1. Quatrains.-The dactylic quatrain, each line of which contains three dactyls, followed either by a long syllable or There is an example in one a trochee, is not very common. of Byron's "Hebrew Melodies," the "Song of Saul before his Last Battle:" "Brightest and best of the sons of the morning. "-HEBER. The anapastic quatrain is distinguishable from the dactylic by the fact of its commencing with an anapæst. In triple measures, the foot with which a poem opens is nearly always a key to its metre. In the following example spondees are mixed with the anapasts: "Not a drum was heard, not a fu-neral note. | WOLFE. A purer specimen may be found in one of the Hebrew melodies, in which the line contains three anapæsts: "And the voice of my mourn-ling is o'er, | And the moun-tains behold | me no more. " The amphiambic quatrain, in which each line has either four amphiambuses, or three with an iambus, is the metre of a great number of ballads and songs. The lines are sometimes coupled, sometimes alternate. Examples: "I saw from the beach, when the morning was shining, | A bark o'er | the waters | move glorious-[ly on. | ' - MOORE. "Count Albert | has armed him the Paynim | among, | Though his heart it | was false, yet | his arm it | was strong.' SCOTT. 2. The six-line stave, triple measure, is only used, so far as I know, in amphiambic endecasyllabics. Scott's "Lochinvar" is an instance. 3. The eight-line stave in the amphiambic tetrameter, or tetrameter catalectic,1 is a noble measure. Examples: “Then blame not | the bard if | in pleasure's | soft dream, |" &c. MOORE. “I | | | I climbed the dark brow of | the mighty | Helvellyn. | ”—SCOTT. There are also eight-line staves in fives, and in fives and sixes. These are dactylic. Examples: "Where shall the traitor rest, He the de-ceiver, |" &c. - SCOTT. A dactylic stave in sixes, fives, and fours, varying in the number of lines, was used by Hood with great effect in his "Bridge of Sighs: " "One more unfortunate, Weary of breath, | Rashly im-¡portunate, | Gone to her death. " There are many other varieties, but the rules already given will probably enable the student to name and classify them as he falls in with them. PINDARIC MEASURES. These hold an intermediate position between stanzas and continuous verse. They are divided into strophes, which seldom contain more than twenty-eight or fewer than four 1 A line which falls short by one syllable of the full measure of four amphiambuses, is so designated. teen lines. Irregularity may be said to be their law: the lines, as well as the strophes, are of different lengths, and the rhymes are arranged in half a dozen ways. For an example, see p. 445. As a general rule, they are in iambic measure; but trochaic lines are sometimes introduced with striking effect. Thus in Gray's "Bard," which consists of nine strophes, six containing fourteen, and three, twenty lines, each shorter strophe opens with a trochaic line, so as to produce the sense of abruptness which the poet was aiming at: "Ruin | seize thee, | ruthless | king!| Confu-Ision on thy ban-|ners wait!| |