Example I.—­From Swift’s Irish Feast.

   “O’Rourk’s | noble fare | will ne’er | be forgot,
    By those | who were there, | or those | who were not. 
    His rev |-els to keep, | we sup | and we dine
    On sev |-en score sheep, | fat bul |-locks, and swine. 
    Usquebaugh | to our feast | in pails | was brought up,
    An hun |-dred at least, | and a mad |-der our cup. 
    O there | is the sport! | we rise | with the light,
    In disor |-derly sort, | from snor |-ing all night. 
    O how | was I trick’d! | my pipe | it was broke,
    My pock |-et was pick’d, | I lost | my new cloak. 
    I’m ri |-fled, quoth Nell, | of man |-tle and kerch |-er: 
    Why then | fare them well, | the de’il | take the search |-er.”
        Johnson’s Works of the Poets, Vol. v, p. 310.

Here the measure is tetrameter; and it seems to have been the design of the poet, that each hemistich should consist of one iamb and one anapest.  Such, with a few exceptions, is the arrangement throughout the piece; but the hemistichs which have double rhyme, may each be divided into two amphibrachs.  In Everett’s Versification, at p. 100, the first six lines of this example are broken into twelve, and set in three stanzas, being given to exemplify “The Line of a single Anapest preceded by an Iambus,” or what he improperly calls “The first and shortest species of Anapestic lines.”  His other instance of the same metre is also Composite verse, rather than Anapestic, even by his own showing.  “In the following example,” says he, “we have this measure alternating with Amphibrachic lines:” 

Example II.—­From Byron’s Manfred.

   “The Captive Usurper,
      Hurl’d down | from the throne. 
    Lay buried in torpor,
      Forgotten and lone;
    I broke through his slumbers,
      I shiv |-er’d his chain,
    I leagued him with numbers—­
      He’s Ty |-rant again! 
    With the blood | of a mill |-ion he’ll an |-swer my care,
    With a na |-tion’s destruc |-tion—­his flight | and despair.” 
        —­Act ii, Sc. 3.

Here the last two lines, which are not cited by Everett, are pure anapestic tetrameters; and it may be observed, that, if each two of the short lines were printed as one, the eight which are here scanned otherwise, would become four of the same sort, except that these would each begin with an iambus.  Hence the specimen sounds essentially as anapestic verse.

Example III.—­Woman on the Field of Battle.

   “Gentle and | lovely form,
      What didst | thou here,
    When the fierce | battle storm
      Bore down | the spear?

    Banner and | shiver’d crest,
      Beside | thee strown,
    Tell that a |-midst the best
      Thy work was done!

    Low lies the | stately head,
      Earth-bound | the free: 
    How gave those | haughty dead
      A place | to thee?