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.

66

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:

"Over the mountains,

And over the waves, |
I

Under the fountains,
1

And under the graves, " &c.
1

"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, |
I

Rashly im-portunate, |

Gone to her death. "
1

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 ex-
ample, 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 strophies, six containing fourteen, and three, twenty
lines, each shorter strophe opens with a trochaic line, so as
to produce the sence of abruptness which the poet was aim-
ing at:

"Ruin | seize thee, | ruthless | king! |

99

Confu-sion on thy ban-|ners wait! |

INDEX.