of lines (where variation is always most conspicuous). Less than half of the lines begin with the ideal iambic movement3 of an unstressed syllable preceding a stress. Four of the lines (1, 11, 16, 18) are so phrased as to begin with an extra accent, e. g.

Côme, pensive | Nun, de- | vout and pure;

and one line (13) begins with two unstressed syllables followed by a monosyllabic foot, e. g.

With a sad leaden | downward cast.

These two variations seem to hold up the movement momentarily. Two other types of beginning have the effect of hurrying it. Two lines begin with a trisyllabic foot:

and

| All in a robe of | darkest | grain,

| Over thy decent | shoulders | drawn;

and three lines (2, 4, 7) have a straight trochaic movement:

and

Sober, steadfast, I and de- | mure,
Flowing with ma- | jestic | train,

| Come; but keep thy | wonted | state.

The proportion of trochaic lines is very much greater in L'Allegro, where, of course, a more rapid movement is in keeping with the lighter mood. In that poem, both of the last mentioned beginnings occur with fine effect in the couplet,

While the cock, with lively din,

Scatters the rear of darkness thin.

'This analysis, of course, is merely my reading of the passage. Any reader may disagree with me in details, but I think he will admit the general principle of the change in flow of the movement, and also that it is brought about by such variations as I suggest, though he may find them in other places.

Variation at the end of the line is much rarer in all kinds of verse than at the beginning. The only case of it in the passage from Il Penseroso is the light endings in the couplet, And join with thee calm Peace and Quiet,

Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet.

The only other type of variation at the end of the line occurring in these two companion poems is the employment of a trisyllabic second foot with a monosyllabic third, e. g.

And singing, startle the | dull | night,

and,

And to the stack or the | barn- | door.

Andrew Marvel's exquisite couplet,

Annihilating all that's made

To a green thought in a green shade,

may be quoted in this connection.

(Garden.)

Further analysis of Milton's octosyllabics should deal with the conflicts of his phrasing with the metrical and rhythmical pattern of the form. Notice the shifting of the cesuras in the first four lines. If one read following the punctuation, there would be two, in different positions, in each of the first two lines; then, perhaps, one after robe in the third; and none in the fourth. The meaning is usually complete in each couplet, though not in each line. In lines 11 to 15, the meaning runs through two couplets, with an interesting reversal of the position of the pauses in lines 11 and 12. The conflict of the phrasing with the rhythm brings about less than one light stress to every two lines, and a moderate number of extra accents, as in,

Thy rapt sôul | sitting | in thine | eyes.

We may take a totally different type of verse, written

in the same century, to show by extreme contrast, of what variety the octosyllabic is capable. The couplets of Butler's Hudibras are so distinctive that they, and the verses written in imitation of them, have gone by the name of Hudibrastic. This use of tetrameter not only forms a distinctive type, but, in Butler's hands, it is capable of great variety within the type. There is amusing description, brilliant flash of epigram, rollicking narration, vulgarity, and at times, picturesqueness-all done with fitting rhythmical effect. To attempt to quote is difficult, but here are a few lines chosen more or less at random:

He knows the seat of Paradise,
Could tell in what degree it lies,

And, as he was dispos'd, could prove it
Below the moon, or else above it;
What Adam dreamt of, when his bride
Came from her closet in his side;
Whether the Devil tempted her
By a High Dutch interpreter;
If either of them had a navel;
Who first made music malleable;
Whether the Serpent at the Fall,
Had cloven feet, or none at all:
All this without a gloss or comment,
He would unriddle in a moment,
In proper terms such as men smatter
When they throw out and miss the matter.

Beside he was a shrewd philosopher,

And had read ev'ry text and gloss over.

That with more care keep holy day

The wrong, than others the right way.

(Part I, Canto 1.)

Gave way to fortune and with haste
Fac'd the proud foe, and fled and fac'd,

Retiring still until he found

He had got the advantage of the ground.

That he resolv'd, rather than yield,
To die with honor in the field,
And sell his hide and carcase at
A price as high and desperate
As e'er he could. This resolution
He forthwith put in execution.

(Part I, Canto 3.)

If we compare these couplets with Milton's, we find about twice the proportion of light stresses. This gives a free and easy impression, like a bubbling over of witty conversation, careless and unpremeditated. The large number of feminine rimes and the surprise at the ingenuity of many of them bring a jocose turn at the end of each couplet. The meaning is rarely complete within the line, but each couplet either completes the sense, or is a clause added loosely to the preceding couplet. The enjambed phrasing of the last four lines quoted is not usual with Butler.

The passages from Milton and Butler just analyzed, exemplify the two general types of tetrameter couplets used in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, though, of course, each poet who used the form-Shakespeare (Prologues in Pericles), Swift, Prior, Gay, Collins, etc.,individualized it with his own phrasing. A distinct change came with Coleridge's Christabel.*

Christabel is written on a basis of equality of time parts, in spite of the theory and the conventions of the eighteenth century as regards uniformity of rhythmical pattern. In his preface Coleridge says: "The meter of Christabel is not, properly speaking, irregular, though it may seem so from its being founded on a new principle, namely, that of counting, in each line, the accents, not the syllables. Though the latter may vary from seven to twelve, yet in each line the accents 'Part I written 1797, Part II 1800, both published 1816.

will be found to be only four. Nevertheless, this occasional variation in number of syllables is not introduced wantonly, or for the mere ends of convenience, but in correspondence with some transition in the nature of the imagery or passion." Here is the much discussed opening of the poem:

'Tis the middle of night by the castle clock,
And the owls have awakened the crowing cock;
Tu-whit!... Tu-whoo!

And hark, again! the crowing cock,

5 How drowsily it crew!

Sir Leoline, the Baron rich,

Hath a toothless mastiff bitch;

From her kennel beneath the rock

She maketh answer to the clock,

10 Four for the quarters, and twelve for the hour,
Ever and aye, by shine and shower,
Sixteen short howls, not over loud;
Some say, she sees my lady's shroud.

Is the night chilly and dark?

15 The night is chilly, but not dark.
The thin gray cloud is spread on high,
It covers but not hides the sky.
The moon is behind and at the full;
And yet she looks both small and dull.
20 The night is chill, the cloud is gray:

"Tis a month before the month of May,
And the spring comes slowly up this way

In this poem Coleridge has attained the perfection in a free tetrameter which Spenser did not reach in his experiments. In the tetrameters of the Shepherd's Calendar the rhythm is only occasionally duple, usually duple-triple, and often huddled by four syllable feet. Christabel is chiefly in duple rhythm, varied by duple-triple, or triple occasionally, and never admits feet of more than three syllables. The changes in the flow of the movement, spoken of in connection with