“’Y~e sh=eph~erds s~o ch=eerf~ul and g=ay,
    ’Whose fl=ocks n~ev~er c=arel~essl~y r=oam;
    ’Sh~ould C=or~yd~on’s h=app~en t~o str=ay,
    ‘Oh! c=all th~e p=oor w=and~er~ers h=ome.’  SHENSTONE.”—­Ib., p. 120.

It is manifest, that these lines are not dactylic at all.  There is not a dactyl in them.  They are composed of iambs and anapests.  The order of the versification is Anapestic; but it is here varied by the very common diversification of dropping the first short syllable.  The longer example is from a ballad of 216 lines, of which 99 are thus varied, and 117 are full anapestics.

OBS. 8.—­The makers of school-books are quite as apt to copy blunders, as to originate them; and, when an error is once started in a grammar, as it passes with the user for good learning, no one can guess where it will stop.  It seems worth while, therefore, in a work of this nature, to be liberal in the citation of such faults as have linked themselves, from time to time, with the several topics of our great subject.  It is not probable, that the false scansion just criticised originated with Blair; for the Comprehensive Grammar, a British work, republished in its third edition, by Dobson, of Philadelphia, in 1789, teaches the same doctrine, thus:  “Dactylic measure may consist of one, two, or three Dactyls, introduced by a feeble syllable, and terminated by a strong one; as,

    M~y | d=ear Ir~ish | f=olks,
    C=ome | l=eave off your | j=okes,
    And | b=uy up my | h=alfp~ence s~o | f=ine;
    S~o | f=air and so | br=ight,
    Th~ey’ll | g=ive y~ou d~e | -l=ight: 
    Ob | -s=erve h~ow th~ey | gl=ist~er and | sh=ine.  SWIFT.

    A | c=obl~er th~ere | w=as and he | l=iv’d in a | st=all,
    Wh~ich | s=erv’d h~im f~or | k=itch~en, f~or | p=arl~our and | hall;
    No | c=oin in his | p=ock~et, n~o | c=are in his | p=ate;
    N~o am | -b=ition h~e | h=ad, and no | d=uns at his | g=ate.”
        —­Comp.  Gram., p. 150.

To this, the author adds, “Dactylic measure becomes Anapestic by setting off an Iambic foot in the beginning of the line.”—­Ib. These verses, all but the last one, unquestionably have an iambic foot at the beginning; and, for that reason, they are not, and by no measurement can be, dactylics.  The last one is purely anapestic.  All the divisional bars, in either example, are placed wrong.

ORDER V.—­COMPOSITE VERSE.

Composite verse is that which consists of various metres, or different feet, combined,—­not accidentally, or promiscuously, but by design, and with some regularity.  In Composite verse, of any form, the stress must be laid rhythmically, as in the simple orders, else the composition will be nothing better than unnatural prose.  The possible variety of combinations in this sort of numbers is unlimited; but, the pure and simple kinds being generally preferred, any stated mixture of feet is comparatively uncommon.  Certain forms which may be scanned by other methods, are susceptible also of division as Composites.  Hence there cannot be an exact enumeration of the measures of this order, but instances, as they occur, may be cited to exemplify it.