweetest the golden autumn dáy |
In silence and sunshine glides awày.

Though forced to drudge
And scrawl strange words

for the dregs of mén, with the barbarous pén,

And míngle among the jostling crowd,

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Where the sons of strife are subtle and loud—
I often come to this quiet pláce,

To breathe the airs that ruffle thy fáce,
And gaze upon thee in silent dreàm, |
For in thy lonely and lovely stream |
An image of that calm life appears,
That won my heart in my greener years.

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LESSON XVI.

EXAMINATION OF A CLASS ON VERSE-POETIC FEET-STRUCTURE OF VERSECÆSURA.

Teacher. We should always be on our guard against the thought that we know a thing, simply because we have studied it. You all had studied English Grammar, many of you Rhetoric, and some, the Latin and Greek poets but when questioned on the figures of speech, the structure of verse, and poetic license, none of you were able to give clear and satisfactory answers. I trust you now come prepared to do full justice to these subjects: for it is certain you never can understand clearly what you read, unless you can determine whether the words are to be taken in a literal or figurative sense; nor can you read poetry well, unless you know in what kind of measure it is composed; whether in Iambic, Trochaic, or Anapæstic; and what words are exclusively poetic, and what common to both poetry and prose; and what

you are to regard as a poetic license.-Please to tell what a verse is; and how the term is derived.

A.-A verse is a certain number of poetic feet forming a line, and the term comes from the Latin word verto, to turn; because, when a line is finished, there is a turn to the next. At first any line was called a verse; but afterwards it became restricted to poetry; and so it is now, with the exception of the arbitrary divisions in the Bible and when we use the word verse without an article, we mean poetry in distinction from prose. T-What is a foot, and why is it so called?

B.-A foot is a measure of two or three syllables; so called, because by the aid of feet, the voice seems to step along the line in a measured pace.

T-What names have you for the half of a verse, and for two or more lines taken together?

C.-A Hemistich is half a verse; a Couplet or Distich, is two verses-or two lines; a triplet three ; a stanza or stave, is four or more verses combined, forming regular divisions throughout the song or poem.

T-What is Rhyme ?

D.—Rhyme is a similarity of sound in the ending of different verses; as,

On what foundation stands the warrior's pride?
How just his hopes, let Swedish Charles decide.

T-What is Blank Verse?

E--Blank Verse is verse without rhyme, and formed of five Iambic feet; as,

With sollemn ad'ora'tion down they cast

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Their crowns inwove with ad'amant and gold.

T—What other names do you give to verse of five Iambs, or ten syllables, with or without rhyme ? F-Heroic or Epic, and Dramatic.

T-What name is given to verse in other measures ?
F-Lyric; because originally sung with the lyre.
T-What are the feet usually employed in English

verse?

G.-The Iambus, the Trochee, the Anapest and the Dactyl; and among these are occasionally mingled the Pyrrhic and the Spondee. The Iambus is a foot formed of an unaccented and accented syllable, or, in prosodial language, a short and a long; as, compōse, bĕtrāy: the Trochee of a long and a short syllable; as, āblě, mānly; the Anapæst, of two short and one long ; as, contrăvēne, in the night; the Dactyl, of one long and two short; as possible, constantly; the Pyrrhic, of two short; as the first foot in contră'riety; and the Spondee, of two long syllables; as, sweet sōunds, high aims. A single syllable added to the regular feet, is called a Hypermeter line, or a Redundant syllable; as,

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Vităl spark of 'heavenly flame: in this verse flame is a Redundant added to three Trochees.

T-Give an example of Iambic verse.

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H.-The spacious fir'măment on high,
With all the blue ĕthe real sky,
And span'gled heavens, ǎ shi'ning frame,
Their great ŏrīg'inālproclaim.

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Here each line has four Iambs: and, to read them in distinct feet, as I have expressed them, is called scanning.