Xxxvi. Rhymeless Attempts (Collins To Shelley)

(a) Collins (Ode to Evening):

If aught | of oat|en stop | or pas|toral song May hope, | O pen|sive Eve, | to soothe | thine ear Like thy | own sol|emn springs, Thy springs | and dy|ing gales.

(Perfectly regular heroics and sixes; "pastoral" most probably intended to be "past'ral.")

(b) Sayers (Choruses of Moina):

I.

Hail to | her whom | Frea | loves, Moina | hail! When first | thine in|fant eyes | beheld The beam | of day, Frea | from Val|halla's | groves Mark'd thy | birth in | silent | joy; Frea, | sweetly | smiling saw The swift-|wing'd mes|senger | of love Bearing | in her | rosy | hand The gold-|tipt horn | of gods.

(This--which is fairly but not wholly free from the fault noted in II.--is ordinary iambic and trochaic mixture.)

II.

Dark, dark | is Moi|na's bed, On earth's | hard lap | she lies. [Where is | the beau|teous form That he|roes loved?] [Where is | the beam|ing eye, The rud|dy cheek?] Cold, cold | is Moi|na's bed, And shall | no lay | of death [With pleas|ing mur|mur soothe Her part|ed soul?] [Shall no | tear wet | the grave Where Moi|na lies?] The bards | shall raise | the lay | of death, The bards | shall soothe | her part|ed soul, [And drop | the tear | of grief On Moi|na's grave.]

(It will be observed that each of the couplets enclosed in square brackets is simply a blank-verse line, arbitrarily split. This is probably the result of the effort at rhymeless stanza. Observe the unbroken iambic rhythm--another danger.)

(c) Southey (Thalaba):

How beau|tiful | is Night! A dew|y fresh|ness fills | the si|lent air; No mist | obscures, | nor cloud | nor speck | nor stain Brēaks thĕ | serene | of heaven: In full-|orbed glo|ry yon|der moon | divine Rōlls thrōugh | the dark | blue depths. Beneath | her stead|y ray The des|ert-cir|cle spreads, Līke thĕ | rōund ō|cean, gir|dled with | the sky. How beau|tiful | is Night!

(Iambic lines of various lengths with trochaic and spondaic but no other substitution (there are anapæsts elsewhere). The couplet-six, or split Alexandrine, is intentional, but Southey expressly avoids split heroics.)

(d) Shelley (Queen Mab):

How wonderful is Death, Death and his brother Sleep! One, pale as yonder waning moon With lips of lurid blue; The other, rosy as the morn When throned on ocean's wave It blushes o'er the world: Yet both so passing wonderful!