XXXI. 
     The vir | -tuous mind
     Nor wave, | nor wind,
    Nor civ | -il rage, | nor ty | -rant’s frown,
     The shak | -en ball,
     Nor plan | -ets’ fall,
    From its | firm ba | -sis can | dethrone.” 
       YOUNG’S “OCEAN:”  British Poets, Vol. viii, p 277.

There is a line of five syllables and double rhyme, which is commonly regarded as iambic dimeter with a supernumerary short syllable; and which, though it is susceptible of two other divisions into two feet, we prefer to scan in this manner, because it usually alternates with pure iambics.  Twelve such lines occur in the following extract:—­

    LOVE TRANSITORY

    “Could Love | for ev_er_
    Run like | a riv_er_,
    And Time’s | endeav_our_
      Be tried | in vain,—­
    No oth | -er pleas_ure_
    With this | could meas_ure_;
    And like | a treas_ure_
      We’d hug | the chain.

But since | our sigh_ing_
Ends not | in dy_ing_,
And, formed | for fly_ing_,
Love plumes | his wing;
Then for | this rea_son_
Let’s love | a sea_son_;
But let | that sea_son_
Be on | -ly spring.” 
LORD BYRON:  See Everett’s Versification, p. 19;
Fowler’s E. Gram., p. 650.

MEASURE VIII.—­IAMBIC OF ONE FOOT, OR MONOMETER.

“The shortest form of the English Iambic,” says Lindley Murray, “consists of an Iambus with an additional short syllable:  as,

Disdaining,
Complaining,
Consenting,
Repenting.

We have no poem of this measure, but it may be met with in stanzas.  The Iambus, with this addition, coincides with the Amphibrach.”—­Murray’s Gram., 12mo, p. 204; 8vo, p. 254.  This, or the substance of it, has been repeated by many other authors.  Everett varies the language and illustration, but teaches the same doctrine.  See E.  Versif., p. 15.

Now there are sundry examples which may be cited to show, that the iambus, without any additional syllable, and without the liability of being confounded with an other foot, may, and sometimes does, stand as a line, and sustain a regular rhyme.  The following pieces contain instances of this sort:—­

    Example I.—­“How to Keep Lent."

    “Is this | a Fast, | to keep
      The lard | -er lean
        And clean
    From fat | of neats | and sheep?

    Is it | to quit | the dish
      Of flesh, | yet still
        To fill
    The plat | -ter high | with fish?

    Is it | to fast | an hour,
      Or ragg’d | to go,
        Or show
    A down | -cast look | and sour?

    No:—­’Tis | a Fast | to dole
      Thy sheaf | of wheat,
        And meat,
    Unto | the hun | -gry soul.

    It is | to fast | from strife,
      From old | debate,
        And hate;
    To cir | -cumcise | thy life;