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"And now | I see || with eye | serene," | etc. "Now the hungry || lion | roars," | etc.

"A per | fect wo | man, || no | bly planned," | etc.

Prosody.
Cæsura.

After 2-feet.

After 24 feet.

| "King, fa|ther, Roy | al Dane : || O án | swer me." | After 3 feet.

The position of the cæsura is variable with each line, within the above limits; and the grace and dignity of verses depend very much on a proper management of this pause. Its position is greatly varied in the following consecutive lines from "Paradise Lost :"

"When straight behold the throne
Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread
Wide o'er the wasteful deep; with him enthroned
Sat sable-vested Night, || eldest of things,

The consort of his reign; || and by them stood

Orcus and Ades, || and the dreaded name

Of Demo-gorgon! || Rumour next, and Chance
And Tumult and Confusion | all embroiled,

And Discord || with a thousand various mouths."

Bk. ii.

The subjoined advice for versifiers is taken from POPE'S Essay on Criticism :—

"True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest that have learned to dance.
'Tis not enough no harshness gives offence;
The sound must seem an echo of the sense.
Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows,
And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows;
But when loud surges lash the sounding shore,
The hoarse, rough verse should like a torrent roar.
When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,
The line, too, labours, and the words move slow;
Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain,

Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the
main.

Hear how Timotheus' varied lays surprise,

And bid alternate passions fall and rise;

L

Prosody.

Punctuation.

Comma.

Semicolon.

Colon.

Full Stop.

Interrogation, excla

dash.

While at each change the son of Libyan Jove
Now burns with glory, and then melts with love;
Now his fierce eyes with sparkling fury glow,
Now sighs steal out, and tears begin to flow:
Persians and Greeks like turns of nature found,
And the world's victor stooped, subdued by sound!
The power of music all our hearts allow,
And what Timotheus was is Dryden now."

PUNCTUATION.

Punctuation (punctum a point, Lat.) treats of the division of words into sentences, or parts of sentences, by means of stops, in order to show the logical connection between them.

The stops used in English are the Comma, the Semicolon, the Colon, and the Full Stop. The Comma (that which is cut off, Greek) is the shortest stop, and is marked (,).

The Semicolon (half a limb, Lat., Greek) is the next greater stop after the comma, and is marked (;).

The Colon (a limb, Greek) is twice as great a pause as the semicolon, and is written (:). The Full Stop, or Period (a circuit, Greek), is the longest stop, and is written (.).

Besides these stops, the Note of Interrogation, mation, and written (?), is used at the end of a direct question; the Note of Exclamation (!), to point out surprise; and the Dash (—), to mark a sudden transition.

Rule I.

RULE I. The subject, predicate, and simple adjuncts of a sentence are not separated from one another by any stop; as,

"The thought of our past years in me doth breed
Perpetual benedictions."-WORDSWORTH.

"How many things by season seasoned are To their right praise and true perfection!"

Merchant of Venice.

Punctuation.

RULE II.-Two nouns, pronouns, verbs, ad- Rule II. verbs, or adjectives, used without any qualifying words, and connected by the copulative or disjunctive conjunction, are not separated from each other by any stop; as,

"Lovers and madmen have such seething brains." Midsummer Night's Dream.

"Jones! when from Calais southward you and I Travelled on foot together."-WORDSWORTH.

"Some neither can for wits nor critics pass,

As heavy mules are neither horse nor ass."-POPE. "To be direct and honest is not safe."-Othello.

"In every grove

A gay or pensive tenderness prevailed."

WORDSWORTH.

RULE III.—A short subordinate sentence, a Rule III. phrase in the infinitive mood, a short participial, adjectival, or relative clause, immediately following the words to which it refers, is not separated from them by any stop; as,

"What harmonious pensive changes Wait upon her as she ranges

Round and through this pile of state."

WORDSWORTH.

MILTON.

"To do aught good never will be our task."

"The injustice done to an individual is sometimes of

service to the public."-JUNIUS.

"He is a soldier fit to stand by Cæsar

And give direction."-Othello.

Punctuation.

Rule IV.

Rule V.

"A perfect judge will read each work of wit
With the same spirit that the author writ."

POPE.

RULE IV. Long subordinate sentences, long participial and adjectival phrases, long relative clauses, are pointed off by commas; as,

""Tis dangerous, when the baser nature comes
Between the pass and fell-incensed points
Of mighty opposites."—Hamlet.

"Some, valuing those of their own side or mind,
Still make themselves the measure of mankind."

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POPE.

WORDSWORTH.

RULE V.-The nominative of address, the nominative and infinitive absolute, adverbs, conjunctions, or other words used elliptically, any phrases or dependent sentences placed out of their usual position in the main sentence, are pointed off by commas; as,

"Haste, virgins, haste! and you, ye matrons grave, Go forth with rival youthfulness of mind."

WORDSWORTH.

"Nature well known, no prodigies remain."-POPE.

"And, to conclude,

The victory fell on us."-Macbeth.

"Of manners gentle, of affections mild,

In wit a man, simplicity a child."-POPE.

"The senseless plea of right by Providence

Was, by a flattering priest, invented since."

DRYDEN.

In short, however, moreover, indeed, when used alone

are

commas.

Punctua

nevertheless, tion. enclosed in

RULE VI.-In elliptical co-ordinate sentences, Rule VI. when several nouns have reference to one verb, or when several verbs have reference to one noun or pronoun, they are separated by commas, whether connected by conjunctions or not; as,

"But not to me returns
Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn,
Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose,
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine."

MILTON.

"For interest, envy, pride, and strife, are banished

hence."-THOMSON.

"So fails, so languishes, grows dim, and dies,
All that the world is proud of."-WORDSWORTH.

"So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn,
Have sight of Proteus coming from the sea,
And hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn."
WORDSWORTH.

"I saw an intermingled pomp of vale and hill,
Tower, town, and city, and suburban grove,
And stately forest where the wild deer rove.'
WORDSWORTH.

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RULE VII.-Co-ordinate sentences, which are Rule VII. perfectly independent of one another in grammatical structure, if connected by a pronoun or conjunction, are separated by a semicolon; but, if there is not a pronoun or a conjunction, then by a colon; as,

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