2.

3.

Perhaps it will tell,

Pretty nearly as well,

If we try | thě săme fă | blě in verse.

In a dairy, a crow,

Having ventured to go,

Some food for her young ones to seek,
Flew up in the trees,

With a fine piece of cheese,
Which she joyfully held in her beak.

A fox that lived nigh,

To the tree saw her fly,

And to share in the prize made a vow;

For having just dined,

He for cheese felt inclined;

So he went and sat under the bough.

Dactylic measure.-The first line and the third of each stanza close with trochee, and the second and fourth with an additional long syllable.

1. Brightest ånd | best of thě | sōns of the morning, Dāwn on oŭr | dārkness ănd | lēnd us thine | aid; Star of the east, the horizon adorning,

Guide where our infant Redeemer is | laid.

2. Cold on his cradle, the dew-drops are shining; Low lies his head, with the beasts of the stall; Angels adore him, in slumbers reclining,

Maker, and Monarch, and Saviour of all.

QUESTIONS. What kind of measure is exercise sixth? How do the lines end? Of what does dactylic measure consist? How is it accented.

3. Say, shall we yield him, in costly devotion,
Odors of Edoma and offerings divine?
Gems of the mountain, and pearls of the ocean,
Myrrh from the forest, and gold from the mine f

4. Vainly we offer each ample oblation;

Vainly with gold would his favor secure;
Richer by far, is the heart's adoration;
Dearer to God are the prayers of the poor.

Hail to the brightness of Zion's glad morning!
Long by the prophets of Israel foretold;
Hail to the millions from bondage returning;

Gentiles and Jews the blest vision behold.

The following stanza, though not strictly tribach, may be so read as to give a good specimen of that measure, by closing the third line and the ninth with an additional long syllable, and pronouncing all other syllables in the same stanza with an equally short quantity

Come, thou Ål | mighty King,

Hělp ús thỹ năme to sing,

Hělp us to praise;

Făther all glorious,

O'ĕr ǎll victōrĭoŭs,

Come, and reign | Ŏvěr ǎs,

Ancient of days.

Edom, the country of the Edomites, about eighty miles east of Jerusalem.

QUESTION. How may the above stanza be made to illustrate tribrach measure?

EXERCISE VII.

A SUMMER-EVENING MEDITATION. BARBAULD.a

Iambic Measure.--Each line has five feet.

1. 'Tis past! The sul | try ty | rant of the south

2.

3.

Has spent his short- | lived rage; | more grate | ful hours the skies no more repel

Move silent on;

The dazzled sight, but with mild, maiden beams

Of tempered luster, court the cherished eye

To wander o'er their sphere, where, hung aloft,
Dian's b bright crescent, like a silver bow

New strung in heaven, lifts high its beamy horns,
Impatient for the night, and seems to push
Her brother down the sky.

Fair Venus shines

E'en in the eve of day, with sweetest beam
Propitious shines, and shakes a trembling flood
Of softened radiance from her dewy locks.
The shadows spread apace, while meek-eyed Eve,c
Her cheek yet warm with blushes, slow retires
Through the Hesperian d gardens of the west,
And shuts the gates of day.

'Tis now the hour,

When Contemplation, from her sunless haunts,

The cool, damp grotto, or the lonely depth

Barbauld, (Anna Letitia Aikin,) a pleasing English writer, born in 1742, and died at the age of 82. b Dian, (Diana,) the moon, or the goddess, said to guide the chariot of the moon. • Eve, evening personified. Hesperian garden, allusion is nere made to a celebrated garden in heathen mythology, situated at the west, and said to have abounded with golden apples, and other fruits of the most delicious kind. QUESTIONS. What measure is exercise seventh? What kind of verse is it?

How many feet in each line

4.

Of unpierced woods, where wrapt in solid shade
She mused away the gaudy hours of noon,
And fed on thoughts unripened by the sun,
Moves forward; and, with radiant finger, points
То yon blue concave, swelled by breath divine,
Where, one by one, the living eyes of heaven.
Awake, quick kindling o'er the face of ether
One boundless blaze-ten thousand trembling fires,
And dancing lusters, where th' unsteady eye,
Restless and dazzled, wanders unconfined
O'er all this field of glories; spacious field,
And worthy of the Master! he, whose hand,
With hieroglyphics older than the Nile,
Inscribed the mystic tablet, hung on high
To public gaze, and said, “ Adore, O man.
The finger of thy God!"

66

From what pure wells

Of milky light, what soft o'erflowing urn,

Are all these lamps so filled-these friendly lamps,
Forever streaming o'er the azure deep

To point our path, and light us to our home?
How soft they slide along their lucid spheres,
And, silent as the foot of time, fulfill,
Their destined courses! Nature's self is hushed,
And, but a scattered leaf which rustles through
The thick-wove foliage, not a sound is heard
To break the midnight air, though the raised ear,
Intensely list'ning, drinks in every breath.

5. How deep the silence, yet how loud the praise!
But are they silent all? or is there not

A tongue in every star, that talks with man
And wooes him to be wise? nor wooes in vain;

This dead of midnight is the noon of thought,
And wisdom mounts her zenith with the stars.
At this still hour, the self-collected soul
Turns inward, and beholds a stranger there
Of high descent, and more than mortal rank;
An embryo God; a spark of fire divine,
Which must burn on for ages, when the sun,—
Fair transitory creature of a day!-

Has closed his golden eye, and, wrapt in shades,
Forgets his wonted journey through the east.

SECTION VI.

LYRIC POETRY.

LYRIC POETRY, such as psalms, hymns, odes, &c., consists of lines, feet, and syllables, capable of being set to music.

All poetical compositions of this character, are usually written in iambic, trochaic, or anapestic measure; or a combination of two or all of them.

The most common measures, in which sacred or devotional psalms and hymns are written, are designated thus:

S. M. denotes Short Meter or Measure.

QUESTIONS. What is lyric poetry? In what measures are compositions of this character usually written? How are the most common measures, in which psalms and hymns are written, designated? What does S. M. denote? C. M., &c. ?