“Wh~ere th~e f=ath | -omless w=aves | in magnif | -icence toss,
    H=omel~ess | and h=igh | soars the wild | Albatross;
    Unwea | -ried, undaunt | -ed, unshrink | -ing, alone,
    The o | -cean his em | -pire, the tem | -pest his throne. 
    When the ter | -rible whirl | -wind raves wild | o’er the surge,
    And the hur | -ricane howls | out the mar | -iner’s dirge,
    In thy glo | -ry thou spurn | -est the dark | -heaving sea,
    Pr=oud b=ird | of the o | -cean-world, home | -less and free. 
    When the winds | are at rest, | and the sun | in his glow,
    And the glit | -tering tide | sleeps in beau | -ty below,
    In the pride | of thy pow | -er trium | -phant above,
    With thy mate | thou art hold | -ing thy rev | -els of love. 
    Untir | -ed, unfet | -tered, unwatched, | unconfined,
    Be my spir | -it like thee, | in the world | of the mind;
    No lean | -ing for earth, | e’er to wea | -ry its flight,
    And fresh | as thy pin | -ions in re | -gions of light.” 
       SAMUEL DALY LANGTREE:  _North American Reader_, p. 443.

OBS. 6.—­It appears that the most noted measures of the Greek and Latin poets were not of any simple order, but either composites, or mixtures too various to be called composites.  It is not to be denied, that we have much difficulty in reading them rhythmically, according to their stated feet and scansion; and so we should have, in reading our own language rhythmically, in any similar succession of feet.  Noticing this in respect to the Latin Hexameter, or Heroic verse, Poe says, “Now the discrepancy in question is not observable in English metres; where the scansion coincides with the reading, so far as the rhythm is concerned—­that is to say, if we pay no attention to the sense of the passage.  But these facts indicate a radical difference in the genius of the two languages, as regards their capacity for modulation.  In truth, * * * the Latin is a far more stately tongue than our own.  It is essentially spondaic; the English is as essentially dactylic.”—­Pioneer, p. 110. (See the marginal note in Sec.3d. at Obs. 22d, above.) Notwithstanding this difference, discrepance, or difficulty, whatever it may be, some of our poets have, in a few instances, attempted imitations of certain Latin metres; which imitations it may be proper briefly to notice under the present head.  The Greek or Latin Hexameter line has, of course, six feet, or pulsations.  According to the Prosodies, the first four of these may be either dactyls or spondees; the fifth is always, or nearly always, a dactyl; and the sixth, or last, is always a spondee:  as,

“L=ud~er~e | qu=ae v=el | -l=em c~al~a | -m=o p=er | -m=is~it a
| -gr=est=i.”--_Virg._

“Inf=an- | d=um, R=e | -g=ina, j~u | -b=es r~en~o | -v=ar~e d~o
| -l=or=em.”--Id.

Of this sort of verse, in English, somebody has framed the following very fair example:—­