Example III.—­Two Stanzas from Eighteen, Addressed to the Ettrick Shepherd.

   “O Shep | -herd! since | ’tis thine | to boast
      The fas | -cinat | -ing pow’rs | of song,
    Far, far | above | the count | -less host,
      Who swell | the Mus | -es’ sup | -pli~ant throng,

    The GIFT | OF GOD | distrust | no more,
      His in | -spira | -tion be | thy guide;
    Be heard | thy harp | from shore | to shore,
      Thy song’s | reward | thy coun | -try’s pride.” 
        B. BARTON:  Verses prefixed to the Queen’s Wake.

Example IV.—­“Elegiac Stanzas,” in Iambics of Four feet and Three.

   “O for | a dirge! | But why | complain? 
    Ask rath | -er a | trium | -phal strain
      When FER | MOR’S race | is run;
    A gar | -land of | immor | -tal boughs
    To bind | around | the Chris | -tian’s brows,
      Whose glo | _-rious work_ | is done.

    We pay | a high | and ho | -ly debt;
    No tears | of pas | -sionate | regret
      Shall stain | this vo | -tive lay;
    Ill-wor | -thy, Beau | -mont! were | the grief
    That flings | itself | on wild | relief
      When Saints | have passed | away.” 
        W. WORDSWORTH:  Poetical Works, First complete Amer.  Ed., p. 208.

This line, the iambic tetrameter, is a favourite one, with many writers of English verse, and has been much used, both in couplets and in stanzas.  Butler’s Hudibras, Gay’s Fables, and many allegories, most of Scott’s poetical works, and some of Byron’s, are written in couplets of this measure.  It is liable to the same diversifications as the preceding metre.  The frequent admission of an additional short syllable, forming double rhyme, seems admirably to adapt it to a familiar, humorous, or burlesque style.  The following may suffice for an example:—­

“First, this | large par | -cel brings | you tidings
Of our | good Dean’s | eter | -nal chidings;
Of Nel | -ly’s pert | -ness, Rob | -in’s leasings,
And Sher | -idan’s | perpet | -ual teasings. 
This box | is cramm’d | on ev | -ery side
With Stel | -la’s mag | -iste | -rial pride.” 

          DEAN SWIFT:  British Poets, Vol. v, p. 334.

The following lines have ten syllables in each, yet the measure is not iambic of five feet, but that of four with hypermeter:—­

“There was | an =an | -cient sage | phi_losopher_,
Who had | read Al | -exan | -der _Ross over_.”—­_Butler’s Hudibras_.

“I’ll make | them serve | for per | -pen_diculars_,
As true | as e’er | were us’d | by bricklayers.”
—­Ib., Part ii, C. iii, l. 1020.

MEASURE VI.—­IAMBIC OF THREE FEET, OR TRIMETER.

Example.—­To Evening.

   “Now teach | me, maid | compos’d
    To breathe | some soft | -en’d strain.”—­Collins, p. 39.