Ah, the | dwellers | of the | town,
        How they | sigh,—­
    How un | -grateful | -ly they | frown,
    When the | cloud-king | shakes his | crown,
    And the | pearls come | pouring | down
        From the | sky! 
    They de | -scry no | charm at | all
    Where the | sparkling | jewels | fall,
    And each | moment | of the | shower,
        Seems an | hour!

    3.

    Yet there’s | something | very | sweet
        In the | sight,
    When the | crystal | currents | meet
    In the | dry and | dusty | street,
    And they | wrestle | with the | heat,
        In their | might! 
    While they | seem to | hold a | talk
    With the | stones a | -long the | walk,
    And re | -mind them | of the | rule,
        To ‘keep | cool!’

    4.

    Ay, but | in that | quiet | dell,
        Ever | fair,
    Still the | Lord doth | all things | well,
    When his | clouds with | blessings | swell,
    And they | break a | brimming | shell
        On the | air;
    There the | shower | hath its | charms,
    Sweet and | welcome | to the | farms
    As they | listen | to its | voice,
        And re | -joice!”
        Rev. RALPH HOYT’S Poems:  The Examiner, Nov. 6, 1847.

Example VI.—­“A Good Name?”—­Two Beautiful Little Stanzas.

    1.

      “Children, | choose it,
       Don’t re | -fuse it,
    ’Tis a | precious | dia | -dem;
       Highly | prize it,
       Don’t de | -spise it,
    You will | need it | when you’re | men.

    2.

       Love and | cherish,
       Keep and | nourish,
    ’Tis more | precious | far than | gold;
       Watch and | guard it,
       Don’t dis | -card it,
    You will | need it | when you’re | old.”
       The Family Christian Almanac, for 1850, p. 20.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.—­Trochaics of two feet, like those of three, are, more frequently than otherwise, found in connexion with longer lines, as in some of the examples above cited.  The trochaic line of three syllables, which our prosodists in general describe as consisting, not of two feet; but “of one Trochee and a long syllable,” may, when it stands alone, be supposed to consist of one amphimac; but, since this species of foot is not admitted by all, and is reckoned a secondary one by those who do admit it, the better practice is, to divide even the three syllables into two feet, as above.

OBS. 2.—­Murray, Hart, Weld, and many others, erroneously affirm, that, “The shortest Trochaic verse in our language, consists of one Trochee and a long syllable.”—­Murray’s Gram., p. 256; Hart’s, First Edition, p. 186; Weld’s, Second Edition, p. 210.  The error of this will be shown by examples below—­examples of true “Trochaic Monometer,” and not of Dimeter mistaken for it, like Weld’s, Hart’s, or Murray’s.