In some very ancient English poetry, we find lines of twelve syllables combined in couplets with others of fourteen; that is, six iambic feet are alternated with seven, in lines that rhyme.  The following is an example, taken from a piece of fifty lines, which Dr. Johnson ascribes to the Earl of Surry, one of the wits that flourished in the reign of Henry VIII:—­

   “Such way | -ward wayes | hath Love, | that most | part in | discord,
    Our willes | do stand, | whereby | our hartes | but sel | -dom do
          
                                                  | accord;
    Decyte | is hys | delighte, | and to | begyle | and mocke,
    The sim | ple hartes | which he | doth strike | with fro | -ward di
          
                                                  | -vers stroke. 
    He caus | -eth th’ one | to rage | with gold | -en burn | -ing darte,
    And doth | allay | with lead | -en cold, | again | the oth
          
                                                  | -er’s harte;
    Whose gleames | of burn | -ing fyre | and eas | -y sparkes | of flame,
    In bal | -ance of | un=e | -qual weyght | he pon | -dereth | by ame.” 
        See _Johnson’s Quarto Dict., History of the Eng.  Lang._, p. 4.

MEASURE IV.—­IAMBIC OF FIVE FEET, OR PENTAMETER.

Example I.—­Hector to Andromache.

   “Andr=om | -ach=e! | m=y s=oul’s | far b=et | -t~er p=art,
    Wh=y w~ith | untime | -ly | sor | -rows heaves | thy heart? 
    No hos | -tile hand | can an | -tedate | my doom,
    Till fate | condemns | me to | the si | -lent tomb. 
    Fix’d is | the term | to all | the race | of earth;
    And such | the hard | conditi | -on of | our birth,
    No force | can then | resist, | no flight | can save;
    All sink | alike, | the fear | -ful and | the brave.” 
        POPE’S HOMER:  Iliad, B. vi, l. 624-632.

Example II.—­Angels’ Worship.

   “No soon | -er had | th’ Almight | -y ceas’d | but all
    The mul | -titude | of an | -gels with | a shout
    Loud as | from num | -bers with’ | -out num | -ber, sweet
    As from | blest voi | -ces ut | t~er ~ing j=oy, | heav’n rung
    With ju | -bilee, | and loud | hosan | -nas fill’d
    Th’ eter | -nal | re | -gions; low | -ly rev | -erent
    Tow’rds ei | -ther throne | they bow, | and to | the ground
    With sol | -emn ad | -ora | -tion down | they cast
    Their crowns | inwove | with am | -arant | and gold.” 
        MILTON:  Paradise Lost, B. iii, l. 344.

Example III.—­Deceptive Glosses.

   “The world | is still | deceiv’d | with or | -nament. 
    In law, | what plea | so taint | -ed and | corrupt,
    But, be | -ing sea | -son’d with | a gra | -cious voice,
    Obscures | the show | of e | -vil?  In | religi~on,
    What dam |—­n~ed er | -ror, but | some so | -ber brow
    Will bless | it, and | approve | it with | a text,
    Hid~ing | the gross | -ness with | fair or | -nament?”
        SHAKSPEARE:  Merch. of Venice, Act iii, Sc. 2.