OBS. 3.—­These authors also aver, that, “This measure is defective in dignity, and can seldom be used on serious occasions.”—­Same places.  “Trochaic of two feet—­is likewise so brief, that,” in their opinion, “it is rarely used for any very serious purpose.”—­Same places.  Whether the expression of love, or of its disappointment, is “any very serious purpose” or not, I leave to the decision of the reader.  What lack of dignity or seriousness there is, in several of the foregoing examples, especially the last two, I think it not easy to discover.

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

Examples with Longer Metres.

1.  WITH IAMBICS.

“Fr~om w=alk | t~o w=alk, | fr~om sh=ade | t~o sh=ade,
From stream to purl | -ing stream | convey’d,
Through all | the ma | -zes of | the grove,
Through all | the ming | -ling tracks | I rove,
Turning,
Burning,
Changing,
Ranging,
F=ull of | gri=ef and | f=ull of | l=ove.” 
ADDISON’S _Rosamond_, Act I, Sc. 4: 
_Everett’s Versification_, p. 81.

2.  WITH ANAPESTICS, &c.

“T~o l=ove and to l=angu~ish,
T~o s=igh | and compl=ain,
H~ow cr=u~el’s th~e =angu~ish! 
H~ow t~orm=ent | -ing the p=ain! 
Suing,
Pursuing,
Flying,
Denying,
O the curse | of disdain! 
How torment | -ing’s the pain!”
GEO. GRANVILLE:  Br.  Poets, Vol. v, p. 31.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.—­The metres acknowledged in our ordinary schemes of prosody, scarcely amount, with all their “boundless variety,” to more than one half, or three quarters, of what may be found in actual use somewhere.  Among the foregoing examples, are some which are longer, and some which are shorter, than what are commonly known to our grammarians; and some, also, which seem easily practicable, though perhaps not so easily quotable.  This last trochaic metre, so far as I know, has not been used alone,—­that is, without longer lines,—­except where grammarians so set examples of it in their prosodies.

OBS. 2.—­“Trochaic of One foot,” as well as “Iambic of One foot,” was, I believe, first recognized, prosodically, in Brown’s Institutes of English Grammar, a work first published in 1823.  Since that time, both have obtained acknowledgement in sundry schemes of versification, contained in the new grammars; as in Farnum’s, and Hallock’s, of 1842; in Pardon Davis’s, of 1845; in S. W. Clark’s, and S. S. Greene’s, of 1848; in Professor Fowler’s, of 1850.  Wells, in his School Grammar, of 1846, and D. C. Allen, in an other, of 1847, give to the length of lines a laxity positively absurd:  “Rhymed verses,” say they, “may consist of any number of syllables.”—­Wells, 1st Ed., p. 187; late Ed., 204; Allen, p. 88.  Everett has recognized “The line of a single Trochee,” though he repudiates some long measures that are much more extensively authorized.