“Weep all of every name:  begin the wo,
    Ye woods, and tell it to the doleful winds;
    And doleful winds, wail to the howling hills;
    And howling hills, mourn to the dismal vales;
    And dismal vales, sigh to the sorrowing brooks;
    And sorrwing brooks, weep to the weeping stream;
    And weeping stream, awake the groaning deep;
    And let the instrument take up the song,
    Responsive to the voice—­harmonious wo!”—­Pollok, B. vi, l. 115.

FIGURE XIV.—­IRONY.

“And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, ’Cry aloud; for he is a god:  either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in [on] a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked!’ “—­1 Kings, xviii, 27.

“After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years; and ye shall know my breach of promise.”—­Numbers, xiv, 34.

   “Some lead a life unblamable and just,
    Their own dear virtue their unshaken trust;
    They never sin—­or if (as all offend)
    Some trivial slips their daily walk attend,
    The poor are near at hand, the charge is small,
    A slight gratuity atones for all.”—­Cowper.

FIGURE XV.—­APOPHASIS, OR PARALIPSIS.

I say nothing of the notorious profligacy of his character; nothing of the reckless extravagance with which he has wasted an ample fortune; nothing of the disgusting intemperance which has sometimes caused him to reel in our streets;—­but I aver that he has not been faithful to our interests,—­has not exhibited either probity or ability in the important office which he holds.

FIGURE XVI.—­ONOMATOPOEIA.

[Fist][The following lines, from Swift’s Poems, satirically mimick the imitative music of a violin.]

   “Now slowly move your fiddle-stick;
    Now, tantan, tantantivi, quick;
    Now trembling, shivering, quivering, quaking,
    Set hoping hearts of Lovers aching.”

    “Now sweep, sweep the deep. 
    See Celia, Celia dies,
    While true Lovers’ eyes
    Weeping sleep, Sleeping weep,
    Weeping sleep, Bo-peep, bo-peep.”

CHAPTER IV.—­VERSIFICATION.

Versification is the forming of that species of literary composition which is called verse; that is, poetry, or poetic numbers.

SECTION I.—­OF VERSE.

Verse, in opposition to prose, is language arranged into metrical lines of some determinate length and rhythm—­language so ordered as to produce harmony, by a due succession of poetic feet, or of syllables differing in quantity or stress.

DEFINITIONS AND PRINCIPLES.

The rhythm of verse is its relation of quantities; the modulation of its numbers; or, the kind of metre, measure, or movement, of which it consists, or by which it is particularly distinguished.