“Bacchus, | that first | from out | the pur | -ple grape
    Crush’d the | sweet poi | -son of | mis-=us | -ed wine,
    _After_ | the Tus | -can mar | -iners | transform’d,
    _Coasting_ | the Tyr | -rhene shore, | as th~e | winds list_~ed_,
    On Cir | -ce’s isl | -and fell. | Who knows | not Cir_c~e_,
    The daugh | -ter of | the sun? | whose charm | -ed cup
    Whoev | -er tast | -ed, lost | his up | -right shape,
    And down | -ward fell | _=into_ a grov | -elling swine.” 
        MILTON:  Comus; British Poets, Vol. ii, p. 147.

(2.) By a synaeresis of the two short syllables, an anapest may sometimes be employed for an iambus; or a dactyl, for a trochee.  This occurs chiefly where one unaccented vowel precedes an other in what we usually regard as separate syllables, and both are clearly heard, though uttered perhaps in so quick succession that both syllables may occupy only half the time of a long one.  Some prosodists, however, choose to regard these substitutions as instances of trissyllabic feet mixed with the others; and, doubtless, it is in general easy to make them such, by an utterance that avoids, rather than favours, the coalescence.  The following are examples:—­

   “No rest:  | through man | _-y a dark_ | and drear | -y vale
    They pass’d, | and man | _-y a re_ | -gion dol | -orous,
    O’er man | _-y a fro_ | -zen, man | _-y a fi_ | _-ery Alp_.” 
        —­MILTON:  P.  L., B. ii, l. 618.

    “Rejoice | ye na | -tions, vin | -dicate | the sway
    Ordain’d | for com | -mon hap | -piness. | Wide, o’er
    The globe | terra | _-queous, let_ | Britan | _-nia pour_
    The fruits | of plen | -ty from | her co | _-pious horn_.” 
        —­DYER:  Fleece, B. iv, l. 658.

    “Myriads | of souls | that knew | one pa | -rent mold,
      See sad | -ly sev | er’d by | the laws | of chance!
    Myriads, | in time’s | peren | _-nial list_ | enroll’d,
      Forbid | by fate | to change | one tran | _-sient glance!_”
        SHENSTONE:  British Poets, Vol. vii, p. 109.

(3.) In plays, and light or humorous descriptions, the last foot of an iambic line is often varied or followed by an additional short syllable; and, sometimes, in verses of triple rhyme, there is an addition of two short syllables, after the principal rhyming syllable.  Some prosodists call the variant foot, in die former instance, an amphibrach, and would probably, in the latter, suppose either an additional pyrrhic, or an amphibrach with still a surplus syllable; but others scan, in these cases, by the iambus only, calling what remains after the last long syllable hypermeter; and this is, I think, the better way.  The following examples show these and some other variations from pure iambic measure:—­

Example I.—­Grief.