Example IV.—­Praise God.

   “Ye head | -long tor | -rents, rap | -id, and | profound;
    Ye soft | -er floods, | that lead | the hu | -mid maze
    Along | the vale; | and thou, | majes | -tic main,
    A se | -cret world | of won | -ders in | thyself,
    Sound His | stupen | -dous | praise; | whose great | -er voice
    Or bids | you roar, | or bids | your roar | -ings fall.” 
        THOMSON:  Hymn to the Seasons.

Example V.—­The Christian Spirit.

   “Like him | the soul, | thus kin | -dled from | above,
    Spreads wide | her arms | of u | -niver | -sal love;
    And, still | enlarg’d | as she | receives | the grace,
    Includes | cr~e=a | -tion in | her close | embrace. 
    Behold | a Chris | -tian! and | without | the fires
    The found | -_~er of_ | that name | alone | inspires,
    Though all | accom | -plishment, | all knowl | -edge meet,
    To make | the shin | -ing prod | -igy | complete,
    Whoev | -er boasts | that name—­ | behold | a cheat!”
        COWPER:  _Charity; Poems_, Vol. i, p. 135.

Example VI.—­To London.

   “Ten right | -eous would | have sav’d | a cit | -y once,
    And thou | hast man | -y right | -eous.—­Well | for thee—­
    That salt | preserves | thee; more | corrupt | -ed else,
    And there | -fore more | obnox | -ious, at | this hour,
    Than Sod | -om in | her day | had pow’r | to be,
    For whom | God heard | his Abr’ | -ham plead | in vain.” 
        IDEM:  The Task, Book iii, at the end.

This verse, the iambic pentameter, is the regular English heroic—­a stately species, and that in which most of our great poems are composed, whether epic, dramatic, or descriptive.  It is well adapted to rhyme, to the composition of sonnets, to the formation of stanzas of several sorts; and yet is, perhaps, the only measure suitable for blank verse—­which latter form always demands a subject of some dignity or sublimity.

The Elegiac Stanza, or the form of verse most commonly used by elegists, consists of four heroics rhyming alternately; as,

   “Thou knowst | how trans | -port thrills | the ten | -der breast,
      Where love | and fan | -cy fix | their ope | -ning reign;
    How na | -ture shines | in live | -lier col | -ours dress’d,
      To bless | their un | -ion, and | to grace | their train.” 
        SHENSTONE:  British Poets, Vol. vii, p. 106.

Iambic verse is seldom continued perfectly pure through a long succession of lines.  Among its most frequent diversifications, are the following; and others may perhaps be noticed hereafter:—­

(1.) The first foot is often varied by a substitutional trochee; as,