MEASURE III.—­TROCHAIC OF SIX FEET, OR HEXAMETER.

Example.—­Health.

   “Up the | dewy | mountain, | Health is | bounding | lightly;
      On her | brows a | garland, | twin’d with | richest | posies: 
    Gay is | she, e | -late with | hope, and | smiling | sprighthly;
      Redder | is her | cheek, and | sweeter | than the | rose is.” 
        G. BROWN:  The Institutes of English Grammar, p. 258.

This metre appears to be no less rare than the preceding; though, as in that case, I know no good reason why it may not be brought into vogue.  Professor John S. Hart says of it:  “This is the longest Trochaic verse that seems to have been cultivated.”—­Hart’s Eng.  Gram., p. 187.  The seeming of its cultivation he doubtless found only in sundry modern grammars.  Johnson, Bicknell, Burn, Coar, Ward, Adam,—­old grammarians, who vainly profess to have illustrated “every species of English verse,”—­make no mention of it; and, with all the grammarians who notice it, one anonymous couplet, passing from hand to hand, has everywhere served to exemplify it.

Of this, “the line of six Trochees,” Everett says:  “This measure is languishing, and rarely used.  The following example is often cited: 

’On a | mountain, | stretched be | -neath a | hoary | willow,
Lay a | shepherd | swain, and | view’d the | rolling
| billow.’"[512]

Again:  “We have the following from BISHOP HEBER:—­

’H=ol~y, | h=ol~y | h=ol~y! | =all th~e | s=aints a | -d=ore thee,
C=ast~ing | d=own th~eir | g=old~en | cr=owns a | -r=ound the
| gl=ass~y | s=ea;
Ch=er~u | -b=im and | s=era | -ph=im [~_are_,] | f=all~ing
| d=own b~e | -f=ore th~ee,
Wh~ich w=ert, | and =art, | and =ev | -erm=ore | shalt b=e!

Holy, | holy, | holy! | though the | darkness | hide thee,
Though the | eye of | sinful | man thy | glory | may not | see,
Only | thou, [O | God,] art | holy; | there is | none be
| -side thee,
P=erf~ect | in p=ow’r, | in l=ove, | and p=u | -rit=y.’

Only the first and the third lines of these stanzas are to our purpose,” remarks the prosodist.  That is, only these he conceived to be “lines of six Trochees.”  But it is plain, that the third line of the first stanza, having seven long syllables, must have seven feet, and cannot be a trochaic hexameter; and, since the third below should be like it in metre, one can hardly forbear to think the words which I have inserted in brackets, were accidentally omitted.

Further:  “It is worthy of remark,” says he, “that the second line of each of these stanzas is composed of six Trochees and an additional long syllable.  As its corresponding line is an Iambic, and as the piece has some licenses in its construction, it is far safer to conclude that this line is an anomaly than that it forms a distinct species of verse.  We must therefore conclude that the tenth [the metre of six trochees] is the longest species of Trochaic line known to English verse.”—­Everett’s Versification, pp. 95 and 96.