1.

We were crowded in the cabin;
  Not a soul would dare to speak;
It was midnight on the waters
  And a storm was on the deep.

—­James T. Fields.

2.

Break, break, break,
  At the foot of thy crags, O sea! 
But the tender grace of a day that is dead
  Will never come back to me.

—­Tennyson.

3.

Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December,
  And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor

—­Poe.

4.

Sweet and low, sweet and low,
  Wind of the western sea,
Low, low, breathe and blow,
  Wind of the western sea!

Over the rolling waters go,
  Come from the dying moon and blow,
Blow him again to me;
  While my little one, while my pretty one sleeps.

—­Tennyson.

5.

Stone walls do not a prison make,
  Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
  That for a hermitage.

—­Lovelace.

6.

Merrily swinging on brier and weed,
  Near to the nest of his little dame,
Over the mountain side or mead,
  Robert of Lincoln is telling his name: 
Bob-o’-link, bob-o’-link,
  Spink, spank, spink,
Snug and safe is this nest of ours,
  Hidden among the summer flowers. 
                  Chee, chee, chee.

—­Bryant.

7.

Grow old along with me! 
  The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made: 
  Our times are in His hand
Who saith, “A whole I planned,
  Youth shows but half; trust God:  see all, nor be afraid!”

—­Browning.

+109.  Feet.+—­The metrical effect of the preceding selections is produced by the regular recurrence of accented and unaccented syllables.  A group of accented and unaccented syllables is called a foot.  There are four regular feet in English verse, the iambus, the anapest, the trochee, and the dactyl.  Three irregular feet, the pyrrhic, the spondee, the amphibrach, are occasionally found in lines, but not in entire poems, and are often considered merely as substitutes for regular feet.  For the sake of convenience the accented syllables are indicated thus:  _, and the unaccented syllables thus:  U.

An iambus is a foot consisting of two syllables with the accent on the last.

U   _| U  _| U    _|   U     _| U   _|
Let not ambition mock their useful toil.

—­Gray.

U     _|U     _| U     _|U    _|
He prayeth best who loveth best

U       _| U       _| U      _|
All things both great and small;

_   U | U     _| U    _|U   _|
For the dear God who loveth us,

U    _| U     _|U   _|
He made and loveth all.

—­Coleridge.

An anapest is a foot consisting of three syllables with the accent on the last.

U  U  _| U    U   _|U  U   _|
I am monarch of all I survey. 
U   U    _  | U    U    _   | U  U    _  |
I would hide with the beasts of the chase.

A trochee is a foot consisting of two syllables with the accent on the first.